Question: Is egoism important for our development?

Answer: Egoism is not merely important for development, there is nothing besides it. It must not be suppressed; it must develop.

We must be concerned with its correction and proper use, not with suppressing it, because egoism is our nature, the desire to receive. It is impossible to destroy it.

The entire world is one great ego operating on different levels: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. And the purpose of the world is to come to the full utilization of the power of egoism, not to destroy it.

Do you want to destroy matter itself? That is impossible! You can turn a person into a plant by giving him the appropriate injection. Of course, he will feel less and suffer less, but how long can such a state be maintained, even with the help of various methods?

Therefore, neither religions nor various methodologies are the solution. This is already becoming clear.
[357822]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

Related Material:
Egoism Is Not an End in Itself, But a Means for Correction
Learn to Recognize Evil
The Taming Of The Obstinate

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The desire to receive is destined to be filled with the light of the world of infinity. Just as it was infinitely filled before the Tzimtzum (restriction), so too will it be filled after it, in Gmar Tikun (final correction).

This marks the fundamental difference in method of Kabbalah: we never deal with the desire itself. Instead, we acquire an intention for the sake of bestowal through the surrounding light (Ohr Makif), which brings us this intention, that is, the quality of Bina within Malchut.

All other methods cannot make use of the surrounding light because they have no connection to the spiritual source from which this light descends. Therefore, they turn directly to the desire to receive and conclude that it is the source of all evil.

From this they reason that evil must be eliminated. In other words, a person should desire as little as possible and restrict his negative qualities. But this is like cutting off a person’s hands. He may no longer be able to cause harm with them, but has anything truly been corrected?

Therefore, both the desire to receive and all the actions performed upon it remain intact. This is the fundamental difference between the method of Kabbalah and all other methods, a difference that will become increasingly apparent in the near future.

Today, various circles and clubs have sprung up around Kabbalah, each presenting its own interpretation of what the method is. Amulets, red strings, Tarot cards, and a myriad of other beliefs, there is no shortage of such things. Yet all of this serves, indirectly, to clarify what the wisdom of Kabbalah truly is, so that it may emerge as clear, pure, and authentic.

I am glad that all these things are flourishing today. It is a sign that clarification is approaching. These methods should not be suppressed. If, according to the desire to receive, there is still a need for them, if someone can find satisfaction in them and derive some fulfillment, then it means that person has not yet fully examined them. And if he has not examined them fully, he must remain with them for the time being.

That is why Kabbalah does not attack or destroy any method. Kabbalah says that each one has its place and its time, because all of them arise from the human desire to receive. People invent them, develop them, and believe that they can fulfill themselves through them. Until a person reaches recognition of evil and realizes that these methods do not truly fulfill him, he must continue along that path.

Therefore, everything has a right to exist: Chinese methods, Indian methods, and all the others. The more they are allowed to develop, the sooner their limitations will be revealed. Just as we must not suppress the desire to receive, we must not suppress any method that appears capable of satisfying that desire.

But we know that, ultimately, there is no alternative to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method for working with the desire to receive, because that desire is the entire matter of creation. Trying to go against nature will not help us, because nature stands above us.
[357924]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

Related Material:
Kabbalah: To Build, Not To Destroy
Don’t Nullify Your Ego
Bestowal According To Kabbalah

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Kabbalah Study, Religion, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Love disarms and deprives another person of their evil energy, and yourself as well.

Question: Why can’t we do this today? We very much want to, yet we cannot.

Answer: We are not accustomed to it. It has to become a part of our upbringing.

I had a very interesting incident in my youth. I used to tease a certain girl, and once I put my fist right up to her nose. And she kissed it. It stunned me completely! To this day I cannot forget it!

That was 65 or 70 years ago. Just imagine! And even now, when I recall it, I remember how unexpected it was for me, how utterly it disarmed me! I did not know what to do. I stood there confused, as though a bucket of filth had been poured over me! I suddenly felt who I really was.

It was terrible!

A single act like that, without words, without anything.

A terrible state!

Comment: And it remains. Listening to you tell this story now, I can see that it remains with a person for life.

My Response: Yes, it is within me. I still remember it.

Comment: It is a beautiful example! A very precise one.
[357669]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 6/8/26

Related Material:
Love Is Born Out of Hate
Love Will Cover All Our Crimes
Love above All Conflicts

Filed under: Children, Egoism, News - No Comments →

Question: What is the difference between methods that suppress the desire to receive and Tzimtzum (Restriction)?

Answer: In the process of correcting the Kelim (vessels), we reach a state where we restrict the desire to receive, stop using it, and then begin to use it by receiving in order to bestow. What is the difference between restricting the desire to receive and the Eastern methods and other similar approaches that suppress this desire?

The moment a person begins to study Kabbalah, he begins to develop his desire to receive. Nowhere is it written that we must suppress it. Nowhere!

Instead of working directly against this desire, you should work on drawing closer to the Creator, so that the light will correct the desire to receive. The greater this desire becomes, the greater the light you will need in order to correct it. Thus, you attain greater lights for correcting a growing desire to receive each time. This is how you advance.

Through study and by attracting the light, you come to see that every one of your desires is essentially opposed to spirituality, opposed to the Creator, because it is directed toward self-enjoyment.

You reach a state where in order to move from an intention for your own sake to an intention for the sake of bestowal, you must stop using the desire to receive in its natural form. Then you begin to use it in a different way, for the sake of bestowal. Between these two states lies an action called Tzimtzum (Restriction).

What is Tzimtzum? I do not restrict the desire itself, because I cannot suppress it. Under the influence of the light acting upon me, I see that using it in its previous form is evil. And because I see that it is evil and opposed to the Creator, I stop using it in that way. I cease using the former type of fulfillment and move to a different method of using the desire.

The purpose of the Tzimtzum is not to destroy the desire to receive, but to stop using the old form of reception and transition to a spiritual form. My concern should be only with correction, with making the desire to receive similar to the Creator’s desire, meaning that it acquires an intention to bestow. That alone should concern me.

We should not focus on our desires themselves. We should not worry about what desires we have, even the most terrible ones, all of them come from the Creator. I must understand that their revelation within me is a sign that I am capable of correcting them. That is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the method of reception: It teaches us how to work with the vessels of reception.

All other methods, without exception, are based on suppressing the desire to receive, on receiving as little as possible.

Why are these methods so appealing? Because a person immediately feels that life has become easier. Look at how many people in the former Soviet Union nostalgically remember how good life supposedly was in the past.

There was nothing particularly good about it, but a person knew he had a fixed salary, a home, a job from which he would not be fired, children who would attend kindergarten and school; everything was planned. There was a sense of security about the future. Of course, I did not have much, but neither did anyone else. Everything was suppressed by the government, and “shared suffering is half a consolation.”

Even today, many people would gladly return to those times and to what they had then. Why do I need today’s freedom where everyone does whatever they want? Everywhere there is envy, arrogance, and hatred, whereas before it seemed different. The culture was different, everyone was alike, and everything was planned out.

If not for human egoism, which constantly burns and grows, such a system could perhaps be maintained. In China, it functioned even more successfully for thousands of years. But it is impossible to remain in such a state forever.
[357918]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

Related Material:
Suppress or Use?
In The Body And Above It
Don’t Nullify Your Ego

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Kabbalah Study, Religion, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Is it possible to combine Kabbalah with yoga or any other methods?

Answer: This is impossible because all other methods are opposite to Kabbalah, as they do not use the desire to receive to achieve the goal. All of them are based on the suppression of Kelim (vessels), rather than their development. Just as Kabbalah is a method of receiving, so they are methods of “non-receiving,” all without exception.

Receive as little as possible, eat only vegan food, think less, breathe less, want less, whatever it is, just less. That is, the goal is to lower a person from his level to the level of an animal or plant, or even to an inanimate level.

The source of all this lies in ancient Egypt, where even dead bodies were made into undecaying mummies. These are all Eastern methods. Of course, this has a spiritual root. There is also a justification on a material level.

When you give the masses an ideology based on the assertion that you must lower your desires and then everything will be fine, it immediately bears fruit. It is accepted because it makes sense to everyone. But if, in addition to ideology, we add a spiritual component to this, if we connect it with what is beyond our life and death, and assert that a person will receive eternal reward for this, it will become a religion. This is a great force.

But over thousands of years, the human ego has continually evolved from generation to generation. Whether we like it or not, we realize our egoism, which leads to the so-called development of humanity. As a result of the new desires that manifest in each of us from cycle to cycle, we are constantly striving for something new. Therefore even those nations that were committed to the ideology of reducing desire come to a state where they can no longer restrain it.

Nothing will be left of these methodologies over the course of a century. People who are going to India today are just traveling. No one is really able to engage their methodology. Those who manage to achieve this make themselves into a primitive animal. I do not want to talk much about it, but this is a kind of last Klipa against development. We are unable to resist the process of development of the desire to receive. In 10 to 20 years, all this will pass.

Those who today are able to escape from their suffering into such techniques—to turn off part of their mind, to lower themselves to a very low level, and to really be satisfied with it—such people are not for us. This is a primitive, undeveloped form.

However, the world is developing very fast. After all, all of this is against nature. This is not a correction, but an escape from correction. We will not achieve anything this way, just some kind of temporary artificial consolation.
[357818]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

Related Material:
Kabbalah—The Only Method Of Revealing The Creator
Kabbalah And Beliefs, Part 3
Does Studying Kabbalah Change A Person’s Psyche?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Kabbalah Study, Religion - No Comments →

Question: How can we determine what is “truth” and what is “falsehood” if we ourselves create both?

Answer: Today we take various values, such as “truth” and “falsehood,” as standards or benchmarks. Yet all these things are relative. What appears to us as false today may seem to be truth tomorrow, and what seems to be truth today may appear as a falsehood tomorrow.

Everything depends on our egoistic development. The further we advance, the deeper we look into the surrounding nature and into ourselves. Therefore, there is no absolute standard either in nature as we perceive it or within ourselves; everything depends on the degree of our development. In that case, it is impossible to determine what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false. All of it is highly relative.

However, if we were to discover the general law of nature—an absolute law that exists independently of man, not relative to him, not conditioned by the egoistic human being who undergoes development, but existing objectively in the surrounding reality—then, in accordance with that law, we would also come to know what truth is and what absolute falsehood is.

Then, through this, we would no longer be mistaken. On the contrary, we would be able to develop our attitude and our approach according to these standards. As a result, our development would truly become beneficial, desirable, and directed toward the good of the entire world.

Thus, the knowledge of the general law of nature and its implementation—not from the ego of man, but from the desire to come into balance and harmony with that universal law—is, in essence, the source of everything good. Through this we will come to a good life and truly discover what truth is and what falsehood is.
[236605]
From the Round Table of Independent Opinions, Berlin, 2006

Related Material:
Truth And Falsehood From The Perspective Of Kabbalah
Lie And Truth, Part 5
Lie And Truth, Part 1

Filed under: Children, Crisis, Education, Egoism, Globalization, Q&A - No Comments →

Initially, our soul is “wrapped” in an animalistic desire to receive, a craving for animalistic pleasures: money, honor, and knowledge. This is how we reincarnate over the course of many cycles of life until this outer shell, the husk of this world and of this desire, becomes pure and refined through the suffering a person undergoes from generation to generation, driven by the development of humanity as a whole.

This desire grows and becomes immense: for animalistic pleasures, money, honor, and knowledge. Just look at the variety in our world! Five thousand years ago, there weren’t so many people striving for power. People were content to remain slaves as long as they were fed.

How many people craved money back then? If you just let him live in peace, sitting under a tree, and that is enough for him. Throughout the generations, how many people thirsted for knowledge and wisdom? The situation improved from generation to generation, but it cannot be said that in our generation the desire for animalistic pleasures, food, and sex is fading. These desires increase along with a growing desire for power and knowledge.

Humanity is coming to a state where it wants everything! Yet amidst all these desires, a “point” is revealed in a person’s heart, and the poor soul suddenly realizes that he cannot fill this vast desire for all these pleasures! The point in the heart nullifies the sense of fulfillment, no matter how much he receives.

A person can have a huge desire and every possible advantage, wealth like Rothschild’s, power like a president’s, and knowledge like Einstein’s. But if the point in the heart is present, no amount of worldly fulfillment will prevent a feeling of profound emptiness.  The point in the heart gives a person the sensation that they possess nothing spiritual. They do not yet know what spirituality is, but suddenly they feel a sense of total lack. They feel deficient in every respect; this is the conclusion people gradually reach.

Never in thousands of years have people been as desperate as they are than in our generation. Consider the sheer number of psychological and emotional issues that exist now! The whole world is depressed. A mere century ago, people were content with what they had, but today contentment has become a problem.

Did drugs exist a thousand years ago? They did, yet almost no one needed them. Even a hundred years ago, there use was rare. It was only in the 60s that this trend began, triggered by the emergence of the point in the heart alongside all other desires, even those desires that were already being fulfilled!

Typically such phenomena originate in developed countries. Where is drug use most prevalent? In Europe, America, and Russia, places where people have the opportunity to more or less fulfill themselves with something, but are unable to. Learn, do whatever you want! But a person does not want anything, he does not feel fulfilled.

In other countries that are at a preliminary stage of development where the point in the heart is not yet shining enough for them to see their emptiness, they produce drugs and sell them. They find fulfillment in money, food, and everything that precedes European development. They do not need drugs themselves. They sell them to get food. In the developed world, they do not want food, they want drugs.

This situation arose for a reason: the point in the heart was revealed, exposing emptiness in all other desires. The rest of the desires are strong but hollow; they offer no tangible sense of fulfillment.
[357373]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/26, Rabash, “These Are the Generations of Noah”

Related Material:
How Do You Develop A Point In The Heart?
The Manifestation of the Point in the Heart
The Point In The Heart Is A True Miracle

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

At present, the point in the heart within the more developed nations reveals a sense of emptiness to them, the inability to fulfill their lives through the five senses. In their despair and confusion, they turn to drugs and other escapes, seeking only to flee from reality.

We will see how Europe gradually descends into a state where even development itself comes to a halt, because there will no longer be any stimulus, any desire driving it forward. The same will become evident among Americans who speak so passionately about progress, work, and money. Gradually, we will see an entire society that no longer wishes to do anything, and this, too, is part of the process of development.

Why, then, do they not come to Kabbalah? Because their time has not yet arrived. For now, they are only beginning to discover the futility of seeking fulfillment within this world. The signs are everywhere: culture is no longer important, literature is no longer important, and even progress itself no longer seems important.

Were it not for the fear of physical survival, the world would long ago have ceased to develop altogether. Such is the path of both the individual and humanity as a whole. A person begins to feel that he cannot fulfill himself. He has no strength and no desire to do anything. He does not know what he is working for. He is confused, unable to find a direction, unable to understand what is worth striving for or searching for. He abandons everything and, naturally, loses all desire to work.

Gradually, this process will encompass the entire world until humanity discovers the pointlessness of all its development. Are we truly happier today than those who once lived in caves? In what way? Because we have a hundred television channels? Who even watches them? A person will come to feel, in every aspect of life, that nothing truly fulfills him.

All of this takes place before the point in the heart is revealed in an open and tangible form. Yet even these states are beneficial; they are stages of advancement. They are very distinct stages. Just look at how humanity has progressed over the past hundred years in its understanding of the reality it lives in.
[357417]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/26, Rabash, “These Are the Generations of Noah”

Related Material:
Awaken Points in the Heart
Mass Awakening
Unripe Point In The Heart

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Globalization, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

I will tell you that something else is coming: a time when the love of our world disappears, when there is no reciprocity, and no attraction. This is already happening! We can already see it developing in the new generation. And then we will realize that we have nothing left to live for, nothing to fill ourselves with!

Question: Will we ask for a different kind of love?

Answer: Yes, we will request fulfillment. Man does not live by bread alone. And then we will feel that we need the true source of all fulfillments.

This will be a moment of profound disillusionment, yet also a profound revelation regarding a new source. And then a cry of supplication will rise from all of humanity: “How will we be able to fill ourselves?! How will we be able to exist?! Where is this source?!”

Question: So now we can see how we are being cut off from all sources of pleasure? Is a passage, a tunnel, being constructed for us that leads to the true source?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will the Creator be that source?

Answer: There is no other source.

Question: But will a person actually say: “This is the Creator”?

Answer: Yes, this is the Creator of my life, of all my aspirations; He is everything that I want. I want only Him.

In fact, He is the one we striving for all along, with egoism, but it does not matter; it is always only toward Him.

Let us wait.

Comment: Let us wait, hope, and believe.

My Response: Yes, it will happen soon.
[357239]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 5/19/26

Related Material:
“And You Shall Love The Lord”
Earthly Love Is Worthless From The Start
Love that Egoists Are Not Familiar With

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Globalization, News - No Comments →

The unification of people is always a spiritual force, even on the material level. If we are talking about such a group, be it a sports team, kibbutz members, or anyone else, they also use a spiritual force by uniting for some goal.

This gives rise to a problem. If they use this force for the sake of the Creator, then they win, move forward, prosper, and everything ends wonderfully. If, however, they take this force and use it for self-gratification, as they wanted to do in Soviet Russia or in the kibbutzim, then they get exactly what they eventually ended up with.

Why? Because, as Baal HaSulam explains in the article “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]“, they use the unification of souls, which is supposed to be a Kli for the Creator, for the light, as a Kli for achieving animalistic goals. If you unite several people and want something to come from it, then from their unification there must flow an intention for the sake of bestowal to the Creator and not for the sake of bestowal to oneself. Bestowal “for one’s own sake” brings about darkness, suffering, and misfortunes.

Let us say people unite to launch an enterprise, to get rich, to achieve something in this world. We see that all this is done precisely by means of unification. This also relates to the era of industrial development that began from the time of the Ari to the subsequent period of enlightenment. Such is the nature of development.

But all these steps in development were essentially not made out of a desire to draw closer to the Creator, but by creating groups of people in which one helps another. And all these groups, societies, or enterprises, whatever they may be, ultimately led to suffering. Through this, we come more quickly to the recognition of evil.

What does modern industry mean for us now that the whole world has become like a single village? Ultimately, through our pursuit of money, honor, and base pleasures, we reveal the flawed nature of our connection with one another.

We are tempted by trivialities like money and honors, supposedly a better life, but essentially, without our awareness, a higher force intends to show us that by uniting for reasons other than the sake of the Creator, humanity suffers a catastrophic loss. This realization dawns on us very quickly.

Rabash gives as an example a person who is given a desire for money and opens a restaurant to make a profit; however, in reality, this setup compels him to give to others. The money serves only as a lure. In essence, the Creator uses this to facilitate bestowal in the world prompting everyone to begin giving to others sooner. Consequently, Reshimot (spiritual records) multiply and combine in various ways, which causes an acceleration in our development toward correction.

In the same way, humanity is given a desire for money and various achievements, and groups of people unite among themselves in order to reveal the negative side in this. Everything that we see on the outside is the temptations given to us so that from our will to receive we perform various incorrect actions, and then come to the recognition of evil and, after correctly summing up the results, move onto the right tracks.
[357138]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59

Related Material:
Connections Of Egoists Are Doomed To Fail
Nature Separates Egoists
Not All Kinds Of Unity Are Identical

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Globalization, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →