Question: In one of the lessons about The Book of Zohar you discussed the fact that prototypes of two forces— male and female, bestowal and reception—are the two luminaries, the moon and the sun. Why is a woman more affected by the moon? Even her pregnancy is set according to the lunar calendar.

Answer: A lot is said about this not only in The Book of Zohar but also in other Kabbalistic sources.

Our entire spiritual essence is built on the connection between reception and bestowal, the power of Zeir Anpin and Malchut, which in our world are represented by the sun and the moon. Therefore, we on Earth are under the ruling of these two forces.

All of nature is very sharply divided into male and female parts. The male part is identified with the sun and the female part with the moon. This comes from the opposition of these two forces of nature, and man exists in order to bind them together.

Once upon a time, in the early stages of human development, we were not so egoistic and did not resist nature and its harmony. We were close to it, we were more inside it. Therefore everything that happened in nature happened to us in the same sequence, at the same pace, with the same fluctuations. In particular, the women’s cycle began on the new moon for every woman in the world.

And why wouldn’t it be so if it was clearly built in accordance with lunar cycles? Contrary to lower animals, humans can conceive throughout the year. But we went through such stages in our development when women could conceive only at a certain time, and birth took place exactly after nine months.

There were no premature births in those days. It is a frequent phenomenon today because egoism introduces such distortions in us that alienate us from nature. We know how much our body is now not adapted to nature. We can no longer live without plastic, and we will probably just get poisoned with natural products.

So, we cannot talk today about how to come back to some kind of harmony with nature through ordinary means. Although people try to somehow maintain their connection, this is no longer possible.

And in the past, we really fully felt nature, felt the weather in advance, all kinds of climatic changes, the breath of nature. That is what people who are inside nature and know what will happen to them feel. That is, nature is actually something deeper, more voluminous, and more transparent than what we are used to see when looking at the world around us.

Question: When Kabbalists talk about balance with nature, do they urge us to return to the past state?

Answer: It is not about that but about how we really rise to the correct level of nature.

Our current state is, in principle, correct. It takes us out of the fact that we are inside nature and makes us rise above it, and rise not in an artificial form when we create some kind of artificial habitat, but rise to the level of the force that manages this nature.

It is called the Creator, the power of bestowal, the power of love, the relationship between all parts of nature. We must rise to the level of this force and become adequate to it.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Two-headed eagle” 1/1/10

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My new article on Linkedin “Tough Times Ahead”

Transition periods are always prone to trouble. We are living through one of the most volatile transition periods in human history as we are rising from a self-centered mindset to a more holistic one where we are interdependent, interconnected, and consider the well-being of others in our actions. Regrettably, while in transition, our rebellious egos are driving us to increasingly dangerous extremes that put us and all of society at risk. The sooner we become aware that we are in transition, the better our chances of going through the change peacefully and quickly.

In order to recognize that we are in transition, that we are too interconnected to ignore the needs of others, we must establish educational systems that will bring it to our awareness. Therefore, humanity’s greatest challenge right now is education.

Ideally, world leaders should have been the leaders of the transition. They are in a natural position to initiate and head the process. Regrettably, today’s leaders have such hearts of stone that they will simply not be able to hear about these ideas. It is not as though I have given up, because I haven’t, but we have to acknowledge where we stand. At the same time, I know we must continue.

We are all pleasure seeking beings; this is our nature. Therefore, we will not change our way of life unless we suffer in the present one, or some great reward beckons us and we are sure we will receive it.

We understand only two things: pleasure or pain. This is why humanity will change either because it is suffering in the state of absolute selfishness, or because it sees a guaranteed reward in the state of mutual responsibility and caring for others. Right now, people prefer to wait for more pain to convince them to move to a more collaborative disposition.

This is why education is so important. If people are convinced that all the beatings we suffer are the result of our selfishness, they will want to get rid of it. If we believe that the ego can still give us benefits that nothing else can, we will remain with our egos until pain convinces us to leave it.
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Comment: Baal HaSulam writes that any state is given to us in order to realize its evil, its finiteness, and pass to a new state. He says that it is Kabbalah that is designed to help a person quickly pass from one state to another by realizing the previous one as evil.

My Response: Right. Imagine: Now we must take up the realization of the evil of the current stage, which we have, as it were, worked out, and ascend to the next stage. And this means completely abandoning the paradigm in which we are now.

How can we do this? We have to go through tremendous suffering in order to break away from this step. In other words, I must make sure that neither family, nor art, nor science, nor professions, nor relationships between people, and most importantly, the relationship of a person to nature and to himself, work in this form any longer. All of this is in crisis.

But this crisis is still insufficient, we can see it in its sluggish course. We try to obscure it, to delay it, saying: “None of this really exists,” and to play inside of it. Imagine how many decades we can still drag out in this case.

This condition will worsen, and we will always feed ourselves with some kind of painkillers and say that everything is not so scary. Just think, people get divorced, children leave the family, and we want to devour each other alive. Just think, there is no longer science or culture, a person lives in fear.

That is, in order to get out of this state and see the next, we need to realize it as evil.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Fire Island” 1/1/10

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes in his articles that egoism is not the same for everyone. There is gross egoism when a person uses it without hesitation and there is a veiled, more developed one, when a person realizes that it is bad and sort of acts secretly. What is the difference, in principle?

Answer: If a person realizes his egoism, then this is good, you can talk to him, discuss that; he can come to some kind of decision: is it right or not, should he be in this property or not?

He can determine that it is evil and try to get rid of it in some way. He sees how this property harms him and makes him rise above others. And this is his whole life.

He begins to understand what he spends precious seconds of existence in this world on. And what if he treated others differently, in a completely opposite manner? Perhaps in doing so he would find such a form of sensation of life which in our world is not perceived by us at all. After all, we are constantly tuned in order to influence, control, rule, and absorb.

And if I set myself up differently, I might be free. Free! First I would not be pressed from behind by this terrible force that guides me like this. I would feel myself in a free space, independent, not connected to anything.

I would begin to see everything around me in a different way – not from the point of view of what threatens my power, self-preservation, security: what should I take possession of, what should I suppress, absorb, crush under myself, and so on, where is everything around in the world? A person only looks like this, initially. Look at young children, how cruel they are, how they treat each other. This is our nature.

And if I began to relate to the world in a different way, I would see a completely different picture of the world around us, which is a consequence of my attitude to it. Now I selectively see only what is good or bad for me. Bad, I have to do something about it; good, I can enjoy it.

But if I had a different attitude to the environment around me, I would see circumstances, objects, and actions of a different type, a completely different world that is called the upper world in Kabbalah.

That is, the perception of the world and what happens to us depends on our focus; the way we look at the world is how the world appears to us. Therefore we need to change ourselves.
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FFrom KabTV’s “Close-Up. Fire Island” 1/1/10

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Question: Is it egoism or is it a transgression when I do bad to others in order to feel good?

Answer: Egoism on its own is not a transgression, it is our nature. Transgression is when we use it to the detriment of others.

This is very simple. If you do something to make you feel good but at the same time it is bad for others, then this is a transgression. Also vice versa—if you do it just to feel good without harming others, then this is all right.

Question: By denying the initial freewill, Kabbalah gives a person the opportunity to choose between egoistic and altruistic forces. How can we understand this?

Answer: This is our freewill. I must rise above my egoism and try to act only for the good of my neighbor, which is called in the name of altruism.
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From Kab TV’s “Conversations” 11/1/21

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Question: The number of people who die while making selfies has tripled since the end of lockdown. The most common cause of death is falling from a height. It represents one third of all deaths. Men are twice as likely to die when trying to take a selfie than women. Selfies are taken on cranes, on the edge of a waterfall. The reason is clear—people want to stand out, create exciting content, and it ends in disaster.

Why is this stronger than the fear of death?

Answer: They do not realize it is so dangerous. But in general, showing oneself in such a posture in front of others is a very strong, powerful egoistic filling: “Look how special I am.” To cause envy. This is all very natural for an egoist.

Question: Why don’t we learn from these examples? The number of deaths has tripled!

Answer: Egoism is growing, and it does not allow us to think about the consequences. The main point at this moment is the triumph of egoism: “Me! Look where I am!” That is the main thing. Without any rational reason, someone I will send this to will show it to someone else, at least for a moment, and nothing will happen.

Question: And is this moment worth all this?

Answer: Yes. And I pay for it with my life.

Question: What conclusions should a person draw when he hears this?

Answer: A person should conclude that he needs to look for a remedy for this disease— his increased egoism.

Question: What is the remedy?

Answer: The only serious thing I really know is to rise above egoism.

Question: I do not hear the ego anymore when I rise above it?

Answer: No, I lean on it, I interact with it. It is my assistant.

It is necessary to rise above it—this is the only correct work with egoism. Unfortunately, no one knows about it, does not think about it, and does not get the right skill, so everyone suffers.

Question: So, fighting against egoism, its destruction, its belittling is wrong?

Answer: It is wrong. There is nothing you can do about it. You can see that it is growing everywhere every day.

Question: When you say “rising above egoism,” what do you mean by that?

Answer: Own it. Do not reject, do not run away, do not kick it, but understand that this is our huge strength, and we need to work with it properly. Take it in your hands and work with it, gradually, realize the huge potential in it in order to release this egoism slowly, where it is possible, where it is necessary and needed.

Question: Which means, if I really want to crush or destroy it, it will be my enemy. And now you say it is helping me?

Answer: Certainly. It is help against you.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/11/21

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Question: Do you believe that leaders can self-restrict on a planetary scale like is done in the Scandinavian countries? For example, in Finland, the prime minister commutes to work without security officers, and sometimes even bicycles.

It is simply impossible to imagine such a thing in certain countries of the world. No one will perceive this person as a leader. Do you think that elites are capable of self-restraint in order to save themselves?

Answer: To save themselves—yes! But I do not know whether such a time has come.

The fact that this is happening in the Scandinavian countries is explained by the special relationship between the people and the peculiarity of the national character. This is natural for them. I would say that this is a kind of frozen state, that, in general, is specific to these people.

Question: Is this possible in Israel? Is the Israeli national character capable of this?

Answer: No. This is not possible anywhere else.

Remark: But Jews are most sensitive to justice. They must be the first to achieve mutual love and equality.

My Comment: At the same time, they are the most spoiled and have the greatest egoism, which we do not see in the Scandinavian nations. There, people are very level-headed. But here, people do not feel any limitations. This is their inner state.
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From Kab TV’s “Conversations” 11/1/21

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Question: The Creator created the desire to receive and gave us the freedom of choice so that we would understand our oppositeness to His property of bestowal and come to the realization that we must ask Him to change our nature. But why is everything so confusing? Why have hundreds of thousands of years of human development passed and no one knows about it?

Answer: It is our egoism that confuses us. It is said that the Creator made everything straightforward and simple, and people took too many different paths out of this and eventually got entangled in them.

And all this so that we eventually would get to know ourselves and what the Creator has done to us, and understand how we can really approach our likeness.

Question: Does this take hundreds of thousands of years?

Answer: We are not talking about hundreds of thousands of years. After all, until a person has evolved from atoms, molecules, and all kinds of intermediate states, has grown from the animate level and reached a resemblance to today’s man, not so much time has passed. In fact, several thousand years ago, people were just beasts and did not understand what they were for.

And only five thousand years ago, from the time of Adam, the first man who began to comprehend the Creator, they began to realize this. Five thousand years is not much. And before that, we developed like any living organisms that only took care of themselves. Therefore, five thousand years is not a lot to understand yourself.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/19/21

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Comment: The egoism of each individual person is built on the basis of “one, unique, the only one” because a person identifies himself with the Creator and considers himself as the center of the world.

My Response: This is our nature. Each of us perceives reality as if he is in the center of the world and the whole world revolves around him.

And a person comes into a kind of contradiction with the world. How is it that the world that revolves around him does not automatically perceive his desires and thoughts? Why does this world have some movements of its own that do not quite coincide with his thoughts and desires? And so he is angry with the world. How does this happen?

Therefore the more our egoism grows in us—and it grows every day—the more uncomfortable we feel, we do not know what to do with our life, and we feel bad. But all this is only because we want, according to our growing egoism, to control the world more and more, and it does not want to bend under us.

Question: Suppose a certain group of people has gathered, united by some common ideas. What about their group egoism?

Answer: This is even more difficult. If a group of people gathers, then they have some common goal that they want to achieve. This is why they created that group. Moreover, each of them sacrifices his personal egoism in order to be in harmony with others and achieve a common goal.

And suddenly, what was good for them today is not so good tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow is even worse. After all, everyone’s egoism grows in its own direction. They do not make corrections to it, they do not work to constantly get together and adjust their connection all the time. And it turns out that after a while they do not see at all where they are, why they are in connection with these people, and what is happening here.

That is, we do not understand the nature of our egoism, how it can be corrected, and how to connect above it in order to maintain our relationship.
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From Kab TV’s “Conversations” 11/1/21

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In the News (The New York Times): “Sigmund Freud gave us a psychology of selfishness. Children, he wrote, ‘are completely egoistic; they feel their needs intensely and strive ruthlessly to satisfy them.’”

Question: How would you define selfishness in terms of Kabbalah?

Answer: Freud’s definition concerns only the framework of our world, the framework of earthly egoism. And if a person tries to rise above himself, then he reveals against this a completely different type of egoism, a higher one.

He begins to understand that this is his inner nature, over which he can rise only if he touches the force that controls all of nature, so that it changes him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/15/21

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