The Force Leading to the Creator

934Question: As it is said: “Torah, Israel, and the Creator are one.” It is clear there are friends with whom we unite, and there is the Creator that we want to reveal together. But what is this force between us that we must attract so that it leads us to the Creator?

Answer: It is the quality of mutual bestowal of everyone to everyone. To the extent you can realize this quality among yourselves in the ten, you advance toward the Creator and become similar to Him.

Question: What does it mean to correct ourselves with the friends into the vessel (Kli) of Adam HaRishon?

Answer: It means to discover our connection in one vessel, in one ten, and from this connection, direct our desires for rising toward getting closer to the Creator. We want to rise to His level to comply with what the Creator expects.
[326161]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Torah, the Creator, and Israel Are One”

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What Is Considered Luck in Spiritual Work?

938.01Question: When the ten feels that it reached success, i.e., the state of “embrace with the Creator,” how can it return pleasure to the Creator for this luck?

Answer: To do this, one must rise above oneself and perform an act of bestowal with the friends. In this way, we create a state among ourselves where we receive the upper light for the sake of the Creator.

Question: If a person is rewarded with faith above reason, can this be considered luck?

Answer: Yes, this is also luck.

Question: Nevertheless, luck largely depends on the root of the soul, and the environment cannot influence success 100%, right?

Answer: The environment can influence a person, and a person can influence the connection of their soul with the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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Will AI Make it Better or Worse?

186Question: The Danish Saxo Bank makes predictions every year. According to the forecast, in 2024 the world will be threatened by artificial intelligence that will create almost all content on the Internet, and people will massively stop believing in information; see and hear, but do not believe.

I recently was shown a video of you and me with our voices speaking utter nonsense, and you cannot tell that it is faked. Doesn’t that scare you?

Answer: No.

Remark: They say it will be widespread next year.

My Response: So what? Very good.

Question: What is good about it?

Answer: People are realizing and will realize that all this is deception and lies, and they will already be cautious about everything.

Question: So I should not believe my own eyes or ears?

Answer: No, but we ourselves have built such a world where lies are now becoming more obvious. And it is very good that we understand that it is a lie and that we should not believe anything.

Question: So you think this is the goal of the upper governance, to bring us to this feeling that I don’t trust anyone, I can’t trust?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Who should I trust then?

Answer: No one, including yourself.

Question: Myself too? So I see, hear, and do not believe?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Then where is that rope?

Answer: There is no rope. There is nothing to hold on to, and we just live.

Question: Well, I do not trust information. But the person who is next to me, who I do not see on the screen, I talk to him, can I trust him?

Answer: We will be forced to shorten our lives, shrink it to a state where we can trust each other, trust in some small connections between us. And that is it, nothing more is needed.

Question: After all faith is killed in me, will I want to, as you always say, get closer to someone, be in connection with them, and believe them?

Answer: No, it will only be at a level like, I give you a piece of bread, you give me potatoes; it’s like this and that’s like that.

Comment: It is called “natural exchange.”

My Response: Sort of a natural exchange because at that level, we can clearly understand what we are doing, in what states we find ourselves, in what relationships. And that is it. Why more?

Question: Still, why do they give us this state of cutting off everything: all hopes, all faith, everything?

Answer: So that we understand where we are, within which boundaries we can exist and coexist.

Question: Within which boundaries?

Answer: In natural ones. In the most straightforward, narrow, and concrete relationships, not far from each other.

Question: And what is the point of that?

Answer: Nothing. It is just so you do not get confused! Otherwise, you have woven such a culture, such a science around yourself…and for millennia. You got lost. Get out of the dark forest.

Comment: It turns out that the whole history that has been written, all of it is fictional? Everything that is said now…

My Response: People wrote it.

Question: I see. Holy books written by people who felt the spiritual world, books written for us, why should we believe them? Should we believe them or should we check?

Answer: Do not believe in anything. You can only verify that what they are advising is true. That is, in their advice.

Question: So, I should practically go through the whole path that the prophets have gone through?

Answer: You cannot go through the whole path, of course. But what they advise, you can check on yourself. Something from it will turn out to be true. And you can grasp onto that.

Question: So, they are guiding us to this, narrowing our path? It turns out it is like a tiny eye of a needle. And everything narrows like that, and you have to fit into this little hole?

Answer: Yes, why do you need more?

Question: Where do we end up after this hole narrows: I trust no one, believe in nothing, and want to pass through it? Where do I end up? What is there?

Answer: You end up in a state where your entire essence and your entire destiny are determined. It is all there. And when you see it in front of you, you are already acting correctly.

Question: So you are saying that I am breaking through to my core? That is where I am real?

Answer: Yes, there you are, yes; you begin to become acquainted with yourself. That is where, I hope, we shall come.

Comment: Look, there is no evil in the world. Artificial intelligence will lead us into the depths, and as a result, it will actually direct us.

My Response: Yes.

Comment: They also believe that the year 2024 will be the year of obesity. People will start refusing to do sports and will switch to unhealthy food. It is for sure hard to believe in that.

My Response: I do not know, it is so unimportant; let them talk.

Question: They say that this whole fitness club and healthy food industry with such crazy promotion might collapse. What do you think, could this empire that has been built collapse?

Answer: It could collapse because it all depends on the importance in people’s eyes.

Question: So, the importance might suddenly decline. I eat what I want, live how I want, walk, or sleep, sit, it does not matter. I feel good and that is all. Is it possible that people will stop running?

Answer: For me, it is possible. I am ready for it.

Question: What is being turned off here, can I ask you?

Answer: All talks about how sports are beneficial, diet is beneficial, they are being turned off.

Comment: And suddenly a person feels that…

My Response: Relax and float. That is also philosophy.

Question: This is really an empire. Tell me, please, do they have even a fraction, even a little bit of the fact that they are helping people to be healthy…?

Answer: No! They only want to profit from it, that is all.

Question: You do not allow pure thoughts?

Answer: Nothing! Neither those for it nor those against it want anything except to profit!

Question: Not even a little?

Answer: To earn money and elevate themselves are the two goals.

Comment: In that case, it will eventually fall. If there is not even a bit of good intention, then it will definitely fall someday.

My Response: Yes.

Question: The next prediction: the USA will face the end of capitalism. How is that possible? After all, this country did not know any other formations, it is built on capitalism. How likely is it that suddenly—boom—and it collapses?

Answer: I do not believe it will collapse because it is all built on absolute egoism. There may be various profound changes in society, in human nature, but I cannot imagine it collapsing. Because the whole world is built on it.

The capitalist structure is the most correct, true structure, because we are egoists. It fits us most directly. Until we change, it will exist.

Comment: And all attempts to come to a different system…

My Response: Will not yield anything; you will end up with the same thing.

Question: So, what system should we eventually come to?

Answer: We should come to connection, to friendship, to love.

Question: What kind of system is that?

Answer: Communism, a true communist system.

Question: Were all attempts to build communism premature?

Answer: Yes, nobody thought to build it! It is all talk. But to build real communism, it is first of all knowing that there is no other way but “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Question: Is that what you call communism?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And sooner or later, one way or another…

My Response: It will happen. Because it is already planned in nature, and it already exists.

Question: So for this, as you say, we have to change our nature?

Answer: Yes. And everything should be directed toward that.

Comment: Next: the bank predicts that for the first time in US history, an independent candidate will win the election. They even name him: Robert Kennedy Jr.

My Response: Honestly, I do not know who he is, what he stands for, what he wants. But it would be good if the one who would be for uniting people on peaceful grounds won. But that is not obvious yet, there are no prerequisites for it. Although what is being done today, these are all the right steps of nature to tame human egoism.

Question: So there is still some good in this assumption that it will be an independent candidate?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Robert Kennedy Jr. is a lawyer. And since we touched on Kennedy, there is a term: “The Kennedy curse.” There are 22 unfortunate, fatal incidents. Tragedy follows this family! Is there some kind of law in this?

Answer: Yes, of course! It exists.

Comment: Granddaughters perish, children perish, it just keeps happening! What is it in them that they still rise up and go, and again want power, and so on?

Answer: It is also written in the Torah.

Comment: So a person is not afraid of…?

My Response: That is fate; nothing can be done about it. He feels like he is doing the right thing, that drives him, and no dissuasion helps.

Question: And not even fear helps—just to sit somewhere quietly, calmly?

Answer: No.

Question: So, this exists, you believe that fate follows an entire family, a dynasty?

Answer: Of course!

Comment: Next. In the European Union, in the year 2024 finally, a 2% wealth tax will be introduced. The question is only: where will the money go? Where does the money go when a tax is imposed, let’s say on the wealthy? Increase the tax and where will the money go in your opinion?

Answer: No one will notice them.

Question: What about those billions that will be collected? Then what is the point of taxing the wealthy?

Answer: It is all about race for power—anything goes.

Question: So, the one who announces this tax will become like Robin Hood for people?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And this is not done to help the poor, the unfortunate, and so on?

Answer: No, what can you help with just 2% anyway?

Question: Then, here is a question: how would you solve the issue with the super-rich people, with the wealthy people?

Answer: I would assign them to rebuild the world. So they would do everything to make the world more peaceful, more balanced, more pleasant, and so on. And I would give them honors for their successes.

Question: So in a way, you would redesign them?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: So, they will have honors, to get in Forbes, into the top names.

Answer: I would prohibit all of that.

Question: All these magazines, all these rankings?

Answer: Yes. The rankings would be different: here are the people we should respect, here are the people we should honor.

Question: Because he helped the world in such and such a way, he helped the world in such and such a way? Do you think that this respect is the most effective?

Answer: Yes, if we inflate this, it will have a great impact on everyone.

Question: So, you think that their desire to earn will turn into a desire to earn in order to give?

Answer: Yes, and not just that, but to this is the best janitor in our city, and this is the best doctor.

Question: So it would be distributed among everyone?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And especially for them, probably they helped the world change.

My Response: Yes, that is not bad!

Comment: That is beautiful. But you were saying this back in 2006 in Arosa. There were some quite wealthy people sitting there listening, applauding, nodding.

My Response: 2006 Arosa, that was many years ago.

Comment: 17 years ago. It is called “The Arosa Document.” You can find it on Google and take a look. So, you still maintain this position that if this had happened, the world could have…

My Response: Yes, it needs to be arranged.

Comment: Maybe then there would be no wars.

My Response: What wars are you talking about? There is no escaping them.

Question: So, bringing it all back to the forecast for the year 2024, do you still think it will be better or worse?

Answer: I think the year 2024 will be a year of serious upheaval. People will start realizing that we need to decisively address our affairs. Well, that is all.

Question: So, you believe that in the year 2024 we will be brought to some point?

Answer: Yes, because it is clear to us: either it is endless warfare in different places and maybe even a world war, or let us get down to business.

Question: And maybe they will get down to business?

Answer: Yes, they will put their own house in order.
[323743]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/7/23

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Studying the Torah

528.04Question: When reading the Torah, we study the quality of bestowal and love. How can we attract this force upon ourselves while reading the article?

Answer: Studying the Torah is a multi-step process. Initially, we simply learn to read, translate, and analyze what is in our materials, replace words with spiritual elements and connections, and begin to understand what is really said. These are the conditions.

Question: What are these spiritual definitions that stand behind the words?

Answer: In Pticha (Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah) or in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, we study about them. They explain how the light coming to us from the Creator affects us, what desires it reveals, and how it connects us.

By reading the sources, it gradually becomes clear what happens to us during this process: what rises, what shifts, what descends, how we attract the light, how we open ourselves to the light, and what it does when it enters us.
[326167]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Torah, the Creator, and Israel Are One”

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Tears Reduce Aggression

276.01Question: 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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That Is What Is Worth Living For

222Question: 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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Is Fortune a Correction?

231.04Question: 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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A Building for the Creator

508.2This 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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The Path to Happiness Lies through Sodom

294.1When 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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A Single Desire

935Question: 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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