If my thoughts, states, and actions come from the Creator—both whatever I might desire and think, as well as what I thought and desired in the past, then the question arises again: Who and what am I?

This is discussed in the article “The Freedom,” in which Baal HaSulam explains that a person is indeed a machine. On the physiological and biological levels, we can understand this.

But if both a person’s thoughts and desires are not his own, and the person himself is the result of society and the influence from above, then what remains? Baal HaSulam says in this article that in our world a person has free choice in only one thing: receiving an impression of the greatness of the goal in order to attain it from the group.

I have already explained that everyone is interconnected above, and from there, through the friends, one can draw the necessary force to oneself. Only this depends on the person. Nothing else in this world depends on him.

We do not realize the extent to which—in deciding upon any action, in everything we may wish to do at any given moment, to sit down or stand up, to drink or eat, to sleep or go somewhere, to get on a bus or not, and so on—we are unable to introduce even the slightest foreign desire, some external cause that is not already within us.

It is only because the course of this inner process is unknown and incomprehensible to me that it seems to me that I am deciding, searching, thinking, calculating, and making plans. All of this is only because of this uncertainty; it is only because of this uncertainty that I do not understand how all of this actually happens.

It is similar to the way we look at an infant, and know what he will do the next moment. The same applies to us. Only it will become many times clearer when we rise to a higher degree.

Therefore there is no point in engaging in nonsense. Rather we should use this tiny point, this very small opening through which we can bring into ourselves, into our Kli, an external force for advancement. And that force is the greatness of the Creator received from the friends. If a person cares for this point, and constantly strives to draw more and more through it, he will succeed.

I would like to add that the friends are not only like-minded people in the group, but also the sources and their authors. A person may simply sit and listen to Kabbalistic music, or to recordings of what the Kabbalists say, even without understanding the language that they are speaking. This is called an external force. And this is the only thing that depends on us. Everything else is nothing more than imagination and fantasy.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work? ”

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Whatever a person does during the day in relation to the people around him through his body and human desire, simply as a person living in this world, has nothing to do with the Torah. It does not relate to spiritual advancement or to the Creator.

Ten thousand years ago, there were also people in our world who knew nothing about the Torah or Commandments. They had lives, a wife, children, a home, and food. Does this relate to spirituality or not? Similarly, our ordinary life, which is not related to Kabbalah, does not belong to spirituality. This is an animal-like existence in this world.

We cannot say that it is completely disconnected from the spiritual world, as everything here is a branch. However, we are talking about the desire to receive on the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of this world, which gradually progresses toward the final correction at its own pace, in accordance with the general pace of reality.

Then, the general desire to receive of all people reached a state in which parts of the soul began to descend from above. A light began to descend, revealing the desire to receive, clothed in all people.

When light descends from above, a point in the heart appears. This point entered someone named Avram (after which he was given the name Abraham), who marked the beginning of the group. He was the first to reveal the Creator and initiate a chain of disciples. Had it not occurred, all of humanity would have continued living without spiritual revelation, according to the general clock of the universe and reality.

From Abraham onward, a person gains the freedom to choose. As the light descends upon a person, he has the opportunity to take further action on his own. However, this can only be done in connection with other souls.

Therefore, I need someone else by my side. It is not enough to have someone in America or Australia; after all, there were Native Americans at the time of Abraham. I have no connection with them; I need someone near me, a friend from whom I can gain insight and acquire something.

Free choice consists of receiving additional Hisaron (lack or desire) from an equal, both in the time of Abraham and in our time. The Creator told Abraham: “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky,” that is, I gave you the conditions for free choice. Therefore, a close group was required so that one, while receiving perception from another, could acquire that person’s desire.

It does not work for one Kabbalist to be here and another someplace else, a group was required, a group that came to be called the Jews (Yehudim). They were ordinary Iraqis and Persians who began to be called Jews Yehudim and Ivrim (Hebrews from the root “Avru,” meaning those who transitioned to the desire of the Creator). We must distinguish between the soul that clothes itself in a person that requires correction, and the body.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work?”

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You cannot live in a world of absolute goodness. You must gradually come to it and understand how evil participates in creation and how it helps us become completely good.

Question: Are saying that evil must not be destroyed?

Answer: It must not. It has to exist alongside good and constantly help the good to reveal its unique quality.

Question: And what allows good to keep growing?

Answer: Evil.

Question: So, as soon as evil grows, good will grow as well, and this is how we advance?

Answer: Yes.

Question: To what heights can good rise?

Answer: To complete freedom of will.

Question: What does that mean? What lies behind it?

Answer: It is a state in which a person becomes absolutely good, completely corrected, entirely bestowing, and yet this does not hinder his further development.

Question: And this is all thanks to evil?

Answer: Yes. That is precisely why evil was created as the fundamental force of nature.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 6/17/26

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Question: Is humanity actually lacking a tiny ray of light in this dark realm?

Answer: Yes. I think that we will gradually break through this foolishness.

Question: What would it take for the Creator to shine a little light? Just a tiny bit?

Answer: He cannot. He has no right! The Creator has no right! Otherwise, He would violate the fundamental law of nature: egoism is completely opposite to Him!

Question: What does this law of nature provide?

Answer: It allows a person to become equal to the Creator at the end of correction. Otherwise, they would not.

Question: So, if He did that, He would suppress the person? The person would simply run after that little ray and keep chasing it forever?

Answer: Yes. In a sense, they might reach something halfway there, but to become equal to the Creator, to be free in one’s actions, to choose (by free will) likeness to the Creator, and to attain this similarity despite all problems—and to achieve that likeness despite all problems—to become independent, that is, to create another image of the Creator from all the laws and properties of the universe, that is what a person must do.

If the Creator were to do this, there would be no point in it. He does not have the right to change anything in these conditions; not even by an iota.

Question: So, according to your words, can we say that after some time, a
complete darkness will come?

Answer: Yes, naturally! The greatest darkness will come before the final correction.

Question: Before the ascent?

Answer: Yes! We have not yet seen it.

Question: So, this is not the end yet?

Answer: No. There will be a universal descent into savagery. As it is written, the nations of the world will rise against the people of Israel, and so on. In general, these will be terrible things.

Comment: You speak of “terrible things” and a “universal descent into savagery,” yet, you still seem to have some inner joy.

My Response: I have joy because this is a necessary stage that we must go through, and we can navigate it successfully by countering the darkness with light. That would truly be a massive leap forward.

Question: What must humanity do if it suddenly faces complete chaos and total darkness?

Answer: We must first grow to that state. Complete chaos and darkness will not be revealed unless we also have the possibility of revealing the light.

Question: Does the Creator give us only what we can endure? Will we be able to bear it and rise to our feet?

Answer: Of course. But for now, it is still dragging on, and on, and on. The more we tell the world about who and what it is, the faster the problems will arise, and the faster we will solve them.

Question: Then why do you keep urging the world to come to its senses? If that is the case, why bother? Let it simply be driven to that state of complete darkness.

Answer: That is exactly how it will be brought there! The more we know, the faster we will be brought to it. But we are obliged to go through it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 5/25/26

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Don’t look at others! Not at all. You have a different soul; you cannot be Like them and they cannot be like you. So pay less attention to everyone else. Would Einstein have achieved anything if he had kept looking at others? It is impossible! You should only listen to yourself. Even if I make a mistake, this is me.

Question: What if we apply it to an ordinary, everyday person?

Answer: What does ordinary mean? Everyone can be extraordinary. Let them listen to themselves, heed their own inner voice. This is what I can do, this is what I want, and this is what I believe. It is not contrary to others, but it is coming from inside of me.

I have to pull my “me” out of myself. Then you will feel very comfortable with it, even in mistakes.

Comment: I am trying to apply this to myself now, but this is not so easy!

My Response: Just close your eyes, and you are alone! But you are with yourself; you are still not running away from yourself. This is all.

Question: And should I live this way?

Answer: Yes

Question: Is this your advice?

Answer: This is my advice. Then in order to realize it you will have to create a special environment for yourself, and so on. But this is still you alone.

Comment: I am thinking about my own experience. If I feel that “this is mine,” you say I have to grasp it and that is all. Now I have felt once: “this is mine,” for sure I have felt…

My Response: This is what I am realizing.

Comment: And do I go this way? That is it! And on the way there will be squalls and waves…

My Response: It does not matter; it will make me even closer to myself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 4/24/26

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A person should not look back. He should not gnaw at himself or reproach himself for certain actions, nor at the same time praise himself for some of his deeds.

In other words, he should not try to strike a balance, thinking that I did this in such a way and that in another way, and here I fell a little short.

Question: Was this my life; either that of a hero or a sinner?

Answer: My life is not mine. And now I can finally say that what I lived through was not lived by me. It passed through me, but it was not me. I was being led. My life, it is how it appeared to me in a dream. It was not me, it all passed like a dream. And therefore, one simply must accept this; nothing else is required.

Question: Just accept it?

Answer: Yes. Just accept it. And that does not matter either. Whatever happens to a person will happen. And whatever he feels in the process, he will feel. It is not “he” who feels it, but rather “he” who is felt, so to speak.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 4/18/26

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Question: Is annulment before the upper a path of coercion?

Answer: It is said that there is no coercion in spirituality. Yet, it seems that annulment before the upper is coercion from the upper toward us. If we look at it through the lens of the Passover Haggadah, the Creator adds the evil inclination to Pharaoh and then strikes Pharaoh.

The poor Pharaoh does not know where to escape. He cannot go anywhere, because he is 100% made of opposite qualities. So, where can he run?

Thus, it appears that there is no more miserable or terrible state than the way the Creator treats Pharaoh. Is it fitting for the Creator to relate this way to His creation with all its qualities?

Question: I am asking not from the side of the Creator but from the side of the created being. Is choosing the opinion of the upper an act of coercion, opposite to my own opinion? After all, with that tiny force I draw from the group, I force myself to go against myself.

Answer: From the side of the person, it is exactly the same. Pharaoh is everything within us, our entire nature. Can I do anything with it if it is 100% this way? You say: “My so-called choice of the Creator is not really my choice. It is simply an action I take out of helplessness.”

When I receive blows, and as a result begin to see even slightly that if I move into another state, perhaps even acquire another nature, I will be able to escape these blows, then it is precisely this that compels me to make a certain choice. But is this called free choice?

That is, the desire to receive seemingly “chooses”: it would rather die than continue to feel the blows, to the point that they are worse than death. Better not to feel myself at all, as if I do not exist, just not to feel this suffering.

A feeling of such despair is created within us that it becomes easier not to feel anything than to endure the blows. Can this be called choosing connection with the Creator, with spirituality, with eternity? Who says that this is free choice, that there is freedom of action without any coercion?

On the contrary, it is said: “You have not a blade of grass below that does not have an angel that strikes and tells it, ‘Grow!’” or “He is forced until he says: ‘I want.’” There are many such expressions describing states where only through blows and suffering does the desire to receive agree to renounce itself, to annul itself. In this, there is no free choice.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/26, Rabash, “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work? ”

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Question: The national anthem of Israel, called “The Hope” (Hatikva), contains the following lines: “Our hope is not yet lost, the hope that has lived for two thousand years: to be a free people in our land.” What does it mean to be a free people?

Answer: Genuine independence does not mean having the possibility to do whatever I want without considering anyone. We exist within the framework of nature in which two forces operate. The general force of nature is positive and giving; it created the entire world and it created the second force in opposition to itself: the negative, egoistic force.

It is precisely between these two forces that the created being can exist and feel itself as independent. The positive and negative forces rule over us, and therefore are considered the upper forces of nature. A person who is between them possesses freedom of choice as to which force to join.

This is called the middle line, when I know the positive and the negative forces, and freely choose which of them to regard as good and evil and which force will rule.

At the very moment I establish balance between these two forces, as if on the pans of a scale, I can be considered independent. For now neither the good nor the evil force, neither plus nor minus, is acting on me, and I myself determine the middle line.

Freedom is the dream of all nations, of all humanity, of all creation. It is only for the sake of striving for freedom that all electrons move, trees grow, flowers bloom, and beasts roam the forest in constant search.

People, animals, plants, and even stones all seek to attain such a balance that nothing will press upon them. Only then can one feel oneself living freely.

Of all the created beings—inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human—only the people of Israel have the key to this freedom and balance, that is, to independence. This is the key to that point toward which all parts of creation are directed.

This key is found in Kabbalah, in the inner part of the Torah. The people of Israel are capable of taking this key and, with its help, finding the equilibrium desired by all, the zero mark on the scale, in order to feel themselves independent and to show this path to all humanity.

Then the people of Israel will reach their proper realization. For this the state of Israel was created, and this is exactly what all the nations of the world are waiting for from us. And if we do not bring them this feeling of independence and freedom, this feeling of balance, then they feel their sharp dependence on us, and therefore hate the Jews and accuse us of hiding the possibility of a happy life from them .

Therefore the independence of the people of Israel is the basis of objective, true, and complete independence. And all other forms of independence that exist among the nations and among all other parts of nature depend on the people of Israel. We must understand to what extent the realization of our true freedom lies in our hands and obligates us to attain it for the sake of everyone.
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From KabTV’s conversation “New Life 551 – What Is True Independence?,” 4/12/15

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The world has dried out. There is no literature or art as they once were. All that was left in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. There is nothing like this today.

Question: Why? Do we not want to enjoy life?

Answer: A person is becoming mechanical.

Question: Why is the upper force doing such things to us? What is the purpose?

Answer: I will speak on behalf of the upper force. “First, it is so that you would realize the negativity and insignificance of your existence and would want to change it.”

Question: May I speak to the upper force on behalf of humanity?

Answer: Go ahead.

Comment: But you, the upper force, have created us like this. You did it!

My Response: “This is correct. I created you. I created you in such a way that you would choose the correct way of life.”

Question: Wasn’t it possible to place us in the correct way of life right away?

Answer: “Absolutely not!”

Question: Why?

Answer: “Because you would be an automaton. But now, you have a choice between this and that. And I want you to exist precisely within this choice and gradually, gradually, gradually choose the optimal existence for yourself in which you would be similar to Me.”

Comment: Meaning, the upper force has…

My Response: There is a program, there is a goal! Everything is prepared, of course.

Question: He is so egoistic: “So you would become similar to Me”?

Answer: Perhaps you can say it this way. However, to become similar to the Creator means to become absolutely kind, absolutely loving toward everyone, and so forth. Here, on the contrary, a person should grow anti-egoistic properties.

Question: Does it mean that You, the upper force, want precisely this from us? Is this the only and the most important thing?

Answer: The only thing! We absolutely do not agree with this.

Comment: Certainly, I do not agree with suffering.

My Response: Yes, but, I see that if I think in a sensible way, then I will probably have no choice but to agree with You.

Question: Are you speaking to the upper force on behalf of humanity?

Answer: Yes

Question: So, should we agree?

Answer: Ultimately, yes. If we create such a society and connections between us where we will support this idea, it will be very easy for us, and we will reach this state pretty fast.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/12/26

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The light is called Shochen, and the Kli where the light is clothed is called Shechina (Rabash, “What Is, ‘When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,” in the Work?’).

Creation consists of two parts: the Creator and the creature. The Shechina is the revelation of the Creator, the presence of the Creator within the creature. But if His presence disappears from our perception, there can be two reasons for this: either the Creator conceals Himself, that is, expels the Shechina from the creature and does not reveal Himself to it, or the creature itself causes this, whether by its own will or not.

This happens because the light is higher and governing, while the vessel desires to enjoy the light and feel it as fulfillment. Thus, the vessel is dependent on the light. In order for it not to depend on the light, and to be fulfilled by its own good will, on equal terms with the light rather than in subordination to it, it is necessary to remove the greatness of the light, to remove the Creator’s presence, and thereby give the vessel the possibility of free choice.

But for this, it must be given the means for choice. By these means, we refer to the vessel’s ability to distinguish one thing from another according to a certain criterion.

The Creator lowers the Shechina into the vessel down to the level of dust; the shattering of the vessels occurs and sparks of bestowal are embedded into the vessels. Then the Shechina departs and shows itself as corrupted and shattered, that is, the Creator shows the vessel that He abides in an unfulfilled desire (a lack) and that He requires the emergence of the creature’s attitude toward Him.

All these various relationships between the Creator and the creature must ultimately lead to a state where the creature acquires all the necessary conditions for free choice, so that later, upon returning to infinity, it will recreate the state of infinity by its own strength.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,’ in the Work?”

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