Question: To what extent and how will I become free from the chains of popular views and the impact of the external society if I study the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: I can tell you from my experience that you totally cease to feel the impact of the external society and that you perceive it as childish babble because you try to implement the upper spiritual principles of nature.

Remark: People will say that it is arrogance.

My Comment: Let them say so; it makes no difference. When I reveal the upper goal of nature and it illuminates for me, different popular views have no effect on me and I am simply above them. If you know that this is the truth, you regret that others are unaware of this truth, but you do not descend to the beastly level of existence because of it.

Question: Aren’t you sorry that a person does not understand the truth?

Answer: I would like to bring the truth to the whole world so that people will see and hear what the wisdom of Kabbalah says and so that everyone will open their eyes, and then once they see the truth about the whole system and how nature is managed, they will decide what to do independently. I would like that very much, but unfortunately an individual can attain it only by his own efforts.

Question: But as a result of his efforts, does a person still come to a free, conscious decision? I mean, doesn’t he simply force himself to choose the path to the truth but seemingly feels it?

Answer: Yes, no one can do it for him. As we say, “Freedom is a conscious necessity.”
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/17/19

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Question: Are ideas about good and evil, truth and honesty, love and hate formed by society?

Answer: These views are formed by the environment. But when they get into the soil, it all depends on what kind of soil the grains of the environment fell into.

A lot of other data is taken into account here. These are the properties of parents and even grandfathers, the properties of the family and modern society, as well as all of their interactions.

If I was born from certain parents and grew up in a certain environment, then it is necessary to take into account what kind of society I am raised in, Western, Eastern, religious, etc.; that is, there are a huge number of factors of personality formation that I receive without even realizing it. But all this affects me.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/30/20

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Question: We are influenced by a lot of data. First, the genes and properties inherent in us by nature do not change. Second, we are influenced by society.

Third, there is an external influence, such as a pandemic, an economic crisis, or some kind of natural disaster, which can affect the development of a particular inclination.

For example, if a person has a tendency to stinginess, but he lives in a country with a high standard of living, then this property is not manifested in him. But in an extreme situation, it can manifest itself. Do all these factors simultaneously affect a person?

Answer: No, that cannot be said. They are always in action, but each one to a different degree. It depends not only on the person, but on the society and the historical period in which he lives. This is a global, I would even say universal, program. Therefore, it is very difficult for us to say something definite here: what depends on what and when.

Question: Which of these factors has the greatest impact on human development?

Answer: It’s hard to say. It depends on the time and place.

Question: And yet, what influences more: genes or society?

Answer: Genes. Getting out of their power is very difficult. The fact is that a very diverse society can influence us in different ways. At the same time, there are so-called concrete forces of chance. It is very difficult to calculate and describe.

Baal HaSulam in his article “The Freedom” also describes this in rather general terms, because there are many factors that affect us.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/30/20

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: It is worthwhile taking some time to grasp such an important thing, meaning how we exist in the world as beings with a “self,” where each of us regards himself as a unique entity, acting on its own, independent of external, alien, and unknown forces, and in what this being—the self—becomes revealed to us.

We need to make great efforts and spend a lot of time in order to understand where we live, what affects us, and what we can do with ourselves. First, we need to deal with this problem, and then how to solve it.

It is true that there is a general connection among all the elements of reality before us, which abides by the law of causality, by way of cause and effect, moving forward. And as the whole, so is each item for itself, meaning that each and every creature in the world from the four types—still, vegetative, animate, and speaking—abides by the law of causality by way of cause and effect.

We are in a system that develops according to the law of cause and effect, a clear and accurate law, just like all of nature’s laws. We need to learn and observe them, and try to see how to implement them in practice in order to resemble them.

By learning and exploring the laws of nature, we begin to understand that we are completely opposite from them. By revealing the laws of nature, we see that there is absolute interdependence of all the different components in the system. The levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature are absolutely tied to each other. Although it may seem to us that there is a struggle between them and mutual destruction, there is actually harmonious interdependence between them.

This is what we should speak about, discuss, and understand, but this is the situation. There is a precise clear integral connection between all the parts of nature. Only the human goes beyond this framework with his egoism.

The reason we are an exception to the integral nature is our ego. This is the reason we do whatever we like. We want to manage our lives by ourselves. How should we dim our “self” so that on our human level, we will also exist absolutely integrally like all of nature? This is the question that we need to ask and to scrutinize.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/17/19

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Question: What is fate and what is karma? Is there a difference between these concepts?

Answer: I don’t know what fate or karma is in other people’s minds. I can only say that a person has his own path, and while walking through it, he can alter it. I don’t know whether to call it “karma” or “fate” but everyone has it.

This path begins with the fact that everything is already embedded in a person. Just as a drop of seed contains all the information about the future person, there is a spiritual drop of seed that determines the development of an earthly, spiritual person in us and in this way we advance.

Can this be changed? It can be. The science of Kabbalah is a method of changing one’s fate (karma, if you like).

Comment: The fact is that many people have a fatalistic belief that you were born with a certain fate that you have to accept and go with its flow.

My Response: No, that is not true. We can change our fate and ourselves. The science of Kabbalah gives a person the opportunity to attract the upper forces that can change him.

A question arises: Is the scenario by which this can be done also written in our destiny initially? In general, yes. The only difference is whether I follow it in a good or a bad way.

I can turn myself into a person that is initially embedded in me (in the form of an information record) rather quickly, easily, and pleasantly, or I can do it in some other way. Meaning, I can accelerate my development. But, in any case, I will have to achieve the final goal that has been encoded in me.
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From KabTV’s “Together about Important Things” 7/14/20

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Question: The basis of man is DNA, that is, our genes that determine everything: our physiology, all kinds of inclinations, and even, as they say now, political views. Do you agree with that?

Answer: What is the difference if genes or some other particles, waves, or elements determine our inclinations? Of course, there are properties set for us that guide us, and thanks to which we distinguish the characters of people, their different approaches to life, etc. Call it genes.

Remark: Our genes can manifest themselves as qualities that can or cannot be changed. For example, if a child is born in a family of egoists where the cult of money reigns, then, in principle, he has no chance of growing up as an altruist.

My Comment: No, I do not agree with that. We see in nature opposing properties. Our teacher Baal HaSulam writes that inversion is very often observed. We know that in Russia revolutionaries were born in noble families. This is the eternal problem of fathers and children when the children go against their parents. Thus, it is the properties of the parents that can be inverted in children.

Question: Do you think that character traits can be changed? Suppose a person has a penchant for stinginess.

Answer: There is no need to change anything. I believe that this cannot be done because the data that are in us are the so-called first nine Sefirot in every person, in every Partzuf, in every soul. We just need to learn how to use them correctly.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/30/20

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Question: Does a Kabbalist believe that there is an attribute of freedom in each person? Or is it not an innate attribute in every individual?

Answer: It is an innate attribute in every individual, but it is very limited and is not necessarily expressed in this life.

Question: I want to complete my whole correction and reveal the Creator in this life. Where is my freewill? What exactly depends on me?

Answer: Get rid of everything that is unnecessary, choose what is most important and necessary for the revelation of the Creator, and that’s all. This is how you will solve your problem. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah does.

Question: Do I need to give up my needs in order to attain freedom?

Answer: We cannot give up any of our needs. We can simply reassess our values internally so that we can engage only in what is necessary for the attainment of the most important goal in life.

Question: In what way is the implementation of my freewill expressed every second?

Answer: You should gradually reach the point where you determine what your most important goal is and move toward it correctly.

Question: Was Baal HaSulam a free man?

Answer: Every Kabbalist is a free person because he ascends above his egoism.

Question: Can we say that freewill comes down to the creation of the correct external and internal boundaries of one’s conduct and living up to them, and the more you adhere to them the freer you are?

Answer: Freewill is expressed by one’s total devotion to the right environment.

Question: When does a person stop living from one day to the next and thinking only about himself?

Answer: Whenever he wants to. There is no other answer.

Question: Are there limits to freedom?

Answer: There are no limits to freedom. It is all in the desire to bestow, and so it is infinite.

Question: What can you do if you feel great doubts before making a choice, how do you choose?

Answer: Always choose connection and kindness with your group and not any other way.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 11/17/19

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Question: You have repeatedly said that it is possible to conduct a statistical experiment: to take 1,000 people who live in this world egotistically—I care for myself and you care for yourself, they suppress or dominate others—and take 1,000 other people who are beginning to move toward each other, to connection with each other, and are beginning to clarify what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, and how not to do to others what you do not want done to you.

And if you thoroughly check the statistics regarding the 1,000 people in both groups, you will find that those who start a positive process of love for their neighbors will be much healthier and not prone to depression.

Is there any direct correlation here?

Answer: It is not as simple and primitive as it seems. Otherwise, nature would create us like that and that is it! We would be just clockwork toys that would nod to each other like bobbleheads?

Comment: I would be glad to see such a logical connection: I behave well, and am healthier.

My Response: No. Then everyone would be egoistic like that.

The fact is that in order to create a person similar to the Creator, he must be put against the Creator. It means creating the exact opposite. And then, a person should make himself similar to the Creator. By himself! By his own efforts. The problem is how to do it.

It will not work otherwise, because if you make a man just like the Creator, it would be a toy. It would be just a copy and that is it. He would be made and thrown away. There would be nothing in him from himself.

And if a man is opposite to the Creator and at the same time begins to create his similarity to the Creator by himself, then this will be Man. That is, having been created opposite, he will independently begin to fight within himself to become similar to the Creator. And this contrast will remain in him as his clear egoistic foundation.

Question: What is the Creator?

Answer: He is the anti-egoistic property of bestowal, the property of love. And a man will ask the Creator for it.

Question: That is, he will want to become loving and bestowing, like the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How can this desire emerge in him, in such a receiver?

Answer: The Creator arouses this desire in him. That is, He makes a man from egoism, a property opposite to Himself, and apart from that, he puts a small drop of His property in a person. Thus, a person consists of two parts, two sources. And here such opposite states are fighting in him, and he is simply torn apart from within—what, where, and how. And everyone is like that in his own way.

And if he reaches such a state when he really wants to make himself similar to the Creator, then he must ask the Creator for this. Can you imagine such work?!

To find within yourself the strength and desire to become similar to the Creator, that is, the opposite of yourself, and ask the Creator to make you the opposite of yourself. Then the Creator gradually, sequentially, step-by-step carries out such corrections on you. And a person gradually becomes more and more similar to the Creator.

This process is not easy, it breaks a person and twists him around with a grinding sound: kh, kh, kh! And then a man becomes a Man, Adam, similar to the Creator.

Question: You say that the time has come when a person begins to move toward this breakage by himself. He begins to feel the point of the Creator in himself more and more. What, besides suffering, makes him pay attention to it now?

Answer: When this point begins to speak up in a person, then there are no questions. It is just right, this is the truth, it is my innermost point, and it is the foundation of the world. This is the point of the Creator. This property is from a completely different level.

Comment: The Creator Himself creates a person to receive and for this world. He Himself inserts a point into a person that is similar to the Creator. He Himself turns it on and leads a person to Him. All this is done by the Creator.

My Response: Of course.

Question: The same question constantly arises here: “Don’t I have any freewill?”

Answer: You do. You are present for all this and still want this. You are a witness, an accomplice, a partner in this process.

Question: What is my main task here?

Answer: To want the Creator to do this to you: “Break! Break me.”

Question: Will a simple person understand you?

Answer: He will. He will understand that it is impossible to live in this state anymore. He will understand that he cannot bear himself.
[267441]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 5/11/20

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Question: How do I reach the realization that I depend on my desires, and how do I later understand that these are not my desires?

Answer: First you discover that they are your desires, and that you are in them and they manage you. When you try to exit them and ascend above them, you begin to understand that they actually control you and that they are not your desires, but that it is your evil landlord, your ego, and thus you gradually exit them.

Question: Can a Kabbalist, unlike ordinary people, impact and choose which desire, which thoughts, will be revealed in him the next moment?

Answer: No, but he can choose which thought or which desire he will obey, and not just obey, but use and fulfill according to his discretion.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 11/17/19

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Nature Is a Strict Teacher

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that the blows of nature occur precisely and in accordance with the level of development of society. That is, as society develops, nature corrects us.

How does the current correction differ from those viruses and cataclysms of 100 years ago?

Answer: In accordance with our development, we get more and more blows from nature. It seems to us that nature is punishing us. But this is not true. It teaches us, shows us at what level and to what extent we are mistaken. We deviate from the striving to integrate between each other and uniting with the global picture of nature.

It turns out that we are, in general, unteachable, clueless participants of nature. We don’t understand what we should do. Or we understand, but we don’t want to hear it.

As a result, nature always points a finger at us, pokes our nose at our mistakes, and we don’t seem to see them. It turns out that the most successful among us seem to be those who notice these mistakes less, who do not care about the inconsistencies of a person with the world around them. They do everything in their own way, and at the same time, in the understanding of others, they are considered the most successful.

Comment: But nature still pushes us toward partnership, cooperation, solidarity. We see that when some cataclysms occur, people begin to treat one another more sensitively and gently.

My Response: Not because they realize something, but out of necessity. And as soon as the threatening state passes, they immediately return to the stand against each other.

Question: How can nature lead us to solidarity, to sensitive relationships, if blows don’t help? What’s the point of them?

Answer: Nature leads us nevertheless to see how integral it is and to feel, by analogy with itself, how integral we should be.

Question: So, nature still requires us as human beings, as the crown of creation, to recognize this on our own and to want to connect with each other sensitively?

Answer: Yes. In order to unite at the highest level, we create a system in which we feel all the internal, driving force of nature and become the same as it: eternal, perfect, and attain everything.

Question: So there should be some kind of reset of values in society?

Answer: Of course. In each and every one.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/16/20

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