Question: How can a person discover that he desires the force of bestowal if he was born with the desire to receive, and sees only that around him?

Where is an example of a permanent desire to bestow so that humanity could notice and appreciate it?

Answer: Of course we see that the whole world is in egoism, in the desire to receive rather than to bestow. But alongside this, we also see how egoism is constantly progressing in the world, and with it, so do pain, sorrow, and death.

In other words, egoistic desires manifest themselves as a source of all sorts of problems. Therefore people may not see a way out of them, but they understand that egoism alone is their enemy. Gradually, humanity is coming to realize that there is nothing to replace egoism, and therefore it sees no way out.

However, at the very least, it understands that our nature itself leads us to such unpleasant states.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/24, Writings of Rabash “The Need for an Act from Below”

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Question: What is happening in the world now, wars, earthquakes, natural disasters, are these the plagues that our collective egoism must experience before the common exit from Egypt?

Answer: Yes and no. Imagine that, to put it mildly, these troubles that we have received over all the past centuries are necessary to correct our egoism.

Therefore, the Creator delayed the tribe of Israelites and did not allow them to immediately approach complete correction; this is because they did not yet have a complete Kli, i.e. regret and atonement.

Now it seems that we already have this. I think that if today our people rose up as in those days, we would certainly reach the place of the holy Temple and quickly erect it.

Question: What prevents us from rising? Lack of unity?

Answer: We lack everything. Absolutely everything. The most important thing is the connections between us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/24, Writings of Rabash “When Pharaoh Sent the People”

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Question: In northern Kazakhstan, a natural disaster has left 75,000 families homeless. The peculiarity of this flood is that people are coming together and helping each other. But livestock and domestic animals are perishing and the water continues to rise. Is this akin to the Egyptian plague?

Answer: No, this is not akin to an Egyptian plague. But it is certainly a very distressing, unfortunate situation. Water can wash away absolutely everything.

Therefore, all people should pray that in the areas currently experiencing flooding, we can see the mercy of the Creator rather than such punishment.

Everything the Creator does is for our good. Even what we perceive as significant problems with nature, wars, and natural disasters, ultimately all will lead to the common good.

So there is no need to cry, no need to reproach the Creator, only ask Him to change His harsh attitude toward us to be merciful.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/24, Writings of Rabash “Concerning the Beginning of the Month”

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Question: What does it mean that the power of faith above reason cancels out all the forces that exist in the world?

Answer: Faith above reason is a special force that raises a person above his reason. It can only be increased with the help of actions above reason.

If a person is in such faith, then it indeed cancels out all forces that exist in the world that could influence him and turn differently.

By rising with the help of this force, we reach the level of Bina.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/24, Writings of Rabash “He who Hardens His Heart”

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We are the source of joy and sorrow mine.
We are a repository of filth, and pure spring.
People, as in a mirror, the world is multifaceted.
He is insignificant and he is infinitely great! (Omar Khayyam)

Question: We are a repository of what? Are we a repository of filth or purity? Or both?

Answer: Both.

Question: What do you mean by that? What is it within us?

Answer: We were cast away from the Creator to the opposite side. We do not feel the Creator; we do not feel close to Him; we do not feel the need to get closer to Him. We simply absorbed within ourselves the very worst, the most egoistic things.

Question: Is this what you call filth?

Answer: Filth is the fact that we deny the world with the Creator altogether. What is important to us is not a connection with the Creator, but rather, a weapon in our hands.

Question: But you said there is also purity within us. What is that?

Answer: It is because we cannot understand our state. This is what saves us. Even the fact that we are so far from the Creator and do not accept His decisions, is all still forgiven and strengthens us because we truly are a lost generation.

Question: So where is the purity in all this?

Answer: The purity lies in the fact that nothing sticks to us. We do not become soiled by being in filth because we also do not feel it, it is also not with us.

Question: Do we not feel that we are filthy, that we are so bad? Do you call this a drop of purity within us?

Answer: Yes, this is purity. It will help us, and it does help.

Question: But should we feel that we are in filth in order to rise out of it, to want to cleanse ourselves?

Answer: We do not need that to such an extent. The extent we are in it is enough. We need to work on this. It will manifest in us to the extent it should manifest.

Comment: You have become more benevolent toward people.

My Response: I just belong to the generation I live in, and I see how they react to everything, to the extent that the Creator allows them to feel who they are and what they are.

Question: Is this enough? Should we not strive for more?

Answer: I believe it is. Everything else will come.

Comment: To be honest, I am surprised!

My Response: But how to do it?

Comment: To somehow make it so that a person feels that, as you said, he has a weapon in his hands, not the Creator and that this is bad, that he should somehow strive for connection with Him.

My Response: But that has no positive solution. We must necessarily understand that we are alone with the Creator.

Question: There is us and the Creator. Is this what we should come to?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will this be enough?

Answer: Yes! This will be enough.

Question: What conclusion will come from this? Let’s say, God willing, we come to the state of “there is us and the Creator.” What next? You say, “This is high.” What is it? “There is us and the Creator,” we have reached that. What are my actions next? Is it always to be in accordance with Him?

Answer: Yes. Next, my actions are only with the Creator!

Question: Do I then feel the filth, do I already understand how to get out of it, and so on?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So do we just need this little first contact?

Answer: Yes, do not rely on anyone else, only on the Creator.

Question: I see. Does it come from the Creator or still from my efforts?

Answer: It comes from the Creator, but to the extent of our efforts.

Question: So do we still have to make efforts?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Further, from this quatrain of Omar Khayyam: What does it mean that a person is multifaceted?

Answer: Yes, it means that we are always trying to turn and look for something better, something closer, and so on.

Question: Are these our many faces?

Answer: Yes, but we do not find ourselves anywhere. Yet, we need only one direction and one solution.

Question: It is also said here that we are insignificant and at the same time great. In what way are we great after all?

Answer: We are great in that the Creator is with us and insignificant in that we do not pay attention to Him.

Question: So do we have both in us?

Answer: Yes, something needs to be done!

Question: Do we need to somehow come to one of these two?

Answer: To what?! How do you propose to bring that about?! It does not depend on just one person. It depends on a collective decision, on the spirit within the people!

Comment: But you have been involved in this your whole life.

My Response: So what? I see that in the end nothing really works.

Gradually, of course, we will still come to it, we cannot escape from that. But it is impossible, absolutely impossible, to reach a state where the entire nation rises up as one and says, “This is mine, this is ours, and we are together.”

Question: I see. But still, the whole nation as one I understand, but a group leads the people, they stand up and speak. And the people sort of join them willingly. It is still like that, right?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: You once told a story about going to some store to make a duplicate key a long time ago. And you had the book Tree of Life with you. You put it on the counter, and the religious shopkeeper suddenly said, “Take it away, take it away. Get rid of it!” No one even wanted to come close to Kabbalah, even to the great Ari.

Today it is simple, just go on the Internet. And we have accomplished so much more. You say you are feeling like giving up. Why? It happened! Look how many students we have now!

My Response: But on the other hand, it does not resonate with the people, with the masses. Not yet.

Nevertheless, we have broken through some barrier between Kabbalah and the people, which collapsed and opened Kabbalah to everyone.

Question: Do you think people are still driven by suffering to move forward?

Answer: I do not know. It depends on the path we have to take. Constantly proving to the people that salvation lies in unity between us and the Creator is our task.

Question: Is it our constant, specific task?

Answer: Yes. There cannot be any other way here!

Question: Do you reduce everything to one formula: unity among us is unity with the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this the main formula?

Answer: It encompasses everything.

Question: Is all the wisdom directed toward this, everything toward this?

Answer: Yes.

Question: As Baal HaSulam said, the unity of humanity and connection with the Creator. Is this what it means for the Creator to be revealed to the entire world?

Answer: Yes. Exactly!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/26/24

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Question: What initially guided you in life?

Answer: Like everyone else, I was driven by the desire to understand the meaning of life, its mysteries, because I saw that everything must have some form of control. Not a single cell, organism, or the entire universe, if it is an interconnected system, can exist without being controlled, according to what our sciences say.

But they only reveal a small part of the nature surrounding us. We scrape off some specks of dust and call it “chewing on the granite of science.” Indeed, before us stands an enormous granite wall, and where we can chip off a piece, that is our science, and everything else is the unknown.

That is how I clearly felt standing before this “granite wall,” which I could scrape slightly to collect a bit just like everyone else.

Newton had a different analogy. He is quoted as likening himself to a “schoolboy collecting pebbles on the shore of the sea called knowledge.” And he is only collecting pebbles, not even in the sea yet, but on the shore.

When I felt this, science stopped attracting me. It seemed so petty and insignificant to me that it was not worth dedicating my entire life, being devoted to it, for the sake of some small, isolated pieces of knowledge. However, that does not mean I disregarded it. Not at all! I still love it, read about it, and stay interested, all these years.

Nevertheless, I was strongly repelled by it. What is the point of scratching the “granite” like everyone else to pick up a couple of crumbs, understand a bit more, and know a bit more? If I were to engage only in my biocybernetics, I would not even understand or recognize it.

And what about biology, zoology, botany, geology, mineralogy, earth science, and cosmology? A vast array of other sciences in principle speak about all of nature, about all this “granite.” But each one scrapes and collects different “specks” from different places, and from this arises geology, zoology, mineralogy, and so on. What would I gain from engaging in them?

When I looked at this, I felt immense emptiness within me: There is nothing worth living for. I was left with only one question: How can I find the meaning of life? What interested me was not the trivial knowledge of partial, scattered, disconnected sciences, each of which scraped together something for itself, but the overall understanding—the design of the Universe.

This is what is called the “meaning of life” because human life, as we observe, is the highest form of existence. What is the purpose for nature, the upper force, (call it the Creator, emanator, or maker, it does not matter) to create all this?

This greatly puzzled me. My whole life until I found Kabbalah turned into some sort of emptiness. I worked, served, opened my own fairly successful business, but all of that was somehow in the background. Inside I felt absolute emptiness and the insignificance of existence. That’s how it was.

I think today millions, maybe even billions, of people in the world feel the same way. This feeling precedes a person’s search and helps them feel the system in which we exist. Basically I used to ask myself: “What is this? Why is all this around me, including myself?”

When you look at the starry sky and see this infinity, you think and wonder how to understand and comprehend all this?

For what? Why? What? There is such a question that comes from the Universe itself when you look at it on a dark night. If this question truly torments a person, they come to study Kabbalah.

For those people who simply feel a crisis, somehow, they need to understand the system they are in. After all, if they do not balance themselves with this system of nature, do not bring themselves to homeostasis, to harmony, then nature will crush them with its catastrophes: tsunamis, earthquakes, shifts in tectonic plates, and even nuclear war.

Then there are only two options: either they start seeking the meaning of life out of animal fear, or they die out like dinosaurs who disappeared because they did not fit the changing system of nature.

But dinosaurs did not have another solution. We have a very simple solution: either we change, or we perish. A small part will remain that will still come to balance with nature. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, it may happen like this.

Moreover, only those who can participate in integration will remain. They will create balance. All the others will be in this system but not in the earthly form because their current animalistic egoism will not allow them to participate in integration.

However, there is an easy way when people, through education and explanatory work, each one and all together helping each other, come to integration between themselves, become similar to nature, enter into balance and harmony with it, and feel all its perfection.

I really hope for such an outcome.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Meaning of Laitman’s Life “1/4/12

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Question: According to Kabbalah, there are two ways of human development: the path of Torah and the path of suffering. I think everyone understands what the path of suffering is; all of us, the created beings, feel it ourselves. What is the path of the Torah?

Answer: Since humanity has a purpose to reach complete adhesion with the Creator as a result of its spiritual development, then the movement toward this is called the path of Torah. After all, the ascent to the Creator, compliance with His conditions, and similarity to Him are based on knowing exactly what He wants and what we must achieve.

In parallel, there is another path—the path of suffering, which develops us and pushes us forward. These can be man-made or natural problems, wars in general, and everything that humanity suffers from and what it would like to avoid.

Therefore, the Torah explains that if we want to live in peace without being involved in wars, then we need to consider what the Creator requires of us. If we do not do this, then He will urge us to correct with blows and suffering.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/14/24

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Question: Different types of suffering exist from large-scale disasters to various diseases. Can we say that there are certain types of suffering for each desire?

Answer: No, that is not true. But you can generally say so in terms of quantity, quality, and type. We do not do this because we must act to eradicate all suffering.

Question: What do earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have to do with relationships between people?

Answer: In human understanding, natural disasters have nothing to do with our relationships. But let’s reduce everything to a common denominator—nature. We can understand, guess, and even foresee that such and such actions may be the consequences of such and such relationships between people.

The destructive relationship between us is the cause of all suffering even on the inanimate level.

Explosions on the Sun, or explosions of stars, storms at sea, typhoons in the ocean, etc.—all this has to do with human actions.

Question: On what basis do you claim this?

Answer: Based on the fact that all nature is global, interconnected, integral, and there is nothing that does not influence everything.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual states” 3/14/24

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Question: You say that if we treat each other well, we will follow a good path of development; and if not, then we will follow the path of suffering. But you still have to believe in it.

We are not taught this at school or anywhere else. And even if I believed it, then another problem arises: it is necessary to somehow realize the connection with others who perhaps do not even think about it.

Where did this knowledge come from? Who said that this is how you should behave?

Answer: All this was written thousands of years ago, much earlier than all other knowledge appeared.

Comment: And for thousands of years we have been fighting and destroying each other, and there is no connection with love, unity, and proper relationships.

My Response: That is right. But still, you see that there are people who stand up and tell everyone else: “Let’s live peacefully. Let’s work against our selfishness, which is the cause of all our suffering. Let’s be kinder to each other.” But it passes by our ears and does not penetrate into our hearts that only want to hear slander.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual states” 3/14/24

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Comment: As far as I understand, the path of suffering is a natural process of human development.

My Response: It is we who consider this path natural because this is how we behave. But why should it be natural?

Question: Could our reality be different?

Answer: Of course. Why do we not do what is acceptable in the eyes of the Creator and our feelings?

Comment: But each of the eight billion people understands the “eyes of the Creator” in their way.

My Response: We must understand and accept that the Creator’s desire is bestowal, a connection between us, and good actions. We must learn to appreciate the good we receive from others and do the same in return.

If we do this, we will begin moving our development along the right path. And if not, then our development will happen under the lash, with blows.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual states” 3/14/24

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