The month of Elul is the time for self-examination. Did you fulfill the instruction that was given at Mount Sinai and, even before that, at the time of Abraham, which is to attain connection?

The Upper Light will be dressed on us and will reveal the upper world to us to the extent that we begin to unite, and we will feel that we are living in a corrected, round, upper and harmonious world.

Therefore, a sin or transgression is what stands in our way of achieving unity among us. Anyone can examine himself from this perspective and find out how full of sins, of egoistic attributes and desires, he is, which makes him resent others.

The month of Elul is called the time of repentance, which means the return of the created being to the Creator, to resembling and being equal in form to His attributes, to love and bestowal.

Discovering our sins and transgressions is already a correction. All we must do is to acknowledge our corruption. People try to conceal their evil and hide it, while the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us to bring out your evil because, you are a complete egoist. The moment these sins and transgressions are discovered, they immediately will be corrected.

We are divided and immersed in our ego, but we must connect like the parts of Adam’s one soul. Our role is to find the way to connection and unity. We look for the way, but each time, we discover that we really don’t want to unite, and we don’t yearn for connection. This is actually our only sin, and simply discovering that is the entire correction.

A prayer is judging yourself, the desire to discover and bring out all your sins and transgressions so that they can be corrected and will disappear. Regret and repentance is not tears but the recognition of the need to unite. We see that the world is beginning to realize that without connection and unity we simply will not be able to survive.

Every time we discover different sins against connection and unity inside us, they will be corrected thanks to our revelation. We cannot correct anything by ourselves and it is our duty only to discover the evil within us and to point out the egoistic attribute of our character. This is called a prayer, judging yourself.

Question: Why is it enough to simply discover and highlight our egoistic attributes, which already is the correction?

Answer: When we discover and highlight our evil, we realize to what extent we need correction. The correction itself is done by the Light that Reforms.

When we discover our ego and our sins, we draw the Light of correction. It is written, “’I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice’ …since the Light in it reforms it.”

The Torah is the general Light that is around us, but it operates on us only if we discover the attributes inside us that stand in the way of our connection and unity, which means our sins.

The main thing is to determine the diagnosis because the remedy already exists! The moment we discover the ego inside us that doesn’t allow us to connect, the Light that Reforms, called the Torah, immediately operates on it and corrects this desire.

The correction allows us to connect with others, but to the extent that we connect internally and begin to feel close to one another, the Upper Light can be revealed to us and let us feel the upper world.

Our work in the month of Elul comes down to revealing the evil that doesn’t let us unite with others. During this time, the evil only is revealed, but it is corrected when the new year begins on Rosh HaShana.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/30/15

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Question: Why is it thought that Rosh HaShanah is the beginning of passing judgment on yourself?

Answer: Before Rosh HaShanah there is a period in which the person apparently checks his previous states and expresses regret, repents, cries, and then asks for help from above. That is how he apparently softens his heart, transforming it from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. This is tradition, and the main thing is that the person will begin to understand that he must relate to life in a new way.

Question: Meaning that this is talking about good deeds, those he must begin in the New Year, on Rosh HaShanah?

Answer: Good deeds are corrections of the self, because when he corrects himself, he corrects the world. That is how he builds a system of mutual integration and unity in which the Creator is revealed and for which it is necessary to bring all the substance of the still, vegetative, and animate levels to correction and, in particular, the level of the speaking.
From KabTV’s “Holidays. Rosh HaShana” 8/6/12

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Question: This a special time before Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish new year) when people say Selichot (prayers of forgiveness). What is the meaning of saying Selichot?

Answer: The word “Selichot “already means that we have to ask for forgiveness during this time, for the sins and transgressions we have committed. But what does it mean?

We received only one commandment during the time of the Torah: “Love thy friend as thyself, is the great rule of the Torah.”

If we keep this commandment, we reach the love of the Creator. This is the whole goal of life and of humanity, a goal thanks to which we rise above this world until the level of the upper force. A person has to attain all that in his lifetime in this world, in our ordinary reality.

A person corrects himself consistently until he begins to love others like himself, and from the love of the created beings he reaches the love of the Creator. This love is called bestowal, giving. If I ascend above my ego and connect to others, I can do everything for their sake.

On the other hand, if I remain in my egoistic nature, it will never allow me to perform any altruistic acts, no matter how hard I try. It is impossible to imagine that I will suddenly love someone else and will be ready to give him everything that I have as if he were my own baby.

Our ego hinders and confuses us, diverting us from the direction of bestowal, leading us in the opposite direction, opposite to unity, connection, and bestowal unto others. At the same time, the world is forced to become increasingly more integral and so we witness more and more problems as our life becomes more and more difficult.

Nature on the whole: the world of still, vegetative, and animate nature are drawn to integral unity. Nature pushes us towards unity, but we don’t want it. We are like children locked up in a room constantly fighting with each other.

This is how the world advances towards the recognition of evil, of its egoistic nature, that doesn’t let us reach the goal of creation the Torah tells us about: unity, connection, and love.

The Torah tells us about the major law of the existence of the world since the general nature that surrounds our world is based on love and bestowal. It is opposite from what happens with us here on this planet in this closed sphere.

When the nation of Israel received the Torah at Mount Sinai, they accepted the condition that they will always focus their forces on attaining love of others. This is the major law of the Torah, and by keeping it we advance together with all of nature towards one goal.

But because our nature is opposite from this love, we need help from Above. We need the Light that Reforms. If we ask for help, we invoke the force that corrects our nature and helps us build the right connections between us.

A person was initially created with an egoistic nature and doesn’t accept unity and love of others, but at the same time, there is a means of correcting this ego, which is the Torah, the Light that Reforms.

In other words, there is a special force called the upper world, which influences a person and changes his nature into the opposite nature, which means that it reforms him and changes his nature from evil to goodness by correcting his evil inclination into a good inclination.

So the goal is clear: We have to reach the fulfillment of the law of love thy friend as thyself and by that reach the love of the Creator. This is the general trend of all of nature. But we will not be able to be incorporated in the right direction and advance in the right velocity towards correction if we don’t demand the Light that Reforms and don’t use the Creator the way we should. So we have to examine ourselves in order to understand what is happening to us.

Then we discover that we aren’t advancing along the right path. Every step along the path of correction is called a Mitzvah (commandment), which means the fulfillment of the instruction “love thy friend as thyself.” This whole path towards love is divided into 613 steps, 613 actions called Mitzvot.

This means that we have to keep correcting ourselves consistently, until we reach the love of others. Correcting ourselves by 612 actions we reach the 613^th Mitzvah, which is love.

Therefore, before Rosh HaShanah we say Selichot. During this time we examine ourselves: “What did we do during the last year; how close have we gotten to love of others, to the connection of the whole nation of Israel?”

Here we see that we haven’t done anything, and even if we have, it was very little. This is what we ask forgiveness for! We must examine our actions in order to see to what extent they are opposite from the right direction and accordingly acknowledge our mistakes and transgressions in the states we have undergone. This is where the forgiveness arrives.
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From KabTV’s “Selichot” 8/17/15

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Question: Society in Israel today is very divided and full of hatred. It is split into many communities and factions according to a thousand different factors, and each one hates the others. You say that the holiday of Lag BaOmer is the turning point from hatred to unity between people?

Answer: Love is inseparable from unification. It is impossible to unite without love and it is impossible to love without uniting. Unity is an expression of love.

The counting of days of Omer is the correction from hatred to love. We came out of Egypt, revealed the kind of egoism that dwells in us, and we are beginning to correct it. This correction consists of 49 stages—the 49 days of counting the Omer, during which we fix our relationships with everyone else, starting with the easiest and progressing to more and more complex ones.

The 33^rd day of Omer is the so-called “Lag BaOmer”—it is a milestone, and when we reach it we can be certain that we will correct all of our hatred, regardless of its power. When we reach this day, we receive such strength that allows us to correct everything else.

Hatred is corrected only with the force of the Light. With every day of the Omer comes a new portion of Light, a total of 49 portions, like an infusion. The Light is the force that is hidden in nature. Now we feel only a force of evil, egoism. In the whole word that surrounds us: the inanimate, vegetative, animals, people, and in ourselves we see only the force of receiving, consuming, and self-love.

The fact is that I am an egoist, and therefore I reveal only the egoistic part in every person, animal, and any creature, according to the principle of “one judges according to his own flaws.” The way I am is how I see others.

Thus, we feel that all of nature is a force of evil, egoism, which forces us to think only about ourselves and receive pleasure from the suffering of others. However, there is another force in nature: in addition to a minus, there is also a plus, a positive force. However, this force is hidden and we don’t feel it.

We have to extract this positive force from nature so that it can correct us and balance the evil force in us.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/30/15

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Question: I am a bit confused about the concept of Lag B’Omer. All of the celebrations and the bonfires and potatoes and happy children, but at the same time, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai died, so I don’t understand the connection.

Answer: A person is found in this world until he finishes his task, if he has enough time to finish it. As is written in The Book of Zohar itself, with his friends, Rabbi Shimon reached all 125 levels to the completion of correction of the soul (Gmar Tikkun), and so we are not sorry about his departure from this world. Rather, on the contrary, it makes us happy, for he was a person who revealed to us the entire way to the correction of the soul, and he prepared this way and the Lights which would come and correct us for us. And so we celebrate the day that he finished the work and departed.

If a person doesn’t know what he is living for, he cries when he dies and others die. For the Tzaddikim (righteous), their entire lives are for correcting their soul, so they have no problem in passing from one world to another world. I once gave an example that Rabash told me; I asked him about death, so he said that just as in the evening you take off your shirt and throw it into the wash, people dying is the soul discarding its wrapper, called the body, but the soul remains. The main thing is that the soul dresses in a new body each time, just as you dress in a new shirt each day.

The soul is a force that is found in the same volume in which we exist. Only you don’t feel these dimensions. Do you feel radio and television waves, all kinds of phenomena like these?  Not all phenomena do you perceive with your senses. Only if you have, for example, a radio can you catch the radio waves; you don’t feel them yourself.

It is the same with spiritual phenomena. You have nothing to catch them so you don’t feel them.

The soul is a special kind of energy that exists here. If by studying Kabbalah you become like its properties, you will feel it; you will begin to discover that there is a soul in you. As long as you don’t, you don’t discover it. And if you don’t discover it, it means that it is not in you, for only what you perceive can be given a name or a word and so in the meantime, you don’t have a soul.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 7/12/15

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Question: The Shavuot holiday is approaching, the festival of the giving of the Torah. But the atmosphere in Israeli society is not at all festive.

Our brothers in the south are afraid that soon they won’t have anything to eat, Dimona is bubbling; there are conflicts in Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs, and great corruption covers the country. Every day there are new scandals among the police, in the prosecutors’ office, and in the underworld.

When I think about the holiday of the giving of the Torah, the question occurs to me: “Maybe we don’t need this Torah? If we were to succeed in achieving only one Mitzva (commandment) in life, ‘thou shalt not steal,’ then life would already become much better.” How is this holiday to be perceived in all the Israeli chaos?

Answer: We do not fit this holiday. We don’t have a connection to the Torah. And even though at some time we received the Torah, we have lost it along the way. The Torah is a force that changes and corrects human nature. We are all egoists, as it is said, “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b). The Creator announces that He created only the evil inclination, the ego, and nothing else. And counter to the ego, He gave the Torah. Apparently the Creator is saying to us: “If you want to get rid of slander, theft, robbery, and all the problems, all the evil that you cause each other, this is possible! But don’t think that you can do this by yourselves. Nothing will help you, not a new government, no one and no thing, only the Torah! But what kind of Torah? The Light that Reforms.”

Question: Does it follow that first of all we must want to be released from the evil inclination that devours us? Does the Israeli society have such a desire today?

Answer: We are approaching this state. At the time we left Egypt, we felt that we could no longer tolerate this state called “Egypt,” which was tearing us to pieces, inserting the evil, our ego into us, and we were not prepared to tolerate each other, so we fled from there.

Question: After the Exodus from Egypt we received the Ten Commandments, including, “thou shalt not steal”?

Answer: We received all of the Ten Commandments because we wanted them. The condition was placed before us: “Do you want to be guarantors for each other? Do you want to become as one person with one heart? Do you want to be Jews (Yehudi from the word “Yichud” [unity]), meaning living in unity with each other? So please, accept the Torah! If not, you will continue on this way, and here will be your burial place.”

Question: Why does God say to a person: “Thou shalt not steal,” if He created him with a nature that wants to steal?

Answer: It is to counterbalance your egoistic nature you exist in; you will understand that all theft, all problems, and all the evil that you cause others and to yourself are derived from this nature and you will no longer be able to continue like this. For this nation cannot exist for long in a state like this. We see that problems are created around us about which we have no choice, and that it is impossible to continue on this way. It has never been revealed to such a degree. So people thought that it was in our power to correct something, and if not the right, then the left, if not the left, then the right or the centrist parties could do something. Every person who achieved power thought that he could change something. But we see that a person on his own doesn’t have the power to change himself. This is possible only on condition that he accepts the Torah as a means of correction.

Question: What is the Torah that it can change a person?

Answer: Only if we want to connect, if we understand that our entire correction is in the unity between us—according to the principle “as one man with one heart,” “don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you” (Shabbat 31a), “you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), and “all of Israel are brothers”—if we want this to be realized among us there is a unique force that is hidden in nature which is called, “The Upper Light” or “The Torah.”

Question: Where is this force hidden? In what place is it?

Answer: There is no place. You simply don’t feel it. But you can derive this force and use it on condition that you begin to connect with others and want to unite with them. So the condition for receiving the Torah is to unite and to be as one man with one heart, to try to become like that, and to want to be responsible for each other. It is when all of us want to be rid of that evil in which we exist.

All of us together, from the representatives of the Supreme Court to the simplest people, all of us must correct ourselves. And we have no possibility of doing this other than by accepting that Light that Reforms with the help of the Torah of truth and the wisdom of Kabbalah. This wisdom was concealed until lately, because it was waiting until we reached a state of complete exhaustion. And now it is revealed and it explains to us how we can use the true Torah whose Light reforms through the wisdom of the Light.

If we begin to connect between us correctly, in groups of ten people (just as Moses once divided the people into tens, hundreds, and thousands), and arrange special workshops to learn how to unite together in which each one nullifies himself before the others, wants to be integrated with the others, and feels that he is wholeheartedly together with the others, then it follows that we leave our ego, our “I” outside of the circle; whereas, within the center of the circle we insert our desire for unity. And suddenly in the center of the circle we begin to feel a unique force that comes to us from nature. This is a real force; it is possible to measure and feel it. You discover it like all the forces of nature. This force is called “Torah” and it begins to correct your evil inclination, the force of rejection, hatred, the force that compels you to steal, to lie, and to do harm to others.

Question: Does it follow that the Torah is a force?

Answer: Yes. The Light that Reforms is called Torah. The five books of the Torah are books that describe these same laws. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how we can use the Torah so that this Light will “come out,” will be revealed, and will connect us. Then we attain love and unity between us according to the principles of “love thy neighbor as thyself” and “all of Israel are brothers.” We don’t have this now, not among the secular, not among the religious, there is no love with anyone. But we must want to acquire it. To do this we are given the revelation of evil from above. And look in what form we are discovering it: Nobody can be “inoculated” from it, the evil is discovered everywhere, throughout the nation, among all types of people!

But if we become conscious of this evil and will want to unite, then from our efforts a force will be revealed among us that will begin to connect us. We will feel that we are in a unique field in which we work together in adhesion with this force that is revealed among us. We will begin to feel it as higher, and this is called the revelation of the Creator to His creatures in this world. We begin to discover Him and to feel Him according to our inner changes. This is specifically what we must do.

So in the wisdom of Kabbalah it is written that we are in a unique generation that will discover the higher power. And so we need to look at our lives differently: Not seeing everything as evil, but understanding that it is good if we discover the evil in us because it leads us toward discovery of the Creator, the higher power, the Light, and raises us to another level of existence, to the next level of human development.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/17/15

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Question: Why are there so many Jewish holidays?

Answer: Really there aren’t that many. Everything is derived from the fact that every day is new, every month is new, every year is new, and every hour is new for a person! These seemingly astronomical changes are, in fact, internal, spiritual. All matter results from changes among the spiritual forces that influence our world, and so changes appear among the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and us.

In other words, the reason for all of the changes is the rotation of the Sefirot through which the Light passes. The Light influences and acts on our universe and the result is the matter in our world. So if a person wants to be connected with the entire creation, every moment is of immense value for him. Besides that, he can divide every moment within it into a multitude of moments. This means that the possibility exists for one second to come alive for him! And in this way he expands himself.

The Jewish holidays are characterized by giving us a sensation of uniqueness to every moment in time, in every Sefira that participates in the passage of Light. So every moment is unique, and especially the holidays are the general significance of a period of transition. There are three big holidays that are derived from the spiritual level: Pesach (Passover), Shavuot, and Sukkot, which are called Raglaim (feet), which are when people went to Jerusalem.

Tisha B’Av (9^th of Av) symbolizes the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple), meaning the revelation of great egoism that is later corrected during all the rest of the holidays. Because of the force of Tisha B’Av, it is placed against all the rest of the holidays, so its intensity is huge.

In contrast to Tisha B’Av, at the other end of this cycle, is the holiday of Purim. Besides this, there are a few other related minor holidays: Chanukah and Lag Ba’Omer.

We indicate the beginning of every month according to the cycle of the rotation of the moon, for our cosmic and spiritual state depends upon two luminaries: the moon and the sun. So the Hebrew calendar is constructed according to the cycles of the rotation of the sun and the moon, between which is the Earth, while the Christian calendar considers only the rotation of the sun and the Muslim calendar considers only the rotation of the moon.

The Jewish New Year is the beginning of human correction because this holiday symbolizes the birth of Adam HaRishon (the First Man), from which we begin our calculation. The birth of Adam is the birth of the human because Adam was the first to discover the Creator and to begin to resemble Him. So the beginning of the year for us is a spiritual holiday.

The goal of the cycle of the holidays is that the most “frightening” of the holidays, which is Tisha B’Av, will become the greatest holiday in the world, when all of the evil will be gathered together and defeated by the good.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 5/13/15

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Question: At the time when the people of Israel received the Torah, they exclaimed: “We shall do and we shall hear!” Does this phrase have any spiritual meaning?

Answer: As a matter of fact, this phrase has nothing but a spiritual meaning. The entire Torah speaks only about spirituality, not about physical actions of this world as many people think.

“We shall do” means that we will unite, and “we shall hear” means attaining a benevolent force that manifests itself in our effort to connect, to be kind to each other. This force completes our action, as it is written: “The Creator completes me.”

Question: What shall we “hear” after we connect?

Answer: “We shall hear” signifies the level of Bina, i.e., hearing (not material, but internal). It’s a condition when we recognize the force of bestowal that actually appears among us and connects us.

The bestowing force unveils itself and fills the space among us. This force is called the Creator; at this point, we reveal its properties. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the creations in this world.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/17/15

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Question: In an atmosphere of complete disconnection and lack of understanding, how can we convey the law of love for others to people?

Answer: The same state of disconnection occurred at the time of receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Before that, the people of Israel came out of Egypt, where Pharaoh, the evil that separates us, was revealed.

We found ourselves in terrible darkness, passing through the “49 Gates of Impurity.” That is why we were rewarded the revelation of the force of unity, the Light of the Torah.

It is said that the advantage of light is known from the darkness. So today, when no one considers others and everyone hates each other, the light of the Torah is revealed to us.

Question: Why is this light hidden from us?

Answer: The light is hidden because we do not use it. The evil force is revealed to us through our egoism and desires, and the force of good has no place to be revealed. Let’s begin to perform good actions, bringing the force of good from concealment, and we will suddenly find out that we have two forces: the plus and the minus, the good and evil.

We will be able to balance these two forces and live in a world where we will become the masters of everything we do. The world will be opened before us.

Question: What would you like to wish the people of Israel on the holiday of the giving of the Torah (Shavuot)?

Answer: I would like to wish that we all understand that we have been given the Torah. We need to recall every day that we were given the Torah and that we must receive it. It is the only thing that we lack. This is not about religious traditions but about the method of correction, which allows every person to correct himself and attain love for others.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/3/15

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Every person is created with an egoistic desire, but in addition to it, we are given the Torah, which can turn this evil desire into a good one. The desire remains, but, instead of using it for our own benefit, we begin to use it for the good of others.

This revolution in the use of one’s desire can be performed with a tool called the Torah, the Reforming Light. Studying my egoistic desire, I discover that it consists of 613 parts, 613 desires, that together comprise my evil inclination.

I need to correct all these desires, from the lightest to the heaviest, in order to stop using them for myself and start using them for the benefit of others. I must make a complete revolution in this. It is impossible to correct them halfway in order to make it beneficial for me and for you.

Therefore it is said that a person must perform 613 commandments. This is about 613 corrections of my desire from evil to good with respect to the other. As a result of these corrections, I come to love, fulfilling the main law of the Torah.

It is this method of correction that the people of Israel once received. For this, we are given the Torah. The task of the people of Israel is to implement this method, setting an example for the entire world and becoming a Light to the nations.

Therefore, the Torah contains so many warnings. Our entire fate depends on the fulfillment of this condition of love for one’s friend as for oneself. Let’s see whether we are approaching this realization or not.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/3/15

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