Question: I have had unusual moments in life that I don’t know how to explain. An example of this is when I have needed to make a “Yes-No” decision, and I felt, knew, or wanted to say, “No,” but I was terribly afraid of saying this.

And suddenly for a few moments, I saw my future if I were to say, “Yes,” and I saw and felt fear and an anxiety that was much stronger than the fear of saying “No,” so I said, “No.”

There were more situations in which I acted in an apparent split. Logic told me one thing, whereas the body did something else and said something else, something that I would never have said or done. All of these events changed my life drastically.

I suspect that this happens to all people, but they simply don’t pay attention to this. my question is: What is this? From where does this intervention come that seems external to me?

Answer: We are constantly under external influences, since there is simply nothing else. More precisely, this is internal influence. It builds in us a feeling of this world and of ourselves. The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals to us the possibilities of influencing this source of feeling about ourselves and our world and for us becoming the builders of the world and of everything that is felt in us, which is Olam Ein Sof.
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From the News (gazeta.ru):  “Astronomers who have been studying 200,000 galaxies in the Milky Way have noticed that the universe is gradually dying. Its stars have become twice as dim in the duration of 2 billion years. This is the conclusion of an international group of astronomers who have measured the energy emission of galaxies.

“All the energy in the universe was created in the Big Bang and some of it is concentrated in the mass of matter. The stars shine as a result of the thermonuclear transformation of this mass into energy, which is described by Einstein’s famous formula E = mc².

“So the energy emission of galaxies today is only half of the energy that was emitted 2 billion years ago, which means that the universe is gradually being extinguished and is dying out.”

My Comment: As I always say, the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the finite and temporary nature of our world, or of what we perceive by our consciousness as our world. It is because we don’t see ourselves or what is around us, but only the world that is inside us. The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed precisely for the purpose of allowing us to correct the feeling of our reality and to ascend in our feelings above the limited world that is felt by our egoistic attributes. We then ascend to an unlimited world, the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), that is felt in our corrected altruistic attributes of love and bestowal. This wisdom promises us a smooth transition from our world to the upper world and the gradual disconnection from the feeling (consciousness) of our body and of this world, to the extent that we change the attributes of receiving to the attributes of bestowal.
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Question: There is a Japanese proverb that says: “Troubles will transform you into a precious stone.” How do you relate to this?

Answer: This is Samurai philosophy and speaks about the way of suffering. I think that we have no need for this at all, since we go our own way. Why do we need to go towards happiness through the way of suffering? We can leap above it immediately, as the Jews very well know.

In the meantime, we haven’t succeeded in doing this because we don’t want to listen to the method that we received thousands of years ago, the wisdom of Kabbalah, but it can lead us to happiness in a single leap.

Comment: But nevertheless, when you had health problems, your teacher said that he was envious of you because he saw this as a sign of advancement.

Answer: Certainly thanks to suffering a person improves because suffering works against the ego that wants pleasure all the time. So another system of study and understanding appeared that was opposed to the ego. But this is not the right way!

Christianity says: “If they slap you on one cheek, give them the other cheek also.” This is not right. We must go another way. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains everything in a very simple way. The Creator created life and death, so choose life. With all our might we must yearn for good, for love, for ease, and not burrow into suffering. We have no need for it. To go willingly into exile, suffer there, and this will be better for all people is absolutely the wrong way! The ego intentionally attracts us there and this is not the Kabbalistic approach towards the world, our history, our mission.

The Creator blesses us with peace, happiness, Light, and warmth, but in no way with suffering. For in suffering, the person is not prepared to bless the Creator. He cannot cry and say: “How good it is for me to be with you!” After all, this is a lie. So it is forbidden for us to develop our own suffering. Christianity is based upon this. But from the point of view of the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is absolutely incorrect.

Question: So what does “Rejoice when the wicked are revealed to you” mean?

Answer: It means to rejoice when your defects are discovered within you. You are happy about this and don’t suffer. This is happiness because your personal characteristics are now being revealed, and you see that you can correct them. If they are revealed to you from above, it means that you will surely correct them.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/5/15

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 13:25 – 13:29: They returned from scouting the land at the end of forty days. They went, and they came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the desert of Paran, to Kadesh. They brought them back a report, as well as to the entire congregation, and they showed them the fruit of the land. They told him and said, “We came to the land to which you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who inhabit the land are mighty, and the cities are extremely huge and fortified, and there we saw even the offspring of the giant. The Amalekites dwell in the south land, while the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountainous region. The Canaanites dwell on the coast and alongside the Jordan.”

Comment: When the spies spoke about the land of Israel they were very excited, but suddenly there is a turning point…

Answer: The upper world is very attractive. It isn’t the egoistic communism we have been fed by the European utopians during the Middle Ages, but rather the state of a person who has fully attained and knows all of creation and his role within it. This person has attained the upper force and feels that he is in the attribute of bestowal, beyond the limitations of existing for his own sake. He totally attains all the states of the worlds throughout time and on all the levels inside himself, including all of nature, meaning both our world and the upper world.

Of course we don’t attain the upper world because it is above our universe and is a billion times larger. But we have to discover it eventually, and therefore we have the potential that draws us to the attainment of this state. But when you clarify what you have to do in order to reach this, you realize that it is totally beyond your powers because you are like a tiny mouse in a great world. What can you do?

So the spies were right. They came with two accurate conclusions regarding the land of Israel. On the one hand, there are all sorts of fruits, i.e., all sorts of comprehension—everything you can imagine and even billions of times greater than what we have today, just as the generation of the Middle Ages could not imagine life in our generation. On the other hand, they had no powers, no preconditions, nor understanding, neither moral nor intellectual. They couldn’t reach the states of attainment since they were not prepared for them.

This is actually what happened, because the spies belonged to the generation of the desert who lived where there was nothing and where they had to try to be in a strong, mutual connection to advance. But, when they entered the land of Israel, they confronted their internal egoism, which treated them with disrespect, like Pharaoh. He reappears among them and once again, forces them to conquer him because the land of Israel is based on the conquering of Pharaoh.

The exodus from Egypt is just the escape from Pharaoh, and during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, we neutralize him. Now, however, we need to take this animal out of its den and begin to restrain it so that by taming it, it will carry out all our orders. This seems to be absolutely impossible!

When the spies look at all this horror, they forget that there is an upper force that plans everything and that they have to advance in accordance with this force and be a like a small child holding the hand of a grownup, not fearing anything. The spies couldn’t take that into account because they were terrified of the greatness they had to attain, of the infinity and uncertainty revealed to them by infinite space. When a person feels that there are no limits, he feels lost.

When a person is in a certain framework in certain limits, he feels that everything is simple, easy, and free. But if he transcends these limits, he loses the ability to weigh things and find his way around. This is very scary for those who reach a more sublime state. Therefore, every person who is about to enter the land of Israel—the correction of egoism to love and bestowal and the inclination of the ego towards the Creator—experiences such feelings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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We are all parts of one general whole and mutually complement one another as a result of the differences, contrasts, and oppositeness between us. This mutual complementing is obliged to emphasize and expose all the rejections we feel internally towards one another.

It is only by the right connection between us that we can find the ideal unity that will allow the revelation of all the differences and oppositeness between us, and on the other hand, the absolute whole, harmonious, and mutual cooperation between us. All the differences between us connect through our mutual love, mutual bestowal, and mutual agreement. When all the parts work together only for the sake of others, it makes their connection possible.

Question: How can we attain this realization?

Answer: It results from the great desire that each of us has to be filled with the Light. We have been looking for this filling, not only for many years, but also in our previous lives. Within a certain life, we stop and begin to dig more deeply into the question of how I can fulfill myself.

If we were all equal, we would be as one, but there cannot be much of the same thing. We can make many identical tables in our world, but there is no such thing in the spiritual world. There is no uniformity inside us, and we see it in people around us. It is thanks to our differences that such a global orchestra exists. In the meantime, it is not yet an orchestra, but a terrible cacophony (a combination of meaningless sounds). But if we bring them all together under the leadership of an experienced conductor, there will be a wonderful, coordinated, and harmonious orchestra.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/5/15

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Real love has nothing to do with sex or gender, but in order to come to it, we need serious preparation.

After all, we need to learn to open our hearts, feel the heart of another person, and rise above our own interests in order to enter the desire of our friend, whatever that desire may be.

Here it does not matter who that other person is, whether a man or a woman. I need to rise above my egoism, which yearns to enjoy the entire world, and instead of this, I prefer to provide the entire world with enjoyment.

If this is what love is, then a question arises: Does love even exist at all in our world? It does not! Love exists only in the upper world, to which we ascend above our egoistic calculations and begin to fulfill another and enjoy each others’ joy.

Am I capable of enjoying the fact that I am fulfilling eight billion people? It is written, “love another as thyself.” That is, I need to love others more than myself, and in the same way that I currently love myself more than others. This is why we require a force that is higher than our nature that is capable of correcting our nature and can help us attain true love. 

Nature created me and instilled in me an egoistic desire to love myself. Now I am demanding my own correction from this nature, the Creator. I want to correct myself in such a way so as to love another without any personal interest, independently from whether I feel good or bad from it, and to be above it.

Since I am currently a complete egoist, I want others to treat me with this kind of love and to love me the way that I am, with all my flaws and egoism. Therefore, I should love others with such love without any conditions.

Reply: But I do not want to!

My Comment: This is why you need correction. You will discover in your friend the most unpleasant properties and actions with respect to you and your loved ones, and you will love him nevertheless. True love requires complete correction and covers all crimes.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/30/15

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Question: Why has so much hatred been revealed in the world lately?

Answer: It is because our egoism is developing very intensely, exponentially, and lately it is rising on an unprecedented sharp, upward curve. Every moment is radically different in its nature from its predecessor, and the acceleration and depth of the discovery of egoism is the main characteristic of nature.

So, it is not surprising that egoism will continue to be discovered more deeply, clearly, and acutely. People will shamelessly begin to demand what is theirs, knowing precisely what they want. And even though they understand that they will not succeed in attaining anything, with all their might they will insist upon what is theirs. The ego will force a person to be rigid and unreasonable, even though everyone will begin to convince himself of its inappropriate demands. And that is how it will be for each one of us.

This is being expressed today, specifically because in the present stage of development, humanity has reached the end of the realization of its earth’s history. We need to rise to the next level of existence where we will feel ourselves, not as physical bodies living in an environment of the substance of the still, vegetative, and animate levels, which is supposedly our home, but in the form of forces that are not limited by physical bodies. So now we need to depart from our beastly state.

And in order to obligate us to begin to be engaged with development outside of our bodies, to forget them, and to stop feeling them, the egoism of our bodies, of our lives, of our consciousness is being revealed. It will push us forward towards a situation where our egoistic drives will be perceived by us as disgusting, an abomination, and this is not because we will become idealists, but because we feel how much our evil nature directs us. In other words, we won’t begin to run away from egoism, but will simply be unable to be at peace with it because we will see how from morning to evening it gives us commands, spurs us on, pushes us forward, throws us on the ground, and drags us up.

This means that it forces us to exist in an absolutely useless form in which we invest energy that brings us only suffering, despair, and disappointment. Nature, or more precisely its program, is leading us to this, according to which we need to ascend spiritually precisely at a time of full disappointment in the egoistic system of management, and we must demand a new and different system of management. But it will be discovered in us through that same ego.

Therefore, the ego is called a “helpmate against him” (Genesis 2:18). It is said specifically about Pharaoh, who symbolizes the ego, that he brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator through his coarse and cruel actions. The present terrible, egoistic opposition of all people, nations, and countries, the absolute disappointment in everything, the deterioration of the foundation of our world and the economy, which has guided the world for thousands of years, indicates that the ego has exhausted itself on all levels.

Presently, hatred will reach its limit, but simultaneously it will bring powerlessness and disappointment. Why should I kill, burn, and annihilate someone? There was a time during the Crusades, that this seemed like the solution to the problem, whereas today, it doesn’t! So it is necessary to look at the whole process from the point of view of the benefit that is received from all stages of development.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/5/15

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The Torah, “Numbers” 13:17 – 13:18: Moses sent them to scout the land of Canaan, and he said to them, “Go up this way in the south and climb up the mountain. You shall see what [kind of] land it is, and the people who inhabit it; are they strong or weak? Are there few or many?”

Climbing the mountain and looking at the land from above means to summon the Upper Light, which temporarily raises you just because you ask for it. This however, doesn’t happen in practice, you only see it, because you cannot do anything but see.

Seeing can both raise or lower you, but it is essential in order to understand with what you have to work, which means to work in faith above reason. In order to do so, you need to have great knowledge because  you shouldn’t just follow blindly but should clearly understand all the instructions, guidelines, the whole system, and how to work with the Upper Light. This is the reason that the upper mind is activated before every level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/30/15

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Question:  What happens to a person after he or she dies? What’s happens to their soul?

Answer: Those who are capable of perceiving their soul live within it because it is not connected with the death of the body.

And for those who have never attained their souls, there remains only a Reshimot (from Hebrew “roshem” – a record), which is a piece of information similar to DNA, a certain code that includes everything that a person had ever consisted of.

When the body dies, this informational part (Reshimot) must connect with a new body in this world and start all over. Every person has a Reshimot, which is the particle from which we eventually develop a soul.

Comment:  You have said that people who have a soul are only those who build it.

Answer: Yes, it’s true. They build it out of their egoistic desires that are based on Reshimot,  some particle of information that works inside the desire forcing people to build a soul.

Question: What do I have? What’s missing? What am I supposed to build?

Answer: Our egoistic will to receive is all we have. But it may be the case that suddenly a special desire sparks in us. This is a desire to perceive our soul and figure out why we live, what is the purpose of our existence and the source of life.

It means that a Reshimot, that tiny spark, the so-called point in the heart wakes up within us. At this point, we start contemplating what we should do next since this aspiration presses on us and doesn’t leave us alone.

Then, we address our egoistic desire and start searching for a place where we can realize this spark. Eventually, we come to a place where the authentic wisdom of Kabbalah is taught and where we receive an explanation of how to build a soul. Creating a soul means changing the will to receive for our own sake to being for the sake of others.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/10/15

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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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