Question: How are days divided according to the Jewish calendar?

Answer: There are 24 hours in a day, four seasons, and  four Jewish New Years on a shifting schedule. The same schedule exists between day and night: days are longer and nights shorter in the summer, and the reverse during the winter.

According to the Jewish calendar, an hour is not 60 minutes, each of which is 60 seconds, but a conventional unit. This unit is not constant but is time dependent.

According to the usual calendar, it is considered that there are 12 hours from sunset till sunrise and from sunrise till the next sunset is also 12 hours. But by light hours, 20 hours could lapse from sunrise until sunset, and night (darkness) would last only four hours.

In this case, the day hour and the night hour are absolutely different. It is a bit like the sundial, which does not have a uniform dial, but is on a logarithmic scale.

Since the length of the day and night changes every day, it means that the length of the night and day hours changes every day. They depend only on Partzuf Zeir Anpin in the world of Atzilut, which actuality manages these actions, because the upper light passing through it onto Malchut (and Malchut is us), defines everything.

If we could only know exactly how it operates, we would feel this system, a gigantic astronomical machine that surrounds us and thus affects us. We would then start getting closer to its internal parameters: what does it mean more light – less light, warmer – colder? If we would live and work according to such hours, it would have been a completely different life.

On the other hand, how is it possible to exist in these mechanics? Why do we need it? Why should it affect us in this way? If we would restructure and live in accordance with it, how would we feel nature and ourselves? It is interesting! This means that we would start to feel it in accordance with its influence on us. The surrounding world, space, stars, everything would shine differently.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 12/30/18

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In the Jewish calendar, there are special correlations between dates. This is because the spiritual system has an instrument called Zeir Anpin (ZA), which is clothed by Malchut, and the light of Bina enters it from above.

Zeir Anpin has particular openings or holes, through which it shines to Malchut. When some hole corresponds to the receiver, Malchut, the soul, then the light enters it, and this is called “Mazal” — a person’s destiny.

There are special correlations between days and nights and between various times. For example, something that can be done on a particular day and time of night, can also be done on a different day at a different time, and the results will be practically the same.

We see to what extent we are affected by the light of Bina. According to Zeir Anpin and Malchut, each time, we place ourselves in a new fate.

In Judaism, the astronomical tables were put together a very long time ago. Columbus, Newton, and other famous scientists as well as voyagers used them. Abraham himself was a great astronomer and astrologist.

During Abraham’s times, astrology was not like it is today. It was based on a clear connection between the placement of stars, the Moon, the Earth, and the Sun in regard to every person, relative to their soul, taking into consideration when he or she was conceived, born, and so on.

If we knew all that, we would know what will happen to every person and how they will act—their fate would be known. There was no need for fortune telling—this is the map of our destiny.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/30/18

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Question: When we read the original sources together with a friend or in a group, do we need to conduct workshops in order to better understand the meaning of the text?

Answer: Yes and no. The fact is that sometimes delving into the meaning of the text confuses us and instead of going into feelings and connection between us, we begin to dissect the text into some phonetic, orthographic, or linguistic elements and properties. I think this is unnecessary.

It is possible to analyze it only from the perspective of our specific attainments in this text: what it should give to our connection in order to reveal the Creator. This is enough. The rest will come.

As soon as we begin to reveal the manifestation of the Creator between us, we will enter practical Kabbalah, and then everything written in the book will become clear. We will begin to understand what is written in Talmud Eser Sefirot and other sources.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/11/19

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Question: Kabbalists say that the very essence of the Creator is unattainable. We can attain only His form and matter. What does it mean?

Answer: It follows from every physical phenomenon we attain. We do not attain anything that exists outside of us.

Suppose a certain signal enters into my sense organs. I do not know what kind of signal it is. I know that it passes into the ear, presses on the eardrum, then on the hammers and other parts of the organ of hearing. Then it turns into electrical signals, passes to the brain, and is displayed there in some concepts.

What is the connection between the fact that some thoughts and sensations from your words appear in my brain and how sound vibrations reach my eardrum?

Since thousands of changes are taking place, I cannot even say what is outside of me. I attain only what is already in me. From what is in me, I begin to experiment and discover that all this comes as if from the outside.

That is, we never attain the phenomenon itself, we only attain its reflection in us. It is the same with the world. It is displayed in us like that. What do these walls, books, people, TV sets, light, and darkness really mean? I do not know.

Question: Suppose a man is a liar. His biological body is the matter, and his form is a liar. As I understand it, a lie disconnected from a person is his abstract form and cannot be researched. Is this correct?

Answer: This is philosophy that leads to mistakes.

Question: Does it mean that it is impossible to research it? Even Kabbalists cannot do it?

Answer: No, Kabbalists can research it. They name all the elements of the spiritual world only from their attainment.

Question: But they research the form and matter itself and not the abstract form and its essence?

Answer: Yes. Of course. That is why it is called Atzmuto, that is, a phenomenon that we can neither research nor feel. It existed before it entered in us.

For example, the sound wave that enters into me and then goes through all the transformations, starting from the auricle to the awareness in the mind about what it is, exists in me. What is outside of me I will never know because is outside. Similarly, Kabbalists clearly separate their attainments from what is unattainable, because a person is still a created being.

Remark: There is a law in Kabbalah: do not personify or create any image of the Creator or upper forces.

My Comment: Yes. As a result of the development of science, it is now much easier to explain than it was 40 years ago when I started to teach Kabbalah.

Today, you can clearly explain that everything around us is waves, forces, not volumes or objects. The fact is that all volumes and objects exist only in our sensations, and in reality, they are all some kind of impact on us, the nature of which we do not understand.

We can talk about what exists only from our sensations in ourselves. Therefore, today it is much easier to explain this to people, especially to the younger generation, which already understands that this is how things work.
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From KabTV’s “The Essence of the Science of Kabbalah, Part 7” 11/12/18

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Question: How can “blind” students work without a sighted teacher if they do not have time to attain spiritual vision during their lifetime?

Answer: It does not matter. The Ari writes about it in a very interesting way. As he was dying, one of his students asked him: “What will happen to us?” The Ari replied: “You must continue to learn, and then I will come and teach you.”

“How will you teach us if you die now?”

“It is none of your business, you don’t understand anything about it.” And he died.

So, I can say that it is none of your business. Do not worry. I will come and teach.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/2/18

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Question: What is the “revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world”? Is it possible to compare the revelation of the Creator with the revelation of the laws of magnetism or electricity? Do we simply learn how to use those laws of nature that were previously hidden from us?

Answer: To reveal the Creator means to reveal the hidden forces of nature, their dependencies, laws, formulas, and graphs, meaning, to understand what we exist inside of, to understand not the picture that we see now, but rather the forces behind it.

Nature is controlled by certain forces. Their relations with each other, their impact on us, our reverse impact on them—we need the whole picture in order to continue our existence at least more or less comfortably and confidently. The sciences of our world only lead us to the awareness that we do not control nature and its forces—we can somewhat hide from their negative impact and nothing more.

At the same time, there is an increasing feeling that science is in crisis, at a dead end, and the next breakthrough should be beyond the limits of our world, to those forces that stand outside the sphere of our present existence, outside the sphere of our universe.

These are the hidden forces of nature that are higher than us and define our entire life.

Question: Can we say that they are the cause of the events that happen to us in the corporeal world?

Answer: Naturally. Absolutely.

Question: It turns out that if I attain this hidden force while in this world, that is, if I feel it with my five senses, is this the revelation of the Creator?

Answer: Yes, you can say so.

Question: Is it a sensory attainment?

Answer: It is attained not only in the feelings, but also in the mind.

We reveal how the forces affecting us are interconnected, their causal development and their consistent impact on us. In general, we see a complete picture of our world under the influence of the upper governing forces: “upper” meaning still hidden from us.

In addition, we begin to see and understand the possibility of our influence on these forces through a reverse connection, in order to bring them to a state in which they desirably and positively influence us.
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From KabTV’s “The Essence of the Science of Kabbalah, Part 2” 11/12/18

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/15/19

I am happy to announce that after many years in the works we have all my teacher’s (RABASH, Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag) articles published in one set of books in English.

These books disclose the profound knowledge of human nature that the RABASH possessed, and take us on a journey of exploration of our souls. As we absorb the texts, we find that Kabbalah is not some cryptic occultism, but a time-tested method to understand ourselves and improve our lives and the world around us.

The Writings of RABASH >>>>>>>>>>

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Question: Could you please comment on some quotations attributed to Albert Einstein?

Quotation: “Only a fool needs order, genius can handle chaos.”

Answer: Yes. A person usually rushes to order because he cannot embrace what is in front of him.

The genius on the other hand, feels that he must dissolve in the chaos and then he will see an internal order in it: not the one he imposes on the existing world, but the one that initially exists within this world.

Quotation: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Answer: If miracles did not exist, then everything would be very simple and clear. I too want to explain to everyone: “Why are you suffering? Look, everything is written simply. You are trying to do something in your life with incomprehensible attempts.”

This is one life when we try to grasp the immensity with our minds. But we say in advance: “Why is it there? Everything is simple and good,” embrace it all in our mind.

And the other is when we dissolve in the spiritual, in space, when we understand that we cannot swallow it and we believe that we can only enter into it, dissolve in it.

Thus, we accept the world by entering it. At the same time, we belittle ourselves, our minds, our capabilities; we see nature above us, not us ruling over nature. As Sir Isaac Newton [and often attributed to Einstein] said: “to myself, I seem to have been like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Only in this way can we enter nature and begin to truly understand it.

Remark: Then we seem to say: “Some wonders abound!”

My Comment: Yes. And this is the correct approach. In fact—only miracles. Why miracles? It is because I cannot comprehend them with my mind. However, when I say that these are miracles and I want to be in them, then I begin to understand them, precisely because I cancel myself before them.

Quotation: “Education is what remains after everything learned in school is forgotten.”

Answer: What does education mean? We form, or we can say, format our brain. As we launch certain programs into computers and then with the help of these programs, we start processing materials, working with them. Education should be just that. In and of itself, it does not matter. Only after I begin to treat life correctly with its help, do I begin to appreciate it.

Question: And what does it mean to forget education in general?

Answer: What did we study at school? I don’t remember history, geography, even math, I don’t know all those equations. Of course, I can somehow speculate about them. In principle,  in college, how much was seemingly unnecessary? Yes, it is all necessary in order to develop brains, develop and stir them. Otherwise what? Will I only be able to count my goats or cows in the herd? Or should I still be able to work with the conceptual apparatus?
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/26/18

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Question: What is the structure of spiritual desire? How does it differ from the structure of my current desire?

Answer: Spiritual desire is the ten Sefirot: nine Sefirot ending with Malchut.

The upper light, which spreads through the four phases of direct light, forms nine Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, and Zeir Anpin, which in turn consists of six Sefirot. Passing through them, the light builds the fifth stage—Malchut.

The first nine properties are the properties of bestowal and Malchut is the property of reception.

When Malchut becomes like the nine Sefirot, a conjugation occurs with it and the properties of bestowal. Therefore, it can receive the upper light, but only if it has a screen (reduction) to receive the upper light.

Thus, their connection arises on the conjugation of Malchut with the nine Sefirot.

At the same time, all nine Sefirot begin to shine. The word “Sefira” comes from the word “shine.”

Question: Does Malchut’s demand make them shine?

Answer: Yes. Malchut itself does nothing; it is an absolutely black body.

Question: How do properties differ from desires—the nine Sefirot from Malchut?

Answer: The nine Sefirot are the properties of light and Malchut is desire.
Direct light spreads through four stages and builds Malchut and Malchut begins to comprehend them. All interactions occur between the stages of direct light and Malchut as between the Creator and creation.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/25/18

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Question: What should a student give to the teacher?

Answer: A student should give the teacher his aspirations, which he will be able to raise upward and bring the student the strength to realize them.

Question: Does the teacher need this?

Answer: Why does he exist? It is only in order to help students. This is his purpose.

Question: Should the teacher evoke these aspirations in the students?

Answer: The teacher can only offer, but he cannot coerce or force. This is the work of the student himself. But the teacher is ready for it.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/2/18

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