Question: What distinguishes spiritual attainment from all other disclosures, insights, revelations, and discoveries of scientists and philosophers?

Answer: Spiritual attainment happens through the characteristics of bestowal and love, through exiting yourself, transcending yourself. This doesn’t happen in a person in our world, no matter how inspired one might be.

Spirituality is the characteristic of bestowal without any connection to yourself, regardless of any consequences for yourself. This is a characteristic that comes from above, and a person must acquire it. It is not found in any person except for those who are engaged with the clear Kabbalistic method that comes from Adam.

Question: In the history of the world, have there been many such people?

Answer: From Adam until our day there have been millions. After all, while in Babylon, tens of thousands of people followed Abraham. After that, thanks to practical spiritual work, they became what were known as the people of Israel and later spread throughout the world.

What this means is that at the time of the existence of the Batei HaMikdash (Temples), hundreds of thousands were in spiritual attainment. At that time, this was a great people who felt the upper world for many generations.

After the destruction of the Temples, the decline of the generations began. In the first millennium of the current era, a few thousand people remained in spiritual attainment, in the second millennium of the current era, far fewer remained, and in our day this there are individuals, and it is not known where they are and who they are.

But we are renewing the way upward; it is already a global movement. In principle, it always was global because according to genetic origin, the Jews are not a people but a group of Babylonians who united thanks to a spiritual ideology.

Therefore, there was nothing in it that was contrary to any people. It should be noted that throughout our history, from Babylon on, very large numbers of people joined the people of Israel to enter the perception of the upper world.

Among them were a multitude of ancient Kabbalists and masters of the Talmud who came from Greece, Rome, and other nations surrounding ancient Israel: Onkelos, Rabbi Akiva, and other prominent luminaries, and others as well.
[203258]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/20/16

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Question: Why are there many religious texts and prayers that are close to religion in the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Kabbalah is the foundation. It was established before any of the religions. All the texts and all the books that we read like: Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and so forth, are Kabbalistic texts, they have nothing to do with religion. They were written by Kabbalists. They wrote about attaining the upper world and about the higher system by investigating it within themselves based on the connection between them and others. This is high, practical, internal psychological work.

I do not see a single book that can be seen as a basis for humanity besides the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah was the source of scientific knowledge for scientists, philosophers, alchemists and many others throughout human history. They derived all knowledge from Kabbalah. It is a science.

As long as this wisdom existed among the people of Israel, both the Greeks and the Romans drew knowledge from it and then disseminated it even in Europe. When the people of Israel descended from their spiritual level from “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) to the level of “mutual hatred,” the wisdom of Kabbalah was hidden from the people and remained only among a small group of people. Since people became disconnected from the perception of the upper world, they themselves began to imagine it within completely different frameworks and attributes. And from this arose religion, Judaism and from that, Christianity and Islam. So we have become disconnected from spirituality in a 2,000 year exile; we have to explain that Abraham and Moses were Kabbalists and that the Talmud is a Kabbalistic book.

We cannot and should not prove anything to people because everything will gradually be revealed to humanity. People will suddenly begin to understand that the Kabbalistic ideas are correct. Humanity has been divided into many different levels according to their yearning to discover the truth. There are people who want to study the various sciences, to be involved with the arts, to achieve self-realization, etc. And there are people who just want to live normally, and for this religion is necessary for them. But there are people who want to accurately attain the meaning of life; they are the ones who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[199283]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/25/16

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Question: Can we say that, in contrast to corporeal attainment, spiritual attainment is eternal and will be felt forever?

Answer: Absolutely. This is the reason that our corporeal life passes the way that it does. Imagine what would happen if we didn’t feel life and death. How would we behave if death were concealed from us?

It is actually the fear of death, of “now I exist, and tomorrow I will be gone,” that gives us a compelling reason to develop our culture, life, and everything we do on the face of the earth. This is an enormous driving force.

If there were no death and people did not know that it existed, our lives would be different. The years would go by, and a person would not understand when life was over (no matter in which form). Imagine to what degree it would reframe our entire existence. There would be no culture since we created it because we want to be eternal.

In the spiritual world, on the other hand, you begin to feel that you exist in a perfect eternal state, and it is indeed eternal and perfect.

Question: Isn’t it boring?

Answer: On the contrary, enormous attainments are revealed to you! You don’t live fearing the end but in the pleasure of eternity.

Baal HaSulam tells us in the Introduction to The Book of Zohar:

“…now that we know for certain that the thought of Creation, to delight His creatures, necessarily created a measure of desire to receive from Him all the goodness and pleasantness that He had planned for them, that will to receive was clearly not included in His essence before He had created it in the souls…”
[202878]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/20/16

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Question: What does it mean to perceive what is external to you?

Answer: Our desire is actually neutral. It can be used for your own benefit or for the benefit of others. It all depends on what a person wants: to bestow or to receive.

If I want to receive, the desire is called a corporeal desire and I feel this world; if I want to bestow, to give, the desire is called a spiritual desire, and then I feel that I am in the upper world.

The point is that anyone can receive, but you need to know how to be able to bestow. “Kabbalah,” although this translates to  “receive” in Hebrew, it is actually the science of bestowal. Therefore, it is built on the quality of bestowal and its main law is love.

Love is filling the desires of other people, which unfortunately does not exist in our world.

Most importantly, if I can bestow unto someone, I can help him attain the upper world. In other words, our bestowal to the world comes down to disseminating this method, because it is only by this method that a person can reach a comfortable, true, eternal, and perfect state.
[203043]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/6/16

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Question: People are attracted to what they see with their eyes. How would they be able to come to the wisdom of Kabbalah if they don’t see what a Kabbalist is? You had a teacher who was authorized. Can you reveal something about yourself?

Answer: No. And it was even impossible to see anything about my teacher. There was no authorization!

And regarding all the questions: “How can I learn the wisdom of Kabbalah, what will it give me, and what need do I have for it at all? Maybe it would be better if I went somewhere else….” I can give only one answer: “Go.”

Only those who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah and feel through their “sense of smell” that there is something unique in the wisdom of Kabbalah for them that is not found in any other place.
[202170]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/1/17

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Question: There is a good friend in the Japanese group, a loyal friend who studies willingly, participates in the group work, but doesn’t want to watch the lessons together with anyone claiming that he cannot absorb the material well when he is with others. Why is it important to watch the lessons together according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: The point is not whether you watch the lessons together or by yourself, but whether you unite or not.

Perhaps the group is still very young, people have different mentalities, etc., gradually you will begin to hear and see more and more and then you will feel that there is no other way to fulfill the wisdom of Kabbalah but by overcoming the ego and it is possible to overcome it only by mutual actions.
[202103]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/30/16

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Question: Are there forms of life in the universe other than the material world? What does Kabbalah say about this?

Answer: You can stop searching! There are no other forms of life in the entire universe. We are unique in this small world.

All we must do is unite as quickly as possible until we reach the minimal spiritual level in order to ascend to the next dimension.

When a person ascends to the next dimension, the entire universe disappears and fades away, and he enters the world of forces, leaving the world of matter.
[200974]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/14/16

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Question: What is the tradition of the oral law?

Answer: The oral Torah explains the written Torah, which only Kabbalists can understand according to their level of spiritual attainment.

We should know how to read the Torah, and in order to do so, we must learn Hebrew because all of the words are terribly distorted by translation. The letters that make up the word have a very deep meaning: their order, sound, the similarity or difference between them, and so on. Every letter is made of several elements that indicate certain forces of nature, whether positive or negative, that operate horizontally or vertically by drawing toward them or by being distant. This is the reason that writing the letters is a special art.

Eventually, a person begins to understand that there is an encoded description of consecutive spiritual acts before him, not an ordinary text.

In Hebrew, every letter is a symbol, a unique signal with many elements that are connected in a special way and convey information, a bit of concrete information that contains the whole spiritual structure inside it.

It is possible to simply read Kabbalah books, and it is possible to read them in great depth and penetrate the internal meaning. When a person enters the text, he travels through it until he understands everything that happens in it and the flow of the internal information. It is a totally different attainment of the Torah, and this is actually what is called “secret” to a certain degree.

Therefore, the oral Torah is the Torah that is forbidden to be taught. The concept of forbidden refers to the fact that it is impossible since a person will understand nothing before he is a Kabbalist. On the other hand, there is no need to understand anything in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything is allowed—everything is for a person, for his sake.
[201283]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/4/16

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In the News (Stanford News): “Ever since the concept of altruism was proposed in the 19th century, psychologists have debated whether or not people are born into the world preprogrammed to be nice to others. Now, a pair of Stanford psychologists has conducted experiments that indicate altruism has environmental triggers, and is not something we are simply born with.

“In 2006, a study involving toddlers found that the 18-month-olds were willing to provide a helping hand to the experimenters without being prompted. This expression of altruistic behavior in such young children aligned with what many scientists believed to be an expression of innate altruism, and the findings have served as the basis for dozens of studies since. …

“As with most experiments involving toddlers, the researchers behind the 2006 study engaged in a few minutes of play with the children, in order to make them comfortable with new people in a new setting.

“But this interaction, however brief, might have primed the toddler subjects toward altruistic behavior, and affected the outcome of the experiment. …

“Barragan and Dweck designed a novel experiment to isolate the effect of the pretest warm-up period. They enlisted 34 one- and two-year-olds …

“The results suggest that altruistic behavior may be governed more by relationships, even brief ones, than instincts.”

My Comment: This is nothing more than a naïve misconception.

The conclusions of the scientists sound too categorical. I would soften the wording a bit and use the magic words, “as far as it seems.” “As far as it seems, the acts of humans are also managed by altruistic intentions. Among apes there are no intentions like these, while among humans who have developed, it could be that they exist.” After all, the assumption of the scientists is not clear at all.

They say that altruism develops under the influence of communication between people, while I see that under the influence of communication, a person becomes more and more egoistic and doesn’t want to take anything into consideration except personal benefit, pleasure, and enjoyment.

Question: Does this mean that altruism is not created even when there is communication between people?

Answer: Certainly not. While communicating, I only see from whom I can profit, enjoy, and rise above. What we consider as altruism is egoism camoflaged to exploit others better.

Question: If this is so, if altruism doesn’t exist, where does this word come from?

Answer: In our lexicon there are many nice and good words: “friendship, love, connection, and mutual affection.” This is what misleads and confuses a person.

Question: Is it possible to acquire altruism somehow?

Answer: This is impossible because in our world on the level of nature in which we live in the communication between us, altruism doesn’t exist. But with the help of a unique method, we can summon the hidden power of nature (call it a “secret”), that, in addition to our nature, develops the characteristic of bestowal in us, the characteristic of unrequited, irrevocable, unconditional love. This is altruism.

But first we must discover the force of nature under whose influence we can become like this. Then we acquire the power of altruism, this possibility, this characteristic. But in no way do we do this with our own abilities.

The entire Torah talks about this. If we use it correctly, and the correct usage of the Torah is the wisdom of Kabbalah, then we can awaken and summon this force and it will transform us into altruists.

Then we will begin to uphold the general rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), which is the goal of the method of Torah.

Question: Suppose I become an altruist and someone else doesn’t, how will I be able to exist along with him?

Answer: You will be able to exist with him on the same level in which he and the whole world are. You will be able to talk with him calmly, work together, study, and do business.

Question: If so, how will the altruism in me be expressed?

Answer: Unlike others, you will not be able to cause anything bad in the world. You will receive from the world only as much as you require for sustaining yourself. In contrast to the others who receive in order to get everything in the world, you simply don’t need this; you have no desire for it. Other than that, you behave like all other people.

Question: Doesn’t it seem that science won’t rise to the level of altruistic deeds?

Answer: Science can rise only to the level of its researchers,  but no more. So it is necessary to develop the scientists, to raise their level.

Question: Is this possible?

Answer: I don’t know if it is easier to elevate the scientists or all of society. Scientists are people who stubbornly hold onto their nature. But I have recently noticed that the general crisis and the crisis within science and all of its manifestations have begun to influence them also.

Big doubts have appeared among them and all sorts of vacillations have begun to appear within science. Other than this, in the exact sciences, they are already talking about changes in nature, about its other possibilities.

While in the inexact sciences like psychology, they will continue to plod along for some time, tailing behind all of the sciences because they are based on only the material nature of humanity.
[200768]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/28/16

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Question: Are there geographical places where the good force or the evil force prevail?

Answer: Yes. There are places on Earth where the positive force operates more and assists a person’s development and other places where it doesn’t.

But, at the same time, I wish to emphasize that the most important thing is the unity between us. By connecting, we ascend by several orders of magnitude higher than the Earth, with all its impact upon us. If people wish to overcome their egoism for the sake of unity, they rise higher than all of nature, so it makes no difference how it affects them or where they are, even if they are in the most terrible place on earth.

It is said that the land of Israel totally destroys its inhabitants and that it is a blessed holy land?!… It is holy only for people who unite because when they do, they receive the life-giving force from it, and if they don’t, this land totally destroys them and throws them out.

I don’t advise you to indulge in different historical and geographical descriptions because if we unite, we will overcome all the problems and they will serve us and will not be against us.

Ignore the different mystic or extrasensory influences, because when people unite, they ascend to stronger levels of influence than any of the earthly influences.

If ten people begin to work between them on establishing a mutual connection, the next level of creation will be revealed between them. They will begin to discover that they are not just ordinary human beings, but they created a special spiritual center, a vessel, in which they will begin to feel the spiritual world, the force that appears between them, the Creator.
[200829]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/14/16

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