Question: I saw a documentary showing how prisoners participate in circles, like workshops, in which they connect. They reveal all sorts of childhood desires and often scream to release them.

Will similar things happen in our case? Or does the upper light smooth everything out and make our process gentler?

Answer: We are not dealing with psychology, but with Kabbalah, and we go through much more complex states. Simultaneously, our Kli (vessel) constantly expands, our sensations become more powerful, and we can contain more within ourselves. Therefore, we do not experience such psychological outbursts as in the groups you mentioned.

On the contrary, a person who advances in the study of Kabbalah appears much calmer externally. That is not because they are working on themselves to restrain emotions, but because, under their screen, there is an enormous capacity for desires, feelings, and sensations.

Thus, they can calmly endure states that would be difficult for an ordinary person to bear in our world.

Otherwise such a person might lose their sanity, as neither their nerves nor mind could handle it. But in Kabbalah it is possible precisely because we are constantly developing our Kli.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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Question: Is your Hebrew based on a limited vocabulary?

Answer: Yes, indeed, but no more is needed.

In the last century, there were two great Kabbalistic sages: our great teacher Baal HaSulam and the great Kabbalist Rav Kook. Rav Kook always told Baal HaSulam that he envied his small vocabulary, with which he could convey huge layers of knowledge, sensations, and insights.

Rav Kook himself was, so to speak, the master of the spiritual word, the literary language. His language is very flowery, verbose, complex, and confusing. As long as you read one phrase, a page and a half long, like Leo Tolstoy, you can hardly understand anything. But that’s how he expressed himself. It also depends on the character of the person.

As for me, since at my core I am still a researcher, scientist, and systematiser, I do not tolerate anything superfluous. Therefore, in my speech, in my explanations, I try to make everything concrete.

I believe that this is the most important thing in human education. And feelings already depend on his inner work.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalist’s Limitation” 4/17/10

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Question: Do Kabbalah lessons have a statute of limitations? Why do we keep recording and updating them?

Answer: Firstly, Kabbalah is being updated with each generation as new souls descend into our world and require a suitable exposition of Kabbalah.

Of course Kabbalah does not change. The structure of the universe is unchanging. But since we are changing, we must receive an updated methodological guide to the disclosure of the universe every time. Therefore, every Kabbalist in his generation felt responsible for this and added something to Kabbalah.

Thus, a huge number of Kabbalistic books appeared, which we do not even know, because now, by a happy coincidence, all of Kabbalah has been compiled, assembled, decomposed, analyzed and synthesized for us in the works of Baal HaSulam. Therefore, we do not need to be distracted by other sources.

By the way, I didn’t know about Baal HaSulam at first. They didn’t want to tell me about him. You can’t imagine how many books I went through, what a huge library I had! And now there are only our books left. However, there are also books by Ramhal, AGRA, such recognized Kabbalists. But, in general, apart from the books of Baal HaSulam, we practically do not need anything else.

After I went through all the other books on Kabbalah, especially RAMAK and the more ancient Kabbalists, I realized that there was nothing to do. I am very glad that I discovered Baal HaSulam at the time and settled on him. And to this day, I see that this is the only source for us, not the first among the others, but simply the only one.

And we for our part must also take care of the people who come to us, because they need to adapt the works of Baal HaSulam.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Expiration Date of Kabbalah” 1/31/10

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David asks:

Please explain the phrase that the Torah is given for sinners. And if I do not feel like a sinner, does that mean I cannot study the Torah?

Answer: You can study the Torah. But for the Torah to teach you, you need to feel a little bit like a sinner.

Question: And there is no way around this?

Answer: That is why it is given.

Question: So I should need it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What if I need it for knowledge? There is so much in it.

Answer: No, knowledge has nothing to do with it. The Torah is needed only for correction, for extracting the egoism from a person, and for making a person stand before the Creator one-on-one.

Question: So the path I take through the Torah is my path to the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Did He intentionally give the Torah specifically to sinners? Was it given precisely when we sinned?

Answer: Essentially we are born sinners. And then as we gradually recognize ourselves as sinners, we can appreciate the Torah, its depth, its power, and its ability to correct.

Question: What does studying the Torah mean to you? “I study the Torah…”. What does it mean?

Answer: I study the Torah, which means I act so that the Torah penetrates me and I can absorb its words, its strength, and its convictions. So that this becomes an unshakable part of me, and I think only about how to implement what is written in it. That is, essentially, what we must do.

Question: If you reduce it to something very simple and concise, can you say what is written in it?

Answer: About love, but not in our usual sense.
[329791]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/15/24

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Question: Translations do not give me anything. Even though I do not understand Hebrew, I try to feel the Hebrew letters. And this has an effect.

Can translations serve as a conduit for feelings? Should we still read, for example, The Book of Zohar in the original Hebrew and try to feel it?

Answer: Yes and no. It is not necessary. The Book of Zohar will start to appear before you as a network of forces and attributes within and around you, like an internal and external matrix, and you will begin to feel it.

Question: Do you feel this clearly when you read The Zohar?

Answer: Of course! It is such a power! I am simply astonished, in awe, trying to understand, accept, and interact with it in some way, somewhere, somehow. It is as if you are in some inner and outer space with which you interact.

You study it.

Question: But do you get some kind of satisfaction from this? Or is it a completely different sensation?

Answer: There is no satisfaction comparable to this.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Unlimited Bliss“ 3/7/10

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Comment: You once said that old material is not worth listening to.

My Response: No, there are very good things in the archive. It is just that in subsequent explanations, the presentation of the material becomes more professional as more precise words are found. An accessible explanation is a profession after all.

For example, Baal HaSulam had a very good, unique language—academic, precise, and polished. But in the same era, there were many great Kabbalists, such as Rav Kook, whose works no one understands despite him having written an enormous number of books.

The greatest Kabbalist Baal Shem Tov did not write a single book at all. He deliberately did not want to write. And there were many like him who could or could not write and did so better or worse. For instance, Chaim Vital, who received spiritual heritage from the Ari, eventually collected and published these works at the end of his life, and his son and grandson continued his work.

All this is done gradually because the adaptation of materials to our world is carried out according to the souls that descend here. Can you compare the people who sat before me fifteen years ago and those today? They are completely different people.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Old stuff” 2/1/10

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Question: Are Kabbalistic materials from twenty years ago appropriate for our time?

Answer: We record everything. There are very good materials from those years.

I’m moving with the group. The group is moving forward and no longer needs to chew through the material as it was in those years. Twenty years ago, for the first time, I took the Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah with students: Sefirot, worlds, soul, structure. I chewed it all out for them in a way I can’t do today. I see people in front of me who don’t need to be told this.

Now I have to speak briefly. I express some new, more analytical internal data; synthesize the material from different sides, in different planes, and in a different way, and they already understand this.

That is, the material for beginners is no longer served in the simplicity that it was once taught. On the one hand, this is a big disadvantage. But, on the other hand, there is an archive.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Expiration Date of Kabbalah” 1/31/10

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Question: Is there any difference in the presentation of Kabbalah for people in the past and for those who come now?

Answer: Of course! There is a big difference in the explanation, in the approach, in the specifics, and in the style of presentation. Once upon a time, 20 years ago, you could only speak to people in accordance to what was written in the original sources. For example, the Torah mentions a serpent, and you explained what a serpent is, and so on.

But today, people do not ask about this because they understand this is some kind of allegory. A person requires a specific explanation of what Kabbalah is talking about and what we can achieve with its help.

That did not happen before. Everything was figurative and descriptive. Six hundred years ago the great Kabbalist RAMHAL described Kabbalah as a dialogue between the soul and the body: the body said, the soul said, the body said, the soul said, and the whole book, two hundred pages, was like that. RAMBAM wrote in the form of all kinds of philosophical thoughts and sayings.

That is, each generation, even each society, imposes its own form of presentation.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Old Stuff” 2/1/10

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Question: After one of your lectures, as a rule, a person comes to study the wisdom of Kabbalah all fired up. He or she felt something unusual. This feeling lasts for a while, and then it cools down. Is this his problem or not?

Answer: No, this is how it should be!

Why should I keep him under my influence? Absolutely not! It is necessary for him to start understanding what I have told him and what I have suggested of his own freewill. Under no circumstances should he be left in a state of enthusiasm because then it will be like a drug for him.

He will no longer receive any sustenance from me. The next time he meets me, he will no longer have that initial admiration and perception. He will turn on the analysis, the requirement of the conceptual apparatus, because he needs to progress.

It is like with children: the first time we can entice a child, but after that, we want to involve them in actions.

Question: Usually, those people who initially admire everything become “seasoned wolves” later on. You look at them and their childlike innocence is gone. But how can a person avoid going into a kind of isolation?

Answer: I cannot say anything here. You do not need to think about what he should be like. He will be as he should be. We do not determine his future states. Whatever happens to him is how it should work out.

The main thing is to give him information about internal development, about external opportunities, what he should do, how he should study, read, work in a group, and disseminate—in short, how he should absorb all the material.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Light Narcotic” 1/21/12

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I started studying Kabbalah in 1976 when I was 30 years old. Three years later, I came to Rabash. But even before coming to Rabash, I started to read The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, studied the Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah and other sources. I could not understand anything, but I was already trying to figure them out.

When I came to Rabash, then everything went along the same line. Before that, I sort of went through everything myself: science, philosophy, religion, and I saw that all that was just a delusion, absolutely everything, including science!

They lead a person astray from the right path to the goal of creation, to the meaning of life. So what if I find out how two solutions mix and what happens as a result? Nature around us is a huge sphere; I will scrape some properties, some knowledge, from it a little bit and study what I have scraped together. Am I going to do this all my life? Well, I will scrape together a little. And why? As Einstein said: “Like a little boy, I collect pebbles on the ocean shore.”

All great people have also asked these questions. And the most important thing that pushed them forward was the comprehension of the basis of the universe, its integral formula, that is, the connection between all its parts—what it is for. The whole connection: these X’s, Y’s, Z’s, and so on, what is inside the formula, equal to what? The meaning of life!

“What is it? Will I comprehend it or not?” Science will not give man an answer because he works with his brains and his properties like an animal that begins to scratch the ground with its hoof and sniff what it has found there. So much for science!

Moreover, I do not detract from its importance at all, but simply say that it is necessary to understand its limitations.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Difference between Kabbalah, Science and New Age” 1/28/12

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