Question: It is said that the Creator has prepared the application of efforts in the Torah and the commandments for us in this world to turn the desire to receive into the desire to bestow. How can we understand this?

Answer: There is a tool with which we can change ourselves from receivers to givers so that we strive to give to another, and not receive from him. This is due to the influence of the Torah and the commandments on us.

The Torah and the commandments are a mechanism that affects us and changes us from recipients to bestowers.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/4/22

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Question: How do we know when and what question we can ask you?

Answer: It is impossible! To do this, you need to understand what state I am in, what can be revealed, what cannot be revealed, and so on. The answers to the questions are given in accordance with the needs of society, general and personal ones, the needs of individual groups, the world group, and the entirety of humanity.

All this changes like water in a raging sea, it flows and moves in different directions. Everything is unpredictable.

Comment: It sometimes happens that one can prepare for a lesson and just go through the questions. But when we adjust to your condition, the answer can be much more effective.

My Response: Of course. But do not buy me by saying that you can adjust to me, and you will be effective, and so on. To do this, you need to feel what I feel, and be in the same state, direction, rhythm, and movement. Then you will feel that now is the time to ask a question.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Ask a Kabbalist a Question” 3/6/13

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The branch desires, loves, and covets every conduct in the root, and does not tolerate and hates any conduct that is not in the root.

This is an unbreakable law that applies to every branch and its root (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, Inner Observation, Chapter 4, Item 19).

Question: The Creator, who is the desire to bestow and not to receive, is our root. Yet we, who are a branch of this root, do not like to bestow and to unite. Where is the logic here?

Answer: We are the product of this consequence. Here happens the division into source and effect. Our source bestows, emanates, loves, and develops. And we are His consequence. This is why we love everything we receive from Him. We want to receive everything pleasant from Him, but we do not want to receive His qualities.

It turns out that we do not want to acquire His qualities, but we want what He fulfills us with.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/4/22

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Question: How can we who are so small suddenly move the worlds? You said that when a little child just gives a cry, his mother immediately runs up to him and does whatever he wants.

Answer: Yes, the smallest is the strongest.

Question: Even those who are just starting their advancement?

Answer: But they are doing it! They want to get in touch with the Creator. Yes, they are the strongest.

Even though they do not understand anything, like a baby who is lying in a cradle and screaming. The baby does not even realize that he is crying—he is just in pain, and this is a natural scream. He does not realize that in this way one can call a mother who will come and give him something. He has no understanding of the chain of actions he invokes. He is screaming because it is a natural reaction to what is happening to him.

Question: Can we say that someone who is trying to read, for example, the Torah or Kabbalistic sources, begins to give this cry?

Answer: Yes, of course. But not just to read, especially the Torah. The Torah will not help here. One needs either The Book of Zohar or some other Kabbalistic books.

Comment: But I mean not the external principle of reading, but the internal one—the search for oneself, the search for what is inside me.

My Response: No, besides this, a book that can evoke the upper light most brightly is needed. The Book of Zohar is the most effective one.

Question: That is, your advice is to read without understanding?

Answer: That is my advice because I went through this with Rabash. That is my advice because this is how it works. We used to read The Book of Zohar for only half an hour in the evening before going to bed. And it was just reading without any comments.

There were 20 people sitting around the table with Rabash at the head, and for half an hour we took turns reading: the first one, then the second, the third, and so on. So, we read a page or two, and went home. This is how the day ended.

But when Rabash and I studied alone on trips, in personal conversations or lessons, there was a different attitude. We came to the park, walked around, and then sat down on a bench. I pulled out a book, and we discussed the book or just talked for about two hours. After that, we again walked around and went home. And so it was for 12 years.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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It has already been explained that a corporeal essence is separated and divided by the force of motion and remoteness of location, and a spiritual essence is separated and divided by disparity of form.

According to the measure of disparity of form from one another, so is the measure of the distance between them. If the disparity of form comes to complete oppositeness, from one extreme to the other, they become completely severed and distinct (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 3, Item 15).

Question: In our world, we are completely opposite to the qualities of the Creator, and therefore we do not feel Him at all. Is there any other reality in which we are even more opposite to the Creator? Or is this the most extreme point?

Answer: Man by his nature is absolutely opposite to the Creator. Out of all types of desires—inanimate, vegetative, and animate, there is nothing more distant from the Creator than man. Therefore, in the future, as a result of his correction, there will be no object closer to the Creator.

Question: Man is the most distant in qualities from the Creator. Is this called “our world”? Is this the most remote condition or are there even worse ones?

Answer: No, there are no worse ones.

Question: In the process of our development, are we distancing from the Creator or getting closer to Him?

Answer: We are getting closer by distancing. The fact is that we see ourselves constantly distancing from the Creator, that is, not similar to Him. At the same time, we have the opportunity to become like Him. This is the paradox of our development.

In principle when we develop naturally, we feel ourselves further and further away from the Creator as the will to receive in us becomes greater and greater. But, on the other hand, there is an opportunity to come closer to Him. As it is said: “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.”
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 11/20/22

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Know that the whole matter of innovation that the Creator had innovated with this creation…applies only to the form of the desire to enjoy imprinted in every created being. Nothing more was innovated in creation… (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 4, Item 18).

Question: What does this innovation that applies to the form of the desire to enjoy mean?

Answer: The innovation is the desire to enjoy, which appears, develops, and determines all created beings in all their forms.

Question: What does from absence mean? Does this mean that the Creator does not have this desire?

Answer: From absence means that there was no such desire before. The act of the appearance of desire from absence is the act of the Creator. Apart from this, there is nothing new in the entire universe.

Question: Does it mean that He created a desire to enjoy that did not exist before?

Answer: Yes, this is the action of the Creator. Everything else goes on according to the same principle.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/4/22

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One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of true harmony (Haruki Murakami).

Question: What do you think about it? Is all this really necessary?

Answer: You see this is the Japanese mentality to some extent. Naturally this is a kind of convex materialism where one thing cannot exist without the other and is the result of the struggle of opposites.

Such a saying is suitable for our world. It is one of many that speaks of an unbalanced world in which there is no perfection, but for some reason the world is striving for it.

Question: How do these mundane things that Murakami writes about apparently transfer into some other things in people at certain points of higher development?

Answer: We must reach a state in which we would become convinced that the struggle is necessary, opposites must open up, and we must bring ourselves to our starting point in which we were born.

At this point a person must attain them, come to terms with them, connect with them, and achieve true harmony. That is, harmony begins when we achieve the unity of opposites.

A person must agree that what is offered to him in the form of a world of struggle of opposites is in fact our illusory world. And if we advance correctly, then instead of these two opposite forces—for example, yin – yang—we will disclose a single force that lies inside these two opposites and gives birth to them only so that they reveal this force itself.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/18/22

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Now you can understand the root of the corruptions that were incorporated promptly in the thought of creation, which is to delight His created beings.

“God has made them one opposite the other.” In that state, the turbid, corporeal body is set before us, of which it was said, “For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.” This is so because its entire nursing from its youth is from the yeast of the Klipot. (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 4, Item 17)

The root of all the suffering and problems is only in the will to receive, in the desire, not just to enjoy, but to enjoy for one’s own sake

Question: Then why did the Creator create these desires?

Answer: In order for us, despite the desire to enjoy, to prefer the desire to bring pleasure to others so that we would rise above the desire to bring pleasure to ourselves and turn it into a desire to please others.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 11/20/22

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Question: Did you demand answers for your questions from Rabash?

Answer: No. The fact is that there are times when a student cannot formulate a question; there is no corresponding requirement in him. This process is cumulative and gradual. It happens that months or even years pass until a demand arises in him through the teacher to the Creator.

In addition, he has a lot of questions that he cannot express. Sometimes there is something in us, but it cannot be expressed. These questions remain within the student, and he does not want to ask the teacher. Something holds him back.

There are many states where there are no questions to the Creator. Something seems to be hiding from us. There is some kind of protection, isolation, and distance, and there is no way to break through it. The student can be in such states for years.

In the meantime, the teacher can depart to another world. Questions remain. It depends on the student how he can present them to the Creator.

But serious daily classes prepare him to move independently and to identify these questions even after the teacher leaves.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/22

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Turkey on the Rise”

Mutlu Meydan is a long-time student of mine. Although he was born in Turkey, he discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah and began to study with me while living in Sydney, Australia. That was more than twenty years ago. Following his heart, he moved to Israel to be with the study group I lead in Israel, and while here, he began to teach Kabbalah to people in Turkey. A few years ago, he moved back home and since then, he has devoted every spare minute to his students.

I spent all of last weekend with the students that Mutlu had introduced to Kabbalah, and I was in awe. Their questions, their understanding of the principles of the wisdom, and their willingness to connect with one another from heart to heart in order to reveal what Kabbalah teaches filled my heart with joy. I am grateful to Mutlu, and more than delighted to discover that in the spiritual sense, Turkey is a country on the rise.

The Turkish nation is an ancient one, with a glorious past and a unique present. It is a hub of cultures and faiths, and its population is diverse. On the one hand, it is a member of NATO, and on the other hand, it is a Muslim country, giving it a pivotal position in international politics.

The Turkish Kabbalah students are unique among my students around the world in that they are young, mostly under thirty. Typically, people discover the wisdom of Kabbalah not before their late 30s or early 40s, when they begin to ask about the meaning of life. But in Turkey, people as young as 18 or slightly older already ask these serious questions and are willing to exert themselves in order to find the answers.

Over the weekend, we spent hours together, conversing and learning, and the people were fully involved, attentive, and responded intelligently to my answers to their questions. But most importantly, they were affectionate toward each other, indicating that they have truly grasped the gist of the wisdom: connection and love of others.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches how to connect people’s hearts above chasms of culture, faith, and ethnicity. Evidently, this idea sits well with the wonderful people I have met in Turkey, and it seems to me that many more will follow. Given Turkey’s central position in the world, I believe that if more people embrace the principles of unity above differences, the country will have a significant and positive effect on the entire world.
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Michael Laitman and Mutlu Meydan

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