Comment: Baal HaSulam writes that the singularity of the language of the Ari is that his words cannot be materialized. After all, when I read a story from the Torah, for example, I begin to imagine people, animals, some wars and events because the Torah is written in the language of branches.

And when I read about Keter, Hochma, and Bina, and some kind of interaction between them, I do not have any associations, and thus I do not materialize them.

My Response: Yes, it is very important! In no case should we assume that the Torah speaks about our world! It speaks only about the inner world of man. And therefore it is imperative to transfer everything that we read in it into ourselves and not imagine that we see our world and everything that happens in it like in a theater.

Thus, the singularity of the Ari’s method, compared with the method that existed thousands of years before him, is firstly the language itself, which does not allow us to materialize everything that is written.

And secondly it is the method itself, where you draw upon yourself the light that builds a screen in you and allows you to objectively explore the upper world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/2/22

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Comment: When you teach certain levels of the Study of Ten Sefirot (TES), it is hard to understand at first, but later these layers become revealed.

My Response: I teach very simply since I give elementary information. It is just that today people are not able to comprehend it and they do so even less than they did before. Let’s say thirty years ago this information was simply understood, absorbed, studied, memorized, and used in a purely logical way.

Today, egoism has grown so much that it cannot tolerate simple knowledge, it must necessarily apply it to itself, and it has become more demanding. This is good after all, as it means we are moving toward practical correction.

What is interesting is that some cannot even tolerate the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (Pticha), not to mention the Study of the Ten Sefirot. People need what they can feel, really understand, and accept.

Take my lessons from 10 or 15 years ago. Look at how much I drew, the drafts I made, and whole panels! At that time I had a large board and I depicted drawings from the beginning of the creation to its end. It took two hours of time and with explanations and graphs. That’s how we worked.

But today people want only one thing: “This is what I need, this is what I want to know, and how do you get it quickly.” This is how egoism works. I’m not blaming anyone; I’m just saying that the ego has changed and that is why it is difficult for us to study such serious materials.

Comment: I remember when you were explaining and drawing, you never seemed to reach MA and BON. I always wanted to find out what was happening after that, but you always stopped in the middle.

Answer: Because MA and BON are rudimentary organs of the upper system that exist in order to pass the light further. But on their own, they have no direct influence on us. That is why we do not study them.

Comment: But how it affected us on the inside! We could clearly feel some truths resonating with us out of your explanations. They may not be as specific as mathematics, but this seems to have been erased.

Answer: Because you are no longer interested in it and your soul’s need for it disappeared.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Exchange of Spiritual Information” 2/15

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Question: What makes the spoken Kabbalistic language different from the written?

Answer: Spoken language, unlike the written language, can convey much more, on one hand, and on the other hand, written language can convey more than the spoken language.

After all, written language is not just the language we use today; there were many other additional symbols in it. People used it for a long time until it was all erased and forgotten. Our great teacher Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) speaks a little about this.

Spoken and written languages are different ways of passing on information. But in general, of course, everything is passed on in written language, especially in our time.

But it was not so before. At one time, written language was used very little since information was mainly passed on orally and memorized. For example, if I hear something from my teacher, I just memorize what he says literally. Gradually, I start to understand these words and begin to understand what I have received from him.

Question: Was it so because much more can be conveyed through oral speech?

Answer: Not only because of that, but because the information was not written down. It was forbidden to simply write it down. That is why there is the oral Torah and the written Torah.

The oral Torah is much deeper and much higher than the written one. It talks about connection with the Creator. The written one is only what we can write down, what we can indicate, what we can understand and comprehend today.

A true Kabbalist can read texts and see all kinds of words between the lines; that is, certain information that was intended to be passed orally, but was not written down.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/26/22

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In the News (“Harvard Developed AI Defines the Shortest Path to Human Happiness”): “Researchers have created a digital model of psychology aimed at improving mental health. The system offers great personalization and recognizes the shortest path to a cluster of mental stability for any individual. …

“Deep Longevity has published a paper on Aging-US outlining a machine learning approach to human psychology in collaboration with Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, an authority on happiness and beauty. …

“The article describes an AI -based recommendation engine that can estimate a person’s psychological age and future well -being based on a developed psychological survey. AI uses information from a respondent to place them on a 2D map of all possible psychological profiles and take ways to improve their long -term well -being. This model of human psychology can be used in digital self -help applications and in therapist sessions.”

Question: The model gives recommendations on how to live to be happy. Do you believe that this is possible?

Answer: No. What is happiness?

Comment: Scientists assumed that a person would be healthy, for example, would feel good, and would have money…

My Response: So will they be able to do that?

Question: Artificial intelligence gives a person recommendations on how to live. And he follows these recommendations. And he feels: “What state am I in? Am I happy or not? Oh, I feel good now,” I will follow the next recommendation. Thus, I live by recommendations. Is it possible to live life like this?

Answer: No, because, as it is said, human nature is egoistic from the beginning. And that’s why he only thinks about him feeling good compared to others.

Question: Does this additive ruin everything?

Answer: Sure. One cannot feel happy if others feel as good as he does. At least a little less. This is nature! There’s nothing you can do!

Comment: Then basically it’s a failure, because if everyone is happy next to me, I won’t have a feeling of happiness.

My Response: Of course. How can it be? Everything on the same level? Then I lose any feeling that I am happy.

Question: What needs to be done to make a person happy?

Answer: To make others less happy. This is what is being done now with the help of wars. If others are less happy, I already feel happier. Everything is perceived only in comparison.

Question: So this artificial intelligence, in theory, should program everything so that you will be happy when you see that others will be below you? I will do my best for you to see it?

Answer: Yes. If we had such glasses to make us feel that way, it would be great. Everyone would walk around, look down on each other and not understand: “Why are others looking down also? Why are others smiling? I’m above them in everything.”

Comment: This is a great patent for our world! How about ideally, on a high score?

My Response: Ideally, when you take care of others, this will be your destiny and a sense of happiness. And then no one will bother you. You can make everyone happy. And so each of them can also make others happy. Meaning, I feel good from doing good to another. This is the only way it can be implemented.

Question: Can artificial intelligence reach such a turn?

Answer: It will break down doing this. The machine will break down.

Question: Yes, this won’t fit in it. But is humanity advancing to this one way or another?

Answer: It is coming to the realization of evil, but not to the solution of the problem itself.

To solve this problem, they will have to come to Kabbalists. And then they will discover on a whim from above that there is such a way out, such a teaching that lifts them to another level, to another nature, to the quality of bestowal, love! And they don’t need anything else besides that. With the help of this new nature, they will build absolutely everything!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/18/22

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Comment: A few thousand years ago, the spiritual method was such that a person could reveal the upper force through great suffering and their justification. Since the time of the Ari, another method became relevant—the need to develop the screen. There is no longer the need to suffer because that method did not affect the increased egoism.

My Response: In the method of the Ari, by reading about the lights, the screen, the ten Sefirot, and the interaction between them, even without understanding what is written about, a person draws the surrounding light upon himself, which begins to build a screen in him. And gradually, through it, a person begins to connect with the upper world.

With this method, you can achieve the opposite of egoism (qualities of bestowal and love), get out of the ego, and begin to feel the opposite quality of nature.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/2/22

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Question: The Ari described the system of relations between souls. It is called the system of lights and screens. Did he, in principle, do something that no one before him had done? I mean, were the language, the approach, and the system itself new?

Answer: Everything was new: the system, the methodology, the approach. The Ari made a revolution in the attainment of the one single upper force in the world that governs everything and with which we can interact, reveal, and understand.

Comment: Let’s say, I have a certain desire and you have a certain desire. The Ari described the connection of how my desires can connect with yours, how my fulfillments can correspond to your fulfillments as well as to other people, everyone included.

My Response: He described the laws of commutation between man and the upper single governing force of the world.

Before the Ari Kabbalists felt and described what was happening to them. He, in addition, revealed the reason for these sensations. This is the most important thing.

Therefore, by studying him, and following his methodology in the course of our lives, we can develop such qualities in us that will help us attain the world in its entirety, not just be passively impressed by it, but become active participants in it.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/2/22

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Kabbalah is the science of how to reach the revelation of the Creator in our world, to feel and grasp Him to such an extent that you can pass it on to other people and to the next generations. Kabbalah teaches how to perceive reality that we cannot feel with the five ordinary senses.

But if it cannot be sensed by our organs of perception, then how can it be perceived by our mind? It cannot! After all, our mind is the result of impressions from our world. As we develop in this world, we build different forms, discernments, and images, all kinds of connections and synapses in our brain.

This is why we are not able to perceive the spiritual world. To do this, we need to develop new organs of perception: to open up new connections between us in our mind and in our heart, which are not present in an ordinary person. But we can do it.

If we gradually build such connections, then they work like synapses in the brain and connect all kinds of concepts and opposites for us. In essence, these are formulas for connecting everything that exists in matter and space.

In this way, we build vessels for perceiving reality within ourselves that is above the corporeal senses and mind, and we begin to feel the spiritual world.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/22, Baal HaSulam “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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Therefore, we must ask, Why then did the Kabbalists obligate every person to study the wisdom of Kabbalah? Indeed, there is a great thing about it, which should be publicized: There is a wonderful, invaluable remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the lights that surround their souls (Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot).

The fact is that Kabbalistic texts speak about the structure of the soul and the structure of the entire system of spiritual forces. By studying them, we awaken these spiritual forces that influence us with greater intensity and develop us with greater speed in the correct direction.

Therefore, by studying Kabbalah in a group with a certain number of people who yearn for the same goal, the revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the upper world, advances us very intensively.

If a person along with everyone in the group reads, say The Book of Zohar, and utters some words he does not understand the meaning of, he still awakens the surrounding light with his desire, which then becomes his inner light.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/19/22

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Need to Get Out – My Personal Story”

I remember how everyone looked at me 50 years ago in Belarus when I said that I had to leave there and go to Israel, that I had no other choice and wanted nothing else in life ‎other than to come there, to Israel. People pressured me from all directions, “Don’t leave!” “What will you do there?” “They might put you in jail!” and many other warnings. But I could not listen; I knew I had to go, that that was my way.

After I submitted my application to the Soviet authorities to emigrate to Israel, I became a refusenik for several years. Refuseniks were people who applied for an emigration permit from the former Soviet Union to Israel, but the authorities rejected their application. Eventually, however, I received the permit and made Aliyah (lit. “ascent,” a term that designates ‎ emigration to Israel).

But when I arrived in Israel, the story repeated itself. I started asking questions, looking for someone to explain to me why we live, what is the purpose of life. Again, people looked at me awkwardly. “Why? What is it you need?” they asked me. I had to get answers to the questions about the universe and existence, and I knew that here, in Israel, the answer must ‎be found.‎

In this way, I was led from above to the land of Israel, where, after a long search, on a rainy winter night, I was led to my wise and kind teacher, RABASH. He opened the books of Kabbalah to me and showed me the inner meaning of the teachings of Israel. He answered my questions one at a time, with scientific logic and in perfect order, questions that had been ‎haunting me since childhood.‎

Like RABASH’s father, the great kabbalist Baal HaSulam, my teacher lived and taught within the Jewish Orthodox community. My calling was to be a cornerstone in bringing the wisdom of Kabbalah to the general public, to secular people. When I began teaching, people had no need for it. “What is it, philosophy?” they asked, “Is it some kind of psychology?” “Why do I need it? Isn’t it a religion?” “Do I have to pray three times a day?” Very gradually, I learned to explain the wisdom, and people began to understand what it is ‎really about.

In part, my own efforts contributed to this process. I was willing to do literally anything to make Israelis realize what a treasure they have. In time, nature took its course and an inner urge to know the wisdom began to emerge in people, a craving to understand where we ‎come from and where we are going.

Today we are approaching the same state that I felt in Russia and in Israel, a state that until ‎today came only to a few. It will become a torrent that will push us into the straits, because if ‎previously, we could settle for an apartment that we bought with great efforts, a good salary, a guaranteed pension, and even occasional trips abroad, soon these satisfactions will no longer motivate us to get up in the morning. We will feel that we cannot go on ‎living like this; material satisfactions will no longer satisfy us.

The worsening situation in Israel will add to the heaviness, and we will feel that we are suffocating, that we are cornered and have nowhere to run, that we must break out, out of the dark and narrow dungeon and into the daylight, to a place where there is spirit!

This narrow place is our life, where we feel alone and our eyes are always looking for fleeting corporeal pleasures. We feel the spirit of life only when we break out from the straits ‎ into the feeling of others, when we include our brothers in us, care for them, and unite with them as one.‎

This duty is hidden in the teachings of Israel, in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the method ‎to break out of our own boundaries into the hearts of our friends, and from there to include the whole world, all the people, and even animals, plants, and minerals. Kabbalah is the teaching that leads us into connection with the upper force that creates everything and sustains everything, and includes everything and everyone within it.

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Comment: There is so much depth in the articles we read! It seems like I have already heard it, read it ten times, and ten times there is something new.

My Response: It is because you need not to read, but to attain. You need to change yourself, to rise above yourself. Then the content will be within you.

Question: Let’s say you look at the text and enter into it, how do you make all these transformations?

Answer: I do not enter into anything. It surfaces inside me. Or you can say that I am speculatively entering the spiritual world inside me.

Question: While studying, for example, The Book of Zohar, you give us certain recommendations: read in this way, think in that way, together, and everyone adapts to it. But you are still talking, and what we hear is limited, we do not really hear what you are asking us to do.

Perhaps this is our fantasy working. How well do your students work with the material that you give?

Answer: I cannot say. They work as much as they can. I am both satisfied and dissatisfied, but this is what it is.

Question: While studying, should a person just endure it or look for something within himself? For example, you give definitions, but they are so abstract that there is nothing to cling to in order to find these images within me.

Answer: Search—everything is within you! I understand that you cannot grasp where it is in you. It is spinning somewhere out there, but it is not clear exactly where. This is the work.

Question: What about fantasy, when a person begins to invent something for himself?

Answer: This is wrong. We need not fantasy, but attainment and work in a group.

Question: What is the difference between attainment and understanding?

Answer: You understand with a brain that is silly and disconnected from reality. You do not know if this is correct or not. Today you understand it this way and tomorrow in a different way. It is logical in accordance with some facts and with some theory that is inside you. This is an understanding or even, maybe, an awareness.

Attainment, however, is something that leaves no doubt and cannot be changed since it is the revelation of the Creator’s system within you to the extent that you have become similar to it. Meaning, this is absolute!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Study Kabbalistic Texts?” 2/16/13

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