Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it (Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning).

Question: Is this how we should look at ourselves and others? Is this how we should see people?

Answer: At each person, yes, that they are someone unique.

Question: Does this mean I cannot take their life, nor force them, etc.?

Answer: You cannot do anything.

Question: What kind of relationship should I have if we are unique? What is that, that my life and his are unique?

Answer: That you are in exceptional circumstances at every moment, and you must take advantage of this according to the rules of absolute interaction, that is, the absolute balance of you and the surrounding world.

Question: What do we do during war when there are countless casualties?

Answer: Even more so such feelings become more acute then.

Question: So the person who kills and the one who defends themselves somehow come to this state?

Answer: Not everyone. But if one thinks about his actual, genuine realization, he comes to the conclusion that every life is inimitable and unique.
[348965]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/7/25

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Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself (Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning).

When a person stands before the absolute, before the realization that he cannot change anything, he understands the necessity of changing himself, that the only possible way to do something, to continue a correct existence in the world is to change himself, from this very moment, to the next, and the next, and the next. And so, step by step, live your life in such a way that in every moment you change yourself.

Question: So do you actually welcome dead ends?

Answer: Of course! How could it be otherwise? If a person does not feel a dead end…

Question: So is a hopeless situation the way out for you?

Answer: Yes, it is like a little toy car. It bumps into something and starts to turn. It bumps again, and turns again. And so it keeps trying until, out of all possibilities, it discovers that there is a way out.

Question: So will a person who moves from one dead end to another eventually find a way out?

Answer: Of course, everything is programmed.

Question: So in principle, as a person, should I sing a kind of hymn to the dead end?

Answer: Certainly! That is the very force of our formation.

Comment: But I always want to avoid dead ends. A person wants to avoid them.

My Response: Can you truly make the right decision without reaching a dead end?

Comment: It isn’t likely.

My Response: Not at all.

Question: What correct decision should humanity make today? It is an essential global question.

Answer: The answer is the same in all cases: to annul oneself.

Question: Is this “annul oneself” understandable to your students?

My Response: It must become understandable to everyone else as well.

Question: So what do you mean by “annul oneself”?

Answer: It means that I do not decide what to do, I do not determine the goal, and I do not imagine it for myself and then try to achieve it. I can do only one thing: annul myself before others in such a way that they can achieve their goal.

If I set any other goal for myself besides helping others, it means that I am standing in their way. If I annul myself, then I help them move toward their goal. And as a result, everyone should be busy in precisely this way—helping others achieve their goal.

Question: What then happens to my “I”?

Answer: That is when this “I” is revealed as a collective common self within which the upper force of nature, the only one existing and guiding force, is revealed.
[349173]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/15/25

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The question was not just survival, but there had to be a “why” of survival. The question was survival for what? Unless there was something or someone, a personal cause for whose sake to survive, there was survival scarcely possible. (Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and philosopher, survivor of Nazi concentration camps)

Question: If I look to the future, do I not notice what is happening around me?

Answer: No, you look at everything around you as conditions for achieving your goal.

Question: Are you saying that this is given in order to me to achieve my goal?

Answer: Yes, and all this is necessary for me in order to formalize the end goal.

Question: So at some point, can you even be grateful for the most terrible thing?

Answer: Of course. You feel, and eventually reveal, that everything that happens is only for you, you personally, to achieve your goal.
[348897]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 9/29/25

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Question: If we take the upper governance, the Creator, and look at the human world, at these eight billion people as the Creator does, is there a specific place a person should be, and what is his place, in general? Or is there nothing that specifically belongs to a person?

Answer: That is pure psychology. It is possible to throw a person anywhere, and he will get used to it and will consider it his home.

Question: Does it mean a person can make this step and say, “This land is my home”? Can he move from place to place and live this way?

Answer: Yes. As soon as I realized that I had to move to Israel, I immediately moved from Belarus to Lithuania. I found myself in a different atmosphere.

Question: To make it easier to leave?

Answer: Yes. The first question was “When are you leaving?” In Belarus they were afraid to say this. That is all. Everything was quite simple.

Question: Meaning, a person has to accept what already currently exists and embrace it?

Answer: Yes, cut off his past.
[349253]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/17/25

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Question: Is it possible for relationships between people to be built only on good things? Between friends, between husband and wife, without quarrels, divorces, and suffering— only good relations, is that possible?

Answer: No, everything is attained only from destruction. Therefore, a person who has not gone through all these periods of “ups and downs,” rises and falls, is unable to appreciate it. He will not cherish such relationships.

Question: So you even support the feeling of destruction in the connection between people? As if everything is falling apart?

Answer: Of course. It is necessary for them to experience these feelings too so that they guard their relationships and do not allow them to reach such a state.

Question: But those feelings would hang over them, right?

Answer: Absolutely. How could it be otherwise? Two egoists! Could they perform some kind of operation, cut their egoism out of themselves and become sweet, harmless little idiots?

Comment: That would not be good.

My Response: It is impossible! We meet, we bump into each other, and then, having despaired, we begin to understand how life can be built when you strive only for good relationships. You no longer need, as in youth, to be sometimes in bad relations and then in good ones, and so on, but only in good ones.

Question: But that comes through the ups and downs at a young age?

Answer: Of course. Without that, nothing can exist. You must accumulate this arsenal of all kinds of negative feelings and states, and then you will avoid them.
[349440]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 8/14/25

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Comment: An ancient Chinese wisdom says: “Always look on the bright side of things. And if there is none, polish the dark ones until they shine.”

My Response: Because behind everything in the world stands the upper light. And where it seems to you that there is darkness, you must “polish” yourself until that phenomenon begins to shine. Because in every phenomenon, within it, there is the upper light.

Question: So I polish myself in order to see that it is not darkness, but light?

Answer: Yes. Wipe away your egoism, and you will see that the world around you consists only of simple upper light.

Comment: “The trick of life is to die young, but as late as possible.”

My Response: Yes, because being young means always striving forward. Youth is not about years. You can live 200 years and remain young, or be an old man already at 20, extinguished.

It all depends on your aspiration! If you have a yearning to attain the meaning of life, then you are always young. That is the most important thing. It depends on you and on the society you are in, your environment. But under no circumstances should you let yourself be extinguished. That is very important.

Question: Your teacher was called “the runner.” Was he really young for you?

Answer: Next to him, I was the old one. There was a forty-year difference between us. He was born in 1906, I in 1946. He was very strong, powerful, energetic, constantly striving forward, and in that, he was young.

Comment: “The temptation to give up will be especially strong right before victory.”

Answer: Yes, that is always the case. When a person is about to reach the goal, strangely enough, a weakness appears: “Why? What for? I am tired. No way. Nothing.”

At that moment, he must understand that he is being tested for his desire toward the goal. To achieve it, he must add something new, an even greater aspiration. Inject more drive, passion, appreciation of values, the importance of the goal. And then he will reach it.

Question: So he is practically close, but in front of him is a mountain he cannot climb?

Answer: Yes. That is why he must increase the importance of the goal now, to climb, to run up that mountain.

Question: And how does that happen?

Answer: It is the mobilization of inner strength through the importance of the goal.

Question: But logically, shouldn’t a person have more and more strength as he gets closer?

Answer: No, it is like a runner; at the last stage, his strength seems to vanish. That is when he must activate a new reserve, a second wind. A person learns this, and then he succeeds.

Comment: “A friend without flaws does not exist. If you seek flaws, you will end up without a friend.”

My Response: Of course. One must understand this and love a friend with his flaws. And even if these flaws are in your friend, they are actually yours.

Question: So looking at a friend, you are really looking at yourself?

Answer: Yes. You must understand that these flaws are within you.

Comment: But we do the opposite. We generally criticize the world around us.

My Response: Exactly, we criticize. But in truth, we should perceive everything within ourselves. It is very hard!

Comment: Most businesses that fail are those created by friends. Later, they just hate each other.

My Response: They are not educated. That is the whole problem, humanity is not taught how to interact correctly with one another. And we cannot do anything about it.

Each person is such an egoist! And they continue to be raised that way. The more egoism you have, the more you supposedly have the chance to succeed over others. We do not understand that, in the end, true success means being in the right relationship with others.

We have already reached a state where the world is burning out from egoism. It can no longer move forward egoistically. All our grand dreams and everything else are fading.

And only one thing remains—how to go on existing? This is possible only if we begin to value our connection with one another. Within that connection, we will discover purpose, dimensions, an entirely different world.

Question: Can you give the main advice on how to preserve a friendship to the end?

Answer: You need to understand that the bad you see in others is all within you. There is nothing bad around you—only yourself. You should strive to correct yourself until you see a beautiful world in everything around you. Then you will find yourself in the spiritual world, in the Garden of Eden. Turn the hell within you into paradise and you will see that you are in paradise.

But if you do not change the hell inside you, it will seem to you that you are in hell.

If you see hell in another, it is in you. Change yourself, and you will see that you are in a wonderful world.

Comment: “When they speak of my virtues, they rob me. When they speak of my flaws, they teach me.”

My Response: Yes, that is true. It is said in Kabbalah that a friend is someone through whom you discover your flaws. Because in this way, he helps you advance.

Those who praise you weaken your path; they fill you with an unnecessary sense of superiority, perfection, and so on. They do not help at all.

It is among those before whom you feel your negative qualities that you truly develop.

That means a friend is not someone with whom you feel comfortable—“I feel good with you, it is pleasant,” and so on. No, to the contrary. True friends are those who seem to push you away, and you feel you must make an effort to come closer. Those who mobilize you to rise above yourself, those are your true friends.

Comment: “An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, despite time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.”

My Response: Of course. Because from the beginning, we are all connected to one another. Everyone already exists in their own state. And if, as a result of the correction of the common soul, we must somehow meet each other, that is already predetermined by our spiritual genes.

So there is nothing accidental about our meetings or separations. Do not worry.

The main thing is that at every stage of your development when you meet others, be as kind, friendly, and welcoming as possible. Then you will never make a mistake and will always move in the direction of your soul’s correction.

Nothing is accidental. All our meetings are predestined. It is destiny!
[252526]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/9/24

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Question: Can you give any principle ordinary people should live by?

Answer: The principle is very simple—do not worry. That is all.

Question: So all these career ladders are worthless?

Answer: We can see it all crumbling before our eyes.

Question: And the search for the meaning of life?

Answer: The search for the meaning of life is to find a point of balance with the Creator where you understand that everything must go according to His plan. And you ultimately resign yourself to His plan  and float along calmly.

Question: Basically, this whole life path, everything, everything should come down to what you just said? Is it the search for this point of contact with the Creator?

Answer: Yes, find that current, join it, and sail along it.

Question: And when does the kind of calmness that you radiate now come? After all the running, searching, or after touching something, some kind of truth? When?

Answer: I think it might come after 20 years of studying Kabbalah. And if you are in the right environment, even sooner. Because you will hear from everyone, from there and from here, and so on.

Question: And then we return to all these principles, then they become real? Calm, unhurried, do not make God laugh with your plans.

Answer: You do not interfere with any of your plans and actions. You simply live, trying to grasp the flow of life more deeply.

Question: What do I grasp, anyway?

Answer: You grasp what comes from the Creator and carries you away. This is actually time. The river of life.

Question: Time, what do you interpret it as? For me, it can be the ticking of a clock, the passing of time, or aging.

Answer: No, no. It is just a current. A flow. And you feel like you agree with it, are ready to fall into this current and let it carry you.

Question: And is this the right principle, the right way to live your life?

Answer: Yes, you cannot do anything else anyway. Conversely, wisdom lies in submission.
[349313]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/20/25

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Question: “Don’t pay attention to anyone, just live for yourself.” What do you think of such advice?

Answer: That doesn’t solve anything. “Live for yourself,” meaning, I’ll live for myself, I won’t think about anyone else. And then what?

Comment: I’ll die just the same one day, that’s clear. What worries me is that everyone will forget me. All those to whom I gave so much warmth.

My Response: That goes without saying. They will forget.

Question: Then what is the conclusion if everyone forgets me, even those I’ve done so much good for?

Answer: I don’t intend to live in others because they are mortal too. So what is the point of investing myself in them?

Question: What is the point?

Answer: Only to come closer to the Creator.

Question: So I have my own individual purpose?

Answer: Of course, otherwise, what are people for?

Comment: When I say, “I live for others,” it sounds like I live for others. But you say, “I live for others in order to come closer to the Creator.”

My Response: Of course, because others too are here today and gone tomorrow.

Comment: So others and everything else exist only so that I would move and draw closer to the Creator.

My Response: Exactly.

Comment: That means this goal should always remain the main one before a person, the central purpose.

My Response: I can remember how much my parents invested in me, and that never leaves me. But when I look at my grandchildren, they could care less; they don’t feel how much their grandparents gave for them to exist. And so it goes, after one generation, that feeling is almost gone.

Question: So everything in this world is transient, fleeting, and only our closeness to the Creator is eternal?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Then what does it mean to come closer to the Creator?

Answer: To come closer to the Creator means to enter into an endless chain of care for one another. We must feel that mutual care is eternal.

Question: Is it eternal or does it lead to eternity?

Answer: It leads to the perception of eternity.

Question: When we hear, “You can live eternally, feel eternity,” we get nervous and dismiss it. Is it because we are always living for ourselves?

Answer: Exactly.

Question: If we could direct ourselves toward others, would eternity no longer seem like a fantasy?

Answer: Then we would begin to feel eternity. You would as if dwell in others, and in that you would feel infinity. You would draw closer in your feelings to the Creator, and time would disappear; only the feeling would remain.

Question: What is the Creator like? When I say, “to draw closer to the Creator,” what am I really longing for?

Answer: For absolute care for others. For the other!

Question: Without thinking of myself?

Answer: If I can forget myself and think only of the other, then I enter eternity.

Question: Is there not even a little thought of “what will I get in return?” Does that not exist?

Answer: That is your reward. You will begin to feel eternity itself, precisely in your attitude toward the other.

Question: So, is the ultimate goal closeness to the Creator, and everything around us is given for that purpose?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What about wars, suffering, tragedy, and illness?

Answer: Without them, we couldn’t feel all this. They are also necessary. The evil inclination was deliberately created so that we could feel ourselves rising above it.

Question: Is our task to rise above all that?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: I see. Thank you. You have even illuminated that. For people all this suffering is such a pain, and you say, “That too is for the purpose.”

My Response: It is necessary.

Question: But can it be done without it? To just go smoothly through life?

Answer: No, a person can’t do that. He must pass through anger, through the evil inclination; otherwise, he won’t be able to feel the good.
[349494]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/27/25

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Comment: Please comment on some of Albert Einstein’s quotes.

Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.

My Response: Yes, the impossible is the absurd. One who tries to reach something through completely absurd actions, agrees with them, and rises above his reason, which in Kabbalah is called “faith above reason” and that person can truly move forward. All others are in a state of degradation.

Faith is also knowledge, only each time it stands above me.

Question: So do you not accept earthly logic?

Answer: Earthly logic is animal logic. What I can grasp with my mind, whatever it may be, is animal mind, animal logic.

Einstein was great because, although he was not a Kabbalist, he thought like one. That is, I accept nature against my reason: “Such-and-such speed, such-and-such mass—can it change? It changes.”

Mass changes. How can it change? It just does.

Time can flow backward. Why? We do not know why, but let us accept that it can. What we perceive through our senses should not be taken a priori as an eternal constant.

Anyone who wants to see immediate results of his work should go into shoemaking.

Answer: Yes, that is well said. It is good when you do something and see the result right away. You even get paid. You finish your day, make a pair of boots, earn a few rubles, have a drink, eat, go to bed, and snore peacefully.

Comment: But that is what a person wants—to check a box: “The day was spent well.”

My Response: That is what the animal inside us wants. The animal in each of us desires only that! To lie down on a featherbed, snore, and that is it.

Question: So you say that is an animal state? And the human state is not like that?

Answer: A human being cannot be satisfied with that. There is nothing you can do. You were created so that you cannot be satisfied!

Question: But still, is there rest in life?

Answer: No, there is no rest in life. It all depends on a person’s nature. You might want it, but no—and actually, on the other hand, you would not even want that! How could you want it?!

Everyone knows that something is impossible. Then comes a fool who does not know this—and he makes the discovery.

Answer: And the most important thing is that everyone tells him how it should be done, but he cannot, he disagrees. He does not want to do it that way.

Question: But those who tell him that know it is impossible?

Answer: Yes, yet he still does it in his own way, twists it differently, and as a result he opens a new path.

Question: So do you think that science should, in essence, be entered by fools?

Answer: Science should be entered by those who can deny science, and by doing so, advance it each time.

After all, science itself, in principle, progresses through faith above knowledge, just like Einstein, like Tesla, although we know little about him. These are the kinds of revolutionaries I mean.

I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Answer: Absolutely right. I completely agree with him!

I do not think that humanity will restrain itself in the next world war, if it happens. It depends only on whether the Jews fulfill their historical function. If they unite, then it will not happen and we will reach unity by a good path. If not, then through immense suffering—ours and the world’s.

Question: Do you think that humanity, in the next war, if it happens, will not restrain itself from using weapons of destruction?

Answer: That it will not restrain itself—absolutely! The only question is to what extent it will not.

Because there are people who say that limited nuclear wars are possible, but I cannot imagine anyone being able to hold back.

After all, nuclear weapons are now in the hands of many countries that are quietly sitting and waiting.

I am afraid Einstein is right. If there is a world war, it will push humanity back by many, many thousands of years.
[243224]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/26/18

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In the News (CNBC): “Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has a problem with the way kids are being taught in the U.S. today. And he says there’s a simple question that can help: ‘Why?’ …

““The why of things is extremely important because our brain has evolved to discard information that it thinks has no relevance,” Musk says. …

“For example, simply listing the tools you need to take an engine apart isn’t enough to learn how to do it. You also need to try it yourself, he suggests.

“By ‘taking the engine apart and putting it back together,’ he says, ‘you learn about wrenches and screwdrivers and all the tools that you need.’ As a result, ‘you understand the relevance.’

“And he’s right. A 2015 study by the University of Chicago found that students’ understanding of science concepts, such as angular momentum and torque, was significantly aided by physically experiencing those forces. Students got higher scores on their science quizzes all thanks to trying things out themselves.

“Elon Musk believes that ‘solving abstract mathematical problems and equations brings no concrete benefit; schoolchildren do not understand why it is needed.’ Instead, he suggests that students ‘study concepts from mathematics and physics in practice, for example, by taking apart engines or building a satellite.’

In his opinion, ‘designing satellites and dismantling engines will give a sufficient understanding of mathematics and physics, while the ability to use a wrench and screwdriver will have practical use.’”

My Response: That is true. I completely agree with him. Theoretical study does not give anything.

Comment: But we studied everything theoretically.

My Response: And what is the use? I studied the strength of materials, metal sciences, and so on, so what? If it is not in practice, there is no point. I think otherwise you cannot master technology. Theory is theory. Mathematics, for example, is theory. There is nothing you can do about it. But it is not really a science; it is a language.

I believe that it is absolutely necessary to give students assignments, let them think, work it out among themselves, and arrange group activities; that is very good. They will begin to dig into everything. Today they already know how to open Google and everything else, how to extract knowledge from the Internet.

Question: Why do you think this has to be in a group? Musk does not write or talk about that.

Answer: Group work is absolutely necessary; today everything works only like that because the world has come to a state where it must group together. One person not only will not be able to do anything and will not manage, it is the wrong thought, the wrong approach.

Question: Will the participants of group work combine their skills and talents?

Answer: They will have to find contact among themselves and thus assemble from their different qualities. I remember, even as students, in order to finish a lab assignment faster, we would work as a group of several people. Someone would write the report, which had to be handed in within two hours, someone else would help with the sources, and I would assemble the machine itself, the wires. For me it was easy. It was amazing how well it went for me!

And each one in his place; it was very good, a team.

Question: So could there be exactly such schools of the present and the future?

Answer: Yes, I think it is a very good thing. After all, we are not teaching children about discoveries, but about what exists in life. Therefore we must deliberately give them machines, instruments, anything, so they can use them to learn about the elements of nature.
[212856]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/10/24

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