Question: What is the connection between bestowal and faith above reason that we must acquire?

Answer: What is the connection between bestowal that I am supposed to acquire (without knowing why, other than being told it is necessary) and faith above reason (which I also need for some unknown purpose? I have no desire, no inner urge for bestowal or faith above reason. I have no idea what these things are.

Whenever I experience rejection, I move to a state where I must reveal the reason why this is happening to me, why I feel bad, and from there, to the question: “Who is doing this to me?” All these questions are essentially about the same thing: my source, the Creator.

Upon encountering this question, I begin to sense that I cannot directly discover the Creator in the events occurring around me. At the same time, I cannot remain at peace, because all these states compel me to reveal Him.

It turns out that I can discover Him not through my five senses, but through faith above reason. What does that mean? It demonstrates the extent of my readiness to proceed not according to my feelings, but above them. That is, I do not want to attain through my intellect who the Creator is or how He acts. I do not want to see exactly what He does. Because in that form, I will never receive any revelation other than an animalistic understanding that there is someone behind everything; I will not attain true awareness.

I must reach a state where I receive some sensation from Him but not within my ordinary senses. I attain something resembling knowledge, yet not through His direct revelation. This is called revealing the Creator in the sixth sense, in the force of faith above reason, which means acquiring the force of Bina, the intention to bestow. Before that, a person does not know what it is.

But if I acquire the quality of Bina, I gain the ability to establish a connection with the Creator through this extraordinary phenomenon called faith above reason. It is a kind of “something, I do not know what.” I have no understanding and no sensation in the vessels of reception, since sensation and understanding are what we receive within our Kelim (vessels).

I have something entirely different that exists above them, a completely different vessel of perception called the reflected light (Ohr Hozer), a spiritual Kli, a sixth sense. What it is, however, we do not know.

A different channel opens within us in relation to the Creator, and it functions in such a way that through it, we reveal Him. Through our ordinary feelings and our ordinary channels of perception, we can never do so.

To give this channel a name, we call it faith above reason. This term is merely an indication that it operates beyond our senses, beyond understanding, beyond everything to which we are accustomed—above all of that, in a different manner.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

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Question: Does the saying, “A judge has only what his eyes can see,” mean that we cannot attribute good things to the Creator if we do not see them?

Answer: It is said: “A judge has only what his eyes can see.” This means that a person must judge the surrounding reality as he perceives it, according to the way it is received in his Kelim (vessels of perception).

If a person is developed to only 20%, then he sees the reality around him according to that degree and cannot perceive it differently. If he wishes to see it differently, he must raise himself to a 30% level of development.

But at every stage, “one who condemns does so through his own flaw.” I always see through my own eyes, through my own Kli (vessel of perception). Therefore, it is impossible to demand that a person understand things differently. Correct him, and then, as a result of that correction, he will behave differently and understand differently.

But a person cannot simply change on his own. Such a change can come only as the result of many blows, study, and influences from the outside. There is no other way. Therefore, “a judge has only what his eyes can see” means that a person perceives reality only through what his Kli is capable of perceiving.

Question: But what if a person tries to think correctly, in a positive direction, even though his eyes do not see it that way?

Answer: If his eyes do not see it, then it is not real for him, and such a state is very unstable. It does not truly belong to him, and he will not be able to take hold of it and maintain it. Only through an inner correction that a person performs within himself can he be certain that he will preserve such a perception, because it then becomes his nature.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/26, Rabash, “What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work?”

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Comment: You say that history has nothing to do with spirituality.

My Response: I was never particularly interested in history, and I absolutely hated it in school. The only aspect that eventually interested me was when I began to understand history from the perspective of the development of the human egoism, the force that determines everything. But this is not what is taught in school.

For example, human egoism drove people to invent the plow, and this enabled a person, through his own labor, to feed not only himself but another ten to twenty people as well. As a result, farms expanded, villages grew, and cities emerged. Then came the invention of the forge, the furnace, and many other things.

Each time human egoism invents something, it turns out to have a profound impact on psychology, sociology, politics, the restructuring of society, and other aspects of life.

What interests me is the interconnection of our egoistic growth in all its manifestations in culture, science, technology, human psychology, family life, urban settlements, and so on. When all of this is viewed as one unified system—why things happen this or that way, stemming from one cause or another—then it becomes truly fascinating.

You begin to see a closed picture within which there is only one changing parameter: egoism. It gives rise to an enormous variety of expressions. Suddenly, printing appears. New musical instruments replace the old ones. Medieval songs give way to new forms of music.

People begin to live differently. To listen to music, one had to go to the theater. There were no tape recorders then, and a person knew that at a specific time he had to arrive at the theater to hear his favorite aria. Then, suddenly, everything changed. This approach to history was what interested me.

Why did geographical discoveries suddenly begin to take place? Why did some countries decline while others flourished?

When you see this dynamic unfolding on completely different levels and realize that there is only one parameter driving it—egoism—it teaches you everything.

First and foremost, it teaches you that the cause lies only in the ego. Therefore, I must get hold of it, work only with it, and pay no attention to anything else. Nothing but egoism can change. It changes everything.

But who can change it? Who created it in the first place? Where did it come from?

There is a parameter called the light that created egoism. It sustains, raises, lowers, and develops egoism. Therefore, I somehow need to influence the light. When it shines more strongly, egoism grows; when it shines less, egoism subsides and fades.

How can I reach the light? I cannot reach it directly at all; it is a substance completely detached from me.

However, it is possible to influence it. There is a kind of diaphragm that opens and closes regulating how much light shines upon my egoism. And what is this diaphragm? It is a connection with others like me, bestowal, and love.

It does not matter whether you truly love them or genuinely bestow upon them. If you want to draw the influence of the light upon yourself, then try in some way—even artificially, even just a little—to come closer to such a connection with others. That is why we gather in a group where all of us ask the same question: How can we draw the influence of the light upon ourselves?

It is very simple. Let’s start coming together, talking to one another, inspiring one another, encouraging and spurring each other on toward this, and the light will begin to shine upon us more strongly. The egoism within us will start to stir. It will bring about ever greater changes, and we will begin to run, to roll forward. That is all there is to it.

If we could explain everything in this simple and beautiful way to other people, to our children, and to ourselves, then… . You see, it takes five minutes to tell the whole story.

After that, there is no problem either. Just continue attracting the upper light through ever greater unity among friends who share the same goal of drawing the influence of the light upon themselves.

For what purpose? We want to develop. We want to rise higher. We want to accelerate our process. We do not want to remain in this dreadful, slow process that simply frays our nerves. Another day passes and another while we remain in a terrible depression, in a kind of unending sleep.

That is all. Gather together, make the effort, draw upon yourselves the influence of the upper light, and move forward.

Question: And where does it all end?

Answer: Draw enough upper light, not merely to further develop your egoism further, but to transform it and make it like the light itself. Then you will cross the potential barrier and ascend to the next level, just like an electron, under the influence of a photon, jumps to a higher orbit.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Kabbalah for 5 minutes” 10/11/10

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We wait for positive changes to happen on the outside. They won’t! We have to come to the conclusion that changes for the better can occur only if we change from within ourselves. That is when we will begin to depict our world the way we want to see it! That is what we have to do.

Question: Does our nature depict the world now? Does our egoism depict the world?

Answer: Yes

Comment: You are supposed to be enjoying yourself, but I am not. This is my state right now.

My Response: Egoism has finished its development. It shows you the entire world you exist in. That is all it can give you. Ultimately it will press down on you and crush you to the point that you cannot exist in this world. You will feel so bad, nauseous, fearful, uncomfortable, in other words, in any possible way.

This is solely so you understand that there are no more changes to be made on the outside. We have gone through all stages of our egoistic development; we have reached a state where the next step is simply to slaughter one another. This is it, there is nothing else.

Question: What should I say to my egoism now that I have understood that my egoism has depicted the entire picture for me?

Answer: You should say that egoism is right, that it has done its job; it brought you to the state where you are in complete disappointment and have to understand that you must not exist in such a paradigm. Must not!

What should you do? You have to correct yourself and then the world will be corrected too. This is a totally different methodology.

Comment: I should not correct the world, but correct myself…

My Response: You should correct the world by correcting yourself.

Comment: Yes, this is not easy!

My Response: It’s not easy, but this is a good moment in history when we indeed have to change the source of our development, the system, the methodology of our development. Our development will depend not on breaking nature that surrounds us, but on how we will be changing ourselves. As a result, the world will be changing.

Question: You keep saying: “Change yourself.” What exactly do you imply by “changing yourself?”

Answer: This is simple: change my evil attitude to everything that surrounds me from an exploitive and egoistic attitude to a kind and altruistic one.

Comment: A warm, kind attitude.

My Response: Yes. Then I will begin to see the world differently. I will start to see through it a different system of governance.

Question: And what will I receive pleasure from? After all, it is a person who receives pleasure.

Answer: I will be bonding with this world, will be attaining its eternity, infinity, perfection, something that I do not see now because I look with my limited egoistic eyes.

This is what lies ahead of us.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 5/15/26

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Question: What should I do if a terrorist wants to kill me?

Answer: It is said in the Torah that if someone comes to kill you, you must kill him first. The Torah speaks a lot about how people came out of Egypt and how many enemies they killed. How many did King David, who was constantly at war, kill? Warfare back then was not what it is today.

In those days tens of thousands of people were killed in face to face combat. This is not like modern warfare where a few bombs are dropped merely to pave the way for peace negotiations. Back then, how many men actually returned from the battlefield? In those times when there was a battle, it was a real battle!

Yet, even in those times, there were individuals who had attained high spiritual degrees, and a profound and accurate perception of reality. This was especially true in the times of the First Temple, and to some extent during the era of the Second Temple.

Did they not fight, did they not kill? What did the Maccabees do? They were Kabbalists of the highest caliber; they certainly perceived the spiritual dimension, the reverse side of our world.

The source of confusion lies in the fact that we do not see the spiritual world, and are merely attempting to imagine what it looks like from the reverse side.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

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There is no permission to inform a person how much longer is one given to live in this world; one is not to be informed of this. But Rabbi Shimon was in great joy on the day of his demise, and there was great joy in all the worlds because of the many secrets he had revealed then (Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 3, VaYechi, item 157, “When His Time Comes to Depart from the World”).

The departure of a righteous person is like the purification of a Partzuf. When a person leaves their degree and passes from world to world, and especially when leaving the lowest degree, this world, it is a great joy.

Although it does not appear so to us and we think we are living in a wonderful world, we simply have not yet seen anything else besides it. But one must reveal the spiritual world, as it is said: “You shall see your world in your lifetime,” and then we will understand where we truly are.

If a person completes their mission, they no longer need to return to this world, as was the case with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who attained final correction. This means that from then on, he exists only in the upper dimension and no longer reincarnates into this lower, corporeal form.

But one who has not reached their final corrected state in this incarnation must be born again and live in this world.

It is clear that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai rejoices not because he has finished his work and can rest, but because he brought the Torah, that is, the light that reforms, to the whole world. And this, of course, fills him with joy.
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From a lecture for the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer, 5/1/10

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If I do not feel another, truly another, outside of myself, and do not perceive myself within him, then I do not perceive the world at all.

Question: So does that mean I must always see myself through someone else?

Answer: Through someone else, yes.

Question: And the fact that we see ourselves as being so ugly now, why is that?

Answer: Because we close ourselves off, isolate ourselves in, limit ourselves, and we have no desire to see anyone but ourselves. In other words, I see mirrors all around me, mirrors, nothing but mirrors. Reflected in them is nothing but my face, distorted, twisted, full of contortions and grimaces. I see nothing but that. “That” is my world.

Question: So, if I do not let anyone in, and I do not venture out anywhere, does that mean I appear hideous? Does it mean that this, this egoistic state, is my world? It is just me, all alone?

Answer: I see only myself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 4/7/26

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Question: Why is it necessary to change our qualities in order to feel the Creator?

Answer: For example, a dog perceives the world through scents. Dogs have poor eyesight, and vision is less important to them. Their senses of smell and hearing are extraordinarily developed and serve as a substitute for everything else. A dog can hear what its owner did a hundred meters away and runs to him.

In addition, a dog has an exceptionally developed sense of smell. We see how dogs, running along the street, are constantly sniffing something. For them, smells serve as a map of the world. Therefore, if I want to become closer to a dog, I need to develop the same sense of smell and hearing as it has. Then we will understand each other and will be able to communicate in the same language.

And what if I wanted to see the world the way a snake sees it? Snakes navigate only by thermal sensations. For them, nothing else exists: only heat or cold. But this sensation is so developed in the snake that it is enough for it to feel the entire world as we see it with our eyes.

It seems to us that if we see with our eyes, nothing more is required. But in reality, there are many additional phenomena around us that we do not perceive. Therefore, we know nothing about them and are satisfied with what is necessary for the existence of our physical body.

The snake is also satisfied with its thermal sensations alone. But if I want to come closer to a snake, then I must develop an additional sense—heat and cold. Then I would be able to navigate using that sense, even with my eyes closed.

In other words, we all perceive according to our organs of sensation. The Creator possesses such qualities that He simply passes through us; we do not perceive Him, it is much like radio waves that fill the air. We must develop a special organ of sensation that will have qualities similar to those of the Creator.

If we want to understand a snake or a dog, we need to develop the sensitivity to heat and cold like a snake, or the sense of smell like a dog. In the same way, we must develop an organ of perception similar to the Creator in order to sense Him.
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From KabTV’s conversation “New Life 516 – The Wisdom Of Kabbalah: God And I, Part 2,” 2/5/15

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Today we have approached a state where we can gather into one single unified whole. By doing this, we encompass the entire universe within ourselves; we begin to construct from within ourselves the model that really exists and to reveal the true model: the unification of human souls, which include the inanimate, vegetative, and animate parts of nature, and above all, the spiritual ones.

A person who begins to work with his friends in this manner draws closer to perceiving the universe as a single unified whole. Then, naturally, he sees all the worlds, including our own, interwoven and contained within one another.

He sees them permeated, integrated, and bound by a single force called the “Creator,” and amidst all of this, he sees himself existing eternally and ascending through the degrees of perfection. That is, he sees the universe in its true form, a reality not limited by our world, which is lost within this entire picture.

Therefore, the fact that we are approaching a state when my students can begin to work on the perception of reality described in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” is already a serious stage.

I hope that in the near future all the people who are with us to one degree or another, regardless of where they live, will be included in this picture of the perception of the world. This is liberation from egoistic shackles, from the limitations in which souls remain before contact with the spiritual, with the true creation.

This is the revolution in man, such is the most important moment of his existence, because after this, further revelation follows. He has entered into the sensation of the true volume, of the true universe, and that is all. And now there follow only 125 degrees of spiritual attainment.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Rise Up the Stairs” 9/27/10

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Question: Why does a Kabbalist, who sees reality from the Creator’s perspective and justifies Him, hold such a firm view that we must defend ourselves against enemies, both internally and externally?

Answer: You are essentially asking: “If you are a Kabbalist and are on the other side of the Machsom, then you see how everyone relates to each other with love, and that the enemy does not kill me. On the contrary, he is ready to kill himself in order to relate to me correctly. But if such an enemy actually comes to you now, what will you do?”

In which reality do you exist? Is it the one you perceive in the spiritual realm or the reality of the physical body? Can you combine the spiritual world with the material one or not? You cannot. In the material world, you must behave according to material laws, the laws of bodies; and in the spiritual world, according to spiritual laws.

This confusion will still continue. The world has not yet reached the state of final correction, and therefore there is a difference between the behavior of the body and spiritual behavior. That is why Kabbalists, despite already being on high spiritual levels, still fall ill and sometimes die terrible deaths. In this world, they also suffer greatly from attacks and slander against them. One is not connected to the other, because the world itself has not reached final correction.

When the whole world, that is, the collective awareness of all humanity, crosses over to the other side of the picture, aligns with the Creator, and merges with Him… What does it mean to merge? It means that from your own viewpoint, you move to His viewpoint. And this means that you have drawn closer to Him, merged with Him. You have corrected your attitude toward reality, and now you are like Him.

If everyone does this, then the two sides of a single embroidery (the front and the back) will merge. They will become as one with respect to all the souls of Adam HaRishon, with respect to our shared perception of reality.

And then all of us will have a common view with the Creator; we will be together with Him, in other words, in the state of final correction. Then there will be no difference between the spiritual and the material, neither in bodies nor in souls.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

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