Question: There is a Jewish prayer for travelers that is read when moving from city to city, leaving the settlement.

May it be Your will, G‑d, our G‑d and the G‑d of our fathers, that You should lead us in peace and direct our steps in peace, and guide us in peace, and support us in peace, and cause us to reach our destination in life, joy, and peace. Save us from every enemy and ambush, from robbers and wild beasts on the trip, and from all kinds of punishments that rage and come to the world. May You confer blessing upon the work of our hands and grant me grace, kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us, and bestow upon us abundant kindness and hearken to the voice of our prayer, for You hear the prayers of all. Blessed are You G‑d, who hearkens to prayer.

What does it mean by “in peace”?

Answer: We leave the place where we think we live, to some other place, to some other way.

It is unknown how long we will be on the road and when will we reach our destination. Maybe we think it will be just a couple of minutes, and suddenly it drags on for years if there is an end to this path at all.

Question: Could it even be the road of life?

Answer: Of course! A road is a road.

Question: And what does “lead us in peace” mean?

Answer: So that we do not hurt anyone.

Question: That is, the vector from me outward?

Answer: From me, absolutely. It is a prayer after all.

Question: So “leading us in peace” means I do not harm anyone?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then it goes like this: “direct our steps in peace.” What is meant by the words “direct our steps in peace”?

Answer: So that it will be peaceful for you and for everyone else you meet on the way.

Question: Is it like an addition, a continuation?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Further: “and cause us to reach our destination in life, joy, and peace.”

My Response: So that in the end, everything I do today on the way would be good for the whole world, for everyone.

Question: When you just said on the way, what did you imply in here? What is the way of man?

Answer: That is what it is called, Tfilat HaDerech. The prayer of the path.

Question: When you say “path,” are you saying a segment of life or what is it?

Answer: Everything! Absolutely everything! Where nothing ends. Moreover, this is called the Prayer of the Way, Tfilat HaDerech. Not on the way or something. This is the prayer of your direction, existence. Meaning, this is how your life should be.

Question: And further: “Save us from every enemy and ambush, from robbers and wild beasts on the trip, and from all kinds of punishments that rage and come to the world.” What does that mean?

Answer: A person looks at his movement from one state to another, not from one village to another,
for him to advance peacefully so that he does not have to get involved in any problems with anyone and so that he reaches his destination safely. The next place is when he would be connected to other people with even greater bonds of kindness.

This is called a path. Otherwise, why does he leave the house?

Question: So he goes out to a bigger and bigger connection all the time, is that how he advances?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And the robbers in this case, who are they? All sorts of punishments, what is on the path?

Answer: It is those who are sent to him; you can say, either the Creator Himself or the evil inclination of man. That is, the obstacles that are being sent.

Question: Are there obstacles in order to come to a good state? Are these all our mistakes, sins, all of this?

Answer: Yes, but do not think about it as if all this comes to me for whatever happened in the past. In Kabbalah it is not accepted “what was.” This is for what the Creator sends me so that I can be even more connected with Him and thus get to the true destination.

Question: You are saying that all the obstacles are being sent to us so that I get stronger on the way?

Answer: So that I would be more connected with the Creator.

Question: And if they weaken me, if I become weaker, what then?

Answer: The Creator does this. It is all done by Him anyway.

Question: Do I need to pray that the path is smoother or not?

Answer: We pray not for a smooth path, but for the path to bring us closer to the Creator.

Question: So, as a result, as you said, becoming closer with others is becoming closer with the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Then there is a continuation: “May You confer blessing upon the work of our hands and grant me grace, kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us,...” 

My Response: This is for us to treat the world and everything that comes our way as best as possible, trying to justify everything and not disconnecting from the fact that everything comes from the Creator, and therefore be benevolent conduits of good. This is “May You confer blessing upon the work of our hands.”

Question: Can there be a blessing only if I strive for greater closeness? And if I do not strive, then is there no blessing for this?

Answer: Then how can you ask?

Question: That is right. And it ends: “and bestow upon us abundant kindness and hearken to the voice of our prayer, for You hear the prayers of all. Blessed are You G‑d, who hearkens to prayer.”

Does the prayer always end with this?

Answer: Yes, we thank Him for hearing the prayer.

Question: Does He hear our prayer?

Answer: He does not just hear. After all, the Creator is the force that is in us. And therefore, everything that we think and say, we say practically with His desire, with His mouth, if I may say so, and in general, He does it all Himself. The Creator puts prayer in my mouth.

Question: Then the last question. You say He is in us, and we are in Him. Is it possible to understand this dualism?

Answer: I cannot explain it. It is the one that exists in everything.

Comment: It seems to be a prayer for traveling, a simple prayer, one can say.

My Response: It is not for the road, it is for the path of life.

Question: It turns out that it is for the path of life. Can we say that almost all prayers are written like this, for the road of life?

Answer: Yes. Everything that is implied in the Torah, in prayers, it all means a person’s exit into life. This is the path.

Question: And the last question. I just said a prayer. And what if I pronounce it inside through the heart?

Answer: That is how it should be.

Question: That is, I can go out on the road just like this, with his prayer from the heart, and is it more important than a written prayer?

Answer: Of course, it is more important. After all, it comes from your heart, and it influences the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/22/23

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Question: What is the most important intention a person should have every day?

Answer: To be able to do what I have planned. So that today brings me one step closer to the goal of my life.

Question: Do Kabbalists plan such a step every day?

Answer: More or less, yes.

Question: Why do certain situations repeat themselves in life with accuracy to an hour and a minute? For example, some day something was stolen from a person. Or he met someone in the same place, at the same hour.

Answer: I do not know. I do not have this. I have not tracked this.
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From KabTV’s “Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips” 5/18/23

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Question: At the end of the article “The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba” it is written that all the letters’ questions mean raising MAN by the letters, and all the answers are the descending of MAD. What does it mean?

Answer: When a person is reading certain texts, he raises his desires, requests, and prayers to the Creator, and this is called MAN.

When a person finishes his request, his prayer, then he receives from above what is called MAD, which is a descent of the upper light, the upper force. This is how a person influences the Creator and the Creator influences a person. This is what is called MAN and MAD.

Therefore, it is said that being in the Sinai desert, the sons of Israel were fed on MAN, manna from heaven, that is, through raising their desires, their prayers to the Creator. In response, they received from above something like a white semolina, that is, a substance covering the sand in the desert. They collected this substance and ate it for 40 years.

40 years symbolizes from Malchut to Bina, that people must pass through and correct those qualities, and then they enter the palace of the Creator and reveal Him.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 4/23/23

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Question: What is prayer?

Answer: Prayer is when a person judges himself, weighs himself, analyzes who he is, what he is, what he is for, and accordingly puts himself in a certain relation to the Creator, realizing that the Creator is an absolute that does not change.

Since the absolute does not change, then by measuring oneself relative to the Creator, a person sees how he can always change himself. Such revelations in what he can change relative to the Creator, that involuntarily lead him to search for changes in himself, are called prayer.

The misconception of prayer that exists all over the world came from the fact that at the time of the destruction of the Temple, people fell from the Kabbalistic degree to the earthly one and ceased to feel themselves relative to the Creator. Therefore, prayer means all kinds of appeals and cries.

Let’s say you’re shouting to feel good. But it’s not clear who you’re shouting at. The Creator originally made you like this. What for? To make you scream? Do you think He’s just stupid or someone who can hear, see, and feel?

The Creator is a law of nature to which you attribute your feelings because you are a sensual creature, a desire that is in a lack.

The appeal to the Creator came from religions. But whom should I address? You have to address yourself, how to change yourself under the influence of the positive, absolute force of nature.

Treat it as something unchangeable, as a field of gravity that you are trying to use correctly so as not to fall, but to fly, to use its qualities in some mechanisms that you invent. Relate to the Creator as something inanimate. And then such an attitude to oneself and to this absolute field of power will be called prayer.

Finding resources for the possibility of self-correction is prayer.

We raise our desire, MAN, to the system of forces, which is called Aba ve Ima, meaning, we turn to the field that exists around us. We want to use both opposite forces, positive and negative, plus and minus, Aba ve Ima, Hochma and Hassadim, in order to correct ourselves and rise to their degree.

After all, by rising to the degree of Nature, the Creator, Elokim, you are entering into absolute perfection, peace, and balance with nature.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What Is Prayer?” 2/27/11

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Question: Mikhail asks: “What is the ultimate goal of a person? Is it to dissolve into the Creator, as you say, to merge with Him? Will we lose our identity or not?”

Answer: I would say it is much higher—to complement the Creator. Except that it is said “You create Me.” So says the Creator. But at least if we do not create, we complement Him.

Question: So, is there some flaw in Him if we complement Him?

Answer: Of course, there is a lack because He is suffering very, very much without us. He has the desire to bestow, to saturate, and to emanate, and there is no one, no one wants to.

Question: But we want to be satisfied, to receive, right?

Answer: We do not want to be fed from Him and not by Him! Therefore, here, I would say, it looks like a war of nerves, who will be the first to give in and say: “I love you!” This is a game of exhaustion, of course, really.

Question: Mikhail asks: “Will we lose our identity or not?”

Answer: We will find it then. What kind of identity do we have now? There is absolutely none.

Identity is acquired by the fact that we become necessary for the Creator in action. We are already necessary, but in action, in the fact that we get closer to Him, unite, and merge with Him; in the fact that we complement the universe, we cause filling in the whole universe, the upper light that fills the whole creation. Without us, it would be empty, cold, and dark.

Question: What kind of additional help does the Creator expect from us?

Answer: So that we turn on the light, turn on the light in fact in this world, so that the universe would be filled with the light of the Creator, love, goodness, unity, and perfection in all possible forms.

Comment: At the same time, you say this today when one does not know where to run. With these crazy wars.

My Response: Nothing needs to be done. We just must wait calmly, with confidence that this should happen, to want, to ask, to quietly ask the Creator.

Question: Is that all that is required of us?

Answer: Yes. Without unnecessary noise, statements, disputes, without anything.
[311176]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/14/22

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Question: You often repeat: “Why don’t you ask?” But how should we ask? Everyone wants to, but no one understands what they want. Is it some kind of stupid state of hopelessness.

Answer: But why?! Because you do not sense whom to turn to. I understand your problems and I want to direct you correctly.

You do not know whom to turn to. If some kind of a statue were placed in front of you, you would be able to do it.

Once, when I was in Mexico, our bus stopped in a parking lot near a village. There was a statue of the Madonna at the crossroad.

There were many Mexicans among the passengers. People got off the bus. One lame Mexican with a wooden crutch, who had difficulty getting off the bus, approached the Madonna, kissed her, and began to pray. There was something for him to turn to, there was a specific image.

And there are no images in Kabbalah! To what should you turn? To your own corrected self!

Who is the Creator? The property of bestowal and love for others revealed by you.

Kabbalah turns you to yourself. It is impossible for us to understand it! In our minds, this is a terrible dualism, and we cannot do anything about it.

Therefore, Kabbalah is intended only for those who already have this dualism inside them: there is a heart and a point in the heart, i.e., a selfish desire and a germ of altruistic intention. With this, you can move forward and begin to adapt and develop it.

The heart develops, and a point in the heart grows. In other words, two opposite desires develop; there is a dipole that can exchange and grow.

And if there is only a single desire to enjoy, then we need to imagine someone from the outside, not within oneself, but one against the other, and establish one as higher and the other lower, as if this is a created being and this is the Creator.

All this is conditional; there is no creation and no Creator. There are two levels one against the other, and that is it.

And where are you? You are nobody. You exist between these two levels, what we call the middle point of Sefirat Tifferet, Klipat Noga. You exist at this point only in order to realize both levels between which you exist. This is how you develop.

But if there is only one earthly desire in a person, his life, his loved ones, and so on, then he needs some kind of external object to which he will pray, to which he will turn, and on which he will supposedly depend.

In principle, Kabbalah itself sets people up this way. It still comes from ancient Babylon, from Abraham, who gave everyone what they needed: the beginnings of all religions, the beginnings of all beliefs, and the beginnings of Kabbalah. In practice, this is a single knowledge only at different levels.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Most Important Prayer” 10/6/12

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Question: In our life, as long as humanity has existed, there have been wars, and their instigators have always been men. Where in the nature of a man is such an essence to constantly either fight or play at war?

Answer: Firstly, they have not grown up, they are the same boys, not adults. An adult must eventually grow up over generations. During one lifetime, maybe not, but if generations had passed on the wisdom of life to each other, then this would not have happened.

After all, war is mutual destruction. And with it, you are not advancing yourself. By destroying others, you end up hurting yourself. History confirms this. So, there’s no point!

If the old people, who understand this, would pass on their wisdom to the young, taught them correctly and formed a different understanding of the world in them, the world would be different. We would not have spent a lot of money on the military, on police, and we would have lived just fine!

But our nature does not allow us to do this. So first of all, we need to correct it and not just have a nice life.

The general law of nature, the Creator, drives us to a certain goal and forces us to be fools until we realize who we are, that He is always tripping us up so that we finally give up, turn to Him and ask Him to remake our nature, change us— that is what you need.

Don’t make me feel good, but make me good! And then I will see the world as beautiful. That’s all! To change a request, a demand, an appeal to the Creator is what is required of us.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Men’s Games” 3/31/12

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Question: There is a parable about a carpenter who arrived in heaven. He met God there and got into conversation. God said: “How I envy you!” The carpenter replied: “Why?” “Because your chairs do not run after you and do not constantly ask: “Give me money, give me health, give me happiness!”

The question is why does the Creator get annoyed with a person who asks: “Give, give! Give, give!”?

Answer: He gets annoyed by the wrong requests.

Question: Is it wrong to say: “Give health! Give me happiness!”?

Answer: No. Everything is a consequence of the good deeds of people. Therefore, if they would have asked to draw closer to each other, they would have had everything. And they ask for what they have to earn themselves.

Question: So, you are saying that, in general, there have been prayers for millennia, people have been praying for millennia, and they were not praying correctly? Incorrectly, actually? Because we do not have much happiness, we do not have much money.

Answer: Yes. We are gradually, gradually maturing over the millennia to the state where we finally understand what the real correction is. And it is not asking for anything, but using what is there already. All the conditions exist to correct the world. And they are all about treating each other with love. If you cannot do it, really cannot do it, then you can turn to the Creator.

Question: Is that a prayer?

Answer: Yes. And there is nothing else to ask for. Give me the opportunity to treat another with love as You treat us!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/15/22

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Question: Igor writes: “Dear Michael Laitman, you have said many times that there is always an answer from the Creator, but we do not hear it. On the other hand, you say that all this horror that is happening today is for us to come to a dead end from our squabbling with each other and raise a prayer. Please explain to me, does the Creator still answer us all the time, or does He not answer and wait for our prayer in order to answer it?”

Answer: This is a tricky question. I would say that the Creator, in general, expects us to ask Him the correct question, to want the correct answer. That is, let’s assume He wants us to clearly ask: “What do we need to do in order to live in peace?”

Question: One way or another, will this happen if we feel that we are at a dead end and we cannot live in peace? Is this where the question arises from?

Answer: Yes. How can we live in peace?

Comment: But it will already be a scream.

My Response: No, humanity is not screaming. I do not see anyone screaming. Humanity is only waiting for everyone to look right, to suppress the other.

Question: So when will it start asking? When will it turn to the Creator correctly?

Answer: When it will feel that it is necessary to live by the rules, by the laws, of nature. People do not want that yet.

Question: What needs to happen for this?

Answer: I want the correct, cosmic vision of the world to manifest within me. I want my mind, my feelings, my strength, everything to be directed toward feeling nature and wanting to agree with it.

Question: Does it mean that you want this little world of mine to expand up to the universe?

Answer: Otherwise nothing will happen. Precisely because I agree only to my little world, and everything else is not important to me, and even let it all get even worse is why I do not see a solution.

Question: So, if I have a thought like: “I only want to feel good, and for this I live,” is this thought flawed?

Answer: It has already exhausted itself. We see what is going on. The world can plunge into such a wild squabble that there will be, as they say, a war for peace.

Question: But all this is in the hands of the Creator. Why will He not make us ask now, right now? Already all the conditions seem to be there.

Answer: He is making it so that we would ask, but we do not want to.

Question: Are we resisting even at this moment?

Answer: We do not want to. We are ready to do everything in order to put pressure on everyone.

Question: Then tell me, how do you see this turning point inside us when we suddenly start to want?

Answer: It will appear gradually. After all, it emerges from all this hopelessness.

Question: Do you think that suffering accumulates in humanity and in a person? Or does it simply disappear, like in the sand?

Answer: We need to look mainly at humanity and see how it slowly, gradually understands that this is not the way.

Question: Then I still come back to this question. Does the Creator answer us all the time, but we do not hear? At the same time, do we need to be pressed against the wall so that we raise a prayer, and He would answer us?

Answer: The Creator pushes us so that we recognize that there must be a correct answer, and it must be even against our nature. But we have to want to make a decision that is above us.

Question: Does it turn out that we have not grown up to it yet?

Answer: No. No one has grown up to it!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/5/23

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Question: What does it mean to “act for the sake of others”? For example, a factory worker stands behind a machine for 12 hours. Does he work for others? Or, let’s say a teacher at school teaches children. Is it for the sake of others?

Answer: No. Action for the sake of others is an intention and not the action itself. I can work 20 hours a day, but it does not mean anything. Why am I doing this? If it is for the benefit of others and this is my motivation, then I am doing good. But if I work 20 hours a day to earn a million dollars, then I am not doing anyone any good.

Question: Does it mean that we need to have some kind of device to check this intention?

Answer: We do not have such a device. We cannot measure a person’s inner efforts. We cannot measure his thoughts.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/8/23

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