Question: You often say that we do not destroy our egoism because it is our nature, but we destroy its egoistic intention, its egoistic use. What is the difference?

Answer: The most important thing is the intention! The fact is that you can stab a person with a knife with malicious intent and kill him, or you can use a knife with good intent, as a surgeon usually does to cure a patient. In principle, both actions are the same, but the intentions are different.

A person who does not understand the meaning of the actions will think that it they are the same thing, but in fact it all depends on the intention. Therefore, we must understand the intention of each person and judge him only by his intention.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/8/23

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A prayer of many rises before the Creator, and the Creator crowns Himself with that prayer since it rises in several ways. This is because one asks for Hassadim, the other for Gevurot, and a third for Rachamim. And it consists of several sides: the right side, the left, and the middle.

But a prayer of one does not comprise all the sides; it is only on one way. Either one asks for Hassadim or Gevurot or Rachamim.

Hence, a prayer of one is not erected to be received like the prayer of many, as it does not include all three lines like the prayer of many (Zohar for All, “VaYishlach,” Item 45).

In order to come to the common prayer, a prayer for all as one whole, to become one, it is necessary to go through very difficult states of inner scrutiny and to understand that:

1. The spiritual goal is more important than all other goals.

2. It is impossible to reach it alone but only by creating one common yearning from individual yearnings, and then it will be similar to the Creator and the upper light will fill it.

Therefore, only such a request, such a prayer, can be heard, meaning it can cause the corrective action of the upper light.

Reading The Book of Zohar causes us to understand that we must be together because without exiting ourselves it is impossible to reach bestowal, the qualities of the Creator, to exist in the upper world.

It is said: “From the love for the created beings to the love for the Creator.” The Creator gave us the illusion that there are many people around us, and we must destroy this illusion, understand that all this is inside of me, and ask Him to unite the whole world within me.

Then the prayer of many will turn into a true prayer of one.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/09, The Book of Zohar

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Comment: The Sufi mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj was once asked: “How can one become free from your attachments?” Mansur approached the nearest column of the temple, grabbed it and shouted: “Help! Save! Release me from the column!”

And right away he asks: “What do you think, is it me holding the column or the column holding me?” Their answer was, “Of course you are holding it yourself.” Mansur then says,”It is the same with all your attachments. These are your chains. But they do not hold you, you yourself cling to them. Let them go, and you will be free immediately.”

My Response: It is very difficult! To let them go means to get rid of egoism. This is not just some petty attachment, but our whole nature that binds us with chains.

Comment: All the “chains” and “pillars” that we grab onto are all egoism that attracts and grabs us. And I thought it was possible to talk about how I can distract myself from any attachments and become free.

My Response: Call it attachments, but in fact, it is our whole nature.

Question: It turns out that we cannot be free?

Answer: We can. But we cannot become free ourselves.

Question: Meaning that we ourselves cannot push off and run away from this column, our ego?

Answer: No! There is no way!

Question: Then how can we run away from it? How can we tear away from this column, from all our attachments?

Answer: Only with the help of the upper force that created us so egoistically and forged us with chains to this column. And only if we succeed in begging this upper force, convincing it, and even forcing it to release us, then we hope it will help.

Question: What do you mean by the word “column”?

Answer: It is egoism that binds us to what seems pleasant to us.

Question: Is it all the desires of this world? Is it all our attachments? Money, honor, power, and everything else?

Answer: Absolutely everything.

Question: Meaning that we ourselves cannot break away from this, only the upper force can help us?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And what should be the request?

Answer: Free! And nothing else.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/22/22

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Question: Antonio Stradivari lived more than 90 years and made more than 1,100 stringed instruments. 650 Stradivarius violins made more than 250 years are still considered to be among the finest instruments.

The latest technology cannot even come close to the sound of a Stradivarius violin. The International Association of Violin Makers has tried many times to reveal the secret of the master, and they have come to nothing. There are all sorts of logical explanations: the wood was different, the times are different, all sorts of things.

Tell me, please, what is the secret of such masters like Antonio Stradivari?

Answer: We must first understand what happens in our ear, why exactly, and what can cause such a reaction from its strings.

Question: Meaning, how can these sounds enter us like that? Is there a secret in this?

Answer: There is a secret. But I think even Stradivari himself did not know about it—he just worked this way. And the secret lies in a special combination of sounds that affect the heart. Here we need to think about how the heart responds first, and then the ear hears. That is the most important thing, and no one knows it. Stradivari did not know these internal mechanics either.

Question: So he was more like the executor of some will?

Answer: His hands and he in general were moved by an inner instinct.

Question: It didn’t happen without the Creator, right?

Answer: No, of course not.

Question: So an ordinary person is chosen, and later we talk a lot about them. But in fact, the person is chosen and a secret is carried out through him. This secret is suitable for anything and not only the violin or the cello?

Answer: Yes, anything, not only musical instruments. The sound should not pass into the ear but into the heart, and only then it comes out through the ear.

Question: Does it come out of the ear?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So I don’t hear with my ears?

Answer: No, with the heart.

Question: Does a word have such a quality as the sound, as you say now?

Answer: Of course. This is exactly how a word is pronounced.

Question: Is it necessary to find a word that penetrates into the heart and only then is heard?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Are there such words at all?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How do we find such words in our science? We are studying a science that is not curiosity, not knowledge. How can we find such words that will penetrate the heart?

Answer: It is very simple. I asked my teacher, Rabash, about this. He said: “Have you heard what is said in the Shema prayer? Shema, Michael.” I was surprised: “Why “Michael” if it is a Shema, Israel prayer?

Because Israel is a common name. But in fact, you can substitute any name there.

Question: Is this an appeal to the heart: “Shema, Michael”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is the Shema prayer considered one of the highest prayers?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Have we now reached the point where prayer is first heard by the heart?

Answer: Yes. And only then is it heard by the ear or heard at all.

Comment: You keep saying that the prayer of an ordinary person is higher than the prayers composed by sages, the Kabbalists.

My Response: Yes, because he feels it. He has an inner resonance of his heart with the upper word. Therefore, this is the highest appeal to the Creator.

Question: Meaning, when a person pronounces an appeal with feelings, he hears it first from above?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this appeal not born in him?

Answer: No, of course not.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/1/22

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There is nothing more important than prayer because our whole destiny and our whole future depends on it. To the extent that we can raise our prayer to the Creator and it enters into Him, into this system called “The Creator,” we will receive an answer to our requests.

Therefore we can’t expect that the Creator will do something for us; this is possible only if we raise our requests and prayers over and over again.

When one prays to the Creator, he should not look whether his salvation came or not, for when he looks, several litigants come to look at his actions. (The Zohar for All – “Miketz – And Saw Benjamin,” Item 209)

We must lift prayers to the Creator. The question is whether we should wait for a response or not. Maybe we shouldn’t wait so much; the main thing is to raise the request, and the Creator will already choose how to respond to it and whether to respond at all.

Therefore the main thing is to think constantly about how we raise requests to the Creator.

As for whether we receive an answer or not, we must understand that the Creator always answers, but maybe we do not fully recognize and feel His answer, and we must continue to ask Him again and again. As it is said: “I wish you prayed all day!”

In principle, during prayer we should not expect any reaction from the Creator because the Creator will undoubtedly do what is needed and our request should only rise from us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/22, “Prayer – Selected Excerpts from Zohar for All“

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This is what Rabbi Elazar would pray and say when he fasted, “It is revealed and known before You, Hashem, my Elohim and the Elohim of my fathers, that I have offered up before You my fat and blood, and I have seethed them with the heat of the weakness of my body” (The Zohar, Shemot: Verse 368).

There is a big difference whether I read these words from the prayer book or something happens inside of me and I explode from within in my yearning for the Creator with such words.

These feelings were created inside me, formed into words and phrases. I may not even know this language. I do not know how it happens, but this is the result of my efforts to make my desires similar to the light and connect them with the light.

Light and desires produce this reaction in the soul, they are recognized in my brain, the brain transmits instructions to the organs of speech, and I pronounce them without knowing where these words came from!

This is the way the real prayer should be, when everything comes from within, when from the connection of lights and Kelim, from the deepest foundations of creation, light and desire, the filling of desire with light, the whole TANTA (complete Kli – Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot) is gradually built until they are expressed by the speech apparatus.

It is clear that Rabbi Elazar did not read this prayer according to the prayer book, but while he was in this state, about which he spoke to the Creator.

Before the Second Temple was ruined, the people of Israel were in connection with the Creator, in the qualities of bestowal and love, and their prayer was the feeling in their heart—desire. It is said: “What is prayer? The work in the heart.”

But the sages of the Great Assembly (Knesset HaGadol), knowing about the imminent fall into egoism, meaning the concealment of the Creator from everyone, compiled a collection of prayers for us, states to which a person must come.

They called it “Siddur“—the order of spiritual states that we must go through within ourselves, in our heart (desire).

But since we are not capable of such a thing in times of exile, the absence of connection with the light, with the Creator, when the upper force is concealed, we mechanically read the words from the prayer book, and someone may be trying to imagine what it would mean in spirituality.

Only the light, when we are studying Kabbalah, will evoke in us feelings, thoughts, sensations, words, and phrases of our prayer as work in the heart, and not in the speech apparatus.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/10, The Book of Zohar, Shemot (Exodus)

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Question: There is a principle in spiritual work: “Do not give up on mercy.” It turns out that the Creator is waiting until the person cries out. He is waiting for our prayers that will come out of the broken and shattered heart. Who wants to go through such states? Is this the reason that so few people study Kabbalah?

Answer: The merciful and loving Creator about whom it is said that He loves us and wishes only good to everyone. He is the one who brings a person to such states where a person is forced to turn to Him from inevitability and despair.

Why does He have to drive us to this point? It is because we exist in the state opposite to the Creator, in egoism, in the property of receiving. However, the Creator exists in the property opposite to us, in bestowal. Therefore we are polar opposites.

Thus, we can get closer to the Creator only if we change, or try, or at least want to change, our egoistic desires to receive into altruistic desires to give.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/27/22

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Question: Do I understand correctly that one of the basic principles of Kabbalah is to make commitments to others, fail, and because of lack of strength to turn to the Creator for help?

Answer: If you advance correctly, it will always be like that for you. You will try to do something good for others, and then it will begin to be revealed that you do not really want it.

You will try to do even better and more, but you will never succeed; and then, from disappointment, you will understand that you must turn to the Creator. It is on this that your synapses and all sorts of connections in your brain will be shorted. You will already have a predisposition for it, and such a state will start being created.

Question: What connections are important to build at this moment? Is that supposed to be a prayer?

Answer: Yes. It is a prayer, weeping, and the gate of tears; only they help a person. When he sees that everything is closed before him (and it should be so), and only the gates of tears are open, that is, only the Creator can help him, then it happens.

Question: Why does it take such a long time to build connections?

Answer: Our egoism does not allow us to do it faster. It keeps saying, “Dear, wait, you do not need others. Try it yourself.” It does not direct you to the Creator. The appeal to the Creator is the last thing; just as there are ten Sefirot, and only the last one works.

Question: In principle, it is the eternal question of students: “When will it happen already?” How long do they have to wait? Or does everyone come to this not at the same time?

Answer: It will happen when you want it to happen.

Comment: But it takes longer to get there for some and it is faster for others.

My Response: Of course. Some come to that point quicker, some slower, and not all together. A single person can be the one in the group to reach this. But a certain number come to this almost simultaneously.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Basic Principle of Kabbalah” 11/9/13

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It is as our sages write: “All the gates were locked except for the gates of tears.” The world asks about this: If the gates of tears are not locked, what is the need for the gates at all? (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 18, “My Soul Shall Weep In Secret”)

The gate of tears opens only when a person is convinced that all other gates are locked and there is nothing before him. Then he bursts into crying and pleading, and he sees that the gate of tears is opening before him.

Question: It turns out that there are a lot of obstacles before a person. However, it is written: “All the gates were locked except for the gate of tears.” So, if they are open, why not enter them immediately?

Answer: No, a person does not feel that they are open. Only if he makes sure that all the gates are locked and cries from his own helplessness: “What to do!”—then he sees that the gate of tears is open before him.

Question: What in our life can be the gate that is locked?

Answer: Locked and open gates are the coupling of a person with the Creator. Either he sees that they are closed or he sees that they are open. That is, this is coupling by striking (Zivug de Hakaa), the equivalence of qualities.

If our qualities correspond with the qualities of the Creator, then at some stage the gates open.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/6/22

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Our sages said that if a person asks the Creator to revive his soul with faith, then such a request is immediately accepted. Apart from faith, we have nothing to ask for, we will receive nothing else.

There is no point to turn to the Creator with any other questions, there will be no answer. That is, we will receive indirect answers that will gradually turn us toward the correct prayer. This is what is happening to us so far.

Therefore, we must find out what we really want to receive, not money, fame, or small momentary joys. What should we ask of the Creator in this short life? That is, the main problem is not how to turn to the Creator, but what exactly to turn to Him with, which means to find out what is really important to us in life and to turn to Him with it, no matter in what words.

We see that billions of people are constantly turning to the Creator. Every second in the heart of any person there is a request to the Creator, which he may not even realize. But all these requests are not relevant. Therefore, we cannot say that the Creator does not respond to them at all; He reacts, but just a little bit. We have been advancing toward corrections in this way for thousands of years.

Therefore, Kabbalah teaches us how to ask correctly in order to accelerate the process of correction: to ask for the force of faith, the opportunity to move to the force of bestowal and not live in the force of egoistic reception. The answer to such a request is guaranteed to us because this is the purpose of creation. Everything that a person has in this world is given only so that he can ask for the force of bestowal and adhesion with the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/08/22, Rabash “The Striking of Thoughts upon Man”

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