Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

Spiritual Psychology

962.3Question from my blog in English: When you speak about the language of branches, are you referring to an analogy or some kind of metaphorical thinking? If so, does this imply a unique language that cannot be conveyed in words, making it difficult to grasp what those who have internally attained the Creator intended to express? Will we intuitively understand this language once our own attainment coincides with theirs?

Answer: There is an “I” that perceives itself and a certain space around it, wishing to absorb what is necessary and useful from this space and to throw out what is harmful or unnecessary. I learn how to build connections with this space in order to always be in optimal comfort. All my knowledge comes from this kind of interaction with the space surrounding me that is filled with nature and people. Psychology (in the materialistic sense) is the science of the egoistic perception of “self versus the surroundings.”

If I begin to expand my “I” around me in ever-widening circles, gradually accepting the surrounding as part of myself, as something entering into my “I,” and egoistically subordinating it to myself, that constitutes conquest and acquisition.

But if, while continuing to perceive myself as distinct from the surroundings (an “I” versus what is outside me),  I nonetheless strive to relate to the surroundings as I do to myself, or even more so, that is altruism. This is because a sense of alienation or even hatred remains, but above this feeling, contrary to it, a feeling of love arises. It emerges because I stop identifying solely with my “I”; I step outside of it, and as if from an external vantage point, build a new attitude from this “I” toward the surroundings.

By rising above my egoistic “I,” I create a screen through which I relate to the surrounding with love, treating them as myself and even more; this is called the property of bestowal or reflected light. Kabbalah—a spiritual psychology—deals with the perception of “self in relation to the surroundings.”
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What Is Written in Kabbalistic Books

209Question: Why isn’t it stated clearly and categorically that our entire obligation as created beings is to attain complete connection through “Love your neighbor as yourself”?

Answer: All Kabbalistic books speak either about the unfolding of the worlds, Partzufim, and Sefirot from above downward, or about a person’s individual correction from below upward where one must come to hate one’s desire to receive for oneself, aspire for bestowal, realize that it is impossible to attain bestowal on one’s own, and then turn to the Creator so that He will help one rise above reception to achieve bestowal, and in doing so find one’s entire purpose, mission, and fulfillment in bestowing to Him.

This is described in great detail. What is not stated precisely, however, is that this correction is accomplished through connection within the group, through work in the group, bestowal upon one’s neighbor, and the feeling that one has support and mutual guarantee. There are only isolated hints about this in the Torah: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But how is this connected with love for the Creator? “Do not do to another what is hateful to you.” Why do we exist in such an enormous world instead of simply feeling ourselves directly connected with the Creator? Why do we need this entire world?

All of this is not clarified in the books; that is, the connection between a person’s work in relation to the Creator and a person’s work with the group is not clarified. It is written, “From love of the created beings to love of the Creator,” but this is not stated clearly and categorically enough for everyone, religious and secular alike, to understand that the problem lies precisely in “Love your neighbor.”

Today we stand before the need to solve precisely this problem toward which the global crisis is pushing us. This is a social crisis and not an economic one, a crisis resulting from the fact that we all exist within an egoistic society that is devouring itself. Its solution is possible only if we understand that we are obligated to come to unity. Yet, we will not be able to achieve unity unless we discover that there is only one force capable of helping us do so.

Here, we find ourselves between life and death. We will need the Creator in order to be saved from death. This is precisely how He becomes revealed. Therefore, our time is truly the time of the coming of the Messiah (Mashiach), that is, the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, so that, on one hand, we may be saved from death, but in truth, so that we may attain a world filled with goodness and benevolence, a world that exists entirely in bestowal from above, in the revelation of the Creator to the single created being into which everyone unites. Then the Creator is revealed to them.

Therefore, what is especially important is this connection between the present state of the world and the urgent necessity for the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.

Although Kabbalah sources do not explicitly detail this (offering only scattered references), we must produce articles and explanatory materials and describe the process of transition from the “I” to the group, from the group to the world, and from the world to spirituality—to the Creator and the force of bestowal that will connect everything and fill the whole of reality, all created beings, and the entire vast desire.
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How Can You Be Free in a Crowd?

423.01Question: How can we achieve such harmony in human society? In other words, can we simply live as though there were no other people? Can we begin living this way?

Answer: This is precisely what Kabbalah proposes. It is when the others do not interfere with you but, on the contrary, help you, and when you feel that being among them gives you a great deal of space!

You are in an enormous crowd, with a million people around you, yet you feel as though you are completely free. No one is pressing against you; there are no disturbing shouts, no intrusive influences, nothing. Everything is calm and good, as though you were in an open field.

Question: Is this what you call “a world without man, yet with man”?

Answer: Yes. We can create such a world, despite the fact that there are so many of us.

The main thing is not to interfere with nature. That is what all of this is about. Do not interfere; do not intrude upon nature. Study it and try to achieve integrality with it. When you achieve such unity with nature, you will see how, in reality, everything is simple and benevolent.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 9/2/26

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Where Should Anger Be Directed?

224Question: Can aggression be directed toward peaceful ends? Everyone understands how it works for non-peaceful ends,  but toward peaceful purposes?

Answer: Peaceful purposes mean against oneself.

Question: So right now, all aggression is directed from within oneself outward? And you say, “This vector needs to be turned toward oneself”?

Answer: Little by little, gradually, turn it somehow toward oneself.

Question: So, it turns out that aggression exists for this very purpose, so that I can gradually turn it toward myself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, it turns out that I am attacking this “I” of mine that asserts itself?

Answer: Your “I” is hatred toward others, the desire to rule over others. And if you transform it into the opposite, understanding that it is impossible to remain in such a quality, then you instead acquire the quality of bestowal and love, the spiritual quality.

Question: So aggression toward oneself is good? The bad thing—aggression toward others—turns into aggression toward oneself, and this is good? And this is what it exists for?

Answer: Yes. And then you truly begin to relate to yourself as an enemy.

Question: And this is good?

Answer: And this is good, of course.

Comment: Humanity needs to make such an effort.

My Response: It will make the effort; it has nowhere to go. There will be such suffering that it will wish for this.

Question: There are enemies of humanity all around. Everyone feels that there are only enemies around. And you say, “The enemies are inside you.” This formula is clear to me. But can it actually enter a person’s mind and heart?

Answer: And why couldn’t others?

Question: No, can it enter? Can a person suddenly turn the weapon around that has been aimed and built?

Answer: But you understand, don’t you?

Comment: Yes, I understand.

My Response: Then others will understand too.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 8/3/26

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What Is a Strong Family Built On?

583.06Question: What kind of marital union can keep a family from falling apart? What are the roles of the woman and the man in such a union?

Answer: There must be proper upbringing. No matter what happens, throughout your life, thousands of different situations and adventures may occur with each of you, but you know that you have a family, and it is your obligation to support them and stand by them. As long as you live, you must take care of them. That is first and foremost. As for feelings, well… What feelings? You cannot build anything on feelings alone.

Comment: You have said more than once that a man looks for his mother in a woman.

My Response: That is true. A man looks for something of his mother in a woman. And if he finds it in her, that ensures his attachment to her.

Question: So, if a woman understands that he is looking for his mother, does that make the union work?

Answer: Yes. That is why it is said in the Torah that our forefathers would bring their brides into, say, their mother’s tent. And the brides would live there. And after the bride had lived with her mother-in-law for a while, the man would marry her.

In other words, she learned from his mother how to take care of him, what to do with him, what he likes and does not like, how his mother cooks, how she does everything, and so on. She watched everything and learned.

Comment: So she learned to be a mother to her husband. That is certainly a paradox.

My Response: How is that a paradox?

Comment: She came there not to learn how to be a wife but to learn how to be his mother.

My Response: You cannot imagine how attached a man becomes to a woman then. If she reminds him of his mother, he will look at her like a child does! He will constantly catch his mother in her.

Question: And he will never want to get divorced?

Answer: Never! How could he get divorced? Leave his mother?

Question: So, you do not abandon your mother?

Answer: That is correct.

Comment: And what about the phrase a wife says: “Go to your mommy! I am not your mother! Let her bake your pies for you!”

My Response: You see what kind of arguments people make! “I am not your mother!” That is the problem.

Comment: And there must be a high percentage of divorces because she does not take on this role of being his mother.

My Response: She must understand that the only way to keep him, to make him hers, is this way! There is no other way. It is written in the Torah, written in the Bible, simply in black and white.

Question: So, maybe you are telling us the secret behind all divorces right now, and we do not need any psychologists?

Answer: This is the secret of clear-cut relationships. Until the end of his life, a man will see his mother in his wife and will never run away from her.

Question: And what is the man’s role in the family, then?

Answer: If he is attached to her, what more is needed?

Question: So, this is her security? Is that what she seeks in him?

Answer: Yes. Nothing else. He will do everything to make her happy. He will give her compliments every day.

Question: And he will earn money and work?

Answer: He will do everything, of course. I know this for sure. This is human nature.

Question: What does a woman need from a man? Is it this sense of security?

Answer: First and foremost, attention. Attention to her, to the children, to the home. So, once you get married, that is it! The bride goes to live with her mother-in-law and learns from her all about her son’s weaknesses. And she learns how to deal with him as a woman. Here and there, she knows how to say or do something that reminds him of his mother. He falls for it immediately, instantly, and forever.

Comment: And he will do everything she wants.

My Response: Yes. He needs this. A man does not give birth; he remains a child, and that is what wins him over.

Question: So he remains a child? All the time? Even when he is 70 or 80 years old?

Answer: It doesn’t matter!

Comment: People will not exactly be outraged, but they will ask: “What about the man? It is all about the woman, the woman.”

My Response: The man must provide everything the woman requires. Nothing more is needed. That is in the material sense. But spiritually, everything is different—the opposite.

In other words, the man’s spiritual development is not the family’s concern. It is not. It is a privilege, a prerogative. I don’t know how to put it. It is solely his personal choice. In this respect, he is the man and the head of the family. But this is regarding spiritual development. As for the material side—the woman.

In spiritual development, the man is in charge; in material development, the woman is in charge.

Question: If the man is in charge of spiritual development, then is the woman’s role to give him the opportunity to work on his soul?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Comment: And then he will also provide her with everything she needs.

My Response: Twice as much!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/16/26

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What is Perfection?

419Question from Facebook: What is perfection?

Answer: Perfection, from the smallest to the greatest, is evaluated by how absolutely all negative and positive phenomena are united together into one single harmonious whole.

And to the extent to which we can gather these phenomena together on an ever–increasing scale and quantity, these are levels of perfection. That is, it is not one single thing. But from the very smallest to the infinitely great, its characteristic is that it incorporates within itself all absolutely opposite phenomena, whatever they may be, into one harmony.

Question: So there is no bad and good; there is only harmony?

Answer: Yes. Naturally. That is what perfection is.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 6/27/26

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How Can We Refine Our Thoughts?

565.01Question from Facebook: How can we refine our thoughts and their effect on us?

Answer: It depends on the nature of the thoughts. If these thoughts are purely your own individual ones, then they will remain confined to your egoistic self, focused solely on how to provide it with maximum comfort.

If, however, thoughts arise from connecting with others, then you begin to exit yourself and sense an influence from the outside, and in this way to develop and ascend.

Therefore, refining one’s thoughts primarily means exiting oneself into connection with others. Connection with others is not the ordinary connection as we understand it in our world.

This is work in the group, which must be studied. By working in the group, you develop and perfect your thought so that you begin to feel the source of your state: the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Answers to Questions from Facebook”

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What Is the Purpose of Kabbalah?

254.02Question: What is the ultimate purpose of Kabbalah?

Answer: Kabbalah itself does not have a purpose; it realizes the purpose of creation. Creation has a purpose. It has a beginning and an end, and Kabbalah helps us realize this purpose in the swiftest and most benevolent way.

The purpose of creation is the revelation of and state of complete equivalence and connection with the one and only upper force.

The entire universe, everything we can possibly imagine, is governed by one upper force. The goal of creation is for each of us to reveal this upper force to each of us, understand it correctly, draw closer to it, and use it as we wish.

Question: What is the upper force?

Answer: It is the quality of bestowal and love. Like a mother, like parents, it is something very great and benevolent.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 6/2/25

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A Wind-Up Doll

417Question: What example would you give of a person who is developing?

Answer: A doll moves by means of a small motor, beneath that lies a rheostat. As the rheostat is adjusted, development begins in the doll. The doll transforms, becoming increasingly driven by consumption, then by a desire for knowledge, and finally by a desire to understand the root cause of suffering, suffering that neither the development of consumption nor knowledge, nor attempts to escape suffering have been able to resolve. All of this brings the doll to a desire to understand where the suffering comes from. All of this happens according to the program built into the doll.

And it comes to understand that the suffering is purposeful; it forces it to change. The Creator begins to “disturb” those whom He wants to draw closer to Him.

The Creator shows a person through this that the person himself needs to change, rather than trying to change the environment around him or his way of life to suit himself. There is no escaping suffering through any of this, and nothing can truly be achieved that way. In this way, the Creator compels a person to change.
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Restore the Network of Connection Between Us

942Question:  When we meet a person for the first time, we form an impression of them, and it may change.

Speaking about the spiritual and the material, how do we avoid falling into the standard set of human experiences when a person enters a new environment, meets new people, sees only the good in them, and over time begins to criticize them?

Where specifically is the spiritual and material work here? In the material world, I can push such a person away from me and never meet him again, whereas here I overcome myself and continue communicating with him. Is that where the difference lies?

Answer: You do not pay attention to anything material; you rise above it because through your connection with this person you can build a common spiritual aspiration toward the Creator. Therefore, the friend is infinitely important to you, because without him, you will not have a purposeful aspiration toward spirituality, and you will remain without a soul.

Comment: Essentially, we are speaking about a screen with the Creator that I gradually build. But I build it independently, with respect to myself.

My Response: With respect to the common connection with everyone. You can never build anything directly! It is only through connection with others, because we are one shattered soul.

If I do not connect with others, I have nowhere to feel the Creator. The Creator is between us, but He disappeared, fell into the shattered network between us. Restore the network, and you will see Him again.

What is unclear here? There was a “fishing net” between us in which the Creator was felt. The net was torn, the connections between us broke down and became egoistic, and the Creator disappeared. Restore this network, like a web, and as it is restored, a radiance will appear in it—the Creator, the property of bestowal and love.

Comment: But all the examples that you give, I understand at first, and then I do not.

My Response: That is because your egoism changes instantly, and in the new egoism, you can no longer accept this; you do not feel it.

Comment: But it is impossible to repeat this a hundred times.

My Response: Of course it is possible; even a thousand times! The point is that it is not repeated, because each time a new degree is being worked through. I never repeat myself.

Comment: Yes, I know. But it sounds as though it is the same subject.

My Response: There is nothing else.

Comment: Let us say you speak about mutual guarantee, but there are so many different aspects there. You look at lessons from previous years, where you revealed certain things, and now you reveal other things. And it seems that they are being revealed, but at the same time, they are not.

My Response: Because this must be revealed in you. And in whom else? Do not wait for favors from the Creator! There will be none! Take it yourself.

Question: From where?

Answer: From Him. But demand it!

Comment: How to demand correctly is a very big problem. Because the usual idea of demanding is to shout, or clench your fists, or swear.

My Response: That helps too. Go ahead!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call.First impression of a person ” 9/25/10

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