Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

For the Next Generation

214Question: If I were to open The Book of Zohar and no one told me it was important, I probably would not find anything in it, just a fairy tale. Imagine someone who has nothing to do with us opens this book. What does he find there? What does he read?

Answer: Nothing, but he will learn about this book from me. At the same time, he will have some recordings of our lessons. He will open the book, and along with watching or listening to our recorded lessons, he will study it and this will give him an entrance into the upper world.

Before that, he should read other literature, such as Rabash’s articles about the group, about the connection between people, and also Baal HaSulam’s articles, which shape his approach to The Book of Zohar. This is how he will come to The Book of Zohar itself.

I am sure that in the end people will engage specifically in this.

I think the next generation will finally come to the conclusion that a person does not need to work as much as now. Should he work just to exhaust our planet and produce completely unnecessary things?! He will produce only what is necessary for his existence and spend all the rest of his time studying, disseminating, and exchanging spiritual information.

People will gradually begin to feel that they exist in both worlds. I am sure this will happen, if not in the next generation, then in the one after. But it will definitely happen.

Comment: But you yourself live in the current state.

My Response: I do what I must in my time. I feel myself to be a link in the chain of Kabbalists. I have a clear mission. I think this is clearly visible in my life—what I devote myself to and what I fulfill. I have no questions or issues with this.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Zohar is Book №1” 7/8/10

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Bestowal for the Sake of Bestowal: A Cleansing State

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the matter of creation is the receiving desire, what does it mean to bestow in order to bestow? Where is the work with desire?

Answer: The truth of the matter is that the receiving desire itself works for the sake of bestowal. It supports a fellow human being, helps him, and performs various actions in relation to him.

In general, to understand bestowal for the sake of bestowal, it is necessary to understand what reception for the sake of bestowal is. It means that I work with my receiving desires so as to use them to raise a fellow human being and perform the actions of bestowal upon him, similar to how Bina works in its AHP.

I include the receiving desires of the other into my own and fill him with everything he requires. And what he requires is infinity. Then with my help his desires reach an infinite magnitude, while the Lights coming to him through me grow to the infinite size of NRNHY. This is how I work receiving in order to bestow: I make sure to give the other everything necessary, utilizing all of my abilities for this purpose and totally ignoring my own benefit.

However, for this I need the upper force that is not in my nature. My inborn nature lets me perform only actions that promise me personal benefit, whereas the actions of bestowal are totally selfless and do not benefit my receiving desires in any way. This is why I can’t perform them unless I receive the strength from the upper dimension, that of bestowal.

Hence, I incorporate the needs of the other into my desires and then through my desires I fulfill him. In general, we are talking about the desires that relate to our interconnection since the spiritual work is performed at the level of the unity of souls where we fill ourselves with the upper lights.

There is another option: not to engage my receiving desires, but only to transfer all the good from myself to the other, to participate in his fulfillment, but not with my own desires. This is pure bestowal. As a rule, these actions precede mutual bestowal. They correct our unification. Thanks to them we annul our egoism in order to rise above it to unity. And unity itself is activated by the direct use of our receiving desires.

In this way, bestowal for the sake of bestowal is an intermediate, small, weak, “poor” state. But we have no choice: We need to undergo it since we thereby clean our desires and rise above our egoistic qualities. Without it, it is impossible to start working with them. First of all, we have to “cleanse them,” meaning to fill them with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011 on The Principles of Global Education
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You Can’t Become Human without an Environment

425Question: People tend to be impressed by examples. Let’s say a person doesn’t believe that he depends on society and thinks that he can solve everything on his own.

Let’s imagine this situation: a baby is born, placed in a round room where the light constantly on, there is food, but the baby has no other interaction with people or animals. What will happen to him?

Answer: He will not become human. He will just consume food naturally, like an animal, and grow up the same way.

Question: But will he have his own thoughts and fantasies?

Answer: Nothing will happen. Absolutely nothing. All this appears only under the influence of the environment. Whatever environment you place him in, this is what will come out.

Comment: But then he is, in fact, not a man or even an animal.

My Response: Right. Therefore nothing will work outside of the environment. That is, you will get an animal organism that will grow up in this form. If you show him his mother later, he will be scared of her because he will not understand what it is that suddenly appeared alive and even moving. After all, he does not know what it means to be alive and what it means to move.

He has no sense of time, no sense of the surrounding space. Feed him through a tube, and give him nothing else. And then what?

Comment: So he will grow, say, until the age of twenty.

My Response: What difference does it make up to what age? He will remain at the same level—only absorbing food, releasing waste, and nothing else.

Question: Will he have self-awareness? Will he feel like he is living?

Answer: Only at the level he exists at.

Comment: A man is built on desires; desire is lack, desire is deficiency.

My Response: He will have no desires, no inner urges, because there is no surrounding society with which he can realize himself.

Question: So he was born a zero and will die a zero?

Answer: Yes. Absolutely.

Comment: But nature does not treat humans like that.

My Response: Nature, of course, does not do this; but sometimes, if it does, there is a special purpose and reason for this.

Without an environment, no Reshimot will arise in a person, no internal data for implementation, because he will not be able to implement it. One determines the other.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Scandalous Experiment” 8/6/10

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Alone with One’s Thoughts

720Comment: Let’s suppose that a modern person ends up without a computer and all the things they are used to; they would get scared, but at the same time they would realize how strongly dependent they are on all of it.

My Response: No, that is still not most terrifying existence. We once talked about how I wanted to go to the Altai Mountains. So what about a computer? Maybe with a computer if I am going to sit there and write a book. Really what else do you need? A little boat, a fishing rod, rubber boots, and a bucket to go pick mushrooms. For a month? Wonderful!

You cannot even imagine! Alone with yourself, no one else. Nothing. It is pure bliss! You are alone with your thoughts, there is no one around, nothing affects you, and you can dedicate your thoughts to the most cherished, most beautiful, and purest, disconnected from the entire surrounding world. That is great!

I saw my teacher like that when he would disconnect. He would specifically go to Tiberias to be alone. And when I would go there to visit him, I saw a man who looked at me and did not understand who had come, why they had come, or what they wanted from him.

In other words, he could not feel what world he was returned to. He looked at you as if he were disconnected, and slowly, very slowly, he would come back to himself.

Question: But still a Kabbalist cannot exist completely alone?

Response: Sometimes it is necessary.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Scandalous Experiment” 8/6/10

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Let’s Change Our Lives

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There is some similarity between Moses and the current state of the people of Israel today. Moses does not feel confident about the people of Israel or the Pharaoh although he is in contact with the Creator. The current state of the Israeli nation is also quite insecure.

Answer: It doesn’t matter. If there is a specific direction, if we understand that we have no choice, then despite the conditions that force us to escape from Egypt and to jump into the Red Sea, we do what we have to do.

Question: But you say that the modern Israeli nation doesn’t feel that it is in Egypt. Perhaps a certain force should appear or someone who can explain and start this process?

Answer: This is exactly what we are trying to do. Our group, our organization, wants to show the whole nation of Israel that there is a way to be saved. Let’s change our lives! After all, things are constantly getting worse; the world is becoming more and more hostile, and the Israeli society is disintegrated and divided. Our security is in an increasingly growing danger.

The blows that we feel do not come upon the “nation of Israel,” but upon “Egypt,” upon our ego, since we do not want to exit it. Israel in us, the desire to bestow that wants to come out of exile and to ascend, does not feel the blows. When we are in the ego, it feels the pain, but the moment we leave it, we become disconnected from the “plagues.”

Question: What should we do in order to stop falling into the ego?

Answer: The only thing we should do is to unite. We have the method of connecting for the whole people of Israel, and it is the means to be free of all our troubles.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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The Root of All Exiles

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we are talking about the holiday of Passover, why do we say: “Remember the exodus from Egypt?” After all, there were other exiles, from Babylon, Greece, and Rome, but we are reminded only about the exodus from Egypt. Why is this?

Answer: The Egyptian exile is the root of all the exiles. All the other exiles are as if superimposed on it. This exile is the most difficult and fundamental. A person rises above his egoism and, for the first time, realizes what the spiritual world is and what it means to feel the property of bestowal instead of the property of receiving that we are born and exist in.

We perceive the world through the senses that constantly want to enjoy and benefit from everything. The revolution in the sensory organs—when I begin to “exit myself,” to identify myself with the world, to give to others, to feel myself outside of my body so that my heart stays there—is called the exodus from Egypt. All the other exiles already happen outside of me.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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The Path to Freedom

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As a rule, the people of Israel were hated and expelled from various countries. However it is different in Egypt, the people of Israel seemed to be pulled into it.

Answer: We were expelled from country to country until we had a desire to exit egoism. After all, we are liberated only when we want to get out of it in order to unite. Therefore during the entire period of exile, we only collected, added, and accumulated misery and misfortunes.

Today we have reached a state that we simply are obliged to realize ourselves, i.e., unite. This is the action that is necessary to ascend above egoism. Then we will come out to freedom, to the land of Israel. Now we cannot yet imagine this state when you do not depend on anyone, are not afraid of anyone, are not oppressed by anyone, and you feel freedom in the full sense of the word.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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A Leap of Faith Is Needed

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The people of Israel were afraid to leap into the Red Sea (Yam Suf – Final Sea) until Nachshon decided to do this. It seems that it was not easy to do.

Answer: Indeed it is not easy. We see that difficulties arose in all stages of the spiritual process. There are always those who were ready to turn back. Our ego is so multi-layered that it does not immediately give us the opportunity to escape from it or at least to define it as bad.

It is difficult for a person to nullify himself before others. If I do not act first, it means I would prefer someone else to. Is this a desire for love and unity? At the moment, this has not been clarified yet. And we see that after that the “golden calf” and many other problems were to appear.

Question: What does “Nachshon’s leap” symbolize?

Answer: There is a quality in a person that can go above reason: “Better death than such a life.” So the person leaps into the sea, come what may. Of course this is not our present state. The act called “Nachshon’s leap” requires preparation.

It is required to pass to the next stage, but are we prepared to carry it out? In the meantime, we are far from realizing it, even though this moment is quickly approaching. There is no doubt that we are in the stages of redemption. Peace and perfection are achieved in the connection of hearts. This is our salvation; this must replace the current state of Egypt. Therefore all of our work, study, and dissemination are aimed at connection and unity. Only with the help of connection and a good mutual relationship can we be saved.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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How Can I Find Part of the Creator within Me?

237Question: How can I find the part of the Creator within me?

Answer: The quality of bestowal that arises in you in relation to others is the quality of the Creator within you.

Question: How do I discover this quality? How can I recognize it? I might just be fooling myself.

Answer: Try it out with others, and you will see whether it is there or not and to what extent. When it truly appears, you will feel the Creator.

Question: Is it only at that moment that one can find the Creator within oneself? Is there nothing before that?

Answer: Nothing.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Creator Within Me” 8/2/10

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This Is the Creator’s Plan

204Question: They say that everything depends on the intention. We see actions, and they can be the most benevolent, but intentions are not visible. If we could see a person’s intentions, what would we see?

Answer: Today, if our intentions were to be realized in the world, then the world would cease to exist.

Question: Are these our intentions?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: So today our intentions are to destroy?

Answer: Absolutely!

Question: Selfish, terrible?

Answer: The destruction of others, everyone, and everything.

Question: Is that why they don’t manifest?

Answer: Yes, we are not given strength.

Question: Are they not given strength precisely because they would be destructive?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And at what point will we be given strength? And then what will we see?

Answer: When we have the right intentions in accordance with the plan of nature, then we will begin to receive the strength to realize it.

Question: Tell me, what intentions should we have?

Answer: To come closer, to unite, to connect, to comprehend the highest level of nature, to reveal mutual connection, love.

Question: If this intention were revealed, what would have been revealed to us, what would we have seen?

Answer: That we are initially in a single system and all our attempts to exist up to now have been only in the opposite direction—to break this system.

Question: And what should be done to reveal these intentions of ours?

Answer: To try with all our might to break through the wall of this egoism, which does not give us the opportunity to either realize, make any movement, connect somehow, or ask.

Question: Is it important to ask?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And at what point will I ask?

Answer: When you see that you really want to, but you can’t.

Question: What prevents the Creator from just giving us this and that’s it? Why does He need our work?

Answer: If you don’t want it, how can I give it to you? That would be forced. There is no such thing in the spiritual world.

Question: So the conclusion is this: He must bring us to the state that we ask for: “Give us the opportunity to break out of our selfishness”?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: So the conclusion is this: He has to show us that our selfishness is destructive, murderous.

My Response: But if He shows us, then we simply will not be able to exist. We need to strive for this ourselves, and then, as we strive, we will realize that we are in the opposite state, and we will ask.

Question: So our whole task is to strive for connection, for unity, as you say, for kind thoughts?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You use such simple words all the time. Good thoughts? And then we will see that we can’t do it and ask: “Give us this opportunity!” Is that the plan?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/8/25

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