New Life 918 – The Essence Of Falsehood In Our Lives
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

In order to reach the truth it is up to us to “move” through falsehood. The concept of falsehood exists at the foundation of creation as the opposite of truth. The lie dominates the depths of nature, on a level that we cannot even identify. It is up to us to try to change our characteristics from falsehood to truth, by developing the right attitude towards others from the depths of the heart.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 918 – The Essence Of Falsehood In Our Lives ,” 11/16/17

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Question: How would you advise a contemporary person to live without using others for his own well-being? Who provides a person with bread, clothes, etc.?

The study of Kabbalah will not fill a person and his family, capitalism will not disappear tomorrow morning, and the group will not earn a living for his family.

All these animal needs create and cultivate most of the egoism that continues in the group.

Answer: Kabbalah explains how to live in order to start feeling the upper world, the system governing our world. This is realized in the group to the extent it fulfills the conditions of the upper world in the relations between its members.
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Question on Facebook: Why aren’t people aware of their mistakes and why don’t they apologize for treating others badly? Does this happen consciously?

Answer: How can I be aware of my error if it means that I am an unreasonable, underdeveloped person?

Question: Aren’t there people who admit their mistakes?

Answer: There are, but they do it in a way that lets them receive greater benefit: “Look at how special, good, and objective I am—I admit my mistakes.” By that, they profit even more.

Otherwise, as egoists, we cannot really admit our mistakes since that humiliates us. We are only capable of admitting them in a way that raises us higher. I stand up in front of my peers and say: “You know, I am ready to admit my mistakes.” And they all applaud.

Question: Will man or humanity ever reach this state?

Answer: Only if a person starts admitting his mistakes, realizing that through it he will receive a higher reward. He cannot do it otherwise.

Egoism remains; it cannot disappear anywhere. We only replace one reward with another. That is, it is worthwhile for me to admit my mistakes; it is worthwhile to crush my ego; it is worth working with it differently in order to rise to the next degree. For that I need to develop the greatness of the altruistic goal, the greatness of love for others. Then I will be able to admit my mistake. One must be higher than the other.

Then I will need egoism only in order to reject it, to rise above it, because by doing so I earn more. That is how everything is arranged.
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From Kab TV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 10/2/17

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Question from Facebook: How do Kabbalists affect our world? Can they eradicate evil?

Answer: Absolutely not! Evil cannot be eradicated. We should have learned that from the thousands of years of our history. Annihilation of evil is impossible!

Evil is the foundation of the world. As it is written in the Bible: “I created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice,” not as elimination. Spice means that the evil remains, but we learn how to work with it correctly. That is what the science of Kabbalah is all about.

Question: You say: “Evil remains.” And so this always presents a hardship for a person?

Answer: Undoubtedly! What can you do? We have no other choice, we have to learn to work with evil. We have to understand it, respect it, and properly treat it as the Pharaoh (evil is Pharaoh): politely, with utmost courtesy, for it is only because of the evil that we are able to climb the ladder of more and more good.

Evil is the stimulus, the stage, over which we can constantly rise. On each level it is revealed in us even more, while we keep rising above it to goodness. Therefore, it is evil that advances us toward the good. The evil angel becomes the good one.

If not for evil, we would not be able to advance at all. Evil remains in all its glory, but we envelope it in a very good wrapping: goodness. It makes a wonderful “dish”: evil inside, goodness outside.

For we know, that every dish needs pepper added to it, salt, and something spicy. Even for children’s pastries cognac is added. Without it you cannot achieve the correct taste. Therefore, you have to taste some evil, but only for the purpose of elevating the good.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 10/2/17

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Question from Facebook: Why do you constantly put Jews above other nations?

Answer: I do not mean Jews by nationality. A Jew is someone who passes from our world to the upper world. The word “Jew – Yehudi” in Hebrew comes from “Yihud – unity.” It is a person who aspires to unity. Israel (Yashar El) is someone who is directed to the Creator.

We do not speak of ethnicity. Jews have no nationality. They are special and unique people and do not genetically originate from one’s parents like other nations.

Jews are representatives of various ancient nationalities that inhabited Ancient Babylon, Mesopotamia 3,500 years ago. Abraham gathered them in a group and started teaching them Kabbalah. That is how people that he called “Israel,” which in translation means “straight to the Creator,” appeared. They were people who wanted to attain the Creator.

Question: So, you only have a demand to this group, who does not want to return to its original state, called “the group that followed Abraham”?

Answer: Of course. I do not extoll this group, but on the contrary, I would like to sort of shake them so that they would come to their senses and understand that they face a huge task. I also do not want them to be self-satisfied and think that they have already fulfilled the commandments and the program of creation that was assigned to them.

They should show an example of true unity to the whole of humanity and become the “Light for others.” Then the people of the world will stop treating them with disdain and hatred. They will understand that this group of people, called the Jewish people, will bring the whole world closer to its best condition by performing their function.

Remark: In fact, the phrase “God’s chosen people” irritates everyone.

My Comment: But God’s choice is that we must fulfill a certain task! And nothing more.

And if today any Frenchman, Spaniard, German, Russian, Tatar, Englishman, etc., wants to become a Jew, then please, he can become one. To do this, he must only recognize that he is striving toward the Creator. That is all. So, try to think: do you need this?

Aspiring to the Creator means that someone wants to be like Him, that is, to gain an ever-increasing quality of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 10/2/17

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Question from Facebook: How do you feel about the United States? Many say that the United States deserves catastrophes, so it is necessary and the quicker it is cleansed, the better for all.

Answer: I don’t myself concern myself with that because all that is in the world comes from one single force—the Creator. He controls everything: He raises and lowers different countries, peoples, and parts of the world; sends hurricanes and earthquakes; explodes nuclear reactors, etc.

That is how the upper control works, wanting to shake us up and bring us to order so that we wake up a little and stop being constantly submerged in our own foolishness.

Therefore, no one is to blame: not the Unites States, not Russia, no one. Everything is controlled by the Creator. It is written in Kabbalistic sources that the hearts of those controlling the world are in the hands of the Creator. That’s why I don’t have any particular opinion, neither critical or approving, not toward one particular system or toward a particular government.

I think that all of us together, like little children, need to sit down and begin to study the system of the upper management and only then will we understand how much we really need to do this.

And the first to sit down and really study this science should be those who are managing the world because they channel the actions of the Creator to the rest of us. I very much hope that they will listen to this advice and then, in understanding and compliance with the upper control, the world will be able to come to a state of calm.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 10/2/17

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Every science consists of three parts: basic research, practical research, and the popularization of the science including education.

If everything is more or less understood regarding the popularization of science, it is not the case regarding new basic research and applied science.

Question: Are there new basic studies conducted in the wisdom of Kabbalah, or does it all come down to studying ancient sources? Is the research spontaneous or is it coordinated by Bnei Baruch?

Answer: Studies on the wisdom of Kabbalah are conducted in Kabbalistic groups who make laboratories of themselves and examine how the changes in the group are affected by the upper Light, the surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). 

Question: If it is an applied science, a practical science, what is the essence and the direction of the study? Or is the role of the wisdom of Kabbalah reduced to merely supporting other sciences in the practical sense, sciences like quantum physics, for example, or individual scientists?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah does not support material sciences in any way, although they can use its findings. The role of the wisdom of Kabbalah is not so much about research but the practical use of the upper force, the surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), in order to change man’s nature.

Question: Is there a plan to popularize the wisdom of Kabbalah? I mean is there a system developed system to spread the wisdom of Kabbalah around the world in cooperation with different religions, science, educational institutions, the mass media, etc.?

Answer: There are studies of the wisdom of Kabbalah. But since it is necessary to change the nature of the scientist for the Kabbalist to study it, there is a need for a group in which such research can be conducted.

This cannot be done in the framework of university communities because none of those students studying Kabbalah academically want to switch from its theoretical study to its practical study in a group as the Kabbalistic sources describe. They eventually keep talking about the subject, about the field, without actually attaining the subject, the field, itself.

Everything you are asking exists in the wisdom of Kabbalah in a unique form because the Kabbalistic knowledge of attaining the concealed layers of nature is revealed to a person to the degree that he changes himself, corrects his egoistic nature, which is never required of any other scientist.
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Question from Facebook: Why is Kabbalah openly accessible only now? What is so terrible about it that it was forbidden to do it before?

Answer: When I was a child, we had a large library at home—an entire room lined with bookshelves. As I was growing up, I could get to the higher shelves, take books, and read them. The most inaccessible books to me were my mother’s books on gynecology—they were on the highest shelves. Of course, I wanted to get them, but I could not.

Now you understand that a person must reach only the level that will properly educate him. We start with children’s books, then read junior books, then classics, and so on.

It is a similar process with the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is revealed to a person when he is ready for it. And we reached this only in the early 20th century.

The modern author of the wisdom of Kabbalah is the great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam. We mainly study his works, and we base everything on them and the implementation of his method.

The wisdom of Kabbalah was not waiting for the person who would reveal it, but for the whole generation in which it can unfold. We are that generation.

Question: That is, the “lower bookshelves” can be called the history of humanity?

Answer: Yes. There we developed science, art, politics, war, technology, and mainly religion. And now all of this must undergo a complete overhaul.

Only real, spiritual, altruistic values can be higher than us and give us the opportunity, the strength, and the direction to aim for them.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/7/17

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Question from Facebook: Does somebody know what is true and what is not? How can it be determined if each person has his own subjective opinion?

Answer: On what are these subjective opinions of a person based? What does he know and understand in this world? He does not know anything from the day of his birth until the day of his death. He is always confused and barely exists, like the most miserable creature. He is more damaged, unprotected, and stupid than animals.

Comment: But you live in the country where each resident has his own opinion. This is what they say about Israel.

Answer: But what is it? If each one has his own opinion, it means that no one has a true one so there is no one to reckon with and no one to take into account. When each one has a different opinion, this is tantamount to zero. Thus, one can continue living with his own opinion.

Question: Where is the truth then?

Answer: The truth for a person and human society can only exist if we try to imagine human society in a form of a ball, completely closed, imbued only with the good forces of all concerning everything.

One single integral good force is the truth, and everyone who participates in it as much as possible with mind and heart understands and feels it from within. In other words, based on the feeling of commonality of absolute connection and love, one attains this truth. Only in this way it is possible to receive it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/7/17

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Question from Facebook: The central place in all religions is the concept of God. What does God mean in Kabbalah?

Answer: God in Kabbalah means the general force of nature, except for it, nothing exists.

In itself, this is an abstract concept in relation to a person, and we cannot speak about something that exists outside our perception. No one has ever felt it. This state of the Creator, which is not in relative to us when this upper force exists by itself, in no way can be perceived by us, and therefore, this force is called Atzmuto, meaning He by Himself is Himself.

Everything that we attain and what is possible for us to attain are the actions of the upper force in relation to us. The wisdom of Kabbalah deals with revealing these actions in relation to a person.

We call this upper force the Creator because He created man, He created all the qualities in a person, within which we feel our world and can explore through our senses the Creator Himself, the one who created us. We can explore why He created us with these qualities, with these limitations or, conversely, with these abilities, and what the Creator wants from us.

Developing in this direction, we begin to attain Him, meaning the Creator. Not Atzmuto, not Him by Himself, but exactly the Creator in relation to us. In this way, we explore His actions, how He created our world and all other worlds, which is a certain system of connections between Him and us. Such a system of connections of gradually descending degrees is called worlds. This system affects us.

By studying these worlds, we study the Creator, we study ourselves, we understand in what states we are in connection with Him. And we can change our behavior and our actions in accordance with this in order to raise ourselves to higher connections, to be connected directly with the Creator, literally face to face.

In other words, we can see what kind of reactions our actions produce in Him and, conversely, what reactions His actions produce in us. We can reach an absolutely complete, open two-way connection.

When we begin to attain this opportunity, to reveal and achieve it gradually, we naturally change our behavior in accordance with what we reveal, and we enter a completely different stage of our development where we begin to change into similarity with the Creator. At the same time, our world and we ourselves are change radically and our state becomes more and more reliable, convenient, correct, and true.

Question: Who do I call God if I study Kabbalah?

Answer: I call God the general force of nature. It is called Elokim, which in gematria (the numeric value of the word) is equal to Teva (Nature). The entirety of nature that I reveal, everything that affects me externally, I call the Creator, and everything that is inside of me, I call the derivatives of the Creator.

This is the whole purpose of our work, study, and all sorts of actions—to make an absolute similarity between ourselves and the Creator in desires, intentions, and actions and to reach a completely harmonious connection.

Just as I discover that all the qualities of the Creator are bestowal and love, so I raise myself to these qualities. All this is perceived through feelings; after all, a person is a sensory creature. The mind is given to him in order to control these feelings and form them into similarity to the Creator.

We are created only for this. However, in order to come to this decision, conclusion, and action, we must go through a very long stage of historical development: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

Now we have come to the very last stage of human development. We just need to reveal the Creator and make ourselves similar to Him. Then we will be called “Man” (Adam, which means similar).
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/31/17

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