Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

When War Takes it All

627.2Irina writes:

I had everything: happiness, love, warmth, affection. The war came and took it all away from me. My husband and I thought we were going to be together forever. I understand everything you’re talking about, or rather, I did. I don’t understand it anymore. I do not know how to live anymore.

Question: She is asking how to go on?

Answer: Day by day, that is how to go on, without looking either at yesterday or tomorrow. Just automatically live through today.

Question: What should you invest in to call it life?

Answer: You don’t need to invest in anything. Just live.

Question: So I live, I go to work, meet people, eat, and so on. That’s it?

Answer: That’s it.

Question: Is that a way to live? Without plans for tomorrow or the future?

Answer: Yes. No plans! This is the best thing. Then there are no disappointments or expectations.

Question: But how can you cope with the feeling that you had everything: happiness, love, warmth, affection, then the war came and, as I understand it, even took Irina’s husband away?

Answer: I don’t know what to say. There are usually no words for this.

Question: But those close to us try, as do others, to make us feel better, give us some kind of solace. What solace can we offer Irina?

Answer: To be more involved with our programs and get closer to us. This is what I can advise her.

Question: I don’t think she is our student. She is watching our programs and is clearly familiar with our clips. She writes: “I understand everything you’re talking about.” Or rather, she understood, but no longer does. When a person receives such a blow, what is the advice?

Answer: Still she should not distance herself from us. Hold on to us. And then everything will fall into place.

Comment: You said, and I believe she’s heard it in your lectures and all our materials, that you must accept what comes to you.

Answer: Yes, there is nothing more you can do.

Question: What lies behind this word “accept”?

Answer: Everything that happens comes from above, but we must still agree with it. We must agree. What are the options? It is very painful, and thoughts keep straying to the past, to how things used to be.

Comment: To how kind and warm it once was.

Answer: Yes. Yet the same question, why? The best thing is to keep on going about your day, try to act automatically.

Question: To such a degree on autopilot? What would happen if I lived like this, if I heeded your advice?

Answer: You would slowly get used to the fact this is how it should be, day after day. That’s all.

Question: Would a new understanding, a new happiness, and a new life emerge if you keep on going like that?

Answer: It would no longer be the same happiness, but things would calm down.

Question: Tell me, why is this given to a person?

Answer: So that, first of all, a person would justify what is happening. This is how things work, and this is how it all comes from above.

Question: You always say that a person is not given more than he can bear. Even when the most precious thing is taken away?

Answer: It doesn’t matter what.

Question: Does this mean a person is strong and is able to endure it?

Answer: Possibly.

Question: Can I tell Irina this too, that she can endure? Does this apply to her as well?

Answer: Absolutely!
[322481]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/13/23

Related Material:
Even if a Sharp Sword Is Pointed at the Neck
Live One Day
How Can We Get Rid Of Fear?

Breaking Free from the Power of Politicians

294.2Dimitry writes to you:

Michael, I have been enraged lately. Why do we succumb to politicians and propagandists who are throwing us off? They are the reason there is so much grief. You see clearly blood spilling, people killing each other, and hating each other. It is all because they are egging on, but everything is, after all, illusory and fake. We die for this lie while they get fat. They make lots of money off this bloodshed, their children roll in luxury, and they too are doing well. Why are we giving in? Where is our basic reasoning? Where is the fear?

Answer: We do not have basic reasoning. As for the fear, we are so lost we do not feel it.

Question: So they can steer us?

Answer: They can do anything.

Comment: But a person still feels it, Dimitry writes here with so much pain in this letter that people feel it and still fall for it.

My Response: Of course.

Question: What is this mechanism that steers us?

Answer: It is politics. They are not just steering a person, but entire nations and countries by any means. They know how to brainwash people who follow them as if to the slaughterhouse.

Question: What do they pinpoint in us that they can turn on and throw us into hell?

Answer: They control our little egoism, and thus we succumb to it.

Question: It turns out they are specialists? That is, they know what you keep saying, that a person is an egoist. They know it.

Answer: Yes, they know it very well and use it.

Question: Is there a way to resist? Dimitry is actually hoping you may have a solution, a way to resist all this, what to do.

Answer: Only if we truly understand our nature and how we are led will we be able to see their work for ourselves and not be on board with them.

Question: You pointed to egoism. You said: “This is our vice we need to work with.” How do you work with it to break free from them?

Answer: I think for this we just need to understand that good relations between us, between people, are above all other benefits they try to bribe us with. After all, it is always about buying and selling.

Question: So, if I have great relationships, will they not be able to steer me?

Answer: If I cherish these good relationships, they will not be able to.

Question: What kind of relationships are these?

Answer: When I realize that the best thing is to live in peace with my neighbors, when I say neighbors, I mean from everyone around me to other countries.

Comment: But it is not a secret, there is understanding in us that it is really good to live in peace with neighbors.

My Response: These are just words. There are so many ways and methods to pit one country against another, and it is very hard to stop.

Question: What should I imprint on myself, which rule or law to never circumvent?

Answer: To live peacefully is above all. This should be clear to people.

Question: Can it be imprinted, let’s say, in laws, in man?

Answer: It can be imprinted in society so if someone wants to lure one society into a war against another society, they will not succeed.

Question: Do you think it is possible to accomplish?

Answer: Yes. Peace above all. This should be the direction of our most important aspiration.

Question: Let’s talk a little above the corporeal. You have always said the Creator is associated with the word “Shalom“—peace. You tell us we are somehow attracting this state here?

Answer: Yes, you can attract a good state to yourself, gain confidence in yourself and others, and unite to never be separated or crushed. This is called the upper force dwelling among us, the upper one.
[322117]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/20/23

Related Material:
Why Do We Allow Politicians to Decide?
There Is Such a Party, Friends!
One Nation as One Family

It’s All about Money

600.02Question: Why is money the basis of all problems in the world?

Answer: Because it is the equivalent of our investing in each other. I give something so I am supposed to take something.

Question: If we remove money, would there be no problems?

Answer: If everything that is common were removed, completely does not belong to anyone at all, and when everyone is concerned about each other as one common whole: either I will receive, or I will give, or another will receive, or will give to me, and all this is equivalent in my feelings, only then can we talk about removing money completely.

Money is a cover for my attitude toward others. There is nothing you can do about it.

Question: So in our world, will the problems disappear even if the money disappears?

Answer: No. Only when we rise above ourselves in our feelings will this world itself simply disappear because it exists only in our sensations.
[322267]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. It’s All Because of Money.”

Related Material:
Why Do We Need Money?
Money Is A Covering For Desire
What Is Money?

“And Hold Fast to His Wife”

49.04From a letter:

Hello! My neighbor Irina is studying Kabbalah with you. She sent me a quote yesterday. She knows that my husband and I are having difficulties, to put it mildly, and wants to help us. So, I decided to write to you. The quote is as follows:

“’Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ That is, this one is worthy of being dedicated to the man, and the man is dedicated to her.

“Therefore, a man should love his wife as his own body and respect her more than his own body, have compassion for her and cherish her as one cherishes one of his own organs. And she, too, must respect and love him as her soul, for it is from him that she was taken” (Rabbi Abraham Ben David, Baalei HaNefesh).

I looked at Wikipedia, this is a Jewish sage. He lived in the 12th century. Tell me, is this suitable for us today, the way we are? Or is it only for the 12th century?

My Response: I think this attitude is more or less suitable at all times.

Question: Then she asks: “Explain what it means to hold fast to his wife and become one flesh?”

Answer: To take care of her. The way you take care of yourself, take care of her.

Question: This passage from the Torah says: a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. That is, he will already care for his wife. Is this called “to hold fast”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: The second question is: what does it mean that we should be dedicated to each other? The word “dedicated,” what is it? Is this fate? What is it about?

Answer: Of course, this is fate. You see how people get closer to each other, get to know each other, how they gradually feel that they are good together. This is called “dedicated.”

Question: Is there some kind of hand in this that brings people together?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Do they not just meet by chance?

Answer: No. There is no chance at all.

Question: Is this what is called “dedicated”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Next, she asks: “What does it mean “must love as oneself”? It sounds like an order that I am obliged to do this. Is it possible to oblige a person to do this?”

Answer: A man and a woman should see this goal before them: to love the life partner and companion so that they take care of him or her as of themselves. At least as much as possible. Both he and she have this task.

Question: “What does it mean that I should respect and love him as my soul? I don’t even know where my soul is, or if I love it at all. What does it mean to love like my soul?”

Answer: Like your life.

Question: One more question: “What does it mean that I, a wife, am taken from my husband? It is written, for it is from him that she was taken.

Answer: It is believed that a woman who lives with a man, as it were, becomes a part of him. It is called that she is taken from him.

Question: Her last question is: “In general, how to live together without getting divorced?”

Answer: It depends on people, and how seriously they take life. If they feel responsible to their children, and for each other, then they will manage.

Question: You know, today divorces take place all over the world.

Answer: I do not understand this because I believe that there should be no divorces.

Comment: You see, it is not for nothing that her first question was: “Does this apply to the sage of the 12th century or to us too?”

My Response: I think it does not matter what time it belongs to, but there should not be any divorces in general.

Comment: This is not the first time you have said this. Do you know what the comments are about this? “What if he is like that? What if she is like that? What if he drinks? What if he beats me?” And so on, a lot of them.

My Response: I cannot comment on all these screams, but I believe that there is still no place for divorce. Especially for the sake of children. It always hurts a lot.

Question: When you say that, do you mean a family that has children?

Answer: Otherwise, it is not a family, between you and me.

Question: Do you not mean that if it does not work out?

Answer: If there are any problems, it was already there initially.

Question: In principle, if they have children are they a family?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can you suggest some kind of exercise for people who are in a state of anxiety: “What if it happens? What if we get divorced? We are moving toward this; we are getting closer to this.” What should they do? How can they sit down together and talk?

Answer: This is a problem and a long period of re-education. I think this is not easy. But still, divorce is the very last and, I would say, unacceptable step. This is something that cannot be crossed.

Question: If this enters into them, if they somehow absorb this into themselves, will this allow them to begin getting closer to each other from this moment on?

Answer: Yes. That is, it is important to discover and work with the point that there can be no divorces.
[322021]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/20/23

Related Material:
When Family Becomes a Family
Why Does A Man Need A Woman?
An Ideal Family

How the Soul Moves from Body to Body

213Although we see the bodies changing from generation to generation, this is only the case with the bodies. But the souls, which are the essence of the body’s self, do not vanish, to be replaced, but move from body to body, from generation to generation.

Thus, in our world, there are no new souls. And the fact that in the meantime, each has changed his body several thousand times is completely irrelevant because the essence of the body’s self, called “the soul,” did not suffer at all by these changes (Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”).

Comment: Arsen writes: “I was told about my past reincarnations. Not that I believed it, but then I read from your favorite Kabbalist Baal HaSulam and realized that I could be the Pharaoh himself. Please explain what is written about the reincarnation of souls. What kind of soul are we talking about here? What is my soul, which turns out to be immortal if it travels from body to body?”

My Response: There is an animalistic soul. And there is no longer a physical soul, but a spiritual one. But in principle, the reincarnation that we see is not the soul; it is an animalistic body, animalistic forces, that when a person dies, returns, and is born again.

There is nothing here. The most important thing that happens to us is the reincarnation of the spiritual soul. It goes through all kinds of changes until it is ready to attain the Creator.

Comment: That is, all the movement of this spiritual soul from body to body, the change of bodies…

My Response: It is not spiritual. The spiritual soul is the level of attainment of the Creator that a person reached in his previous life.

Question: So does his soul move until he reaches this level?

Answer: After that it still moves many times until it comes to its full correction.

Question: Then is this not about this body?

Answer: No, we are not talking about this body at all.

Question: What is it about? What kind of body is meant here when he says moving from body to body?

Answer: From body to body is only about the spiritual component.

Question: Is the body like a spiritual component? So is this, as we say, a desire?

Answer: Yes. Nothing happens with this body, with our flesh. It is the same as with an animal.

Question: What should my desire come to?

Answer: To the desire for complete adhesion with the Creator. This is the main goal.

Question: Is it about how desire changes all the time? Is this the reincarnation of souls?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Arsen asks: “What does it mean that the same soul moves through time, and dresses in different bodies?”

My Response: This is what it means. A person’s desire to connect with the Creator, gradually, from generation to generation, dresses in various animalistic forms until a person attains a state where he will be similar to the Creator.

Question: Should my desire change and purify in such a way that I want the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What do you mean by the desire to come closer to the Creator?

Answer: To be bestowing, loving, and connected with others in my qualities, like the Creator.

Comment: Then he has a question: “It turns out that the body is worthless, but we are always afraid that we will die. But here it is written at the end that the soul, the essence of the body, does not suffer from these changes. The body suffers, but the soul does not.”

My Response: Yes. The body dies, rots, and so on, but the soul does not. This is the eternal essence of a person, which yearns for the Creator. It must constantly come closer to the Creator from life to life, from generation to generation.

Question: Why are we so afraid of death? The fear of death drives a person.

Answer: This is because we know what we are losing. A person parts with his body. As long as he holds onto it, he is afraid.

Question: Can I not hold on to it?

Answer: It depends on the person.

Comment: Question: “There is no great joy in returning to this world all the time. How can one not return?”

My Response: To do this, you need to reach your correction. We stay in this world only to rise from degree to degree in our equivalence with the Creator. Then you no longer hold on to your body and do not want anything else at all, except to be attached to the Creator and that is it.

Question: Does the soul then no longer return to this world?

Answer: No.

Question: Where is it then?

Answer: Nowhere. Where is it now? You can say that it is some kind of life-giving force that fills our body because now we still perceive it that way. But in general, this has nothing to do with the body.

Question: Where is the place of the soul, can you tell? Is it not within me?

Answer: There is no place.

Question: There is no place. I need to think about this answer. There is no place at all.

Arsen writes: “I wonder, if I associate myself not with the body, but with the soul, does it then turn out that I can travel in time? The soul, after all, was the same all the time. That is, I can meet myself who lived 3,000 years ago. Can I say that?”

Answer: No, you cannot say that. All this is not simple. We should not tie corporeality to spirituality.

Comment: But you understand that this question is very interesting to people. We cannot escape it.
Another question: “My wife and I feel that we are halves of the same soul. Is that possible?”

My Response: Yes, it is possible. If you really lived your previous life happily, then it is quite possible that next time you will already be in a greater connection with each other, and maybe you will even be one soul.

Comment: This is beautiful! Arsen asks the question: “How can one learn to be with the soul and not with the body?”

My Response: Aim for adhesion with the Creator. This is all.
[321131]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

Related Material:
Reincarnation Of The Soul
What Is Reincarnation?
Life With The Second, Third, And Tenth Attempt

Where Should You Focus Your Energy in Israel

269Question: War is always some kind of energy accumulator which subsequently enhances the development of the country and changes its course. The problems that before the war were considered unsolvable can be solved because there is energy and strength for this. What do you think this energy could be used for in the future?

Answer: Only for the development of society in the State of Israel. We really miss this! We have some fairly developed individuals, but society itself is in some kind of stupor.

Question: To what goal and by what means should the development of society be directed? Can you just imagine and draw a picture of what it might be like in Israel?

Answer: The way I would imagine it is that there is an external force that could influence Israeli society to such an extent that it would feel an immediate need to solve the problem of the purpose of` its existence. If society were puzzled by this topic, I think it would be able to solve this mystery.

Question: So, this is a mystery?

Answer: Yes, because we can tell ourselves whatever we want, but we still do not realize it, do not understand it.

I believe that a strong internal breakthrough is needed here where each of us, the society, and the state must feel such pressure from above that will not allow us to do whatever we want and think that in the end everything will be fine.

Israeli society is like a young man who grew up spoiled and simply does not think about his future, and believes that everything will be okay. This may end very tragically.
[322139]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/27/23

Related Material:
What Does it Mean to Be the People of Israel?
May The Creator Help Us
What Does Israel Need to Win?

The Creator Is One for All

229Comment: From a letter: “Previously, from your lectures it was clear that the Creator is for everyone. But now it is somehow becoming clear that the Jews are a supernation. Let’s get over it, Mr. Laitman!”

My Response: I would get over it, but what should I do?!

Question: And I also sometimes think: How can we get around this issue, smooth it out a little?

Answer: There is no way around it. A supernation is a curse.

Comment: They think it is a gift.

My Response: There is nothing good about this.

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

Answer: That we owe everything, everything is against us. Everyone thinks we are to blame for everything.

Question: But we also have responsibility, right?

Answer: Yes, we are responsible. But we do not understand this responsibility and do not know how we can justify it.

Question: So, we do not want it, this responsibility?

Answer: Of course!

Question: And we do not want this role? But they insist and will lead us to the result anyway?

Answer: The highest predestination only places us this way, in the middle of everything that happens in the world.

We have the responsibility to set an example of correct behavior for humanity. But we absolutely do not do this! We do not do it at all.

Question: It is good connection between us and love for one’s neighbor, that is all there. Are we not getting closer to this?

Answer: No. That is the curse, that we are not getting closer.

Question: This friend also asks the following question, “It was clear from what you said that the Creator is for everyone, right?”

Answer: Yes, but this does not mean that everyone is equally good or bad.

Question: If He is the one for everyone, then why are there so many religions, beliefs, movements, and each has its own Creator?

Answer: It is in order for us to figure it all out and unite above all religions, beliefs, and everything.

Question: So, the path of all these 800 movements, tons of religions, and everything somehow comes down to the same thing?

Answer: Yes. We must rise above everything, and the Creator will be there. One for all.

Question: There is still a question about the Jews. Will this be an eternal question? Will this ever end?

Answer: It will end when the Jews will want it. That is, when they realize what they need to do and stop hiding, but act openly in front of everyone and show everyone what the method for uniting all people in the world is. This is their main task.
[321681]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/13/23

Related Material:
The “Chosen People” Have A Responsibility Before The World. Who Is Willing?
There Are No Accounts In Love
The Nation Of Israel: Restoring The Interconnection

Inconceivable Amount of Information

712.03Question: Is a person’s feeling that there is something concealed in the universe that is inaccessible to him positive?

Answer: This question exists at all levels of nature, even at the vegetative one. After all, everyone yearns for something: knowledge, attainment, and so on.

But man has a special development of questions, and he is constantly looking for answers to them. However, in our time, we come to the conclusion that nature is so diverse, flexible, and limitless that we, in principle, cannot understand it.

Question: Is the fact that we are ready to come to terms that there is something inaccessible to us a normal attitude on the part of a person? Or should there be some more pragmatic attitude?

Answer: No, I think this is a normal, adult attitude. That is, we understand that we are not able to cover the entire volume of information, sensations, and attainments that nature has.
[321677]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/27/23

Related Material:
How To Get An Answer To The Question Regarding The Meaning Of Life?
Unlimited Perception Of Information
A Question Related To Eternity

The Correction of the World Is in Our Hands

227Comment: Igor asks questions about Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.”

Somehow this quote does not quite match with what you are saying. It is written in the article: “It turns out that there is no such thing as selfishness in the world, since no one here is free or stands in his own right.” How is there no egoism? You are saying we are all egoists.

My Response: No, this egoism is not ours, it is not our choice. It is our nature that is imposed on us. And of course, we have to seek ways to get rid of it and correct it.

For this, the science of Kabbalah exists. And if we gradually correct our nature, we will see that there is a way to rise above egoism and live according to different laws.

Question: So, when it is said that there is no egoism in the world because there is not a single free person here, does it mean that we should want to approach freedom? Otherwise, if you stop a person on the street, as you’ve been saying all along, and say, “You are an egoist,” he will say, “What do you mean, I am an egoist?” He has no awareness of evil.

When does this awareness come?

Answer: To achieve this, you have to start studying Kabbalah. And gradually, over the course of just a few months, a person begins to understand that selfishness guides him and he cannot escape from it anywhere, he is enslaved by it, and therefore the only one to blame is the Creator.

Question: Not myself, but the Creator?

Answer: Yes! Who created the ego?! So, it is said:”I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” So, the only thing we have to do is to reveal our nature as selfish and to reveal the method of correcting our nature as Torah.

Question: Meaning that when I feel bad and I understand that this is because of my egoism, I blame the Creator for this and not myself?

Answer: You can blame the Creator. But, in principle, the Creator does not run anywhere from this responsibility. He says: “The light in the Torah reforms him; the Torah is the light of Torah, which reforms a person,” and why I have made you egoists; and for you to correct yourself, you must study yourself and agree that it is precisely this attitude toward the world as evil and the opportunity to correct the world that are in your hands.

Question: Why does it take millennia for humanity to get to this form?

Answer: It does not want it. It does not want to look in this direction.

Question: It does not want to look within itself? And millennia of wars, suffering, blood, everything, everything are needed?

Answer: All of this is part of the correction process. It is us who count everything by days, hours, weeks and so on, but the Creator has no time.

Question: So, you are saying that there is no history as such? History does not exist?

Answer: There is, but all of it eventually is connected to the general correction nonetheless.

Question: Meaning, it is a force that accumulates? And only for this one solution: The evil is in me and I should correct it?

Answer: Of course, and nothing else is needed besides that.

Question: It is amazing of course! All historians and archaeologists are engaged in history, archaeology, and sciences digging out how we came to be: the Big Bang.And, in essence, it turns out that everything converges to one point.

Are all these sciences necessary, in your opinion?

Answer: No. If we had right away engaged in what is necessary, correcting ourselves and uniting, then we would not have needed all of this.

Question: In other words, we don’t really need all the knowledge?

Answer: No. We would have learned everything from nature itself.
[321183]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

Related Material:
Evil Should Not Be Destroyed
“I Have Created The Evil Inclination”
“Take Off The Rose-Colored Glasses!”

Questions without Answers

198I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions (Richard Feynman, theoretical physicist).

Question: What can you say about this?

Answer: We exist in some volume of nature, but we do not even know the part we live in and are in contact with. Therefore, it is difficult to say what else we need to discover in order to answer the questions: Who are we?, What are we?, Where are we?, and so on. There are many questions, but practically no answers.

The further we develop, the more questions we have. Even the answers that we received earlier, today seem to be somehow incomplete, implicit, and unclear. This is how we live.

Question: Why is a person given the feeling that there is something concealed from him?

Answer: Animals also have this. They also exist in a world that is not entirely clear to them.

But for humans, this is more in the area of cognition. Here, of course, we cannot compare with animals; we have many more questions, theoretical ones at that, emanating not from our being, but from our mind, our development, out of its incompleteness and inferiority. But still, we somehow cope with it.
[321636]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/27/23

Related Material:
How To Get An Answer To The Question Regarding The Meaning Of Life?
A Question Related To Eternity
Where Psychology Ends And Kabbalah Begins