Question: Why is it that all Kabbalists who were attained high spiritual degrees suffered from severe illnesses at the end of their lives?

Answer: Because they suffer for the sake of society and not for themselves.

After all, in our world, we are used to viewing a person as a solitary, separate individual, and therefore we pass such judgments on them: this one is bad, that one is good, this one is such‑and‑such, that one is so‑and‑so, and so on. We fail to take into account the system surrounding the individual that undergoes transformations alongside them that he exists within.

With ordinary people, this perspective is understandable. But a Kabbalist goes through everything not for his own sake. He operates outside of himself, within the surrounding society, and he exists “inside” it. Therefore, the calculation he carries out is a calculation of how to advance society forward.

All his sufferings are also for the sake of society. That is to say, his illnesses and his problems, all of this, does not stem from his own personal nature, but because he gathers all the desires of society within himself; He acts like Bina who gathers all the aspirations from below, from Malchut through Zeir Anpin, and begins to correct and give birth all this. Like a mother who suffers when her children are ill even more than they do and bears the burden of all of them collectively.

Therefore, we cannot interpret a Kabbalist’s sufferings as an indication of his personal problems. These are not his problems at all. Look at what happened with Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon, and at how young the ARI was when he died! However, in our time, everything is changing; we are advancing forward en masse; so everything can change.

But in past centuries, Kabbalists took a great deal of suffering upon themselves. These were sufferings not for faith, not for God, but for humanity. A Kabbalist absorbs into himself the illnesses of all the other people and corrects them within himself, and therefore, for the time being, they go through him. This must be understood. There is nothing religious here!
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Sufferings of the Kabbalists.” 10/8/10

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Comment: When you disseminate Kabbalah to the masses, what attracts people is your inner message.

My Response: This happens because I have this energy. People sense that there is an upper force in me. They perceive it, even if just slightly, and sense that knowledge, confidence, and inner light.

I am not boasting about it, but I also do not hide that they really sense all of this. In many, it provokes hatred; in others, respect, approval, or admiration. It makes no difference. The main thing is that it exists, and it is not merely the spark of a brilliant orator; after all, I do not speak Hebrew particularly well, and my manner is generally somewhat rough, with a strange, often off-putting sense of humor.

I craft my statements quite deliberately, even pointedly, specifically to shake a person up and make them feel uncomfortable to prompt them to engage their critical left line a bit. People simply recognize there is a profound logic here, not mine, of course.

By the way, by nature I am practically without any innate talents. The only thing speaking through me is what I have attained from my great teacher. Through my connection with him, I pass on to you what he receives from his teacher, and further, through the entire chain of Kabbalists.

I have simply been privileged to serve as a conduit, to “pour,” so to speak, information from myself into the common Kli. To the extent that you unite with one another, I am able to pour all of this into you.

Whether I am here or not does not matter. The absence of visual contact serves to give you the opportunity for even greater freedom of choice to unite with one another. If I am no longer present, it will simply mean that you have been granted an even greater measure of freedom of will, even greater responsibility to unite. And when you can do this, you will receive even more from me, just as I receive much more from my teacher than when he was physically next to me.

It is said that the righteous live more in their death than in their life. And therefore there is no difference whether I exist now or will not exist in your eyes. If you unite among yourselves, you will feel a spiritual abundance pouring into you, specifically from me, in an even greater measure.

When you are ready for the stage of uniting with one another, without me in greater freedom of choice, since there will no longer be my pressure or direct guidance, and you are able to bring this to fruition, then I will depart. From that point on, it will be entirely up to you whether you succeed in realizing this or not.

Question: Do you think that those external circles we are currently disseminating information to will continue to be drawn to this in the same way?

Answer: This depends on the extent to which you become a magnetic force, how much inner strength you possess (the kind I currently hold), and on your capacity serve as a source of that strength for all of humanity. If you remain in contact with me and allow this force to flow into you through me, you will begin to attract all of humanity. But all this must happen collectively, as a single, unified entity.

Question: Is it possible that we might fail to become a unified whole?

Answer: In that case the obligation would be shifted away from you and placed upon some other group; alternatively you could be compelled toward this unity through the path of suffering. You will be made to unite regardless, because this is the natural trajectory of evolution, the inevitable path leading to the revelation of that system, that state that exists in the world of infinity.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. In the Union” 9/11/10

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Question: Should I correct my path in accordance with criticism or not? What do you think?

Answer: I think you should not. If this criticism ties you even more strongly to your root, then it is good. This is what you must check!

Question: So I have a path I am following, and if criticism binds me more tightly to this path, then…?

Answer: Go.

Question: Go. And then can one relate to the critics with warmth and kindness?

Answer: Of course. It is from the Creator.

Question: That is, if you are criticized, let us not use harsh words like “hated,” but criticized, or if they try to knock you off the path; then you must hold on to this path even more?

Answer: I cannot tell each person in what exactly.

Question: And what would you say to anyone who is being pressured from all sides? How can he hold on?

Answer: If you are being pressed from all sides, then the best thing is: disconnect, step aside, and look from the side at yourself and at them. And you will see to what extent you may be right, to what extent not. And then make your decision.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/19/26

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Question: How should one choose a Kabbalistic partner?

Answer: A person’s partner is the Creator. With Him we must attain unity, complete adhesion. That is all. That is the partner. Everything else is only a means to that end.

All the fellow students, the friends, serve as what might be called “witnesses of your adhesion with the Creator”; they are the ones that provide your contact with Him.

Question: You are speaking now about friends. And a woman? Does she play some role in this?

Answer: A woman must understand your work, its importance, and must not hinder it.

Question: Isn’t she the spiritual woman with whom I can advance?

Answer: You should not think about a “spiritual woman.” Your spiritual partner is the group.

And a wife, it is desirable that she understands you, that she herself aspires to this, and does not hinder you, although disturbances can also be a help along the way.

Comment: Now you are speaking about a woman as a disruptive element. But recently you said that she is a very important element.

My Response: I said that one must choose a wife who will be close to you and similar to you in her understanding of family life rather than someone who pursues a lifestyle and earthly goals that are completely at odds with yours.

We know that the basis of spiritual development is your similarity, common aspirations, common mentality, and common language. Similarity in your parents’ families is already a guarantee that further on there will be mutual understanding rather than disagreements, because all of us are drawn to those values that we received in our upbringing.

In addition to this, similarity in the spiritual goal is necessary, the goal that fills our life and stems from the spiritual understanding of the state. A spiritual state consists of a vessel and a filling.

The vessel is everything that is familiar to me, what I understand as life, that is, the existing conditions, values, and earthly habits. The filling is what I want to fill my life with so that all this will more or less suit both her and me. Then everything will be fine.

Besides that, one must look at what environment I am in, so that it will be suitable for both of us. I cannot find a suitable partner and then go somewhere to Asia and join an Asian group. This too must be more or less suitable for us, so that a person will not feel too great a contradiction. Although in our groups this is not so sharply expressed. Today the world is very close in all its ways of life.

We must strive precisely for such similarity, and through it for similarity to the Creator. Attaining complete similarity is the most comfortable point.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Couple” 9/15/10

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Comment: I thought that the law of mercy emanates from above, and that everything is held by this law. I thought this was the main law of life.

Answer: Why would it be so? I look at inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and see no observance of such laws there. No, but humans, with their imagination, have scribbled countless books and theories about it. But generally speaking, no.

I think the worst human trait is inventing a future or surrounding reality for oneself based on one’s own desires.

Question: So this is a kind of violence? A person commits violence against nature?

Answer: Yes, and then he makes demands from nature: “Give me this!”

Comment: In other words, “You are merciful, and I want everyone around me to be merciful.”

My Response: Yes. If we reasoned soberly with nature, we would not make demands of nature, but we would demand of ourselves the correct attitude to ourselves, to others, to nature, to everything. And then, perhaps, we would get a hint about how the universe exists and in what way we can rise above it.

Question: So rather than demanding that the universe be merciful to me, I should demand that I be merciful to others?

Answer: Yes.

Question: “Merciful,” did I use the word correctly here?

Answer: It can be used like that, yes.

Question: Then what should be put into this word if we indeed come to being merciful? That I must be merciful to others, what should I invest in that?

Answer: I must do for others all the good and kind things that I would wish for myself. And under no circumstances should I imagine think that I will receive some kind of reward for it. Absolutely not!

Comment: This second part is very difficult: receiving nothing in return.

My Response: In this, in fact, lies the whole point of the first part.

Question: Then will I come into balance with the universe if I begin to move in this way, as you say?

Answer: If so, then yes. And then there will be no destruction, no self-destruction.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/17/26

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Question: Are there instances when you, as a teacher, find yourself in dissonance with the group, and you tell the students: “You do not understand me,” and they respond that it is you who does not understand them? What does this achieve?

Answer: It leads to clarification of relationships. How could it be otherwise? That is how it must be. Nothing good comes from what is already “good”; it can only emerge from what is difficult or flawed.

Comment: So, as you put it, you need to put pressure on them, much like we put pressure on a child to help him or her develop.

My Response: It depends on what you mean by “pressure.” You must apply pressure creatively; only then will something emerge. You have to constantly introduce different exercises and small challenges, nothing too overwhelming, while offering help, providing explanations, giving gentle nudges, and continuously alternating between the left and right lines.

How else could it be? How do we play with children? Only in this way. They themselves insist on it.

Comment: But you constantly drive the group into a state of stress as you tell them that the whole world is suffering because of them. And they cry out: “So what are we supposed to do? Tell us!”

My Response: This is precisely how they will try to search for something. I cannot simply tell them what must be done, because the process is one of searching. If I just told them, it wouldn’t work; it wouldn’t be accepted, defined, felt, or truly internalized.

Question: But surely you know what needs to be done, don’t you? Do you have some kind of “vaccine” for this? Is it that you simply do not speak about it?

Answer: I have nothing of the sort. Do you think I am hiding something? Do you suppose that Kabbalah can simply be revealed to someone, and that is it? Through what sensations could it be revealed, if a person does not yet possess them? Through what?

Suppose you were supposed to start sensing radio waves. But you cannot. What can I do? If I were to lower radio waves to the level of the sound or light, levels that you can perceive, then you would see and feel them.

But in order to perceive the radio waves themselves, you must rise to that level, you need to develop some kind of sensor within yourself, a receiver that would perceive them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Useless and Worthless People in the Group” 9/26/10

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Question: Where will further evolution go? There are signs that it is reversing itself and that degradation is setting in. Some believe that man has already reached the limit of its material evolution, and will continue to develop primarily in the cultural and social fields. What kind of future awaits us?

Answer: It is true; human development is shifting to a new level, one that transcends the physiological and material realms. The evolutionary forces that have brought us to our present state have been pushing us toward more and more advanced forms all the time.

Now we are on the threshold of a new, advanced form that we cannot yet discern. It entails the transition from existence defined by the sensation of matter, that is, the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human world in which we currently exist, to the world of forces.

​​This is a world governed by a force that controls our perception of reality. In this world, matter as such does not exist at all; there is only a force that presents its various levels to us in this specific guise. It seems to us as though we observe inanimate matter, plants, animals, and people, but all these are merely our sensations of the universal force of nature that draws its various attributes within us.

In reality, there is nothing before us except this force that projects a special “movie” inside us. We perceive it through forms that help us understand it. In essence there is only one force of bestowal that affects the overall force of creation, the force of receiving.

The entirety of modern human development—technological, cultural, educational, and all the miasma of the modern world—is designed precisely to lead us to the feeling that we are acting in a world of forces, not material forms.

We will understand and feel that the whole world is being constructed within us. We are merely picking up some kind of “waves,” much like a computer captures a Wi-Fi signal and builds a picture from them within which we exist.

Humanity is on the verge of a momentous transition into a new era. There have been many abrupt transitions from one era to another throughout history, but there has never been such a revolutionary one as this. This leap is taking place within our perception, within an evolution we are going through by our own conscious choice. We are no longer just a material in the hands of a sculptor; we are actively participating in our own development.

This new evolution that we are destined to go through cannot be realized without our active participation. It is entirely up to us when this transition will take place. And should we fail to take this step ourselves, the forces of nature will compel us to do so, like a blister that has matured and is bound to burst.

That is why we currently feel such intense pressure from nature that is compelling us to accept this mission, to understand and feel where we are and what our future form should be that we must realize for ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 931 – Evolution: The Next Stage,” 12/12/17

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Question: You try to give tasks to everyone, both men and women. Is it really possible to do without women’s desire?

Answer: No, it must be very clear. A woman is not a passive element in creation. Although compared to a man, she is more passive, this is only because she cannot independently implement her desire.

However, her desire itself is very necessary for men. And men will feel like men when women begin to feel a need for spiritual development and pressure them with this need. Then it will be like in a family when a wife compels her husband to take care of the family.

Question: How can we ensure that women do not go in the wrong direction?

Answer: In any case, one has to develop somewhere. I am not afraid of anything. And in general, what is there for us to fear? Life is infinite, nature is eternal, the Creator is one, and one force governs us. We are obligated to move only toward it, toward contact with it, and toward similarity with it.

Let us try to pass through all these stages quickly, easily, and pleasantly, as much as possible. The main thing is to constantly try to accelerate the pace of movement toward the goal. That is all.

When I am asked what I like about myself and what I do not, I say: “There is only one thing I like about myself: the striving toward the goal that the Creator gave me.” I must constantly feel pressure: I must, must, must, and feel that I am moving toward the goal, revealing it more and more correctly. I torment myself if I do not carry this through to the end.

Only this desire matters. Everything else is the evil that was also created by the Creator, but there is certainly nothing good in it.

Therefore, we should not pay attention to the various shortcomings that are revealed within us. They will naturally appear, and at the pace at which we move forward, we will feel them even more.

But a strong, good, kind, mature women’s organization, which I demand, will help us go through all the revelations of our internal shortcomings that we do not yet see. And by revealing and correcting them, we will come to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Women’s Desire” 9/11/10

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Question: How can a spiritual directorate replace you, a Kabbalist, who gives people a sensation of the upper world?

Answer: The spiritual directorate deals with clarifying current issues related to advertising, dissemination, studies, and the functioning of our organization, that is, the framework we exist within. It does not deal with the spiritual fulfillment that I give to the students, nor with the knowledge that I reveal to them every day.

The spiritual directorate cannot replace me as a professional, as a teacher. However, it can, and already does, replace me in all decisions concerning the development of the organization and the group so that there are no arbitrary corporeal decisions or deviations.

These are ordinary people, students who are more or less capable of looking objectively at themselves and the group, and of making decisions, not with clouded eyes, but by rising above themselves toward a collective decision.

They understand that whatever the decision may be, if it is collective, it is higher than even the smartest and most brilliant individual decision, because within it the Creator is present. He is the one who truly governs the world and the group. In an individual, egoistic, even if brilliant decision, the Creator is absent, and therefore it is doomed to fail.

Ordinary people do not yet understand this, especially now, when a global system is beginning to reveal itself in the world and the structure of reality is gradually becoming clear: first through human society, then through ecology, and later through the entire vast universe.

The universe is beginning to appear as a single, complete system of inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature. However, we do not know what to do with it because we have no tools to work with such a system. In fact, this system is the most important because it alone governs everything.

In other words, the world is governed by the collective as a whole system. Have you noticed how a school of fish turns in water, all at once, not one leading and the others following, but all together, a whole mass, sometimes hundreds of thousands moving as one? Birds behave the same way.

This example shows the upper governance, not when one makes a decision and others follow, but when the wholeness of the group itself governs. Therefore, I exist not to lead you forward, but so that you form such wholeness. And then, among you, the Creator will be revealed, and He will lead you forward.

Moses was great in that he led the people, yet the Creator went before him, as a pillar of fire at night and as a cloud pillar by day.

A teacher is needed to gather everyone into a collective so that within the group, or even within all humanity, the force called “the Creator” will be revealed, the force that holds everything together, the general force of nature.

It is called the force of bestowal and love because only through this quality can people unite. And when it is revealed, everyone will turn in the same direction simultaneously, feeling themselves as one single body. Then all will understand how reality is structured, and to the extent that they are able to unite, the force of the Creator will be revealed.

Therefore, if the spiritual directorate resolves issues collectively, it will certainly succeed, whereas a single “clever individual” never will.

Question: How can we unite so that the upper force will dwell within us?

Answer: Prefer the collective opinion over your own. This opinion is gradually formed by the friends through discussion, by comparing their goals, plans, capabilities, and analyses with what is written in the sources, and for this, it is enough to know a few of the simplest principles.

Any group can do this if it is capable. Unfortunately, there are many “clever” individuals who understand the material very well, but cannot yet get to a collective approach. Therefore, they are not part of the spiritual directorate.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Meaning of Spiritual Direction” 9/11/10

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Question: When a person with a point in the heart first encounters Kabbalah, he does not understand what it is about, but he feels some kind of force, wisdom, and depth in it. Is this feeling similar to the one that should wake up in ordinary people?

Answer: Yes, this can happen. But I do not think people will be precisely oriented toward Kabbalah; most likely it will be toward connection. They will subconsciously feel that it is specifically the search for connection among them that should produce some kind of result, something higher, which should lead them to something else—non-earthly, interplanetary—to a higher intelligence.

Comment: Then what is the point of our attempts to disseminate something on a mass scale so that someone hears the concept of Kabbalah? It seems we are not really disseminating but simply cluttering up the Internet.

My Response: No! Why? Gradually, people read. Can you explain how you came to such a state that today you understand this idea at least a little? Here, you are sitting and disturbing the peace of mind of good people with your questions. How did you get to this?

Comment: In the same way, yes.

My Response: So, what do you want? Why are you taking this opportunity away from them?

Comment: Then it turns out that dissemination is not useless, but you claim that we are filling people with empty content.

My Response: If it were useless, I would not be with you at all. I would be doing something else. Dissemination is necessary. There is nothing you can do about it.

Question: Still, we want to give a strong injection through our dissemination so that it produces some kind of resonance. Do you think there is any benefit from what we are doing? Are there any methods to improve all this before we reach strong unity?

Answer: Undoubtedly, there is a benefit. Undoubtedly, it can be improved. Only dissemination will lead us to finding the correct approach, the method for correcting humanity. There is no other way!
Humanity must be raised because it advances very slowly.

Question: So whether we want it or not, we must enter into external contact with the general public?

Answer: Yes. Baal HaSulam spoke about the need to write books, to disseminate, to open new learning centers.

Comment: But still, as you say, thought lies at the foundation of everything! It does not matter whether there exists some kind of center, but suddenly, unexpectedly, a thought appears in a person. He does not know where it comes from.

My Response: Naturally. But in order to create a serious field of thoughts, we must first involve a huge number of people who, through their small efforts, would create this field.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. What’s inside?” 10/10/10

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