Question: Suppose you have an opponent who has certain qualities that you do not like. But when he becomes your ally, then, on the contrary, you start to appreciate his qualities. Is this acquiring the desires of others?

Answer: Of course. If you turn any person into someone close to you, then everything he has becomes your acquisition.

In spirituality nothing can be destroyed; things can only come closer and unite. You will see that even qualities that you initially thought were bad that when you approached someone with them, you wanted them not to have such qualities, but suddenly they become positive in your eyes and nothing needs to be changed.

There is no quality that is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on how it is used.

Question: How should we nevertheless accept the bad qualities?

Answer: Do not pay attention to them. You simply have to say, “I see everything incorrectly because of my egoism. After I unite with this person, I will see how to use all of his qualities correctly and how we can complement one another.”

Question: How does unity happen?

Answer: When you quarrel with your wife or girlfriend, then everything she has inside, you pull out as something negative. But when your relationship with her is good, then everything she has inside is loved and positive. Is this not clear?
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Positive Qualities of a Maniac” 8/18/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do so many married people today have lovers on the side?“

Due to the growth of the human ego, today we live quite a long time.

In the past, people lived 30 to 40 years, and even earlier, people died at the ages of 20 to 25. Our life span has gradually increased to a point where it is common to live to around 90 years of age today.

We thus find ourselves dealing with the problem of whether we can psychologically withstand such longevity. For instance, some studies claim that increases in cancer are due to our longer lives, that if we lived 20 years less, we would not develop various tumors; and if we lived even another 20 years less, then maybe these tumors would not emerge at all.

Therefore, people’s longer lives today are one of the reasons for an increase in divorces, and people find that they cannot live together for so many years.

Longer lives are one outcome of the human ego growing to overblown proportions. Another phenomenon of our massive egos today is that we simply cannot be satisfied with the variety of pleasures that surround us—and sex is life’s biggest and most accessible pleasure.

It thus turns out that people increasingly justify their infidelity, so much so that it ceases to even be called “infidelity” because of how ordinary it has become.

I think that in the coming years there will be no families left that live their entire lives in a single marriage. We live in an era where we have fashioned sex, alcohol, drugs and sports to cover our dissatisfaction, a feeling of hopelessness and a lack of confidence that we generally feel. Humanity turns to these means as a way to blow off steam, as a certain shake-up that the modern person needs.

Therefore, in no case can I criticize anyone. I understand its necessity in today’s world.

This phenomenon can change according to a change in our attitude toward the world and toward life. Moreover, such a change does not need to be carried out even in a person, but in our environment, i.e., our social, cultural and educational influences. If the values in our society change and become softer, with more support and encouragement of positive mutual connection, we will then become fueled with a new sensation of confidence and security. In other words, the more we feel our lives become filled with satisfaction, hope and confidence, the less we will be attracted to the many problematic games and their relaxation in the form of sex. Our lives will then become calmer and more balanced.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Lovers” by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 7, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Question: Why is pork considered forbidden meat for Jews and Muslims?

Answer: A pig is no worse than any other animal; it just has a cloven hoof. What are the signs of animals being kosher? The fact that the animal has a Parsa, a division on the hoof.

In spirituality Parsa means division between the pure worlds of Adam Kadmon and Atzilut and the impure worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya.

Therefore, the separation on the hoof is a sign that the animal is clean. In addition, ruminants have a closed cycle of digestion; they chew food and swallow, chew again and swallow. This means that the light rises from the worlds of Beria upward to the world of Atzilut and descends back, rises again, and descends again.

If an animal has such qualities in our world, it means that in spirituality, respectively, it is in a corrected animal state, and it can be consumed.

But this is still not enough. It must be slaughtered correctly so that it will not feel it; meaning, the artery needs to be cut acutely and the blood needs to be drained. In other words, not to kill it with a gun, not with an axe to the head, but specifically in such a gentle way. It is believed that if an animal feels frightened during the slaughter, then its meat is no longer kosher and is not suitable for human consumption because the fear experienced by the animal can be transmitted to the consumer.

From a spiritual point of view, this means that if you wrongly kill your egoistic desire on the animate level and want to raise it to the human level so that the human level in you uses it, then you must prepare it in the right way so that no damages remain in it.

Interestingly, the only wild animal that can be eaten by killing with an arrow is a deer because it is so kosher. The fact is that deer have a special spiritual root.

As for fish, they should have scales, which symbolizes the screen of the spiritual Kli (vessel), and a fin that shows it how to steer. Fins and scales are indicators of kosher fish suitable for human consumption.

It does not matter how fish have been caught and killed. It can fall asleep without the oxygen it gets through its gills. It does not matter because the fish is not on the same level as the animal. You can cook it in any way.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kosher Pork?” 7/16/11

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Question: Is there any symbolism in the fact that we have been surrounded by pets throughout time?

Answer: Pets are an addition to man, an addition to his own nature.

In general, the entire inanimate, plant, and animal world, everything that exists around us, except for man, is, as it were, different forms that have come out of us and now exist outside of us since we cannot collect them in ourselves, correct, and use them properly. Therefore they are still located and felt outside of us.

In fact, the whole universe, the globe, and everything that exist on it: plant and animal, and all of humanity, should be inside me. If I begin to develop the property of “love your neighbor as yourself” in myself, then I will not have any problems, and I will be able to discover all this within myself and work with it correctly.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Cat and Dog” 8/11/11

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Comment: You say that miracles do not exist. But some things are perceived as miracles at our level of understanding.

My Response: Of course, I understand that. If I give a musical toy to a child and the toy suddenly starts playing, it is a miracle to him. Suddenly, a little box starts making a sound. To him, it feels like something that fell from heaven.

Question: Why do you hide such information then?

Answer: It is not information! Information is something you receive and understand as additional knowledge.

Know that there are no miracles in the world. There are things that reveal themselves to an unprepared person and seem to be miracles because he does not see the cause and effect of that phenomenon.

Let us say at 11 a.m. the gas burner in your kitchen turns on by itself, and no one else is there. You will perceive it as something special until you discover your friends are playing a joke on you.

Certainly there are apparent coincidences and chance occurrences, but it is all a lack of information. And why should we know it if we cannot manage it?

Were Wolf Messing or Vanga happy because they knew something in advance? For such knowledge of the future, you have to pay very dearly because you are not entitled to it.

You have not reached its level yet. If you start receiving it according to your desires, you will involuntarily try to use it for yourself. It will push you away from the goal, and therefore you will suffer even more. It is a closed chain! We cannot go into it, and we should not!

On the contrary, the further you go into spirituality, the more you will close your eyes and advance, as they say, by faith above knowledge, that is, by bestowing despite egoism.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hidden Wonders” 8/5/11

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All bodies, the firmament, the stars, the earth and its kingdoms, are not equal to the lowest mind; for it knows all these and itself; and these bodies do not know anything. All bodies together, and all minds together, and all their products, are not equal to the least feeling of love. This is of an order infinitely more exalted (Blaise Pascal).

Question: What kind of property is mercy? Can a person manifest this property at all, or is it not given to us?”

Answer: Mercy is a property of the Creator. And this is a property that can be generated by a man. In part, it exists both in animals, in plants, in fish, and in all living beings. But in a man it must awaken in a measure similar to the Creator.

Man is born to achieve compassion. It is necessary to learn to be compassionate.

Question: Pascal was a great scientist. Did he achieve some point of the basis of man?

Answer: Scientists of those times felt it, and that is why they entered the field. That is why they called it all philosophy.

Comment: But the former philosophy is not the philosophy of our time.

My Response: It is natural.

Question: How does a scientist who works in exact sciences come to such feelings?

Answer: He feels the world; he feels how the whole world is interconnected, and therefore he strives to study its even greater interactions.

Question: Does he reach the foundation of the world?

Answer: Yes, of course. Scientists do want to dig into that. But if they reach this point of mercy, it means that they got to the bottom of something.

Question: You once said that the world was created just from this point, the point of mercy. Did a spark of mercy appear?

Answer: Yes.

Question: If a scientist comes to this, then does the road to the Creator in principle become closer?

Answer: This is practically a contact with the Creator.

Question: Is it like the fate of scientists, or is it the fate of every person, to reach such an understanding of the spark of mercy?

Answer: This is the fate of every person. And we will all reach the state in which we will reveal—each for himself—that interaction, interconnection, and mutual sensory penetration into each other that is the goal of our development.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/12/23

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Question: You told us that once when you and Rabash were driving somewhere, your car suddenly stalled. Then Rabash read TES and the car started. This, in principle, is perceived as a miracle. Did the Kabbalist somehow influence this?

Answer: Yes he did. So what? He could in a particular form influence the engine, but not me. Then he would take away my freewill.

Question: That is, a Kabbalist can influence some kind of inanimate level?

Answer: This is not about whether he can or cannot do that! You can do your child’s homework from school instead of him. But what is the point? What will he do on the exams?

Question: But if people who are on the inanimate level behave like robots, does it mean that a Kabbalist can influence them?

Answer: What for? Man, during tens of thousands of years of his development from fossil species to our time and beyond, must develop only under the influence of nature. There should be no influence of people on him from the side; there is no coercion in spirituality.

By doing this, you are depriving him of the opportunity to grow further. If you solve a problem instead of him, you remove an obstacle before him, and that’s it, he is no longer ready to advance further. He will not be able to!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hidden wonders” 8/5/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How does spirituality benefit a person?“

When we attain spirituality, we attain eternity and perfection, the purpose of our lives.

Reaching such a state requires developing positive human connections. We then discover true equality, security, happiness, confidence and friendship.

When we start the spiritual journey, we can find ourselves overcoming problems such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, stress, environmental problems, and we gain the tools to solve problems in the family and society in general.

Even if we manage to live the best materialistic lives possible—making a lot of money, buying whatever we want and making ourselves as comfortable as we can—then our lives will still end within certain limits, whether in 70, 80, 90 or even 100 years, but they will end.

The spiritual journey, however, is an invitation to achieve fulfillment via the happiest, safest and most balanced way of life, through which we come to feel our next life—giving birth to the perception and sensation of a whole new reality in the process.

We are never lonely on the spiritual path. We experience how spirituality is for everyone together. While the path has its ascents and descents, we feel a kind of intoxication when we rise spiritually, and we then start attaining the next spiritual degree.

What is the next spiritual degree? It is a state where everyone feels as a single whole. It is not a feeling where we each feel our tiny worlds and individual lives.

We are each like cells in a massive organism. In our corporeal lives, detached from spirituality, we only feel the tiny life of the cell. But when we rise to the next spiritual degree, we feel like parts of a single common organism, and we feel the life of that entire organism. Such a life is eternal and perfect because it is congruent with the trajectory of bestowal and love, nature’s very own qualities.

Attaining spirituality is a process of connecting together the broken parts of the big global organism we are parts of into one great whole by inviting nature’s force of love and bestowal as an adhesive between our connections.

We then experience the life of the whole, an organism that exists forever, sustained by the eternal qualities of love and bestowal. It is called “the soul,” and there is one soul for all.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Advertising Image of the Spiritual” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 16, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Question: What discussions did you have with your teacher?

Answer: He repeated the same thing a hundred times. It entered me gradually, until eventually at least something got in. Therefore, today I understand why everything is happening in the world, I understand the situation.

As long as I live, I want to pass on my knowledge to others and thereby relieve some moments of humanity’s existence. I hope I can do it. What else do I live for? If I received some knowledge and it suddenly starts to be really useful today, how can I not share it?

Humanity perhaps today still does not understand much, except for a small part of people, but it is approaching this very quickly. I am sure that our knowledge will spread without any connection with me; it does not matter to me.

Gradually, people will see that everything that happens to them today is necessary only so that they unite. And after uniting, they will enter a new level, a new degree.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Balance or Ballast” 8/31/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the story and lesson of Cain and Abel?“

Cain and Abel are two inner forces.

One of them is our egoistic nature, a quality of receiving pleasure for oneself alone. The other is the Creator’s nature, a quality of bestowing pleasure, which descends into us, and which we develop from its initial manifestation that is called “the point in the heart.”

The story of Cain and Abel discusses conquering, killing and competing with one another, i.e., what we engage with in life until we take the reigns into our own hands and start advancing toward the purpose of creation—adhesion with the Creator—on our own accord: by restricting the egoistic force, making its use constructive, and overpowering it with the force of bestowal in us.

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