Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

Love Thy Neighbor And Nothing More

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: An absolute majority of psychologists and psychiatrists state that sexual orientation is not something a person chooses, nor can it be adjusted. All attempts to alter sexual orientation have been unsuccessful.

Does a gay person have to re-define his or her sexual inclination in accordance with Kabbalah’s requirements? Does he have a choice?

Answer: Kabbalah doesn’t ask a person to make any changes on the material level. If the intention of a person is “to love his neighbor,” that is, to correct his egoism, then all his worldly actions will be right.
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The Mind Is A Universal Connection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can concentration of thought bring a person to the revelation of the spiritual world?

Answer: Everything is clarified in the thought. We are not talking about our mind which was artificially “pumped up” in a university so that we would become “smart.” The mind is the power of analysis and synthesis, the power of the connection of opposite opinions in one person.

Bina, which we consider to be the desire to bestow, is thought. Thought is Malchut de Hochma,, while Malchut that receives from Hochma is Bina. The collective Malchut which rises to Bina and becomes its Nukva is also Nukva de Hochma since it desires to reach Hochma, not Bina.

In other words, thought is fundamental. Thought is my ability to perceive in Malchut the higher qualities of Hochma and Bina and to work with them. The mind is my ability to build equivalence to the Creator. The universal connection that I reveal is the mind, wisdom, the network [of interconnected souls].

Our brain is arranged in the same, exact manner. The intellect or the mind is the measure of life force, the ability to understand, control, activate, and perceive.

Where does it come from? It is a consequence of two forces: the force of Bina (the desire to correspond to the Creator) and the force of the Creator (who clothes the creature to the extent of this correspondence). This is the mind of the creature: the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothed in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).

Therefore, if we try to attain this network, to understand what connections exist in it and according to what laws it operates, and if we want to know how to reveal and recognize the connection that already exists between us, we achieve what is called “the creating mind,” the Creator, and attain Him. As it is written, “From Your actions, we know You.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Bait For Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I am entirely the will to enjoy, then can I really desire to do anything for the Creator selflessly?

Answer: No, I cannot. I am only ready to do something that will give pleasure to my desire. This is my nature and I cannot come out of it on my own. I act only if it is profitable for me. That is how the Creator made me and nothing can be done about that.

In the language of Kabbalah this state is called "this world." But there is also another state, "the world to come" or "the upper world" where I will exist if I don’t make my calculations based on the egoistic desire for pleasure, but on the altruistic desire of bestowal.

However, I don’t have that desire and I don’t even want it to appear! That’s true, but you are offered help:

1. Your point in the heart is awakened and you start to think about this.
2. You are brought to the group where you can be strengthened with the help of the friends.
3. You are given books and a teacher, who accompanies you on the spiritual path if you desire it.

This way, you are provided with all the necessary means and an explanation of the fact that besides your own nature, there also exists a higher nature, the Creator’s nature, which operates by the calculation of bestowal. The beginning is set: You have a spark, an environment, and books. This is the starting point, the "drop of semen" from which you can develop your future self.

All the other conditions depend on you. The ball is in your court. If you use the means you have correctly, then you will acquire a second nature. Meanwhile, you receive an explanation that this is beneficial for you, that you will feel much better "there," that you will have eternity, triumph, perfection, and so on. You receive an explanation that is clear to your egoism.

However, in reality the spiritual world will not be revealed in your current desire because it will be transformed in the process. It’s similar to how in our world kids grow up on "promises." "If you read this book you will get a soccer ball," I tell my son. He picks up the book hoping to get the ball, but as he reads it, he gradually changes and now he no longer needs a ball, but a bicycle.

After swallowing the initial "bait," a person unawarely enters the path of development and demands an increasingly "progressive" reward even though he does not yet see the final goal. We too should confuse our egoism in this way in order to participate in the life of the group and gradually be "permeated" by the higher state.

We have to become masters of "swindling" our egoism. A person in this world is an intelligent animal and we have to use the ego, throwing it bait so it helps us on the path, all the way until entering the spiritual world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, Writings of Rabash

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Sweet Suffering Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I do not fill my desire to enjoy or I fill it incompletely, I feel suffering. You said that in the desire to bestow, I also feel the deficiency of fulfillment, but this does not arouse suffering in me; rather, it gives a sensation of life. Why do I suffer in the desire to enjoy, but in the desire to bestow, I do not?

Answer: Suppose I love someone. I want to be together with him, to unite with him, to spend time with him since I love him, and everything that we love, we want to draw closer to us. But at the moment, he is far from me, and I only long for him. In any case, however, it is still a pleasant feeling, even though it is called the “suffering of love.” You love and you feel pleasure; love attracts you and fills you. But at the same time, you feel suffering because you have not yet realized your love; you have not yet united with the beloved.

In spirituality, bestowal means love since we give to those whom we love. If I love someone, want to fill him, and fill him, it is called bestowal. But since it’s based on love, bestowal is pleasure.

That is why in spirituality, in bestowal, even if you feel a lack of bestowal and, hence, a lack of fulfillment, which makes you suffer, this is the suffering of love. It is sweet as well since it derives from love and the connection with the beloved.

And since there are no restrictions on bestowal, it means that you will necessarily reach the opportunity to give to the beloved because it only depends on you. And that is why the suffering of love definitely comes to its realization.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”

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Difficult Work Based On A Simple Principle

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Everyone is asking what specifically do we need to do in order for the Creator to correct us? There is a desire to hear a simple and clear answer!

Answer: Everyone wants to hear a simple answer: “Tell us exactly what to do without these complexities!” People want to work like a robot on an assembly line, to keep pushing on one button, and not to think about anything. It won’t work this way!

You will have to exert effort yourself and “do everything that is in your power to do.” It’s because our spiritual vessel (Kli) is extraordinarily complex and includes in itself 613 (Taryag) desires, 10 Sefirot, 3 lines, 22 letters, numerous characteristic properties, and very different components.

For this reason one simple action is not enough here; it is necessary to study (in a physical group or virtually, through the Internet or television), participate in the gatherings of friends, and come to the conventions. I exist among the fragments of the broken soul and have to restore the connections with them in order to correct the breaking.

In order to feel the spiritual world and the Creator, I need to connect with the rest of the souls, and only in our connection will I feel spirituality. It does not exist anywhere else but in the network that connects us. Only when I reconstruct the collective body of the soul and when it starts working properly, then inside it, I will feel the Light, filling it and flowing from one place to another.

I will feel that there is the flow of life and special events in this body, the exchange of energy from one to another. This is what is called spiritual life!

In reality, the task is very simple. There is me, an egoist, with my point in the heart and I have to connect it with others, with the same points as mine. But from this simple principle, thousands of necessary actions arise: collective study, preparation for and participation in conventions, work in the kitchen, and so on. All of this together is called “work in the group.”

But why do I need all this work? I need it in order to reveal the connection and love among us. Based on this simple principle, you will be able to derive everything else, more or less, connected to the goal. But the spiritual life is only in the connection between the souls.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “The Freedom”

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Unity Day – 12.26.10

Unity Day Around the World, Preparation to the Lesson
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Unity Day Around the World, “We Start Connection Between Us”
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The Two Principles Of Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Russian experience shows that egoistic unification leads to great problems. On the other hand, we come to study Kabbalah as egoists, and I am very afraid that by trying to unite we may repeat the same mistake.

Answer: First of all, I urge you not to fear anything! There is a song: “The world is a very narrow bridge, but the key is not to be afraid of anything.” On one hand, it is a narrow bridge, but on the other, don’t worry, you will cross it.
There are two principles that lay ground for success:

  • Principle 1: Consistency in studying, connection with friends, and dissemination.
  • Principle 2: Connection with the group in the manner that its inner essence becomes the environment that sustains your spiritual development.

As a result, we will be able to realize all that Kabbalists have prescribed: “to become as one man with one heart,” “to love others as you love yourself,” and from unfounded hate come to brotherly love. If you adhere to these two principles: 1. consistency in studying and effort aimed at unification and 2. the group as the environment for your spiritual advancement, then you have nothing to fear; nothing bad will happen to you.

And all these thoughts will emerge as obstacles so that you stick to the goal evermore.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “The Freedom”

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Wild Humans And Peaceful Animals

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why were Adam’s sin and his breaking necessary? What was so special about it that the Light couldn’t have created in the creature directly?

Answer: The Light couldn’t supply the creature with the Creator’s status or the awareness of “who I am” as it is impossible to pass this on from one to the other. The sin with the Tree of Knowledge is a unique condition where pleasure overpowers shame. At every spiritual degree, state, and decision, bestowal is placed before reception. This is why all these worlds are called holy. But not so in this case; here reception comes first!

“I ate [from the Tree of Knowledge] and will eat more” implies that I am not able to resist this pleasure. I am going to receive pleasure for myself; I don’t care what happens next. Moreover, I don’t care one bit what happens to the Giver.

I can’t resist. The Serpent rising within man unfolds an abyss of unfulfilled desire that constitutes the difference between an animal and a human. Before the sin, Adam and Eve existed at the animate degree. Afterward, they became “savage humans.” Even if sinful, they nevertheless are humans.

Without this, the entire creation makes no sense since the initial plan was conceived as making man equivalent to the Creator. The force that advances creation lies in the revelation of this shame, the gap between the Creator and the creature.

At the still, vegetative, and animate degrees, the creature isn’t separated from the Creator; it follows all His orders and doesn’t oppose Him with any desire. However, in this new desire that unfolds today, in this new emptiness, the creature feels that it opposes the Creator, and that the former is the guest and the latter is the Host.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Let The Light Come In!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do the Reshimot (spiritual information data) get realized?

Answer: All Reshimot are sorted by the Upper Light (the Light of AB-SAG). Imagine what kind of work it is to sort out all the Reshimot that remained after the collective Malchut broke while wishing to perform full correction (Gmar Tikkun).

Malchut of Infinity performed a “Zivug” (adhesion, merger) with the Light of the End of Correction in its full volume created by the Creator, in its entire phase Dalet (4/4). And all of it broke into the tiniest fragments. There is no property, Sefira or its sub-Sefira, that would remain linked with the other. They hate each other.

What an infinite multitude of various properties are now in the Rosh de SAG from the multiplication of these Lights that rose to it after the breaking! It is impossible to count and imagine it. The Light of the End of Correction is against the Kli (the will to receive, desire) at the End of Correction, and instead of unification, there is hatred between them. And this entire Kli is completely broken, fallen apart into fragments.

And now, Rosh de SAG has to sort the Kli broken in all its individual Sefirot: what to collect from it in order to make the first Partzuf, at least somewhat corrected, under the Second Restriction and various limitations. What an enormous and complex job it is!

On the other hand, when the Upper Light comes in, it illuminates this entire multitude of breakings, the Reshimot, and they immediately line up in its light with each of them taking its correct place. The Light organizes them, illuminating who gives more and who gives less; and in this light, they all get aligned in a straight line at once.

Then, from the countless multitude of these forms, SAG selects the correct forms and puts them in order. But how does it pick them out? This work, still done by the Upper Light that illuminates Reshimot from Above, most wondrously discerns what is right and what is not, according to what property, in which direction, and in what way to align them along the three lines, from Above downward, with the screens so that all of them are mutually connected.

The Light collects the broken parts into the first drop of semen, which is the beginning of an embryo. It contains everything but the work that must be added. Yet all sorting is done by the Light. And then, the lower one is able to work. As to the discernment, the lower one can never accomplish that.

Therefore, if we wish to discern something, sort it out, and unite with each other in our world, we will never be able to do so. Nothing and never! We need the Upper Light to connect all separated parts since we, too, remain in the broken world. Meanwhile, we wish to organize, restore, and revive it ourselves… What a foolish endeavor!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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It’s Not Easy To Agree With The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we feel that the Light is working on us, by sorting the Reshimot in us?

Answer: In order to achieve a state where the Light sorts out our Reshimot (spiritual information data), a person must be ready for it. In reality, I do not discern my Reshimot; the Light does. It isn’t I who decides, but the latter. I am willing to accept its decision and ask the Light to do it for me. This occurs as a result of the most powerful breaking.

We have to undergo the breaking in order to agree with everything that the Upper One discerns in us for our own good.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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