Question: Is there such a phenomenon as the Jerusalem syndrome?

Answer: The fact is that people who come to Jerusalem fall under some kind of special excitement. Psychologists and psychiatrists talk about this, and artists even claim that there is a special yellowish light in Jerusalem.

In principle, it is psychologically difficult to withstand this. You are walking through places where a saint who represents something special to you once walked. I have seen people faint walking through these streets. Imagine, a Christian walking along Via Dolorosa and what he is going through!

But we are talking even about a person who has absolutely never been interested in religion and he does not care about anything at all. He arrives in shorts, in sandals on bare feet, with a camera around his neck, and he still feels that there is something here—some kind of incomprehensible feeling.

In addition, the uniqueness of this place is felt through the kind of people who live there. The people of Jerusalem are very special, tough, I don’t even know how to say it. This city stands apart from the rest of the country.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Jerusalem Syndrome” 4/7/12

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Question: Did your teacher Rabash tell you how he came to study Kabbalah?

Answer: He was born into the family of a great Kabbalist and continued his work.

Comment: But you said that Kabbalah is not transmitted by inheritance.

My Response: This is not about inheritance, but about the environment in which he lived. He could very easily not study Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam certainly did not force him.

I have two daughters and a son. My son studies constantly, but in a very calm way. One daughter is completely disconnected from Kabbalah because science, biology, is everything to her. The second one is very devoted to our path, inner work, and everything that happens to a person on this journey.

It is not possible to understand where it came from to them and what it is. It is as if I was divided into two people. One is me, the incomplete scientist incarnated in the first daughter, and the other, a Kabbalist, in the second one. This is how they divided my internal system among themselves.

Question: Although Kabbalah is not transmitted at the genetic level, does something remain? You are a Kabbalist, and are your children carrying a part of you?

Answer: Maybe yes and maybe no, and not necessarily in one’s children.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Genetic Kabbalah” 3/31/12

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Question: What is the difference between a lesson conducted by a Kabbalist and lessons by a rabbi or lectures of a professor?

Answer: A rabbi or a professor talk about our world. And the Kabbalist speaks about the next degree of man and how to ascend to it. That is the difference.

The Kabbalist brings revelation of the upper world to the world, and a professor and a rabbi simply bring knowledge.

Question: Based on what needs does a professor or a rabbi do this? What is their fuel?

Answer: Based on everything that governs a person: fame, power, knowledge, it doesn’t matter what.

Even that same professor (who is only interested in knowledge and wholeheartedly wants to pass it on to his students) has even more egoism because knowledge is higher than fame and power. Knowledge includes all previous degrees.

Therefore, it cannot be said that he has locked himself somewhere in a corner and does not need anything from the world. On the contrary, it is huge egoism.

And above this ego, there is egoism that arises in the Kabbalist, and he corrects it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Difference Between A Kabbalist And A Rabbi And A Scientist” 3/11/12

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How would you become the best version of yourself?“

We can become the best versions of ourselves when we realize that we need to achieve love for one another.

When we reach a state of loving others, we exert our energy into that love, and we then want nothing for ourselves but only the ability to benefit, support and encourage people.

Realizing this ability means overcoming the egoistic force within us—human nature, our desire to enjoy at the expense of others—with the altruistic force of nature. With such an overcoming, we reach balance with nature.

The egoistic force remains within. It acts as a minus, and then the minus and plus—the altruistic force—function optimally in order for us to achieve our common goal: the unification of everyone and everything into a single whole.

Based on the video “Jewish Self-Realization” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What does it mean to come to one opinion during a workshop?

Answer: One opinion means that it is common, not personally mine, not personally yours, not personally someone else’s, but our common opinion. It is not the sum of our personal opinions. The common opinion is a consequence of the influence of the upper force between us.

There is no yours, mine, his, and others’ opinions! There is no addition of them! There is just a willingness for the upper opinion to come and become ours. It should in no way relate to us because by being at a certain degree, we want the upper opinion of the next degree to come, and we raise ourselves up to it.

Comment: I’m trying to do it, but as a result I realize that I can’t.

My Response: No, this is wrong!

If you try to do it well, normally, slowly, and calmly, then you will be able to feel at least a small result of your effort. After all, you are waiting for the upper force that will lift you up and give you a completely different thought, and a different desire–not your own, not others, but its own.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Lithuanian Experiment” 3/13/12

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Question: Why did the Nazis pursue a policy directed against Jews?

Answer: The fact is that after the Weimar National Assembly, which adopted a constitution that equalized the rights of all the peoples of Germany, in particular Jews with Germans, it suddenly became clear that Jews occupied high positions in industry, science, and culture for several decades. According to the studies of political scientists and psychologists, this caused great envy and increased anti-Semitism.

Before that, everything was relatively quiet, although everyday, anti-Semitism has always existed because it is in the blood of mankind. This is the realization by the peoples of the world that the Jews have something secret, and supposedly they rule the world, they know something, they hide something.

Indeed, these people have a method of correcting the world. And now, when he offers it to everyone, no one wants to hear about it, because it is an anti-egoistic technique. But the feeling that the Jews have something is true. This attitude has always been with them.

After all, the main thing is the struggle for whose God is either yours or mine; it cannot be both is what Christians believed.

The Jews did not have this at all. God is the general force of nature. He is one!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Why Did the Nazis Hate the Jews?”

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Question: What is the difference between the beginning of the 21^st century and the beginning of the 2o^th century, which was marked by the First World War and the need for changes in society?

Answer: At the beginning of the 2o^th century, there was a fight for division, governance, and influence in the world. And today, at the beginning of the 21^st century, there is a struggle for survival.

It is clear to everyone that it is impossible to rule the world, as it was thought before.

The world is governed by other forces, not ours, and we must comprehend them and enter them. The 21^st century is the century of comprehension of the upper collective governance, the upper mind, and our common “I.”

Until the 2o^th century, we developed in the search for knowledge, science, literature, and culture. The 2o^th century is the century of integration when we were obliged to communicate with each other through mutual trade, separation–connection, war, and peace. People began to move, relocate, and understand that the world is round. They lost the sense of the flatness on which they live and developed a feeling of a sphere. This is very important and is the result of the 2o^th century.

And then we began to experience huge problems with integration. It happened very quickly and imperceptibly because we are entering a state where changes occur much faster than we can realize with our feelings and mind. It turns out that today we are in a state that we do not understand at all.

There was a time when rulers would say, “It will be so,” and it was so. Then they would look at the world around them, consult their advisors, and say, “It is better to do this or that.” Today neither they nor their advisers understand anything. The time of kings has passed because it is impossible to follow whatever pops into the king’s and his advisers’ heads. Besides, there are no wise advisers left. So, we don’t know what to rely on and what to do with ourselves. That is the problem.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Difference between the 2o^th and 21^st Centuries” 2/11/12

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are the Jewish people still in exile?“

Being Jewish means attaining the sensation of two contrasting forces in nature, the egoistic force, which is our human nature, and its opposite altruistic force, which is the force of nature itself.

The attainment of these two forces define the people who, first under Abraham, developed this feeling of reality. They became known as the people of Israel, and later, as the Jews.

At a certain point, around 2,000 years ago, they lost the sensation of the two forces and lived solely in the egoistic force. That is the meaning of being in exile.

Exile has no geographic connotations, i.e. leaving some geographic Land of Israel. It is rather a matter of an inner exile, that we lack the sensation of the altruistic nature—the quality of love, bestowal and connection—in our relations. When we departed from this sensation, we then entered our period of exile and ceased to exist as the people of Israel.

Based on the video “What Is the Exile of the Jews?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: In order for us to not lose the taste for spiritual work, you sometimes have to joke, then scold someone, or say something new so that people do not sleep. Why do we have such bluntness? Why do you constantly need to try to come up with something new?

Answer: Because the body (egoism) strives for constant calmness. What else can it strive for? According to its nature it only wants to be filled and unchanged. This is egoism! As soon as it does not have any feelings of emptiness, suffering, or shortcomings, then this is the state it wants to reach and stop.

Question: Students often come to this state, and they are stuck for a long time. Are they stopped by egoism or simply do not have the strength?

Answer: They do not get stuck, they move. Now they are moving much faster than before.

Naturally, a person starts from afar. When he comes to us he does not understand what, how, and for what. He can nod his head at you even though he does not understand anything. And while he begins to feel something and to understand, a couple of years pass.

This is our work! We all have to go through the same stages. We cannot jump over any of them! We can only speed up time. But it depends only on the person and the extent of his luck when he hears that he has to delve into the group.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Body Strives for Constant Rest” 3/11/12

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Question: You said that you cannot open your soul, meaning, talk about what you are feeling right now. But all the same, a person speaks from what he feels. How can one work here? Where can you hurt yourself and others and where are you still protected?

Answer: You are not hurting anyone yet. We are not talking about these degrees. But in general, it is better to be silent. Why talk about what you are going through internally?

Comment: When something happens to another person, you, in general, if you have also passed this state, you can at least analyze how he feels. It is like a picture in which you most likely see your external states.

My Response: If you want to move forward normally, then there is a technique for this. There is nothing to be clever about, no one understands anything about it anyway. Take this technique and do exactly as it says.

If you do not want to advance, then go into philosophy. Do you want to test love with physics or biology with veterinary medicine? I do not know what and how, but this is nonsense. There is no point trying to compare the incomparable. You want to use the tools of this world—psychology or various other methods—to get into a world where you cannot enter with your feet.

But you do not have the qualities of that world to do this, and you strive without changing yourself and your qualities to get in there: “Maybe I will find something there, I will dig it out and I will have some kind of hocus-pocus in this world, I can manipulate something.” It will not work! Otherwise, all special services would already be “grazing” in Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. It is Forbidden to Reveal the Soul” 3/31/12

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