Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Where can we be free?“

We are controlled by laws of nature.

There is a general force of nature, and two opposite forces—bestowal and reception—extend from it.

We exist between these forces, and both of these qualities affect us.

Then, the question arises: How do we develop under the influence of these forces? Where do we act? Where are we free? How do we accumulate and correlate these two forces within ourselves? How can we build ourselves out of them?

These are the questions that the wisdom of Kabbalah engages in: how we receive these two forces in an optimal balance, and with their help, shape ourselves so as to resemble the very laws of nature, to arise and reach equivalence of form with the force of bestowal in nature. These very laws gave us the opportunity to control the pace of our progress in accepting them upon ourselves.

That is the point of our freewill.

How could we act if we do not have freewill? Who would we be? Would we just be like robots, always under control?

Until now, we have always been under control. What does it mean?

Nature as if injects a drop of egoism–the desire to enjoy at others’ expense–into us, and then it does so a little more, and a little more again, and we then get the impetus to move toward all kinds of egoistic goals. The more our egoism inflates, the more we become willing to move to increasingly gain at the expense of others. Nature constantly squeezes the syringe into us until it eventually infuses us with the full amount of egoism.

Our era is characterized by the syringe of egoism having become completely injected into us, with no more egoism left to inject. That is why we have nowhere left to run.

Where do we head from here? What do we do?

Moreover, egoism has become global and integral. In the beginning, we felt good because we reached egoistic global connections in the world and thought that everything would be fine. However, when such connections started depending on everyone, we turned out to be nature’s opposite.

At this juncture, we find ourselves with a major dilemma, and we need to work out what we do about it. Where our fully-inflated egoism coupled with our tightening global connections brings us to increasing problems around the world, today we require a new form of connection-enriching education that would have the ability to guide us on how to change our egoistic connections to altruistic ones. That is the key to a shift to a harmonious and peaceful world.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Is the Creator a pervert?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on August 2, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What movies would you like to see made?“

I have not seen a movie like it before. It would be one that leads its viewers to serious inner changes.

We would enter the movie as people who think solely about ourselves, who have no single thought about others. Or if we could think about others, then it would be only in order to get something from them. That is how we are by nature.

From such a state, we would need to start understanding that finding happiness in others is of primary importance. In order to undergo such a transformation, we need to change human nature.

What does it mean to feel our happiness in others? It means that when others feel good, we also feel good.

How could such a state be possible? On the contrary, we currently feel good when we are better off than others. Naturally, one way or another, we try to lower others so that they become lower than us. We thus need to reach the opposite: that we instead elevate others above ourselves.

If there were a movie that directs its viewers in such a way, then I would be all for it.

But it would be a flop. No one would get excited about it.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” on May 18, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the future of money?“

Today, we need money to feel secure, and in principle, money acts as a connector: I give you money, you give me money, and we each earn from each other and win over one another at each other’s expense.

It is a copy of our inner attitudes to each other: what we each want from each other is expressed in the amount of banknotes that we exchange with each other.

We approach an employer, work for them, and get paid. That is the relationship we find not only in stores, but throughout society, including between spouses. We express our relationships in a kind of monetary equivalent because we constantly wish to receive something from others. Therefore, today, money is the equivalent of our egoistic efforts, where we desire to enjoy at the expense of others, and wish to receive a certain payment for our efforts.

Eventually, money will demonstrate its failure in its ability to connect us on an egoistic level, and it will then need to convert into a connector of altruistic relations. And indeed, at a certain stage, we will be able to measure altruistic efforts in monetary terms, i.e., as amounts of our giving to each other.

In other words, the shift from egoistic to altruistic relations does not require making any major revolutions in changing our current systems. We only need to change our attitude to what has been created, and discuss how we upgrade the quality of our relationships.

Yet, the shift from egoistic to altruistic relations is a major change because we then gain an addition of a soul, i.e., the quality of bestowal. In this soul, the quality of bestowal, we start feeling that we live on the next, higher level of existence: the spiritual world where we feel eternity and perfection.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Money of the Future” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 16, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How would one go about studying the works of Isaac Luria?“

Like Moses brought us the Torah, the Ari brought us the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The Torah and Kabbalah both discuss the revelation of the Creator—the quality of love and bestowal—to the created beings. At Moses’ time, the revelation was through the Torah, and at the Ari’s time, the revelation was through what became written in his Etz Chaim (Tree of Life) and his Eight Gates. The Ari’s revelation of the Creator is communicated in a different style and language, with descriptions of vessels, lights and the person’s work.

From the Ari’s time onward, we entered into a period of studying spiritual qualities and their connections, and the ability to enter such a study of the spiritual world depends on the connection between the students. We who study the works of the Ari thus try to connect among each other as much as possible in order to achieve the revelation of the Creator as described in the Ari’s texts.

It is as Rav Chaim Vital, the Ari’s student whom he left to organize his writings after his death, explained about the Ari’s approach to the connection of his students:

My teacher cautioned me and all the friends who were with him in that society to take upon ourselves the commandment to-do of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and to aim to love each one from Israel as his own soul, for by this his prayer would rise comprising all of Israel and will be able to ascend and make a correction above. Especially, our love of friends, each and every one of us should include himself as though he is an organ of those friends. My teacher sternly cautioned me about this matter. – Rav Chaim Vital, Shaar HaGilgulim, Introduction, 38.

Connection between the students is thus a key condition of studying the works of the Ari. As Rav Chaim Vital mentioned, there is a need to feel that each student is a single organ in one body, and the students need to be mutually dependent in their spiritual aspirations as is the interdependence of healthily-functioning bodily organs.

From the time of the Ari onward, a generation began where people’s desires grew to a new level, and they were ready to feel what the Ari passed on. In other words, desires in humanity underwent a certain development whereby more and more people could no longer simply believe in holy matters, but new desires meant new ways of yearning to discover the spiritual world.

Studying the works of the Ari thus involves longing to connect to the goal that he attained in his heart and soul. By dedicating ourselves to such a goal, we can become rewarded with our eyes opening to the spiritual world and the revelations that the Ari describes in his texts.

Therefore, together with the need for connection among the students to study the works of the Ari, there is also the requirement of calibrating the intention to the study. Rav Chaim Vital also discussed how the Ari guided his students to adjusting such an intention:

My teacher would say that the heart of the intention of reading in the Torah depends on aiming to connect one’s heart to its root through the Torah in order to complete the upper tree and complete the upper Adam [man] and correct him, for this is the whole purpose of man’s creation and the purpose of his engagement in the Torah. – Rav Chaim Vital, Pri Etz Chaim, Gate “Conducts of Learning,” Chapter 1.

Moreover, we cannot understand the writings of the Ari directly, because they are quite concealed. In order to unlock them, we require Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag’s (Baal HaSulam’s) accompaniment and explanations.

Baal HaSulam went to great lengths to write detailed commentaries on the works of the Ari, including the monumental six-volume set, Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). It is not only Baal HaSulam’s efforts to interpret the works of the Ari through which he gives us access to understanding the Ari, but Baal HaSulam attained the Ari’s level of spiritual attainment, which is what let him understand the Ari and explain his works. Baal HaSulam himself wrote about such an attainment:

Know for certain that since the time of the Ari to this day, there has not been anyone who understood the method of the Ari to the fullest, as it was easier to attain a mind twice as great and twice as holy than the Ari’s than to understand his method in which many hands fiddled—from the one who first heard and wrote them through the last compilers, while they still did not attain the matters as they are in their upper root. Thus, each inverted and confused the matters. And now, by the Creator’s will, I have been rewarded with a conception [impregnation] of the soul of the Ari, not because of my good deeds but by a higher will. It is beyond me, too, why I have been chosen for this wonderful soul, with which no one has been granted since his passing until today. I cannot elaborate on this matter as it is not my way to discuss the concealed. – Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “Letter 39.”

Therefore, since the time of the Ari onward, there was a change in the conditions for entering spirituality because of a change in humanity’s development of desires, and the Ari was the bearer of the change in the method of spiritual attainment. He brought us the wisdom of Kabbalah, and studying his works requires connection among the students, calibrating the intention during the study to the spiritual goal, and that we use Baal HaSulam’s texts as a prism through which we can penetrate into the Ari’s teachings.

The Ari was a very special soul and a giant among Kabbalists. He lived and worked in this world as a merchant, but simultaneously acted at spiritual heights above time, space and motion, and it is difficult to speak about such levels of greatness. The Ari is indeed a very special phenomenon, and it is truly a gift that we have the ability to enjoy his works.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on the “Memorial Day for the Ari” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 23, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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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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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can you motivate a team?“

The most effective team motivation is unity, when the team members each primarily value and consistently raise the importance of their unification up to a point where they have no need to even communicate verbally anymore.

Based on KabTV’s “Management Skills” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Michael Sanilevich on August 28, 2020.

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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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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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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What comes before thought?“

The foundation for everything, the only matter that was created, is desire.

Desire is thus primary, and thought is an upshot of the desire.

However, in order to obtain what we desire, the mind develops alongside the desire, in correspondence with it.

No matter how much we might resist the idea that desire precedes thought, nonetheless the mind—and thus, thought—is the desire’s servant, developing solely for the sake of serving the desire.

We can thus never make our minds objective and independent of our desires. But we can change our desires under the influence of the environment (see the article “The Freedom” by Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag [Baal HaSulam]), i.e., under the influence of social, cultural and other educational impetus that surround us. In other words, we can observe examples in our environment that promote the importance of fulfilling one desire over another, and by doing so, we can change what we desire.

Understanding this principle and the vast importance of the environment’s influence over us, then under the influence of an environment that leads us to the ultimate goal of our lives—to a harmonious connection where we reveal the positive force hidden in nature—we can constantly develop both our desires and our minds in harmony.

Moreover, if we have big desires but our mind is undeveloped to actualize them, we could then lose our ability to sensibly control ourselves.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are some lesser known facts about Alfred Nobel?“

After Alfred Nobel’s passing in San Remo on December 10, 1896, the unexpected establishment of a special peace prize under his name sparked immense interest. Alfred Nobel rewrote his will to donate more than 90 percent of his life earnings to create the symbol of respect and honor for those who have made contributions to peace and the betterment of mankind, the symbol that is now known as the Nobel Peace Prize.

Meanwhile, Alfred Nobel’s reputation was closely tied to massive destruction—inventions designed for warfare, the most well-known of which was dynamite. In fact, in addition to developing rockets, cannons, and progressive powder, he wanted to create a machine so powerful that it would render war impossible due to its devastating effects. He believed that the destructive power of weapons could potentially end war faster than making peace.

Nobel did not live long enough to witness World Wars I and II, where his theories were disproved quite radically. Yet one cannot help but wonder what could have happened at the end of his life to cause him to invest so greatly in a peace-related cause.

Some argue that Nobel’s extensive correspondence over many years with Austrian peace advocate Bertha von Suttner, renowned for her anti-war novel Lay Down Your Arms, allowed Nobel to delve into his thoughts regarding war and peace, shaping his beliefs and influencing the establishment of the peace prize that bore his name. Others, like Albert Einstein, asserted that Nobel wanted to clear his name and alleviate his guilt by establishing the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, Nobel rewrote his will directly after his brother Ludvig died in 1888, and a French newspaper accidentally published an obituary for Nobel that referred to him as the “merchant of death who made a fortune by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.”

While we can only speculate about his motives, we see how public opinion can easily be bought in our world. Today, most people know Alfred Nobel only for his contributions to peace, and the darkness of his past is largely overlooked. Unfortunately, money speaks, and if one can afford to pay a few million dollars, public opinion can change for the better. In much the same way, mass media is bought as well.

I remember how in 2006, I spoke at the World Spirit Forum in Arosa, where some of the greatest peacemakers from around the world gathered in hope of creating positive change. I expressed then that public opinion has the power to dictate everything. If we create a public opinion that honors only those who engage in giving back to society and doing good deeds, the world will slowly begin to change. Everyone listened attentively and agreed. At that time, I still had hope that the world could change, but today these words seem naïve.

Since then, the world has further deteriorated. Humanity has become consumed by the massive overblown human ego. We are headed quickly to a dead end. The problems will continue to escalate. Will we have to face such terrible crises where we lose everything we have, even our children and grandchildren, for us to look for another way?

It is up to us.

People must realize the need for serious change. The change will still come from above our reasoning and intellect, but only when we are ready for it. When we see the dead end approaching and reach the decision to change our egoistic ways, salvation will come. I still hope that it can happen quickly and smoothly, and it is one of the key reasons why I invest so much into teaching and spreading the wisdom of connection. If Alfred Nobel had such a change of heart, others can too.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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