Question: Did Rabash feel when he should answer your questions and when he should not? Did you also feel this?

Answer: Of course! He was candid. First of all, he wanted to make it clear why he was giving an answer or not. After all, when you explain to a student how to answer and how to ask, you prepare a future teacher.

This is the art of communication between a teacher and students where he must teach them to ask questions correctly so that there is some kind of communication.

Question: Did he know that he was training you to be a methodologist?

Answer: I think everyone knew that. Once I visited my friend from the past, and he told me: “I remember one time I went to the beach with Rabash instead of you because you did not want to go. You were in such a state you did not want to and could not go. Rabash said: ‘Let’s call Michael.’ I called you and said: ‘Rav wants to talk to you.’ You answered: ‘I do not want to talk to him!’ I conveyed your words to Rabash and said: ‘How can this be?!’ Rabash replied: ‘You do not know what his condition is, and, in general, what kind of soul he has.’”

I am saying this to confirm that, of course, he was preparing me for teaching.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Rabash made a revolution by agreeing to teach people who were non-believers, absolutely alien in spirit, that did not have the mentality of Polish Jews of sitting separately somewhere in a corner, in a small community, and studying.

Suddenly forty students come to you from Tel Aviv, who are totally non-believers, and you accept them and give them your heart. All this happens in Bnei Brak, in a closed [Orthodox] community.

It was something incomprehensible: “What? Has Ashlag started teaching non-religious people?! And they are young and not married?! How can this be?!”

It was believed that Kabbalah was only for people over forty. I brought twenty-five-year-olds to him! It was believed that Kabbalah was only for the religious, those who already know the Talmud. I brought guys who never opened these books, did not know, and despised them to him! They only wore the kippah at funerals or if something happened.

He accepted such people to study Kabbalah against all customs—under forty, not married, not filled themselves with the Torah! How can this be? But he went for it. A different time had come.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: A spiritual teacher waits for his students and prepares himself for him. Is this his life?

Answer: Yes, of course! This is what Baal HaSulam writes! The teacher is preparing for the student to come to him, and he will pass the method to him.

When I studied with Rabash, it was absolutely clear to me that I had to prepare to teach. I immediately began to record lessons on a tape recorder, draw, and write down what Rabash told me when we were walking in the park. I began to systematize these materials and put them in order.

I knew for sure that I would have to take the method from him and pass it on. I had a clear feeling that I existed in order to receive it from him.

I did not know how many years I would stay with him because he was a 70-year-old man when I came to him, but I was sure that after all my ordeals and searches for a teacher, I should receive the method precisely from him.

I just did not see anyone else, although I knew many and was searching. Rabash was completely directed toward spirituality—in spirit, in approach, in terms of source, in character, in desire, and in readiness. Therefore, I knew that I was receiving this media package from him, which I would have to pass on. He also knew it. Thus, his entire archive, his entire legacy, was passed on to me.

After the death of Rabash, I immediately revealed the entire archive to everyone. If someone else had the archive, he might have kept it and not given it away, or would have given it out one serving at a time for personal reasons, perhaps to feel that he has it and therefore is special.

But I immediately gave all his students a chance to make copies of the originals for their use. After that, I felt calm. The works of Rabash were not lying on my desk. I fulfilled my duty to my friends. I gave them everything.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Comment: You said that only connection between students will lead them to a spiritual breakthrough.

My Response: It seems to me that today there can be no other approach to spirituality; it will not work.

Question: Why can’t it happen again that you work with one student who will remain after you and lead everyone forward as it was with you and Rabash?

Answer: Neither I nor any of my students are inclined to start such personal work.

Question: Was Rabash inclined to this?

Answer: He had no other choice and neither did I. I say this absolutely precisely.

In addition, there were prerequisites that I really, really wanted this, although by nature I was completely different. There are people who know how to “place” themselves under another and at the same time feel comfortable and good.

I am absolutely not one of those people. I am a person who creates, commands, sees ahead—wrongly or not, that is another matter—but who wants to implement and generate something new. This is not a student who adapts to the teacher and like a small fish swims next to a big fish. It happened from above.

I think that today because of the global spiritual ascent that is taking place in humanity, this is simply impossible.

I have ten, maybe fifteen people I can rely on. If they work together with each other, not each one separately but only together, they will become the spiritual center that will be able to lead the world further.

Only their common effort to work together, to manage together, and to teach humanity together will bear even greater fruits than I did.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: Why did Rabash choose you?

Answer: It does not depend on the person. It does not depend on anyone, only on the general system.

Comment: You, a person with two higher education degrees who was born in Belarus, came to an old man who did not study anywhere.

My Response: It does not matter at all.

By the way, we had a common mentality. I was born in Vitebsk, and he was born in Warsaw. At that time, Poland and this part of the USSR were somehow connected. My father even had Polish citizenship since this territory was annexed to Russia only before the war.

So what do I want to say? Even the names of food, drinks, and household utensils were very close and understandable to Rabash. He liked the food my wife cooked. In this regard, we understood each other well. Our mentality was very similar.

I do not know how it would have been with Baal HaSulam because this is, of course, a completely different spiritual level. But on the physical level I am sure it would have been the same.

It helps. Still, the mentality is very important for a student who is at a small level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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How many people around the world today are in genuine fear and a sense of helplessness? They do not find any justification for their suffering, they do not know what to do, or how to feed themselves tomorrow or in a few months. Some worry about what will happen to their billions, while others do not know how to live when their last pennies run out.

Everyone suffers in their own way, but no one understands how to continue to exist. And we suddenly received such a gift from above that we can look at this world with a human gaze, and not as small and unhappy, beaten animals. And all this is thanks to the revelations of Baal HaSulam that have reached us and through his soul, and Rabash was a transitional adapter between us and Baal HaSulam.

Baal HaSulam was conduit of the light from the world of infinity to us through his perfect soul, which had reached its final correction. But he asked to lower himself, because otherwise, he could not connect with people. And only after he was lowered by many degrees, he was able to write The Study of the Ten Sefirot and The Introduction to The Book of Zohar. We do not understand the degree that he had before, the greatest height, from where he could not even tell anything in words.

Which means, it was at the degree of the GAR of the world of Atzilut and above, where the light is not clothed in desires. From there, he could not address the person and be heard, and therefore, he asked to lower himself. And in fact, he fulfilled his mission, which the Creator expected from him, knowing that he would ask for it and fulfill it.

And we are at an intermediate degree between Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and humanity. On the one hand, we need to rise up to understand what Baal HaSulam said. On the other hand, we need to go down to the people and understand what they need from us and in what form they will be able to accept our message. We need to reach both of these poles, above and below.

Baal HaSulam and Rabash spoke from above. And we are at the bottom, below the Parsa, in order to be able to touch and awaken the world, and then, together with all mankind, to ascend through the Machsom and connect to the upper Malchut. This is our mission.
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From a Conversation at a Meal Dedicated to the Memorial Day of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Baal HaSulam kept his disciples at a certain level. And when he died, they fell. How did you manage not to fall when Rabash died?

Answer: I was connected with him internally. I just stuck to him and was by his side all the time.

After his death, I got up every morning and mentally talked with him. I talked to him in a dream. While doing something, I thought: “If I tell him, how will he react to this?”

Very often I broke away from some activity, jumped up and looked at the clock: “Oh, I’m late, I have to run to him!” But he was gone. Or I woke up in the middle of the night with the same thoughts, as if I should go to him.

And these were terrible shocks: “Oh, I’m late!” on the one hand, and on the other hand, immediately the second blow, there is nowhere to run. There is nothing to compare with twelve years of being next to a person who was like a spring of life for you. Nothing.

But for this you need to reach absolute devotion during your lifetime. And it does not just depend on the person: “I want!” It comes with great difficulty and I would say luck. There was an element of luck here.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Dr. Laitman’s Prophecy” 6/25/13

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Always with Me”

Thirty-one years ago today, my teacher and mentor RABASH passed away. This post is dedicated to him because everything I know, everything I understand, everything I teach, and everything I do I learned from him, and my life’s goal is to continue his legacy to the best of my ability.

RABASH was the last in the line of spiritual giants that began thousands of years ago. From his time onward, the line does not continue because now is the time for the knowledge that was privy to a chosen few for so many centuries to spread around the world.

RABASH was unlike any of his predecessors. As the last in the line, his concern was with the realization of the knowledge, with implementing it in real life. Accordingly, he focused his teaching on one principle: The complete perception of the world is achieved only through connection with other people. And how do you connect with other people? You love them. How do you come to love other people? This is what the teachings of RABASH reveal through his writings and through the thousands of oral lessons he had given throughout his life.

By the time RABASH passed away, he had installed in me a clear and complete method for developing love for other people, who are not related to you biologically, culturally, or in any other way. He did not come up with the method out of thin air, of course. It is the same method that the people of Israel had implemented among them since the inception of the nation nearly forty centuries ago. However, like other spiritual leaders in their time, RABASH adapted the method for developing love for others to our time, to the people who live in the 20th and 21st centuries, and in his adaptation lies his greatness.

I received from RABASH and learned from him more than I can express in words. However, if I had to choose the most important lesson that I took from him, it would be this: Stick to your goal and never look aside. Even if the goal seems distant, often unachievable, never look aside. Whether you achieve your goal or not is unimportant. If the goal is worth striving for, stick with it and never look away.

I know our dreams often seem unrealistic, but we have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Therefore, I always advise my students and anyone who asks to pursue their dreams.

As for me, I will continue to work for the rest of my life to realize my teacher’s dream: that all the people in the world will come to love one another as one man with one heart.

—

For more of the many things I had learned from RABASH, read my book, Always with Me.
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My new article on Linkedin “Silence Is Golden”

I spent countless hours conversing with my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (RABASH). For the most part, we spoke when we were alone during our daily morning walks or during our frequent two-day trips to Tiberias.

I once asked him what he did before I came, since when I met him he was already seventy-three years old. He said, “I was alone.” When I asked him if he didn’t need to talk to someone, he simply said, “No.”

Today, thirty years after his departure, I understand what he meant. I sit alone in my room and feel no need to come out or speak with anyone. I could sit here for a hundred years and not mind it whatsoever. I take strolls here and there, but since the closures started, I am mostly by myself, and I am perfectly content. Were it not for my students or the necessity to spread the wisdom of Kabbalah to the world, I wouldn’t utter a word.

In this I am like many Kabbalists before me. They, too, did not spend their days in idle conversation. They studied together and read from authentic Kabbalah sources.

This was also what RABASH and I used to do. Even when we were alone, such as in Tiberias, we would sit facing each other, The Book of Zohar or The Study of the Ten Sefirot open on the table between us, cups of Turkish coffee next to them, and we would read, and read, and read.

Once in a while, RABASH would stop reading to explain something, or I would ask a question about the text, but for the most part, we would read and connect between us, rising to a shared, spiritual feeling. Noting more was needed, nothing at all.

When an important event occurred, such as a war or elections in Israel, or other events that stirred the Israeli public, we would exchange a few words about it, but not for long, and certainly without prattling about it. We would not veer off from thinking about life’s purpose for a moment; every second mattered.

It is written in the Mishnah that Shimon, the son of Rabban Gamaliel, used to say, “All my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the most important, but deeds; and one who speaks too many words brings about sin” (Avot, 1:16).

Kabbalists are silent because they listen with their hearts. They listen to our common heart, the heart of the human system called Adam HaRishon, of which we are all parts.

We are born locked inside the bubble of our ego; we cannot listen to our common heart. Instead, we only listen to ourselves.

What I had learned from RABASH is to listen deep within, beyond the ego, to the common heart. In the depths of our soul, there is a longing to break through the boundaries of ego and feel the common heart. When we connect with it, we will truly be able to hear what is outside of us. We will be able to converse with the soul of all of humanity, with all of nature, and through them with the Creator.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/2/21

For many years, students and friends have been asking me to tell them the story of my time with my teacher, RABASH. For many years, I felt that there was no need for it, that times were different and things work differently today.

But through my conversations with Semion Vinokur, many of the stories percolated to the surface nonetheless. Semion, who really feels me, managed to put them down on paper in his unique and captivating style, and all of a sudden, there was a book.

The book, which was titled Always with Me, begins with my childhood questions and my years as a young man. But these are but the prelude. The bulk of the text tells the story of my years with RABASH: how I found him, how I became his disciple, his assistant, and why I am committed to passing on his message of love for all of humanity.

Today’s Kabbalah students learn very differently from the way I learned with him. However, every student goes through a very similar internal process and can sympathize with the experiences described here.

Since times are different now, I cannot teach my students the way RABASH taught me. Although the way is slightly different, attaining spirituality still requires and will always require dedication and devotion to the goal.

RABASH passed away in 1991, but he will never pass away from my heart or from my mind. When I teach, he is always with me. When I rise in the wee hours to prepare for the next morning lesson, he is the one who guides my heart. When I speak with world leaders or with scientists, it is his legacy that guides my thoughts and words.

I hope that when you read the stories, you will get a taste of the greatness of the man who has made Kabbalah approachable to every person on this planet. RABASH’s teachings are a gift to humanity, and I do my utmost to see that everyone enjoys it.

What I have become, I have become thanks to him, because indeed, he is always with me.

And finally, a word of gratitude to Irina Rudnev and Mark Berelekhis for their meticulous translation into English.

Get a copy on Amazon:

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