Question: You say that a person should improve and change. Some people can intelligently lay out what is happening in the world and why. Some religions describe this by saying: “Because people do not believe in God, He punishes them.” How can you stand out from a large number of smart people?

Answer: I am not going to stand out.

Comment: But you want people to know the truth.

My Response: I say what I say, but I do not want to criticize others. A person who yearns for serious analysis and scrutiny of cause-and-effect phenomena will see a rational seed in me, and in all others, their failure.

Comment: Many people convert to Buddhism. They may think they will find peace in Buddhism.

My Response: They may think that, sit there for a few years there, and then come to their senses because they will not find a solution. Their solution is to disconnect from this world, reach nirvana, and detach from everything.

Where do we see an example where Buddhists are happy? Where do we see in India (with its castes and disunity, where people live in squalor, and everyone fights for their piece of bread while they worship the sacred cows that walk the streets) an example that we should live like this? Is it the fact that they retreat into their illusions where they find at least some escape from this life? Or is it their belief in burning souls and then launching candle-lit boats along the Ganges?

I do not see anything in this, not in their state structure, nor in their friendship with each other when they shout about love. What kind of love is there with their castes where you cannot give a hand to another, let alone marry someone from another caste, where there is such poverty, such a separation between classes?

What can they set an example in? In an escape from reality.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Harry Potter Platform” 10/4/10

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Question: If Kabbalah is a science, then why is it said that the surrounding light acts only on those who believe?

Answer: Faith is the force of bestowal. It is not about believing someone’s words. In the science of Kabbalah, faith is the force of bestowal, Bina; it is not words spoken by someone and accepted by someone else as fact.

In science, it is not customary to believe, and Kabbalah does not use this concept of faith. It is not a religion!

I rely on the advice of the Kabbalists in order to draw the surrounding light upon myself. They tell me what needs to be done and they explain why.

With their help, I study the system, trusting them the way a child trusts a schoolteacher or their parents. A small one must trust the grown-up in order to rise to a higher degree, relying on the instructions that come from there, but no more than that.

In religion, however, in our world, faith is not trust with subsequent ascent and verification, but a fanatical loyalty with one’s eyes closed.

I do not accept the words of the Kabbalists as facts; I implement them and test them on myself. And afterward, having provided myself with a full set of knowledge and evidence, I will be able to continue the research on my own.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/09, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book From the Mouth of a Sage”

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Сomment: The wisdom of the Chinese people is often very profound. For example:

“The one who points out your flaws is not always your enemy, and the one who praises your virtues is not always your friend.”

My Response: This is absolutely true. The most important thing for a person is to correct oneself along life’s path. And someone who points out your flaws is doing enormous work on your behalf.

In order to discover these flaws on your own (let alone correct them), you would encounter countless obstacles, bang your head against them, and get into trouble. People sometimes end up in prison, get free after a few years, and have to start all over again. But if someone can truly point out your shortcomings, and you are able to feel them, understand them, and recognize them, that person spares you enormous suffering.

Comment: Yet we often consider such a person an enemy: “He exposed my flaws, he humiliated me.”

My Response: Humiliation is a different matter. I can feel my flaws and still rejoice that someone has pointed them out to me. But the one who says nothing, or even flatters me, perhaps he does so maliciously so that I will not pay attention to the corrections I need to make.

Question: So it is not in vain you keep saying that someone who criticizes you is closer to you than someone who praises you?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: Do you listen to someone who suddenly tells you something about yourself?

Answer: I very much wish I could.

Quote: “What happens, happens at the right time.”

My Response: We must accept this apriori as an axiom. The thing is that everything comes from the world around us and has its own path of development. Therefore, all that unfolds in front of us comes from this great mechanism in which we exist as small participants.

We need to understand that everything happening around us in society or in the universe as a whole occurs according to a vast plan, and we are within this plan. Our task is to fit into this plan, not to change the external flow by any means, but to correct ourselves so that we adapt to it.

Question: And then I will feel that whatever has happened, has come at the right time?

Answer: Yes. It has come on time, properly and correctly. And suddenly I begin to understand the correctness of everything that happens and how perfectly it suits me.

Question: And I have no regrets?

Answer: There is nothing to regret because everything happens outside of me, before me. And what I am shown are just the steps that I must take within myself to perceive everything correctly, to agree with it, to connect with it, and to move forward in resonance with it.

Question: That is, in harmony with it?

Answer: Yes, in agreement with it.

Quote: “He who drinks the water must remember those who dug the well.”

My Response: Beautifully said. And one must be grateful to them because the one who dug the well was not thinking only of himself, he was thinking also of me, anticipating my need.

Therefore, I am deeply grateful to him and must, in some way, repay him, whether simply with my heartfelt attitude, or perhaps by doing something good around that well myself. In general, even a warm, grateful feeling toward the one who opened a source of life for me already helps to correct the world.

Question: This sounds very much like a Kabbalistic approach. That is, instead of focusing on the pleasure I receive from the water, I turn my thoughts to the one who dug the well for me. Should a person behave this way in life, for example, by digging wells for others in turn?

Answer: A person must feel that everything he has around him and in the world was given to us by our ancestors who left it behind. And we must do the same for others, and for future generations.

Quote: “Misfortune enters through the door that was opened to it.”

My Response: That depends only on the person.

Question: Am I the one who opens the door to misfortune?

Answer: Yes, naturally. It is us who do all this.

In fact, the world is filled with boundless, absolute happiness, but by our own attitude, we turn it into the opposite. This is why it is said allegorically that we “open the door” to misfortune.

Question: And what if I were filled with the thought that the world around me is absolute happiness? If I constantly thought about this and strove toward it, would I still open the door to misfortune? Would misfortune still come to me?

Answer: This is our egoism. In truth, it exists within us so that we may learn to recognize and open far more doors to what is good. But we use it incorrectly; that is the problem.

A person is essentially unhappy. He is given an egoistic desire, a foundation, a character, an aspiration, but only so that he may correctly sense in advance what to avoid and how to adjust himself. Yet he uses this desire in the wrong way.

Question: Is that why he opens the door to misfortune?

Answer: Exactly. He keeps stepping on the same rake. Imagine there are “rakes” placed on the ground to show you the right path and to guide you to walk between them. But instead, you constantly step directly on them. This wrong perception of life stems from the fact that we relate to it totally incorrectly. That is, in fact, we fail to understand that egoism itself shows us how to walk properly and what to avoid. But we use it in its direct sense, and so we step on the rake again and again.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 11/10/24

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Humanity is moving forward. Once it believed only in spirits, in hidden forces of nature: wind, sun, moon, earthquakes, sacrifices, etc. There are still many similar beliefs on Earth today that exist to this day. Some of them will only vanish with the revelation of the Creator.

But as egoism develops in humanity, the ego begins to demand greater revelation, greater comprehension, and a stronger foundation for any action. A person becomes lazier and more egoistic; they want rewards, and demand clear understanding, knowledge, and compensation for their efforts.

That is why, in ancient times, over many centuries, various movements and forms of worship emerged. All of them were also tied to the specific characteristics of each nation that were beneficial to their elites.

But the key point is that all these beliefs are referred to as “faith,” that is, as blind faith—believing in something that a person does not reveal, does not see, and does not feel. Yet when someone begins to work with this, everything in him is purely psychologically shaped into a kind of knowledge, a conviction so strong that one is ready to give their life for it.

Question: Is blind faith close to faith with knowledge?

Answer: There is no actual knowledge here because no one is revealing the Creator. But gradually a person reaches a state where they must do so.

The first person to reveal the Creator was Adam only 6,000 years ago. Although for many centuries before that humanity sought to know the Creator, it remained in a state of faith and not knowledge. Adam HaRishon was the first who attained the Creator. That is, he gained clear knowledge, and the ability for mutual, two-way communication: “I speak to Him, and He responds.” Adam began to work within this interaction.

This kind of attainment of the Creator by a person in this world is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only then do we move from faith to knowledge.

The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is based on knowledge. It calls each person to rise either from the level of nonbelief—which is also a kind of faith, a belief in the absence of upper forces, a program of development, etc.—or from the level where upper forces are accepted on faith, to a state where a person reveals the Creator’s governance and begins to interact accordingly.

Thus, in our world there are two completely different approaches to human behavior. That is why there are over 3,000 various belief systems. We can see how much they differ across different regions of the world.

For example, in South America it is customary to dig up the bones of ancestors, wash them out of respect, and rebury them. In China, other types of worship exist, and in Japan, still others. People come up with all sorts of methods. This is one path.

The second path is Kabbalah. It is intended for those who cannot function within blind faith; they need knowledge.

Kabbalah leads them to the revelation of the upper force, not just belief in it where people invent various methods, systems of behavior, and interaction, but actual revelation. A person is shown models of behavior with the upper force, mutual closeness, communication, development, and so on.

Question: So when Baal HaSulam writes “religion,” should we always interpret it as “Kabbalah”?

Answer: Baal HaSulam specifically means Kabbalah because nothing else is connected to the upper force.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 7/10/2017

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Question: What is Kabbalah’s position regarding non-believers and religious people? I see that you seem to constantly navigate between them!

Answer: You are right.

Religion views the Creator similar to a human being, i.e. changing and depending on the person’s actions. Each religion presents both the Creator and His messengers as it likes. They are forced either to coexist or to try to destroy each other because their view is based on faith, meaning it is unprovable. Whoever is stronger is “right.” Or they act as if the others do not exist, each in its own flock.

But they all share one thing: they see God as treating a person based on how the person treats God and others. That is, God changes, is sometimes angry, sometimes compassionate. This is how a person interprets it from their life and fate.

So God can be bribed, you can “pay” for paradise, or appease Him so that He will treat you well. You can atone for sins or buy off punishment. You can give charity to ward off a blow of fate. It is all built on the idea that a person’s external behavior changes God’s attitude toward them.

Atheists treat God like nature, unchangeable and mechanical, and it does not have its own mind and plan, it does not depend on our attitude toward it, but only on our “mechanical” actions.

Kabbalah sees nature and the Creator as one and the same. But He has intelligence, a plan, a purpose. He has feelings. So in the process of development (evolution), He created the human being exactly as we are: with feeling and mind, with two opposing systems, like an egoist who wants to enjoy every moment of existence. He created us this way so that by using the method of Kabbalah and the forces of nature (the surrounding light), a person would change themselves and become similar to the Creator.

Through this a person gains true independence (otherwise they are completely driven by nature and egoism, and are not free), perfection, eternity, and adhesion with the Creator (the status of the Creator).

The Creator in Kabbalah is unchanging because He is absolute, absolutely good, and therefore cannot change; only something less-than-perfect can become better or worse, but not the absolute.

Therefore turning to the Creator is really turning to yourself and convincing yourself of the need to correct yourself to become like the Creator, the model of goodness.

So atheists try to remake the world, and the religious beg the Creator, while Kabbalists correct themselves and thereby correct the world.
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Comment: It turns out that there are hundreds of millions of atheists in the world. By some estimates their numbers near 1 billion.  It is projected that their number will continue to grow.

My Response: The main reason is that a person is developing. But atheism is also a religion. It is the religion of nature, not godlessness.

For atheists, their deity is progress, technology, money, or something else. It is still a belief in something higher than oneself.

Question: So what is true faith then?

Answer: True faith is the revelation of the upper force—clear, absolutely attainable, analyzable, and synthesized within oneself.

Question: Is it felt?

Answer: It is a felt absolutely completely, up to full connection of a person with the upper force, when it “dwells” in him and becomes he himself. A person becomes filled with this upper force, and then it acts in him, with his consent, and through his mutual effort.

This is all described in Kabbalah. There is only one true religion, and that is the wisdom of Kabbalah, the science of revealing the Creator, of a voluntary, conscious, gradual rapprochement with Him, that is, adapting oneself to this upper force of nature.

And the upper force is bodiless and timeless. It has no whims, no conditions, only the revelation of the opportunity to merge with it, to attain its level.

Question: What are the qualities of the upper force?

Answer: Absolute bestowal and love, nothing else.

Question: But why doesn’t that attract a person? In theory it should attract him!

Answer: It is the opposite of human nature. If a person has a predisposition, a yearning to attain the upper force at any cost (meaning, “I have no reason to live except for this!”), then he goes for it, no matter what, and is ready to sacrifice everything.

But if this yearning is not given to him from above, then he remains on the earthly level, and exists to serve his animal body. Of course, everyone has to take care of this animal body, but he exists for the sake of it.

Then he is a so-called human, that is, an animal, highly developed in some way, who lives and dies, lives and dies, until this yearning for attainment, for merging, for rising to the Creator develops in him.

Question: Is it bound to develop?

Answer: In everyone! And after us, the animate, vegetative, and inanimate nature rises to the same level. We pull everyone along with us! And all of nature integrates into this upper level, into the Creator.

Question: Then is it rightly said that “Man is the crown of creation”?

Answer: In that case, yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/21/24

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The soul of Abraham, like all souls, is a result of the shattering of Adam HaRishon. Within all these souls are various parts, and as they naturally unfold from the beginning of correction to its end, this leads to the emergence of special souls who begin to feel that the world is not as it appears to the rest of the souls.

The feelings of the souls stem from the fact that their discernments have not yet reached a sufficient measure to reveal and feel that although the outer picture of the world seems to contain many separate forces, there exists a deeper picture in which all those forces are governed by a single force.

We are precisely in such a state since in our attitude toward life, we do not perceive it as governed by a single force that influences us with a single intention that wishes to bring us pleasure. We do not understand that the Creator’s attitude toward us is revealed in various forms according to the changes in our own state. Yet He Himself is one, unique, and unified.

The contrast between Terach and Abraham essentially repeats itself among us in the fact that we, like Abraham, want to reveal something different from what the world sees and from what we ourselves were in our previous state, which is called “the previous generation.”

A special readiness in the soul is needed in order to feel the demand to reveal nature, all of reality, as a single system, a single force, a single thought.

This idea can be grasped only by the most “refined” layer of souls that emerge as a result of the shattering of Adam HaRishon. Then, more and more souls can begin to join them. From generation to generation, the desire to receive increases within all souls. The souls of the earlier generations are essentially the same souls that return in later cycles, only with an added desire to receive, with the revelation of “coarser,” more substantial Reshimot.

But since the souls go through suffering in this world precisely because they become coarser, these sufferings prepare them to begin asking questions and to increasingly feel that something is missing, something that would bring order and unify all the forces of reality, to feel that behind all the diversity of visible forces there must be a single program, a single thought.
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From the 1^st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Until today humanity still perceives that there are many forces, many purposes in the world, that there is no single thought, no single force, no single desire, no single goal; that we are driven by various impulses, urges, and that over us stand numerous “commanders” and causes for what occurs.

But suffering, both in previous generations and in ours, on the good path and on the bad one, gradually purifies the Aviut (coarseness).

Precisely because on the one hand a person becomes more “coarse,” and on the other investigates more and more, and comes to understand that he is incapable of understanding and investigating, this brings him to the revelation of the truth that he does not understand how creation is structured. This gives him the prerequisite to demand the revelation of the Creator, just like the demand that arose in Abraham.

Therefore when Abraham began to seek the Creator, he was alone. Later others joined him, those spoken of in the Torah, people who grasped this idea and went along with him: his sons, grandchildren, and students who constantly joined him.

All of this became a special system for educating future generations within Abraham’s group.
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From the 1^st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: How can the people of Israel feel their mission in this world?

Answer: First of all, the people of Israel must achieve their own correction. To the extent that they correct themselves, they will begin to understand what their role is in relation to all the broken vessels.

But Israel does not understand and cannot understand in advance what its function in creation is, since it is under the dominion of the AHP, the nations of the world, the broken Kelim.

Galgalta ve Eynaim cannot understand that there is some kind of work of bestowal here. To whom should one bestow? With what? Therefore when the people of Israel are in a state of shattering, what is the point of telling them: “You must correct the whole world!” ”What do I care about the whole world? Leave me alone.” Because of the lack of bestowing qualities, people do not feel the need to engage in someone else’s correction.

However, to the extent that they acquire the qualities of bestowal, that is, as GE return to their proper role, about which it is said: “You shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests,” they will reach the second stage, as it is said: “You shall be unto Me a holy nation.” But not before! Until then, they do not understand their function, and this is called being in a state of shattering.

Therefore, today we cannot expect the people to recognize what role they are to assume in this world. Perhaps they will be forced into it through suffering.

As of now, it is unclear to people that we must correct ourselves in order to correct the entire world. They only understand one thing: if we correct ourselves, without regard to the world, then the whole world and the Creator will treat us well. The second stage, which is hidden here, they do not yet perceive.

So it is not clear whether it is even worth speaking about the fact that we must become a light unto the nations, pass on to them the method of correction, and correct ourselves together with them. This becomes clear only when Bina truly attains the quality of bestowal, when it really becomes similar to the Creator, bestowing for the sake of bestowal, and seeks how to implement it.

Then it sees the necessity of the nations of the world and of connecting with them in order to correct them for the sake of the Creator. And benefit for the Creator means that the world will be corrected, that is, the nations of the world. To them He initially wished to give the Torah. Israel is present here only as a “conduit.”

However, at first all this is difficult to explain to the people of Israel, since they are in a state of shattering. But upon coming out of the shattering, they will begin to understand their task and their role in relation to the entire world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: What is the meaning of the holiday of the Giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) and what does it mean that we have received the Torah? We do not seem to keep its commandments. It is rather the opposite. It says “do not steal”—we steal; “do not covet other’s property”—we covet.

How does the Torah relate to our lives today? Could the Creator have been mistaken when He gave the Torah specifically to the people of Israel?

Answer: There is giving of the Torah, and there is receiving it. The problem is that although the Torah was given to us, we never received it. Today’s Israeli society is very far from what it should be in living according to the laws of the Torah. Therefore we are still considered to be in exile.

Question: But we got the Torah, we have it!

Answer: We have the book that says “Torah,” but that is not enough. The Torah is the upper light that returns to the source. The light corrects our egoistic nature, and leads us to love and mutual participation, until we love others as ourselves.

This is called the realization of the Torah. The Torah is the light, as it is said: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah to correct it.” The Jewish people have the most developed egoism, and it is not for nothing that our people are called “stiff-necked.” Therefore we received the Torah for its correction—the light that reforms.

In the past, during the time of the First and Second Temples, the people of Israel used this light for correction. Later they fell from this level, which is called the destruction of the Temple, and they went into exile. It is an exile from a life based on the law of love of others.

Today no one even thinks about loving others anymore. Only the external traditions remain of the Torah.

Question: Have we not received the Torah yet because not everyone fulfills religious commandments?

Answer: We are not talking about religious commandments. The law of the Torah is to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Rabbi Akiva calls this the great rule of the Torah, which includes all other commandments. Therefore by fulfilling the commandments mechanically, a person should check: does this bring him closer to love of others, or does it maybe even alienate him? Does it create a split among the people and incite hatred?

Is this the Torah that we got? We have received the highest remedy, because the Torah is light, an upper force that affects us, if we fulfill special conditions. This force can correct our nature and allow us to open the upper world, to open our eyes and see where we really are.

The Torah is eternal, and with its help we can also achieve eternal life. But this is only on condition that we really find out what the true Torah and the commandment of loving one’s neighbor as oneself mean, which combines all the commandments.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 560 – The Holiday Of The Giving Of The Torah,” 5/5/15

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