Entries in the 'Religion' Category

Two Types of Fear

276.01Question: What is the difference between religious people’s fear of the Creator and the Kabbalists’ fear of Him ?

Answer: The fear that religious people experience stems from the fear of punishment. On the other hand, Kabbalists do not have this type of fear. Instead, their fear is focused on the concern that they might not fulfill the will of the Creator.

A serious prayer is required to transition from the one type of fear to the other.

Question: From time to time, we feel fear of the Creator. How can we maintain this state consistently?

Answer: It depends on your environment, on your friends. If you all think about this together, it is as if you are keeping a ball in the air. Just as a team can keep a ball in the air when playing together, it is the same here.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/24, Writings of Rabash “Anyone in Whom There Is Fear of Heaven – 1”

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The Simplicity of the Hard Path

629.3Julia asks:

The Creator is a good screenwriter, in the drama genre. Can we know the ending of the story in advance and influence the course of events?

Answer: We know the ending of the story. It is the complete correction of human nature.

Question: Can we influence the course of these events?

Answer: No, we do not know how we should change or in what order we should correct ourselves. But in general, the path is clear.

Question: Then why is this being done? For example, the way is clear to us—rise above egoism, above our nature, but how to do this is not very clear. Why is all this being done? Point the way, tell us how to get there, and humanity will go accordingly.

Answer: The way is very simple: love your neighbor as yourself and be like the Creator, and so advance.

Question: But this is very difficult. Is it possible? Is a person capable of doing this?

Answer: Yes, we have the strength to ask for it.

Question: So it is on me to exert effort and raise a request, an effort and a request? Only this way?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do all spiritual practices and all religions come from this phrase? Can I say this or not?

Answer: A person does whatever comes to his mind. But in the end, rising above our ego to love everyone is what is required of us.

Comment: There is this call, by and large, which resonates all the time. And a person, passing it through himself, makes all sorts of angles, spiritual practices, and religions and builds everything.

My Response: He dodges it.

Question: Can I tackle it directly? Is there a straight path to loving your neighbor as yourself?

Answer: No. One would not agree to accept such a commitment directly. A person cannot exist in this. But little by little, I think we will come to this.

Question: Come to live this way?

Answer: Yes.

Question: “Us and the Creator”—such a direct connection?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/1/24

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Separation from the Feeling of the Creator

531.01Question: We evaluate everyone solely by whether they strive for unity. If not, then this methodology is not suitable for us.

But who said that unification is important and the goal of the entire universe? Why not some kind of abstraction, like an out-of-body experience? This is more important for  another person.

Answer: I am not interested in what is more important for the other person. Everyone can make up whatever they want.

We believe Kabbalists, and this faith is confirmed by our knowledge when we follow their path and reveal the upper world.

They tell us that once we were one single whole and then scattered into pieces, meaning egoism tore us apart, separated us from each other, and acts between us as a repelling force.

But we have to cancel this force and reconnect. The moment we do this, we will immediately perceive the next level of the universe, the next world, called the upper, the divine, because it is above egoism.

Then we will already identify ourselves, not with our body, but with our common unified desire, which we have assembled from all the pieces. This common desire is called the soul.

Kabbalists explain to us how to do this and what we feel in the process. As for what comes to different people’s minds, so what can be done? This is where the disunity of humanity once began.

As Maimonides, the great philosopher of the XII century, writes, initially people felt that there is one single force. Initially, this was known to everyone. And then they saw that this force manifests itself through various actions in nature: wind, sun, and so on at the inanimate, animate and vegetative levels.

And people began to come into contact with these forces because they are closer to them than some abstract force called the Creator.

They began to worship the possible signs of nature, even to the point where they began creating idols, building temples, and making offerings. This is how religions and beliefs began to develop.

Thus, people broke away from the feeling of the one Creator, the single force of nature, and unification with Him and fell into the feeling of ordinary animate nature.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Unification in Doubt” 4/10/10

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From the Development of Religions to the Revelation of Kabbalah

560To rise from our animalistic, egoistic level, we need to strive for the next level—the altruistic human being.

We can achieve this either through immense suffering that forces us to reach the goal or through our own efforts when we know what lies ahead and understand the forces of nature at our disposal. Then we can help ourselves and bring ourselves to absolute coexistence.

Question: Should the aspiration to the higher degree, to the Creator, be like fuel throughout this stage? Otherwise why would 90% of egoists suddenly want to change their nature and care for society more than for themselves? They need some motivation. Can the upper force be this motivation?

Answer: Of course.

Question: But how can this happen if it has not been manifested until now? Even religions have not helped although they claim that the Creator is goodness and love.

Answer: Religions operate on a very low level. Moreover, they have already disqualified themselves if I may say so.

Comment: But in the early stages, they really did help humanity; otherwise, we would be like animals.

My Response: Yes, without religion we could not have existed; that is clear. Then began the thousand-year long process separation of religion from progress, from the changes in mankind, up to the creation of educational institutions where natural sciences and Kabbalah are studied.

Today, we have reached a state where we can calmly explain to all people on Earth, without any prohibitive restrictions, what Kabbalah is, why it is needed, how to master it, and what can be achieved with its help.
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From KabTV’s “Era of the Last Generation” 7/11/24

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Only According to the Desire

631.1Question: All nations have their own traditions. But we say that the world Kli is Israel, the people of Israel. I would like to understand if we will gradually come to know these concepts and traditions more deeply and accept them. What is stopping us? It seems to me that this is quite a good, positive aspiration.

Answer: I do not think so. This is a huge mass of laws that a person belonging to the Jewish mass must study. But others have absolutely no use for it. It will just confuse you.

You need to study Kabbalah. The Jews, in addition to this, also need to know their laws, which they are obliged to follow, since without this they will not be close to the Creator.

Question: Won’t this become a kind of stumbling block that will distinguish us from the central group and everyone else?

Answer: I do not think such a state is possible. We do not force anyone to pray or follow any commandments. All this is done voluntarily. If a person is ready for this, regardless of whether one is a Jew or not, this is one’s personal matter. There is no need to pay attention to this. Everyone does what they want.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/24, Writings of Rabash “And You, Israel”

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Rise above “Idols”

270The wisdom of Kabbalah deals with elevating a person from idol worshipping. It does not matter what or who is considered an idol. These idols can be more than just statues, amulets, or certain beliefs; they encompass our entire lives that we worship and consider important.

The revelation of the Creator—the single force of nature that governs everything—and connection with it, meaning attaining an upper level, is not deemed important.

Consider how television, radio, and media are filled with various soothsayers, and how the mass media operates, what people perceive, what they think, and even how we teach all sciences. Science today is becoming semi-mystical even though it is considered a science. Look at the hypotheses, theories, and conjectures presented by scholars!

We are returning to the same old circles, to these idols, because we have completely lost our orientation. Therefore, Kabbalah reveals itself and says: “We must return to the one nature.”

Our current crisis indicates that globalization and unity in nature are its main characteristics. One, unified, unique, and integrated—this is the core, the source of all existence.

Therefore, the more we strive for unification, for the understanding of unity, for understanding all the numerous manifestations in nature as merely one attribute, the Creator, the faster we will come to understand the truth and reach a better state.
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From KabTV’s “I got a call. Unity in doubt” 4/13/10

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Not an Ordinary Faith

962.3Question: For thousands of years all religions have been saying that there is no knowledge, there is only faith. Many of us came to Kabbalah to comprehend the Creator, that is, to gain knowledge. It seems there is some contradiction here.

Should we have both knowledge and faith or is faith only above knowledge?

Answer: The point is that the faith we practice in the wisdom of Kabbalah is not an ordinary faith, but faith in the fact that the Creator is the upper force of nature.

It is precisely Him that we attain in our mind and feelings by becoming like Him in the measure of bestowal. In this way, we begin to understand the Creator and the world He created.
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From International Kabbalah Convention 5/18/24, “Working In Faith Above Reason”

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Is there a Standard of Goodness?

565.02Question: What is good and evil? Everyone talks about goodness, friendship, and unity. And you say the same things, but how can you tell the difference?

Answer: I speak about these categories only as means that help one discover one’s faulty state, come to a corrected state, and achieve complete unity with nature.

I am not against what others say, and in no way am I trying to check them, compare them, or engage in some kind of comparative analysis. For what?

If they talk about good, great. But for what is this good? How correct is this, how real is it? There are so many opportunities in the world to do something good. Is this really good or not?

Who checks, who feels, who measures? Are they the same egoists as you? They can tell you what is good based on their egoistic qualities. And so can you. So you will understand each other perfectly. But in fact?

Therefore, there must be the emergence of some standard of good that is independent of us. If it does not exist, then thousands of beliefs, religions, philosophies, and opinions arise, and each one is right. Then you cannot do anything until some dimension is achieved.

All techniques and technologies start with some measure: meter, kilogram, and so on. Without this, people would not understand each other and could not do anything.

But in our feelings, there are no such measurements, so everyone is right.

You can talk to anyone, from Nazis to pacifists, from anarchists to communists, and they can convince you of anything. In our development, we have already gone through all possible options, except the very last ones. After all, there was once cannibalism, but it can still repeat itself in our “bright” future. And we always felt that yes, this is true or this has a place.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Good and Evil” 1/22/12

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Can Interacting with Stones Heal?

49.03Question: Unusual pets are becoming popular in South Korea. They are not dogs, they are not cats, they are rocks.

There are many touching stories about how people are stressed, do not want to burden their loved ones with their experiences, do not want to take responsibility for dogs or cats, but they simply take stones, buy stones, start dressing them up and talking to them. For example, a woman described how her day went at work to a stone.

What kind of transition is this? Is it evolution or is it degradation? You won’t share your stress with a friend, you don’t talk to a dog or a cat, but you talk to a stone. What do you think it is?

Answer: First of all, we must understand that these are Koreans. Therefore, we do not need to pay special attention to this as some kind of worldwide change of man toward nature. It will all pass.

But in general, this is an interesting thing. This way they can heal themselves.

Question: And when a person talks to some inanimate nature, to stones? They even say that they dress them up, talk, do you think this is a natural state?

Answer: This is a natural state for them. It is kind of like a kid with a doll. It is still on a purely childish level.

Question: Then the question that arises from this is: is it necessary for us to communicate with someone?

Answer: We have the upper force; we have to communicate with it.

Question: Can you explain this communication: what you do not see or feel?

Answer: You can only imagine the Creator as it is written in books. Otherwise, you cannot think of anything else.

The sages describe it as a force of nature that we must follow. This is the same thing that Abraham and all the others said, all the prophets down to Baal HaSulam and Rabash.

Question: How can I make myself believe them?

Answer: I think this is a matter of the gradual inner development of a person. It is gradual in our time, which will soon show us what we really need to go after.

Question: So you think we will be pushed toward this communication one way or another?

Answer: Yes.

Question: In principle, does it turn out that all beliefs pass through the character of the nation?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: The message—is it just one?

Answer: There is one message. You need contact with the upper force that can guide you and bring you into contact with it.

Question: Can we say that this message exists, but every nation passes it through itself?

Answer: Yes, but this is a matter of thousands of years. Only for each nation, it is still at its own level.

Question: And when it says: “God will be one and one for all”?

Answer: It will happen, but we need to develop.

Question: So all these currents, all these religions will come to this peak?

Answer: Yes, there is no other way.

Question: Will there not be a mass of currents, a mass of religions?

Answer: No, on the contrary, they will see that they are in some kind of similarity to each other and will begin to connect.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/25/24

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How Plato Turned Kabbalah into Philosophy

272Question: In 414 BCE, the prophet Jeremiah, one of the four greatest prophets and Kabbalists, lived in northern Egypt during the time of the First Temple. During this period, a young Greek philosopher named Aristokl, later called Plato, studied with him.

Plato recalls: “I was with Jeremiah in Egypt, and initially I was mocking him and his words, and in the end, once I become accustomed to speaking with him and to watch his actions carefully, I saw that his words were words of the living God. Then, I said in my heart, and I established, that he was a sage and prophet.”

The question is: Does this mean that the wisdom of the prophet and Kabbalist was open at that time to other nations?

Answer: Yes, because they were also at an appropriate spiritual level. It means that Plato practically understood who he was dealing with; therefore, this wisdom could be revealed to him.

Question: Why was the wisdom later closed off? Why was Kabbalah closed to the world?

Answer: There are periods in the development of humanity. Initially, it was simple, and there were closer ties between nations without significant differences. But then, alienation between them occurred more and more. Each went their own way, and eventually, there was such a separation that continues to develop to this day.

Question: Where did this prohibition come from? Who prohibited spreading Kabbalah to the nations of the world?

Answer: It was a consequence of the destruction of the Temple, that is, a fall from the level of Temple.

Question: Did the Kabbalists themselves prohibit all of this?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: Can we say that the world was not ready to receive this knowledge?

Answer: Yes, naturally, if it had received it at that time, it would not have been able to use it correctly.

Question: How did the wisdom that Plato received from Jeremiah later turn into Greek philosophy with its multitude of gods?

Answer: They took from it what they could, what they could understand, and somehow absorbed it into themselves, into their society, into their system, and that was it. And then…

Comment: But Plato lived by this. He even felt that it was like the words of the living God.

My Response: It does not matter.

Question: Where does it disappear afterward and turn into philosophy?

Answer: It dissolved. Not immediately, but gradually.

Question: But the fact that it was Plato, and everyone talks about him and knows about him, is there still some merit to Jeremiah, his Kabbalist teacher?

Answer: Of course! Everything that Plato later spoke about, he partly received from Jeremiah.

Comment: So, we can say that this high Greek philosophy that everyone talks about is a consequence…

My Response: …of meeting with Kabbalists.

Comment: You are often accused of spreading Kabbalah to the world, to everyone. So, this prohibition still applies to many people today.

My Response: Let those many remain silent.

Question: Can you say what happened? What kind of revolution is this?

Answer: Kabbalah was always spread in waves. There were times when it could be taught, spoken about, and written. And there were times when it was shrinking and concealing itself more and more.

Question: What happened with the time that suddenly started to demand Kabbalah? What kind of time is this?

Answer: It is because we live in an egoistic world and egoism within us constantly develops. Therefore, the Kabbalists, seeing that they had no other method, means, or weapons against the egoism that was developing so much in society, decided to take Kabbalah out of its hidden places and show it to the whole world.

Question: Did your teacher know that you would follow this path of dissemination?

Answer: Of course, he knew. What did he write? And what did his father, Baal HaSulam, write?

Comment: His father even wrote more.

My Response: Yes, so it was natural that those who consider themselves followers of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, and not only them but also Rambam, Ramchal, and Baal Shem Tov, must disseminate Kabbalah.

Question: Does it mean that the time demands Kabbalah?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What problems can Kabbalah solve today?

Answer: It can strengthen people in their quest to find out who we are, what our purpose is, and what we can do to bring the world to peace.

This is necessary for every person. What is the meaning of life? Kabbalah answers all questions. I believe that only its revelation can give people the key to the upper world.

Question: There are many different practices, yet you always highlight Kabbalah. You say, “This is special, this is a wisdom.” You always somehow separate it from all these practices and religions. Why?

Answer: Because, in principle, there are no practices in Kabbalah, only the heart’s desire of a person for a connection with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/1/24

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