Entries in the 'Spiritual Teacher' Category

Don’t Dwell on Moments That Have Passed

938.04Question: What happens to the animal desires and what should my attitude toward them be?

Answer: Our attitude toward our animalistic desires for food, sex, family should not change. As with all other desires, we should not fight them at all or fixate on them. We should simply acknowledge that they exist.

How much I want or do not want to use them depends on the degree of my correction. I should not lock myself in a monastery or become a hermit in life, go on a strict diet, or anything of the sort.

The truth is that the rule “there is no coercion in spirituality” applies throughout the entire hierarchy from top to bottom. If your mind is focused where it should be, then your heart will follow your thoughts, and your actions follow your heart. For example, there is no need to worry that sometimes you perform actions that do not seem particularly good to you, following the impulses of the body. It is fine; everything will be resolved and corrected.

As the saying goes: “The mother will come and cleanse what her son has done.” That is, correction will come, and either the behavior will cease or it will happen in a different, corrected form. Don’t pay attention to anything else; just keep your mind in the right place, in thoughts shared with the group all directed toward the Creator.

If you begin to ruminate and lament about how bad you are, you will become immersed in these thoughts. But at least after some action or incident—no matter what, you return to the Creator again.

Not regretting the past for even a moment but moving forward is the rule that we must implant into our patterns of behavior. Otherwise, you will sink into despair and devour yourself, as it is said: “The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh”: “Am I really like this? Who am I after all?”

Leave yourself alone, connect with the group in striving toward the Creator. Forget about yourself; you must come out of yourself and not think about “where I am and who I am.” You do not yet know who you are. You will still discover this, and then you will truly tremble. There is nothing to think about here; it is simply bad; it stops your advancement.

In general, one never thinks about the past moment, only forward. One must not turn around and look at something behind oneself. This is done only if the group, or a person sets aside a specific time to examine what happened to him and how he related to it.

Rabash gave his grandmother as an example. When he did some mischief, she would say to him only: “Baruch, be careful.” And two days later, she would call him over: “Baruch, come here. Do you remember your offense? Now I am going to give you a beating.” Try doing the same.

The accounting is done, if it is necessary at all, without the participation of nerves and emotions—in the mind, when you have already completely emerged from the feeling of the past.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 10/5/26

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Tune Yourself to Perceive the Upper World

938.02The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how a Kli (vessel) equal to the Creator is formed and what we must do in the process. In general, we must tune ourselves to perceive the upper world before we enter it.

We do this in various ways: through study, work in the group, and all kinds of actions in our world. If we add the intention to draw closer to the sensation of spirituality, we evoke that state upon us from there, as if drawing ourselves toward it through our desire.

This process is known as attracting the surrounding light, which purifies us and pulls us toward the higher state. These actions are performed unconsciously; a person carries them out simply because they trust the recommendations of the Kabbalists and do what they advise.

If I am supposed to study, I study even though I do not want to, even though I do not understand or see any connection. But during the study, I begin to think about Kabbalah and imagine it as a science separate from me, one that does not require me to perform any internal actions.

In addition, there are actions in the group, with the friends. For example, I am told to do something I do not want to do at all, but I know it is necessary. So, I try to do something mechanically together with the others even though it is clear to us that each of us is an individualist.

Yet, here I have to gather together with the others and create a pleasant atmosphere; after all, there isn’t much interest in everyday life. But why are we gathering in the first place? Is it to enjoy ourselves or to perform actions that elevate us?

In short, there are many issues here: how to relate to everything and how precisely to tune oneself to attract the upper one, that is, the surrounding light. But ultimately, all these actions draw the surrounding light upon us.

There is also another kind of work where a person begins, as it were, to raise oneself from within to a higher degree. Rather than drawing the upper light from above, he himself is drawn toward the higher degree. This work is called attempts to resemble the higher degree, to resemble the spiritual state.

Where can we obtain examples of this? From what the Kabbalists write to us. They say that spirituality entails a complete exit from one’s self, much like a person, upon death, leaves his body, which has nothing to do with the soul. The body turns into earthly dust, while the soul continues to exist.

Likewise, we must completely leave our “self,” transfer ourselves into everyone else, and exist only within them—in their desires, aspirations, and thoughts—without thinking about ourselves at all. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: “Just as the Creator does not think about Himself or whether He exists, so should our intention be.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 9/29/26

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An Amplifier of Spiritual Power

938.07When a person begins to study [Kabbalah], he suddenly discovers every time that they see new things in what we study. And this will always be the case.

Suppose you are sitting and reading an article right now, and I am sitting and reading the article, and then you ask me: “Well, can you tell me something?”

Why do I tell you more than you know? Because I read and see a bit more deeply than you. At the same time, I cannot transmit to you what I feel, and so I tell you in other words what I see.

For you it is open to a certain depth; for me it is open much deeper, and there are those for whom nothing at all is revealed. They may read the same article, but feel no reaction in the heart because they have no spiritual Kli, while yours is already beginning to form.

So what is the difference? The difference is that when I speak to you, I give you a bit of light from the depth where I am, and this helps you. In addition to the surrounding light that you awaken during the study, I also add from myself.

But the group can also add to you. Each one understands according to a certain depth because no one here is a random person off the street. There are those who are truly in a good, sensory understanding.

Therefore, when we study together with the intention of passing the incoming light to one another, these surrounding lights from each of us unite and act upon everyone. Do you understand what kind of amplifier of spiritual power there is here?

And it does not matter if each one knows very little, some more, some less. Even if I am here, and you know less than I do, each of you has his own root of the soul. So I enjoy this. From the inclusion of one in another, I receive an addition because there are things that, without you, I will not understand, and without this one, and without that one even though you might be a “0.001 compared to my 1 followed by some zeros.” It does not matter. Every person is unique.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/26, Rabash, “What Are Holiness and Purity in the Work?”

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Start from Zero and End with Zero

962.7Question: How should an ordinary person live so as not to divide life into periods of unhappiness and happiness, unhappiness and happiness?

Answer: Treat each day as an entire lifetime. Start from zero and end with zero. Give yourself completely during that day.

Question: In other words, live that day as if it were a whole life?

Answer: Yes, that is all. Tomorrow, I will wake up, and it will be a new life.

Question: How can I motivate myself so that from morning until evening I live fully, as though I were living an entire lifetime of 120 years in one day?

Answer: My students obligate me. I feel a sense of fear in front of them. Fear. I am obligated, I owe them. I have no right to leave them as they are. I must push them forward, inspire them. I must constantly awaken them. All of this concerns me deeply.

As for myself, no. I try not to make any calculations concerning myself.

Question: So the task is to give yourself completely?

Answer: The task is that before the morning lesson begins, when I wake up, even before I start preparing for the day, I consider myself already dead. Yes, dead. I need nothing from life except to give everything I have today.

Question: By “dead,” do you mean that I no longer exist? That I have no concern for myself, and that is how I go out into the world?

Answer: Exactly.

Question: So this is how I should start the day and how I should spend it?

Answer: Of course. Then you have a very correct accounting with yourself, with life, and with your students. After that, whatever happens is already in the hands of the Creator.

Question: If we apply this to an ordinary person, can he have the same attitude toward his family and children?

Answer: Absolutely the same. He sets himself aside and gives himself to others, to the world.

Question: To family, to those close to him, and to those far away?

Answer: Yes. Live this way, give yourself. You cannot imagine how good, light, free, and most importantly, how correct it is. But you will constantly be in tension: are you truly giving yourself to them?

Question: Is that a good kind of tension? Is there an element of happiness in it?

Answer: That is happiness.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 6/3/26

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The Hidden Force of the Group

938.04Question: Is there any difference between the general concept of faith and faith above reason?

Answer: It is very difficult to explain the concept of “above reason” before the Machsom. But during the preparation period, it can be explained as follows: a person is not merely present in the group, they must make efforts, annul themself before the friends, and accept what exists in the group above reason.

This means that he wants to be under the influence of friends. In other words, he begins to convince himself that what he hears from them is correct. This is truly “brainwashing.” Rabash writes that habit becomes second nature.

I will say it differently. We are in a group in which there is something revealed and concealed. The concealed forces, unknown to us, are who we truly are; this is already a spiritual force. And the force that is revealed to us is what we see as to how imperfect we still are.

For a person who is in a group and who lowers himself before it, it does not matter what level his friends are at. By convincing himself of being “small,” he receives the influence of the hidden force present in the group. The entire group may not be at a high level of spirituality, but through it, he receives forces from its spiritual root that they themselves have not yet received.

It turns out that a group may consist of twenty people, none of whom are particularly special. But suddenly one of them decides that he wants to be 100% under its influence. Then he is influenced by the group’s inner spiritual force, and even such things, the existence of which the others do not even suspect, nor do they know where they come from.

In other words, do not think that if someone lowers himself before the group, he will receive what everyone else has, or will be corrected to the same extent as everyone else. No, it will be much more than that.

He can attain spirituality by using the force of the group, even if the entire group is still in corporeality. One thing is, in essence, not connected to the other, since what is due to them comes according to their personal work, while what is due to him is according to his personal work. Therefore, let us say that for my personal advancement it is not important what is happening with you. As the saying goes, “I learned from all my students.” Students may be small, yet through them it is possible to gain immense wisdom.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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In a Different Vein

564Question: When you explain the method of unification, you say: “I understand what this is about; I have gone through these states.”

But at the same time, you separate yourself from us, as if the method you went through was completely different.

Answer: The fact is that I do not go through the states of unity together with you because you are going through them in a completely different way. I went through them in individual study, in personal attainment.

You are going through them collectively, as a generation ascending to the Creator together, as a group that will become an example for all humanity. There will no longer be any difference between how you experience this within yourselves and reveal the Creator in the quality of mutual adhesion between you, and how this will later be realized by everyone else.

What I went through cannot be implemented in a group or in humanity as a whole. Therefore, I do not want to confuse you by speaking about it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Gate of Tears” 10/11/10

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When “The Gates of Tears” Open…

165Question: Do you feel absolutely all the stages that your students go through?

Answer: How could it be otherwise? When a child does something, does an adult not understand exactly what he is doing? Of course, I feel and understand it all. Everything below me on the earthly level is absolutely clear to me, except for the animalistic psychology, which can be concealed. And in the spiritual world, all the degrees, are mine.

Comment: When a child asks for something, let’s say, a toy car or a little airplane, he has some prerequisites for it, meaning certain internal things have already formed in him. He is not simply crying, “Wah-wah,” he is still reaching for something. And we are drawn to some abstract form that we cannot perceive at all.

My Response: Yes, that is why you have to turn to the Creator. While striving to attain the abstract form, you should ask Him to take a step toward you. You only need to reach that “wah-wah,” as you say, “bursting out of yourself.”

Very good! This is where the request, which is called “the gate of tears” appears, that I cannot do this myself! And that is all; the Creator will do it. He will give you this quality. No one is saying that you have to attain Him. You must give quantity and quality to the effort required.

Question: What exactly is this request to the Creator? Where does this cry come from?

Answer: From the heart. There is no need to say anything.

After you make many different attempts, a feeling will emerge inside that cannot be expressed in words. It exists in the form of the Psalms of King David. Rabash writes about this in his articles.

The thing is that until you attain this, you let these words pass by you. You have to come to them yourself. And suddenly, you will find yourself speaking in psalms. I am speaking completely seriously. A person who attains this level says exactly what is written.

He suddenly discovers these words within himself. Where did they come from? And where did they come from for King David? He ascended to this level and discovered the combination of vessels and lights in a state that forms precisely these words, such a matrix expressed through his vocal apparatus, through the brain, in such sounds.

Question: Is it like a code on a certain degree?

Answer: Of course. That is, the light acts within the desire. In The Book of Zohar, this is described beautifully! Through the device called the human of our world with his anatomical structure, the feeling is expressed in the form of such images of letters, such sounds. As a result, the person expresses what King David said.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Gate of Tears” 10/11/10

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If You Unite…

938.07Comment: When you disseminate Kabbalah to the masses, what attracts people is your inner message.

My Response: This happens because I have this energy. People sense that there is an upper force in me. They perceive it, even if just slightly, and sense that knowledge, confidence, and inner light.

I am not boasting about it, but I also do not hide that they really sense all of this. In many, it provokes hatred; in others, respect, approval, or admiration. It makes no difference. The main thing is that it exists, and it is not merely the spark of a brilliant orator; after all, I do not speak Hebrew particularly well, and my manner is generally somewhat rough, with a strange, often off-putting sense of humor.

I craft my statements quite deliberately, even pointedly, specifically to shake a person up and make them feel uncomfortable to prompt them to engage their critical left line a bit. People simply recognize there is a profound logic here, not mine, of course.

By the way, by nature I am practically without any innate talents. The only thing speaking through me is what I have attained from my great teacher. Through my connection with him, I pass on to you what he receives from his teacher, and further, through the entire chain of Kabbalists.

I have simply been privileged to serve as a conduit, to “pour,” so to speak, information from myself into the common Kli. To the extent that you unite with one another, I am able to pour all of this into you.

Whether I am here or not does not matter. The absence of visual contact serves to give you the opportunity for even greater freedom of choice to unite with one another. If I am no longer present, it will simply mean that you have been granted an even greater measure of freedom of will, even greater responsibility to unite. And when you can do this, you will receive even more from me, just as I receive much more from my teacher than when he was physically next to me.

It is said that the righteous live more in their death than in their life. And therefore there is no difference whether I exist now or will not exist in your eyes. If you unite among yourselves, you will feel a spiritual abundance pouring into you, specifically from me, in an even greater measure.

When you are ready for the stage of uniting with one another, without me in greater freedom of choice, since there will no longer be my pressure or direct guidance, and you are able to bring this to fruition, then I will depart. From that point on, it will be entirely up to you whether you succeed in realizing this or not.

Question: Do you think that those external circles we are currently disseminating information to will continue to be drawn to this in the same way?

Answer: This depends on the extent to which you become a magnetic force, how much inner strength you possess (the kind I currently hold), and on your capacity serve as a source of that strength for all of humanity. If you remain in contact with me and allow this force to flow into you through me, you will begin to attract all of humanity. But all this must happen collectively, as a single, unified entity.

Question: Is it possible that we might fail to become a unified whole?

Answer: In that case the obligation would be shifted away from you and placed upon some other group; alternatively you could be compelled toward this unity through the path of suffering. You will be made to unite regardless, because this is the natural trajectory of evolution, the inevitable path leading to the revelation of that system, that state that exists in the world of infinity.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. In the Union” 9/11/10

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Creative Pressure

938.03Question: Are there instances when you, as a teacher, find yourself in dissonance with the group, and you tell the students: “You do not understand me,” and they respond that it is you who does not understand them? What does this achieve?

Answer: It leads to clarification of relationships. How could it be otherwise? That is how it must be. Nothing good comes from what is already “good”; it can only emerge from what is difficult or flawed.

Comment: So, as you put it, you need to put pressure on them, much like we put pressure on a child to help him or her develop.

My Response: It depends on what you mean by “pressure.” You must apply pressure creatively; only then will something emerge. You have to constantly introduce different exercises and small challenges, nothing too overwhelming, while offering help, providing explanations, giving gentle nudges, and continuously alternating between the left and right lines.

How else could it be? How do we play with children? Only in this way. They themselves insist on it.

Comment: But you constantly drive the group into a state of stress as you tell them that the whole world is suffering because of them. And they cry out: “So what are we supposed to do? Tell us!”

My Response: This is precisely how they will try to search for something. I cannot simply tell them what must be done, because the process is one of searching. If I just told them, it wouldn’t work; it wouldn’t be accepted, defined, felt, or truly internalized.

Question: But surely you know what needs to be done, don’t you? Do you have some kind of “vaccine” for this? Is it that you simply do not speak about it?

Answer: I have nothing of the sort. Do you think I am hiding something? Do you suppose that Kabbalah can simply be revealed to someone, and that is it? Through what sensations could it be revealed, if a person does not yet possess them? Through what?

Suppose you were supposed to start sensing radio waves. But you cannot. What can I do? If I were to lower radio waves to the level of the sound or light, levels that you can perceive, then you would see and feel them.

But in order to perceive the radio waves themselves, you must rise to that level, you need to develop some kind of sensor within yourself, a receiver that would perceive them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Useless and Worthless People in the Group” 9/26/10

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Why Do We Need the Greatness of the Creator?

234Question: In contrast to the point in the heart, does the “Aviut” (thickness, coarseness) of the desire to receive also grow?

Answer: Naturally, the Aviut of the desire to receive grows opposite the point in the heart. Initially, you connect with this point, while the Aviut, the force of desire, is still concealed.

However, when you begin to sense fulfillment in this point, one that reveals the greatness of the Creator to you, the question of how to handle His greatness arises. Do you need it for the sake of self-enjoyment and comfort or do you view it as a means for further advancement, where you close your eyes, and choose not to see His greatness, but use it exclusively for further spiritual advancement?

If after receiving inspiration you do not go to the group with it but only fill yourself and enjoy it, then immediately a void is revealed within your Kli. A similar phenomenon occurs whenever we fill ourselves for the sake of receiving. I received what I strongly desired, yet I find myself empty once again; the air has escaped, and I am empty once more.

The same thing seems to happen to you in spirituality as well and you begin to feel the emptiness even more than before: You have expanded your Kli, filled it with an awareness of the Creator, only to find yourself emptied of this vast newfound awareness. “Never have I have felt so empty, never have I suffered so intensely! Is this what spiritual advancement is? You ask yourself. “Is this the Torah and is this the reward?”

This happened because you failed to notice that critical moment when you began to derive pleasure from your state rather than using it effectively to further your advancement. Learning to discern this is a very long, difficult, and complicated process. As one learns, one eventually becomes sensitive to this point.

After establishing contact with the Creator, a person is literally at the peak of understanding regarding what one is doing with this connection, whether one using it for one’s own benefit or whether one is truly channeling every awakening, every ascent, and all the strength one has received into further advancement in order to eventually acquire the intention to please the Creator. Basically, throughout our journey in the dark, we study how to sense this point.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/26, Rabash, “What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work?”

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