Question: How are you able to perform your function and at the same time rely on the Creator, meaning, advance as if by yourself and in parallel with the Creator?

Answer: And how can I perform my function if I don’t rely on the Creator? Where does my strength, knowledge, and opportunities come from? Where do I get the confidence that what I am doing will work? This is only to the extent that I am connected with Him.

Comment: Once you gave an example that Rabash, without relying on anyone went into a bomb shelter during a bombing.

My Response: But this is not because he did not rely on the Creator, but because it is necessary to act as all the people do

Comment: Often there is a feeling as if you are under the shield of the Creator, that there is some kind of protection.

My Response: You don’t have any protection. It can only be to the extent that you are connected with the Creator. And even with this protection, you can’t rely on it anyway. You should only be tied to Him. And what will happen to you, you should not think about it.

No matter what state you are in, think not about protection, but about how to be more tied to Him. Because bombs falling on you  are made to help you get even more correctly attached to the Creator, not out of fear!

And constantly thank the Creator for sending to you all these states because they help you get closer to Him by giving an example that you need to be in this form in both your best states and in the worst.

Question: But Rabash could not have climbed down to the bomb shelter. Could he observe and think about the Creator?

Answer: It cannot be understood. And yes and no. He had to act like everyone else. This is not a game. Actually, this also shows the quality of bestowal. I can’t express it in words.

The ordinary human mind cannot combine two opposite forces, opposite qualities, and states and see them as one.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Rely on the Creator?” 6/28/13

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Question: If a student did not cross the Machsom (Barrier) during the teacher’s lifetime, what are the chances of crossing it later? Should he do it during the teacher’s lifetime?

Answer: Of course it is desirable. But this can be done only through similarity of qualities, which means dedication to the path, “adhesion” to the teacher, following all his advice, and on how much the teacher is more important in his eyes than he is himself. In other words, it is just a training relative to the Creator.

There are many students who are very capable, very eager to attain spirituality, but for them the importance of something of their own prevails over the importance of what the teacher requires or what would be necessary for the teacher.

Let’s say if someone wrote something unpleasant about you and about the teacher, what will you perceive with more pain? Will you defend his honor or yours? How will you perform, with what diligence?

Comment: But it depends on the different stages of a person’s development.

My Response: Undoubtedly, of course! But you are asking if it is possible to cross the Machsom before the death of the teacher. I do not know. This is a student’s problem. In any case, after death it takes much longer.

Question: But then who will take him across the Machsom if not the teacher?

Answer: The same teacher, only in a different form. If the student could not take advantage of his immediate presence next to him, he will have to look for him in a different form around him. Just as he looks for the Creator.

Question: Can there be anyone else besides the teacher?

Answer: No, nobody! Not something that is materialized. The same teacher, only in a different form, and not a person.

Comment: But if there is, as you say, a chain, you go after Rabash…

My Response: Then it must be a person who has already passed the upper path. How can you put someone who is at the same level as the students? To put one of them above them? On what basis?

Question: You are the degree we have to hold on to. But if you are gone, in what form can we do it?

Answer: If you do not discover this form, then, of course, it is bad. Then you will move forward in a very long way, using the “trial and error” method.

If a student has not entered the spiritual world for fifteen or twenty years while being with me, then he will need the same number of years more in order to enter it without me.

Question: How was it with you and Rabash?

Answer: I took everything I needed from Rabash. I was relying only on the fact that I was next to him. Then there was a lengthy method of going deeper into the same mutual connections that we had established before his death.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spirituality During the Lifetime of the Teacher” 7/8/13

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The departure from this world of a great sage, teacher, and spiritual mentor is a special day. After all, he rises another degree higher and shows us that we should follow him.

We see that each of the great Kabbalists has taken a step forward in his own special way and brought the science of Kabbalah, the revelation of the Creator, the methodology, understanding, feeling, merging with the Creator and unity closer to people.

I think Rabash took the last step after everyone. He stands on the shoulders of all Kabbalists who lived before him, from Rabbi Akiva onwards, to Ari, Ramhal, and Baal Shem Tov. Rabash summed up everything they discovered for humanity, and he gave us this methodology in a ready, sorted form, which we can use and implement.

We need to hold on to the instructions for spiritual work he left as stated in his articles. Rabash did not want to go beyond the inner work of man in his explanations. He does not engage in philosophical or historical clarification and does not discuss the general development of mankind. He was very wary of presenting himself as a great Kabbalist, like Baal HaSulam, Ari, and Ramhal, and he tried modestly to keep a low profile. And so it went on throughout his life.

We have yet to reveal the essence of his contribution and his true height, and to see who our teacher really was.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/30/22, “Rabash Memorial Day (Yahrzeit)”

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Question: In one of the articles we studied, it was said that it is safest to be in a society that has nothing to do with your views at all. But from the point of view of Kabbalah, we can receive the importance of the goal most of all from people who are close in spirit, and at the same time, you can get more harm from them, you can literally move a millimeter away and that is it. You said that a person could learn from Baal HaSulam, but at the same time he could literally harm a new student.

Here, we have two sides at once: both the importance of the goal and the poison that can turn everything upside down. How can one protect oneself from the poison?

Answer: I think that today my students are definitely not in danger. On the contrary, I see that those students who used to be quite dangerous because they could go astray and even drag some more friends along with them are different today.

We have organized a serious, strong group, a spiritual association that already holds them together, and they represent a single structure. I do not think that, at least for now, it can be destroyed. I hope that after me it will not collapse and the world will have a need for them.

We are moving at a very fast pace to a state where the world will no longer have any ability to lead and the ability to somehow keep itself at least at some level. Yet this group will be able to show it how to go forward. In a state of absolute lack of understanding, helplessness, and confusion of humanity, it will firmly set an example, and this will be very necessary for the world.

Question: You stress all the time that we need to show each other the importance of the goal and not in any case show a sour face. But what if someone says something kind of nasty that goes through the network inside the system itself?

Answer: I think that there are many departments for this, working with the masses and so on. In general, the system will hold itself. It is all in the hands of upper forces. I am doing my job, I have nothing to worry about. I build what I can, and then…

We are all parts of the system that leads us to the goal. My task is to teach people to go to it faster and easier for the correct connection with the upper force, and to enjoy the fact that you bring contentment to It.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Poison or Medicine” 6/28/13

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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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Question: What is the difference between cynicism and humor where someone mocks others and goads them?

Answer: Humor, satire, cynicism, and sarcasm are various manifestations of a person’s attitude to his own or to the common existence.

Humor, as a rule, does not indicate personality. Humor is good. It speaks about the general structure of the world, humanity, and people, which must be perceived as given to us from above. That is, such is nature and that is it. Humor does not aim to eradicate some phenomenon in character or in anything. It simply states: this is what we live with.

And satire is aimed at eradicating shortcomings. In addition to it, there are also exaggerations: sarcasm, criticism, and all kinds of ambiguity.

Question: But sometimes you tease some students, even bring them to tears. Do you somehow measure when it needs to be done?

Answer: I feel that this is necessary, and often I do this in order, on the contrary, to remove something negative, to soften it, to turn it around a little.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Humor Will Save the World” 5/20/13

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Comment: Sometimes what you said yesterday seemed like it was the most important to us. But then soon after, you are already attaching importance to another process, then the next one, and so non-stop. Then it seems: “Where do we go”?

My Response: This is because a person who is at the beginning of the path is confused by this.

Let’s say we are walking along the road with you and I give you all sorts of instructions: “Think about the goal, take a wider step, take a deeper breath, swing your arms wider.” For you it looks like they cancel one another, but in my mind it does not.

A person feels and hears what he is able to perceive from all the information. This is how we are arranged, otherwise we simply would not be able to do anything. In this way at least we do what we hear.

Comment: Many of those who come to Kabbalah think in a standard way. Let’s say we have chosen a direction, as in business and we are going toward the goal, then we begin to face a process in which it’s not the final profit that is important, but the process itself. A person begins to get confused and thinks that they themselves do not understand what they are doing, meaning there is no clear corporeal framework.

My Response: Yes. This is why a person chooses something narrow for himself and holds onto it, like a little child to his toy or doll, and thus continues to go. This is natural for beginners.

I see it and wait for the person to develop. There is nothing you can do, as this is how we grow.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Contradiction” 3/20/13

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Question: Your blog says that a Klipa is a simulator for studying truth and lie. It shows us all kinds of errors and inaccuracies. Can you explain with an example how to receive spiritual knowledge from one’s mistakes?

Answer: If we really want to reach knowledge of the inner nature, to find out how it works and how we interact with it, then we are approaching a state where all our thoughts and feelings are against ourselves.

That is, we begin to feel and understand that our earthly egoistic qualities hinder us. We are locked in them and cannot break out of them.

What can we do in order to rise above them and not feel the world around us distorted in our egoistic qualities, but rather to feel it in the form in which it exists by itself?

We try to somehow break the shell we are in and go beyond its limits. This is the task of a Kabbalist.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/21/22

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Question: When you are asked a question, you answer according to the following principle: first you answer once, and, inside the same answer, a second time. Why is the answer arranged like that?

Answer: Because first I have to answer the question itself, and the second time I have to answer in general where this phenomenon comes from, why it exists, in what form it takes place, and so on. That is, I don’t just want to answer the question, I want to give a general form of what kind of natural phenomenon it is.

Question: So you are not doing this because the person did not hear the first time and he needs you to explain the second time?

Answer: No. I don’t refer the question to a person at all. I look at the question as an opportunity to reveal some greater part of the spiritual world or the connections of the worlds.

Comment: It happens that you are asked a question and you answer as if you are on your own wave. The student says, “No, I meant this!” and still you keep going on your wave, and the others think: “Oh! You answered his question!”

My Response: I’m actually answering his question; he just doesn’t hear it. I’m not going somewhere to the side, but I just want him to see it from my side. Otherwise he won’t understand the answer.

Question: So you need to find a workaround, not a direct one?

Answer: This is not a workaround. I believe that my path is the most direct and general. I give both a linear path to the answer and a circular one, which generally includes the whole general problem and its specific solution.

Therefore I have two approaches: I always outline the general state and a specific answer.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Ask a Kabbalist a Question?” 3/6/13

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Question: How is a question formed? Where does it come from? Is the person who asks you a question just an irritant that allows you to give out information?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How should one prepare for this? How can you ask a question correctly?

Answer: The question, in fact, is to cling to me and make me want to lift the person who asks the question up like a child who runs up to an adult and asks to be held in his arms. This is the real question, and all the rest is nonsense.

Comment: I noticed that there are two types of people. The first type is when a person wants to hear from you something specific: “No, I am asking him this!” And there are people who understand and as if follow your flow. You start answering, and the person possibly had another question in addition. But he sees that you are now revealing this topic better, and he supports it rather than standing his ground.

My Response: These are big problems because we have a large number of people who want to hear, who are perhaps tuned in to a completely different wave. Then someone breaks into a general conversation and begins with his personal questions or with something he imagined to lead everyone somewhere to the side.

In this case, I try to react either harshly or not at all because it is important for me to maintain a common spirit so that people continue to ride together and rise. Therefore, if someone asks some questions from the outside, I can cut him off and that is it.

For me, the main thing is that the general flow is observed.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Ask a Kabbalist a Question?” 3/6/13

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