Question: You constantly say that the group is the most important thing we should focus on. But at the same time, you’ve mentioned that you didn’t have a group. How were you able to overcome that and make progress without it?

Answer: Everyone has their own path, and often we don’t even understand why things happen to us the way they do. For each person, it’s very individual both internally and externally. That’s fate. This is how I was led to the study of Kabbalah, and this is how I continue to be guided.

Is it really me doing or creating anything today? Absolutely not. When someone says the name “Michael Laitman,” I don’t associate myself with it at all! It feels like I’m nameless.

When I’m introduced as a doctor, philosopher, Kabbalist, or head of Bnei Baruch, it feels like that’s the title of someone else. It’s as if I put on a robe, sit in an important chair, and lead from there. Then I move over here and sit in my “pajamas.” Because these are completely different people. Completely different!

Comment: But you have only one mind.

My Response: I’m not talking about that, but about the role I have to play. I know that I’m compelled to do it, that I’m being driven to it, it’s necessary, and I do it. I agree with it, I’m grateful for it because I understand its importance and, essentially, I know that I need it.

This is the case for many people in the world who hold significant positions. A person can’t just leave it behind; the role obligates them. Any major leader would probably love to escape to a village somewhere, relax, and just be themselves for a while. And if we’re talking about a mother of a large family, she knows she’s obligated to do what she does for the sake of her children.

I simply feel my duty. And beyond that, I feel an obligation from above, not just on a corporeal level, where someone appoints you and that’s it. In the same way, I was led to Rabash, and that’s exactly how he related to me.

One of my friends who studied with Rabash once recalled going to the sea with him and asking why he treated Laitman the way he did. Rabash replied, “That’s his soul. It makes me relate to him this way.” I didn’t even know or imagine that he would say something like that to others.

So, it’s a role, not some sort of privilege, a role imposed on a person based on the root of their soul so that they fulfill it within the general system. It may be important or not important relative to others, but that doesn’t matter. It’s simply a role.

We can talk about the importance of parents in relation to their children. But fundamentally, their importance lies in the fact that they are obligated to care for their children, not in the fact that they are bigger, stronger, or smarter. On the contrary, they are obliged to do everything to serve their children. The same goes for me.

You might say, “But there’s also vanity and self-importance.” If that’s the case, then a person loses everything. Because when fulfilling a role assigned by the Creator, ultimately doing His work, if a person seeks personal satisfaction, power, or vanity instead of asking for spiritual elevation, the quality of bestowal, they miss the point entirely.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Your Way” 5/29/10

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Question: How can one find the spiritual image to which they can nullify themselves?

Answer: I cannot even say. It simply arises, that is all. It is the result of the influence of the upper light.

There is nothing to invent here. You do not need to imagine anything. There are no fantasies or meditations, no fairy-tale notions. You simply have to wait until the upper light creates a clear inner vision in you when you begin to understand that in all people, it is their soul that speaks, and they are all connected through it into one unified whole.

Let’s say there is a pot of soup in front of you. You can scoop out a spoonful, a second, a third, but each spoonful is part of the same soup. You separated it out.

I see one person, another, a third… I can distinguish them in some way from this “soup,” from the collective soul, but in essence, they are absolutely united within it. And it is only my “spoon” that separates them: this one is Vladek, that one is Grisha, Misha, Vova, and so on. But in reality, this separation does not exist, it is only relative to my “spoon.”

Question: You say that by humbling oneself before one’s friends during study, one can attract the light. Will this reveal the feeling of separation to me?

Answer: On the contrary, I will see the common bond between friends, that it is one single soul.

I do not see them as faces or even as separate individuals. I see their unity, something like a “pot of soup.”

Question: But you have many students. Over time, do you not see their distinct images?

Answer: No, I do not scan them. Not at all! I do not remember faces, and names even less.

Maybe I remember 30 to 40 names, and even that is unlikely because for me, a person is not associated with their name or face, with any external factors. I simply see them; they are inside together with the others, they wish to be with them, they strive for this.

In essence, all people are together, we are all one unified soul, one single “soup.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Image in the Spiritual” 6/2/10

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Question: How do you yourself receive light through the group? Let’s say we have to nullify ourselves toward our friends. How does this happen to you?

Answer: I also have to nullify myself internally toward the group.

Comment: But you have a completely different process of nullification since you feel and know the spiritual system.

My Response: It doesn’t matter. I still nullify myself before them, that is, before that spiritual image, before the appearance, before the spiritual vessel, that my students represent.

In fact, they are internally connected to each other into one single whole, very powerful, infinite, and perfect. I nullify myself in relation to this internal unity.

Their connection, their love, the fact that the Creator wishes to see them this way and holds them at this level, I feel all of this within my friends, within the group, and, you could say, within all of humanity.

Although it is a bit harder to imagine, in essence, this is the case. Otherwise, we cannot connect with the collective soul, the place where the Creator resides.

I do not nullify myself in relation to each of these individuals based on their external traits. They may be small, beginners, or egoists. I nullify myself not before their outward expressions, but in relation to the inner divine desire and fulfillment that exists within each of them, within every person in the world. But they are unaware of this.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Light Through the Group” 6/1/10

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No one in the world is ready to hear Kabbalistic information. Everyone wants to hear information about how to get something, not information on how to give. The fact is that we are built in such a way that we are only ready to receive. “Give away? First of all, I have nothing to give. Second, who should I give it to?”

That is, Kabbalah is entirely different information. It is perceived in the reflected light, in the desire to give, in the desire to love. When such a desire arises, this information enters you and you open up. Otherwise, you are closed up.

To the extent the desire to be connected with others, to love them, and to give them comes from you, to this extent the light from all of them enters precisely into this desire of yours. How can a beginner have such a desire?

Comment: But you give such interesting lessons to the beginners, you find such expressions, such explanations.

My Response: It depends on the audience. Sometimes I hear something interesting and know how to work with it. But this happens very rarely. As a rule, this happens right at the lesson, when I see people, feel them, and according to this have appropriate associations.

Comment: You say that everything depends on the audience you communicate with. For beginners you give one thing, and for others you give another, but you still feel the desire.

My Response: I cannot help it. That is for sure. I cannot sit before beginners and give them complex information and vice versa. That is why the lessons are different. It is not I who determines this but the students.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Feel the consumer” 9/9/10
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In spiritual work, the group is absolutely essential for everyone because it is the instrument with which we reveal the Creator. The Creator is attained only through the connection between souls.

And the group in our world is the embodiment of such connection. In a group, we can learn how to interact with one another despite egoism.

This is the most unnatural work for a human being! It is the most dreadful activity you could ever come up with—trying mechanically to love, to participate in lessons and events, and to constantly interact. But there is no way around it.

Question: Are the people you work with also a group for you?

Answer: For me, the group consists of practically all my students from all over the world who take part in lessons, read my blog, and are with me.

Question: Do they help in your advancement?

Answer: Of course, I relate to them like a mother who feeds her children and derives pleasure from it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Importance of the Group” 5/30/10

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Question: Every morning, you give three hours of lessons, and throughout the day you record a vast amount of material. Some people think that when you receive energy through a crowd, you enjoy it, feel empowered, and rule over it.

Is it really possible to structure your schedule so that you enjoy yourself every day by supposedly channeling energy through yourself?

Answer: In truth, it is an immense pleasure to see thousands of people in front of me who want to reveal the upper world, spirituality, and the Creator, who want to unite and correct our state. I gain tremendous inspiration from this.

At the same time, when I look at my students on the screens in front of me, I see that some of them doze off, fall asleep, or are in various difficult states, disconnected from the material being taught.

Of course, I understand and love them. I was like that myself. Many times I wanted the same thing during lessons.

I absolutely do not want to say that every day, by giving lessons, I am making a sacrifice. Not at all! I feel immense inspiration and significance in these lessons because I know what they do for the world.

I know that thousands of people live around these lessons, that they are a source of energy for them. Without them, they would feel bad, would be unable to find themselves, would get stuck in depression, and would never think about the Creator. Life would feel heavy for them.

I am proud and grateful for the opportunity I have. And of course, the strength for this comes from above.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Energy of the Crowd” 5/27/10

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Question: If a person leaves during the study of The Book of Zohar, for example, to disseminate, does he miss out by doing so?

Answer: No. If he feels The Zohar is not for him, if he is entirely out of touch with this book, every minute of the lesson feels like immense suffering, and he is not awaiting any result, there is nothing you can do here! It is said “a person learns where his heart leads him.” That is why you cannot learn like that.

I would advise such people, for their sake, to do something else—to work on our materials or to engage in dissemination during this time.

Question: Would people not run away?

Answer: I am not concerned about that. I am not worried about the number of students: who comes or leaves, it does not matter to me. Let it be 15 people instead of 300. I do not chase quantity.

I know humanity will follow a small group anyway. It will have no other choice. But this small group will be a high-quality, valuable group. And there is no quality in quantity, so I never look at quantity.

My mission is to create spiritual leadership for the world. This is work on the quality of the people who will be part of this group, and it is gradually being organized. The women there will be on equal footing with men. However, “on equal footing” is relative; it depends on a woman’s involvement in spiritual work, in her own way.

And then various waves, so to speak, or circles, will form around this group. These 300 people will form such circles out of tens of thousands of people in the world until they come to the point where all of humanity will gradually join them. But the most important is the head and a few auxiliary circles around it.

Therefore I do not mind that not everyone studies The Book of Zohar, and not all are so deeply immersed in it. They are not able to. A few dozen people are enough. There is no need for more!

In fact, the brain that controls the body is like a tiny nut, not a pound of gray matter. The gray matter is the maintenance staff, the center’s workers. The cognitive center is literally the size of an olive, even smaller. And it controls the entire body.

So I am not worried about the quantity. We have free entry and exit, and there are no restrictions. People come from abroad and go back. Who, when, or where does not concern me at all! I do my part. As a result, the light affects the person, and thus he comes to the goal.

Comment: This is like a drug. “Please! Everything is free!” And once a person gets hooked, he can no longer leave.

My Response: That is a different story! You feel the importance here! You feel that without it the rest of your life is an animal existence. You cannot let this happen! After all, you want to be a human being. We have inner needs to accomplish something, to find a way out of our lives, to see a healthy result.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Resistance to The Zohar” 3/20/10

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Comment: Every day, you record a significant amount of video and audio material.

My Response: I cannot do otherwise; I have to produce it. The task of organizing this material will fall to my students in the future. Even now, however, the material is gradually being structured, and forms various messages and programs.

I always aim to provide the most I can for the present moment. It is not possible to rush ahead since people would not be able to understand me. I do not create for “someday” or for things to remain unused; I share my work with those who are capable of applying it today. Tomorrow others will come and join today’s students, and the process will continue.

Although time is limited, ideally we would revisit all our materials each year, and adapt them to the new wave, the new state, and the new degree we have reached. But even if we do not revisit everything, the outcome is the same. People establish a foundation and over time are able to reinterpret earlier knowledge in light of their new understanding.

Question: Does that mean that this knowledge will be useful regardless?

Answer: Undoubtedly. Additionally, we are moving back toward an eternal, perfect spiritual system where every effort we contribute becomes a permanent part of it. In other words, what I produce today, even if no one in the world hears it, still enters this system, remains there, and is assimilated by humanity in this world.

It becomes a part of humanity’s collective knowledge, which makes it easier for future generations to connect with it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Spiritual Information” 4/17/10

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Question: When I study and read sources myself, I do not understand anything at all. But now when you read them and we go through them together, they are perceived in a completely different way.

Answer: Of course. That is exactly why I am here. Without explanations you would not understand anything. Millions of people can read these sources and still understand nothing. Additionally, there is an internal, emotional, spiritual transmission from teacher to student.

However, your preliminary work with the sources is still beneficial because you familiarize yourself with them directly through your own feelings and perception.

Now you see how it can all be explained from the next degree. I explain things just one degree above where you currently are, no more, and I try not to overcomplicate it. On the contrary, I try to break it down for you and serve it like baby food on a spoon.

But even if you put in effort without understanding anything, that effort becomes the desire into which you later receive light, revelation, and understanding. So it is not in vain.

For example, before attending Rabash’s lessons, I used to read The Study of the Ten Sefirot and other sources. Questions would arise, and I would write them down and dig into them to develop some analytical ability that would allow me to absorb more from my teacher.

In other words, it is not about understanding, but being prepared to understand what the teacher will say. That you hear things differently from your teacher is a good thing. That is how it should be.

At the next degree, everything becomes simpler and simpler still. And the simplest of all is the simple upper light.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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Question: How is the ability to disclose the materials we are studying connected to the ability to pass it on?

Answer: The ability to disclose the material comes to a Kabbalist when he has students who are willing to receive from him.

If there are no such students… There have been times when Kabbalists lived without passing on their knowledge to anyone. That is very difficult.

Question: We are currently in a stage of preparation for a convention and are working toward revealing some new quality or degree within us, such as Lishma. Is this connected to what we convey to others or only to our internal work?

Answer: Certainly these things are necessarily related because the wisdom of Kabbalah comes from the word “transmission.” When people from the beginning of creation to its end have passed on to each other everything that they can reveal in a given period of history, then it happens.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

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