Question: Is humility the same as belittling yourself? Is there a difference between humility and belittling yourself?

Answer: Humility and humiliation are not the same. However, it is too early for us to analyze this. The main thing for us is to always try to receive what is happening as coming from above, from the Creator, especially when egoism flares up in me and I start getting angry and express discontent.

This means that a person opposes the Creator, essentially saying, “I am dissatisfied with your government.” This is a problem. There is no humility; there is no feeling that the Creator governs everything, that “there is none else besides Him.”

“Well, the Creator controls everything, there is none else besides Him, and I am against Him!” This is a pure manifestation of egoism. Here we must try not to annul the discontent somehow, but to rise above it: “I don’t want it not to be there, otherwise I’ll go down to zero. No! I will rise above it and in this way I will become higher than my ego.”

That is how we need to try to work. I am not talking about more. But it is very important that we start to treat the manifestation of egoism in us that way, The most important thing is to rise above your discontent.

Question: And if I feel that I am angry not at the Creator, but at myself, at my egoism. What should I do?

Answer: If you are angry, then you are dissatisfied with the Creator. That is all.

Then explore yourself and decide what to do. Until you are satisfied with everything that happens, you will not rise above your egoism and you will be only at the level of this world.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/4/19

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Question: How can one effectively use disturbances, the so-called blows, sent by the Creator?

Answer: With love. I understand that these are, as a rule, unpleasant feelings, but we must perceive them purposefully.

To the extent that we can relate with love to the manifestation of the Creator in everything that surrounds us, we will begin to feel that His attitude to everything comes only from love and that there is nothing in the world but love.

What distorts the enormous field of love is only our disparity with this field. Therefore, if someone needs to be corrected in the world, it is only you, and then you will feel the whole world as perfect.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/27/19

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It is written in The Book of Zohar, “VaYechi” 116-117: “Divinity is present only in a whole place, and not in a deficient place or a flawed place or a place of sadness, but in a proper place—a place of joy.”

“Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with singing.” There is no service of the Creator unless out of joy.”

We need to carefully remember these words. A sad person cannot reveal the Creator, cannot connect with friends. It is impossible. Only in joy can one achieve connection and unification.

Everything that leads to unity and filling with light in itself causes joy. It is also necessary to approach it in gladness. After all, “Joy is a reflection of good deeds,” the connection into which the light comes and fills it.

In everyday life it happens the same way; when we meet someone we love, we do not cry and mourn. Only if we hate and cannot stand something do we grieve and suffer. Therefore, checking the correctness of our actions is very simple: is there joy in us?

Of course, this is not the only criterion, because you can commit a crime and viciously rejoice. Joy, however, is a necessary sign of proper spiritual work. If I am joyful, it means that I have already fulfilled one of the conditions for finding the right path.

Good deeds cause joy even when you do not expect it. If I have helped a created being to advance in correction, then there must be joy. As with the friction of two objects heat invariably arises, so is the correct action, correcting the creation, always accompanied by joy. This is a mandatory consequence.

Therefore, it is necessary to start the action of correction with joy, and then check whether it really contributed to correction by whether it caused joy. That is, joy should be both at the entrance and at the exit.

The same check is valid for a group, a ten. We always need to check whether working with friends makes us happy. It is written that “the Torah brings joy.” If we act toward correction, then we must be happy. Joy will radiate from our good deeds.

It is necessary to try to constantly maintain such an inner joy from being in a good world where only the power of the Creator, the good and the Creator of good, rules. The Creator wants all creatures to be joyful and happy, and all the flaws are the result of our laziness, unwillingness to do our work. But in reality, the world should be full of joy, warmth, and love.
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From the Lesson 7 of the World Kabbalah Convention “Day Two” – 2/20/19, “Serve the Creator with Gladness”

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Question: What determines whether the taste of the material illusion will be bitter or sweet? Can you control it?

Answer: It can be controlled only by recognizing that it comes from above, from the Creator, and therefore any bitterness becomes sweetness.

Although in reality, there is nothing sweet in the universe at all. It is evil, it is absolute bitterness, absolute salt, pepper, acid. However, when you start relating these sensations to the Creator, they become imbued with sweetness.

The same bitter, salty, sour, and other similar states become imbued with the sweetness of the Creator and become amazingly tasty! There is no other sweetness like that.

The sweetness of the upper world consists of two opposites that mutually complement each other. It is like in our world: let’s say, there is something sweet and sour. For example, brandy or vodka is added to chocolate. Without it, it is impossible, it will not work. There must be something like that or you will not feel the taste.

Question: Or the sweetness from receiving the Oscar award or the Nobel Prize in our world?

Answer: No, those are completely different types of sweetness that are added because people suffer. After all, they still invest effort.

Remark: Indeed, when I was receiving the Israeli Oscar, I took the statuette in my hands and I felt that all my pleasure was leaving. Going away. It was like I had never had desire for anything. One moment, and it all faded.

My Comment: Sic transit gloria mundi! “Thus passes the glory of the world!”
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/20/19

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Question: How are the nine months of intrauterine human development connected to the development of the soul?

Answer: Absolutely clearly. If you take The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it’s 10th part is called “Embryo” and the 11th part, “Suckling.” It speaks not about the human being, but about the soul that originates in the spiritual system called “Father and Mather.” And what occurs in our world is a copy of the spiritual birth.

It is very interesting to read about this because it is described clearly there, in more powerful details than what we know from our life. The science of Kabbalah talks about things that we are not able to discover in our world.

We know how a person is conceived, how he is born, how a fetus develops, but we do not understand the internal processes. We do not understand the essence, the source of why it is arranged this way and not otherwise. What is in a woman is a very interesting system, similar to the Creator.

Remark: It is interesting that Kabbalists wrote about it 3,500 years ago.

My Comment: They wrote it from the attainment of the upper system. Therefore, they explained how a fetus develops, for how long: seven, nine, or 12 months. There were instances when women gave birth even at 12 months.

Kabbalists wrote how to give birth, how and under what conditions, how a person should develop when he is born, that a period of suckling is possible up to two years of age, how a woman should behave after giving birth to recover faster, etc. These books contain an enormous amount of information. It is worth studying this science.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 12/30/18

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Question: What states, earthly pleasures, and sufferings did you personally undergo before you revealed the Creator?

Answer: I went through a lot of things. You will too. It is the same for everyone.

Question: Did you feel emptiness or depression?

Answer: How can they not be felt if these are necessary states even before receiving any knowledge? You have to feel that you lack this knowledge, do not understand something, and are in a confused state.

It is the same with spiritual attainment. Before you reveal something spiritual, you must feel like you do not understand anything, you are in some kind of prostration. It seems to you that you will never achieve what you desire and that all your studies are absolutely useless, aimless, and stupid. You start cursing both yourself and me, all of us.

Then this state changes. A new day comes, a new light, and everything manifests in a new way, only at a higher level.

Each time darkness and light rotate, night and day, until you accumulate enough impressions that turn into a constant sensation—knowledge.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/23/18

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Question: How do you see the future development of the world 15 years from now? What will come to the forefront? What is Israel’s role in it?

Answer: The desirable path of development is the awareness of the Israeli people, together with our groups in the world, and the so-called progressive humanity that the most important thing is to unite and to show the world an example of unity.

When we manage to unite with each other at least a little bit, then the upper light will pass through us and it will be felt at all levels of humanity. People will feel that real life and the possibility of progressing to the next stage of development, exiting to a new level of existence, is in unity.

Being in this corporeal world, we will at the same time begin to penetrate into higher matter, into higher existence, into those areas where not our brain operates, but the commands that control it.

I hope very much that we will begin to feel this in the coming years. It is at our doorstep, but it depends on us how much we will be ready to adapt this knowledge and sensations.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/13/19

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Question: If the desire to receive is our basis, then what is the quality of bestowal and how can it be separated from the desire to receive?

Answer: We have only one quality—to receive, to enjoy, to feel everything in yourself, in your egoism. We cannot even imagine what it means to feel not in our quality. How can this be? Where do I feel?

Therefore, a completely new quality, feeling, sensation, which is opposite to our nature, is being built over us, and it can be built only with the help of the upper light. We must do everything we can to attract the light, to somehow direct it toward ourselves, to get closer to it. That’s what we do.

If I try to directly experience the upper light myself, then I will fail. I would be dealing with mysticism, slander, conventions, maybe religious attributes. If I really want to start feeling the upper world, then this requires an upper force. I need to clearly address the Creator and demand from Him, and this is possible only if we turn to Him together.

I can study for many years Talmud Eser Sefirot or Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (Pticha), but if I will not be directed through the group to the Creator, I will fail.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 4/4/19

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Question: The role of the teacher is very important in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.
What is a Kabbalah teacher?

Answer: First of all, it is the one who has received knowledge from a recognized Kabbalist. Second, he teaches from original sources. Third, he does not attract attention to his personality. And fourth, he directs everyone to the revelation of the Creator.

Question: What is the interaction between the student and the teacher?

Answer: The interaction depends on the student, not on the teacher. The teacher can help the student in everything that can benefit him. However, he completely detaches himself from interfering with the inner world of the student, thus teaching him to become self-attaining.

On one hand, there is a constant concern for the development and care of the student. But the teacher always keeps a certain distance from the student in order to give him a feeling of freewill, freedom of action, freedom of decisions, and so on, because no one can be a substitute for student’s independent progress.

Question: What is the difference between a Kabbalah teacher and a teacher of other disciplines?

Answer: A Kabbalah teacher does not teach as much as he gives the student advice how, by changing himself, he can reveal what he needs to attain. What student comprehends is his, not the teacher’s attainment.

He goes along a certain path, constantly developing his inner properties, his soul, and achieves even greater revelation of the Creator. This is purely his personal achievement. Therefore, the teacher here is just an external, helping source.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah”, 11/20/18

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Question: What does it mean to carry out commandments?

Answer: Carrying out commandments means carrying out the conditions of our interconnectedness, the connection between us.

Being connected to each other in the single system of Adam is a commandment.

Although this system consists of egoistic desires, by building altruistic connections between its parts, it becomes similar to the Creator, the quality of bestowal, which is revealed precisely in it to the extent that it becomes giving—first on the zero egoistic level, then on the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth levels. Then the Creator appears in the form of the light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian of 11/25/18

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