Question: What awakens a desire? For a Kabbalist, what determines if it will be realized and in what form?

Answer: Desires are awakened by the upper Light, or the Creator who acts upon us with greater or lesser intensity. Accordingly, more or fewer desires appear in me.

Desire is common, but the light itself, acting on us, outlines in each of us the desires of the inanimate, plant, animal, and human levels. I then begin to feel myself on all these levels.

This includes every kind of desire, from the lowest to the highest, because everything comes from the same source.

Question: What gives strength to a desire?

Answer: The intensity of the Light that descends upon it.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/13/18

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Question from Facebook: Forgive me, but I have a feeling that you are engaged in schizophrenia and call it “faith above reason.” How is it possible to be in this world and see what I see, and at the same time to be in the other world and see what I do not see?

Answer: Schizophrenia is when I see something else besides this world.

We are talking about dividing the perception of everything within me into two parts: things that are happening within me and the force that projects, creates, and arranges all this within me, that is, plays with me. I see the world divided into two parts: the internal and the external, or the lower and the upper.

I am also divided into those two parts and therefore from within myself I see this world as such. One of these parts is my egoistic part, the desire to receive. The second, altruistic part, created by me as a result of studying Kabbalah, is the desire to bring contentment, to give to someone outside of me, through all the creatures, to the Creator. I consist of these two parts.

Comment: Everyone is confused by your statement that while we are on the first level, we are also on the second level.

My Comment: Certainly. This is written in all Kabbalistic books, starting from Adam, meaning almost six thousand years ago. So, this “disease” is neglected and must be investigated.

I invite everybody to explore it and to discover that we are not spiritual schizophrenics, that we are so ill because we are only in one world—ours, the worst one. Not knowing the upper world, its purpose, the forces that control us, where they lead us, and what they want from us, we, like blind kittens, suffer without any subsequent desirable states.

Question: Is it also because we deny the second level?

Answer: Yes. Do not reject it immediately at its root. We should study and see how realistic this is.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/14/18

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Question: Must I recognize the system of supervision and the reason for reward and punishment?

Answer: Certainly. This is what we discover in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Without knowing this system and its implementation, we cannot attain the
end of correction.

Question: What is the material the soul is built from?

Answer: The material of the soul is built from the desire to receive. It is all that the Creator created. The Creator’s quality is bestowal and the created being’s quality is reception.

Question: If the entire world, the others, and the Creator are inside me, does this mean that I am always working for my own sake?

Answer: That’s right.

Question: How can a soul be both simultaneously like a creature and like a part of the Creator?

Answer: The soul can be a part of the Creator within the creature.

Question: What is the best food for the soul? How often do you need to “feed” it so that it will grow to be healthy and strong?

Answer: We constantly need to “feed” the soul, and this is implemented only through greater and greater closeness to the Creator and unity with others.

Question: Are there mountains in spirituality?

Answer: Yes, doubts and obstacles are all called “mountains” in spirituality.

Question: Is there no good or evil, men or women, but a combination of characteristics in a soul that is equal to the Creator?

Answer: In our world we say that life is a manner of existence of protein matter. Everything is just protein and various forms of its existence. In contrast to this, in the wisdom of Kabbalah we come to a more universal and common denominator.

Question: What is the difference between a person who feels the Creator within himself and a person who feels the Creator from the outside? Is the difference that one receives without an intention and the other receives in order to give contentment to the Creator?

Answer: No. There is Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) and Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light). Therefore, everything is perceived in a this form like this. But, in principle, everything should be felt as the inner Light that fills you. This will happen gradually.

Question: Today each one of us can travel the world. Can a Kabbalist also travel within his inner desires?

Answer: A Kabbalist, by traveling in his desires, travels not only in this world, but also in all the worlds.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/15/18

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Baal HaSulam’s Yahrzeit [ed. the anniversary of Baal HaSulam’s passing] is a special day of remembrance and gratitude to a very special and exalted soul who descended to this world as a messenger of the Creator to open a path for us, an entrance to the upper world, so that we can reach it here, during our lifetime.

Baal HaSulam did so much in order to bridge our corporeal Kli (vessel) and the spiritual one, which lets us connect with it, and through it reach connection with the Creator. He paved a very long and special path, just like the Baal Shem Tov and the Ari did in their times. We are incapable of fully appreciating what this soul did.

Ultimately, we should be thankful to the Creator for sending us such a soul, such tremendous help. When we learn from the books of Baal HaSulam and approach the goal with his help, we must appreciate, thank, honor, and love this extraordinary person, this special tool that creates a connection between us, those who are below and those who are above.

We should be so proud of this honor and take on even more commitments to be worthy of connection with such a soul. We are unable to realize his contribution to us and its power, but still, we must love him, as children love their parents. So we must draw near and cling to this soul, which opened the passage to the Creator in our time. We would stand no chance without him.

There were many Kabbalists before, but in our time, there is no other method that allows, in practice, for the revelation of the Creator and becoming His partners, supporters in His work with creation. Thanks to Baal HaSulam, we are able with our small souls to facilitate his ascent, and along with him, our own. We were honored to receive an invitation, a pass to the upper world, and the choice is in our hands.

A mere two hundred years ago it was impossible to conceive that completely secular people like us, without any preparation or connection with the Torah, could have any chance of approaching spirituality. Then came the soul of Baal HaSulam and opened a passage for us, and now we can pass through this tunnel just because of our pure desire.

The most important thing is the desire. It doesn’t matter that a person has sunken low in the corporeal sense, it has no relevance in spirituality. If you look over the Machsom into the spiritual world, you will see the person as though through an x-ray: no meat or fat, just the bones, which is the essence. And according to that essence, according to our desire, we are accepted into spirituality.

I am so happy that there are so many people with us around the world that yearn according to their inner essence toward the truth, and in line with their desire are ready, through the method of Baal HaSulam, to cross that path and reach perfection.

The key to this is very simple: our unity. We advance to the extent that we unite; with each move toward unity we take another step in our advancement. This tunnel puts constant pressure on us, it squeezes us and forces us to connect even more tightly to the point of passing through the eye of a needle. The secret of our success lies exclusively in our unity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson, “Yahrzeit Baal Sulam”, 9/19/18

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Question: Is the role of the created being to develop the desires given to him by the Creator? What free actions does the created being have in relation to the desires that we reveal during our lifetime?

Answer: We can control all our desires but only if we begin directing them for the benefit of everyone else, outside of us. Otherwise, we will be like ordinary people.

In principle, the method of Kabbalah is very simple, but it is hard to master it because we have to act contrary to our current qualities, which means applying all our desires for bestowal, for good, and for connection with others, then we will be able to control them with the help of the upper Light. Otherwise, they will control us the way it is now.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/13/18

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Question: How can one learn to listen to oneself and others and not just hear? After all, this quality will only improve relationships between people.

Answer: This requires an inner contact—a contact of the hearts. Once you desire to fulfill each other, you will be able to listen to each other.

And so people do not listen to nor see each other. They create a certain reality within themselves and treat it as a person who is actually outside of them. We do not see those who are outside of us; we see everything that is built by our egoism within us.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/29/18

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Question: Why is it that specifically due to the shattering one comes to understand the Creator?

Answer: Only after the shattering, from our broken desires, can we understand the Creator, because we have no choice. See how we perceive physical nature that exists around us. We live within it, but we do not understand it.

The spiritual world is given to us in a different form: only when we build it ourselves do we understand what we have attained, what we have done, and we construct it from the foundations, from the separate parts. This is how we attain the spiritual world. After all, the main thing for the Creator is that we attain, and when this attainment is complete, we feel spirituality in all of its depth, down to the last atom.
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From the Conversation in Iceland 5/23/18

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All the commandments of the Torah are the laws of commutation between friends in a group in order to bring the whole group to the state of “one,” to one unit. This unit then will match to the Creator, He will begin to unfold in it.

Question: Is it important for me, working in the ten, to know that my friends are also obeying the commandments?

Answer: In his articles, Rabash writes that there must be mutual support; friends must influence each other and show each other an example. It is natural.

Question: If I am internally ready for my friends to do this for me, is this progress, since I understand that I am not the unit, but the ten?

Answer: Yes. When everyone in the ten strive to be like one, then they will get something, otherwise they will not.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 3/15/18

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Rabash, “What Does the Rule, “Love Thy Friend as Thyself,” Give Us?”: …one cannot keep all 612 Mitzvot alone.

I would say that a person alone cannot observe a single commandment. Being alone, he is incapable of generating the property of bestowal. After all, he has no connection with the Creator. Only with people like himself, therefore we need physical interaction with friends.

Remark: We are in a new time frame, a virtual one. This was not the case with Rabash.

My Comment: It is even better. If people really strive for each other, their physical disunity pushes them further toward inner rapprochement.

Question: Why is it arranged so that a person cannot keep the commandments alone?

Answer: Speaking from a systemic point of view, the common soul called Adam broke into many parts. When the parts separated by egoistic distance (egoistic forces) try to get together above egoistic forces, they begin to attain the property of connection, up to the property of love. There is no other way.

Adam is a desire that does not exist by itself. Only after this system (the desire) broke apart can one say that within it two opposite properties are being created: the egoistic one that pushes all the parts away from each other, and the altruistic one that suddenly begins to appear among them.

Initially, when all parts of the system were assembled together, they possessed the property of commonness supported in them by the upper Light, the Creator. Therefore, after they disintegrated, in each of them remained a point of commonness, and it turned out that they all consist of two opposite properties.

Now, if some part raises the property of connection above the property of separation, to that extent it becomes closer to others, until it is integrated in the same system, in the same image.

Question: Therefore, the system is especially created so that a person cannot observe 612 commandments alone. What is the benefit in this?

Answer: The benefit is that a person feels the need for the Creator and his friends. After he is disappointed with his animal state and wants to rise to the level of Adam, he can succeed in it only if he really engages in his connection with others and draws the Creator to it.

Question: Does a person need to understand each commandment?

Answer: This is not only unnecessary, but also impossible. One is unable to do so. Everything happens automatically.

A person should not poke around in his soul, there is no need to do it. It will manifest itself only when it really takes a definite form.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 3/15/18

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It therefore follows that the rule, “Love thy friend as thyself,” is built on 612 Mitzvot. In other words, if we keep the 612 Mitzvot, we will be able to achieve the rule, “Love thy friend as thyself.” It turns out that the particular elements allow us to achieve the collective, and when we have the collective, we will be able to achieve the love of the Creator, as it is written, “My soul yearns for the Lord.” (Rabash, The Social Writings, “What Does the Rule ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’ Give Us?”)

If we take the commandment “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and interpret it in relation to the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and most importantly, to a person in all life circumstances, we will reach all 612 commandments, which are summarized in the 613th. That is why there is no 613th commandment as such; it is a result of implementing the other 612 recommendations.

Remark: The world believes that one needs to fulfill all 613 commandments. Kabbalists, however, say that there is practically only one commandment: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” All the others are attached to it, they are a part of it.

My Comment: It is written in many Kabbalistic sources, including The Book of Zohar.

In fact, we need to organize ourselves into a human society that would lead us to some kind of system, regulating each other’s relations based on the same commandment: “Love your neighbor.”

To do this, we have to study Kabbalah and learn to fulfill this commandment at every moment, in all circumstances, wherever we are. So gradually we will implement the 612 recommendations.

The Book of Zohar says that all the commandments of the Torah consist of 612 councils and 612 fulfillments. If I follow the advice correctly, then I get a certain portion of the upper Light, which corrects me.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 3/15/18

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