Question: If a person is above their environment, can they influence and correct it?

Answer: A person cannot rise above one’s environment! They are completely dependent on it. Even if they are ordinary people, and he is a great Kabbalist, they will still influence him.

Imagine that you take a beautiful tree full of fruit, pull it out of the ground and plant it in the middle of the desert. What will happen to it? Will it turn the desert into a blooming garden?

Our soul depends on the environment in the same way.

The purpose of creation is both the group and my personal work, and the Creator within at this one point. Imagine that your whole life depends on this one point that you need to figure out. Right now whether you will live or not depends on it! And so it is every moment.

For example, you can’t breathe if you don’t press this point, and then oxygen comes to you from there. And if I didn’t press it, I didn’t join it, there is no oxygen.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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To move from the sensations of the current reality of this world to the upper reality, which is called the world to come, means to move from reason to faith above reason, from reception to bestowal. Although it is impossible to explain anything here with words, it is like describing the existence of different sounds of music to a deaf person.

But there are exercises that can help us awaken the light that returns to the source, and it gives us the force of bestowal. Then we gradually begin to think about existence with this force of bestowal, instead of the force of reception. It is possible.

When we try to unite, that is, to annul our personal egoistic desire and move to the common desire of bestowal to the group, then gradually the foundations in us change.

This is how we come to faith above reason, to the spiritual approach that allows us to feel, understand, make decisions, and perform actions that begin and end, not inside our desire to get pleasure, but above it, that is, in the spiritual world.

When we lose the taste for working, we get angry and blame fate, the Creator, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and the teacher. We do not understand that the loss of taste for studying and for the group is an invitation to rise to a spiritual degree, where we work not for the sake of animate, material, egoistic pleasure, but to bring contentment to the Creator.

Gradually, step by step, we get used to such work. The main thing is to realize that the loss of taste and mood comes from above, from the Creator personally to an individual in order to tear them from egoism and grant them some freedom from egoistic pleasures, and to make them feel independent from personal interest.

I feel as if I am hanging between heaven and earth because no pleasure attracts me, there is no strength to move and no reason to, life promises no fulfillment. This is enormous help from the Creator that tears a person away from egoistic intention, from this entire world.

Then the only option left is to work without any fuel, without egoistic motivation, but only for the sake of the greatness of the Creator: to come to lessons, to events, to live in general! I try to exchange the previous pleasures that gave me egoistic hope for a new state, in which I do not want to imagine the future and future reward, but I strive only to cling to the Creator at every moment.

This feeling that I am doing something for the Creator gives me fuel for work, and in this moment I am alive. And in the next second, I have to make another effort, and so on again and again, every moment. In this form, I will advance; the Creator will help disconnect me and cleanse me from my desire for pleasure, and then I will be able to act for His contentment. For this, I will exist.

These moments, states in which we feel that we have no strength to live and to act, when the world grows dim and plunges into darkness, promising no hope and fulfillment, this is a huge help from the Creator. This is how He detaches us from our reality, from this world, and gives us the opportunity to work for Him.

If the Creator did not disconnect us from the pleasures and fulfillments of this world, we would have no chance whatsoever of reaching a spiritual degree. We would remain forever enslaved to Pharaoh, who would faithfully pay us, and we would obediently work for the sake of this reward. This is our life in egoism.

Therefore, detachment from egoism, when the feeling of emptiness, powerlessness, hopelessness, and loss comes, is precisely the state in which there is a possibility to transition from reason to faith above reason, to the degree of bestowal, when I decide that I will do everything for the sake of heaven, for the contentment of the Creator.

It is necessary, time after time, to perform such exercises organized by the Creator, and thank Him for this, rejoice that you are finally rising from this world into the spiritual world and are in the transition. We need to accelerate and strengthen such actions so that each will become a leap forward for us, and it all depends on our connection with the environment, with the ten.
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From Daily Kabbalah 12/2/19, “Work with Faith Above Reason”

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The condition for connection in the upper world is the condition of “not for one’s own sake,” but “for others.” This is a principle that we are simply unable to understand.

In our world, we build systems of healthcare, education, fire safety, and so on, but all of it is done for ourselves. Otherwise, we would not take part in it. That is our world. That is our nature. We should not delude ourselves into thinking we are different.

But spiritual unity is built on the exact opposite principle: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

If I wish to attain that, I connect with others, not because I feel good with them, not because together we will achieve something better like confidence, safety, and successful development, but because I accept their desires and realize them with my own strength. That is all!

In other words, it is as if I myself do not exist. There exists only a mechanism that works to fulfill the desires of others. This is the fulfillment of the principle: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
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From the International Kabbalah Congress in Moscow 5/2/16, Lesson 1

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Question: It is clear that rain is a blessing for the earth, and so on. But what meaning does the word “rain” have? What does it mean for a person?

Answer: The word “rain” contains the foundation, the root, the beginning, of all corporeal life. Because rain is essentially a blessing that descends from the heavens to the earth. It symbolizes the benevolent attitude of the Creator toward His creations.

Question: Please tell me, in a person’s inner, spiritual work, what does it mean for rain to be sent? What does that signify?

Answer: Rain is a great, benevolent spiritual blessing that descends from above and manifests in our corporeal world in the form of rain, water coming down from above.

Question: What is this great blessing for my heart, for my soul?

Answer: It is what sustains us; it is what gives us life.

Question: Rain specifically?

Answer: Yes, water specifically. It also refers to spiritual water: the upper waters and the lower waters. It is the force of nature, the Creator’s goodness toward us that descends and is expressed in a corporeal way through His actions upon us.

Question: When a person says: “My soul has died, I am dry inside, everything in me has dried up,” is that a request for rain?

Answer: Yes, that state can be frightening. Just as we are immersed in water in our mother’s womb and come out with the waters. These things are not simple.

Question: So practically, do we ask for rain whenever we feel bad?

Answer: Yes. Rain, water, means Rachamim, mercy. And that is why we ask for it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 11/12/25

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A man’s prayer is the work of the Ruach [spirit], work from Behina Bet, which depends on the speech.It is in high secrets and people do not know that a man’s prayer breaches airs and breaches firmaments, opens doors and rises up (Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 5 “VaYakhel,” “The Ascent of the Prayer”).

It is written that prayer should be offered near a pillar. This does not mean, in fact, a pillar near which one should pray. The point is that all the Partzufim from the world of infinity to our world are arranged in the form of a pillar, where the AHP of the higher Partzuf is located inside the Galgalta ve Einaim (GE) of the lower Partzuf, and so they are all nested into each other.

There is not a single Partzuf that is arranged differently. Each Partzuf is positioned so that its upper part is inside the higher Partzuf, and its lower part is inside the lower Partzuf.

That is, the upper part of my Partzuf is together with the lower part of the higher one, and the lower part of my Partzuf is together with the upper part of the lower one. It turns out that in my upper part (GE) I form the ten Sefirot together with the AHP of the highest, and in my lower part (AHP) I am in the ten Sefirot with the GE of the lower.

It turns out that in the ten upper Sefirot, I am connected with the higher one, and in the ten lower Sefirot with the lower. But where am I? I myself am the part that divides me into two halves; it is called Klipat Noga. It divides the Partzuf in the middle.

Klipat Noga is all of our free choice. If I decide to connect with the higher in the ten upper Sefirot (1) now in order to lift the lowest up (2), and I am working only for this, it means that I am exercising my free choice in Klipat Noga that is in the middle.

The free choice is that I connect with the Creator, with a higher level, in order to correct the lower one. That is how we work.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/11, The Book of Zohar

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A thought is a result of the desire (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 153, “A Thought Is a Result of the Desire”).

This is indeed true, because the most important thing in a person is desire. Thoughts appear only to fulfill these desires.

Desires arise in the heart, and we listen only to it. The mind is activated only when it is necessary to realize the desires that come from the heart. Therefore, the main thing is desire, while the intellect is merely an auxiliary tool, a means to achieve what is desired.

A person thinks of what he wants. He will not think of what he does not want.

In our world this is natural. You can look at any person and, by understanding his desires, guess what thoughts he has. All his thoughts are directed solely toward realizing what he desires. And to the extent that his desires have a hierarchy, you can tell which thoughts dominate and which are less important, what occupies him more or less. In other words, desires practically rule us.

For example, a person never thinks of his day of death. On the contrary, he will always contemplate his eternity, since this is what he wants. Thus, one always thinks of what is desirable for him.

Thought is secondary, auxiliary. It develops only because a person has desires. And therefore, one develops intellect in order to attain what is desired. As the saying goes: “One beaten man is worth two unbeaten ones.” For the one who is beaten, who is forced and compelled, becomes wiser because he searches for ways to realize himself.

Thus, the mind always grows when there are great desires. And conversely, if there are no desires, there is no great mind. Therefore, if you wish to develop your children, you must awaken in them great desires, not spoil them.

To spoil means to try to impose some kind of fulfillment on a child before he even wishes for it. On the contrary, let him desire, let him experience a bit of lack, let him seek how to realize what he wants. From this his intellect will develop. Only in this way, and no other.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/14/19

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Faith above reason means that I accept the view of the upper one even when it clashes with my own understanding, as it is written: “They have eyes but do not see; they have ears but do not hear.” This means that I can lift myself to a higher level each time, as though pulling myself upward to the next rung, by choosing the upper one’s opinion over my own, even when it contradicts everything I know.

If a friend hands me an envelope with $1,000 and I do not check the amount because I trust him—this is faith below reason. My trust does not contradict what I know, and therefore it does not demand faith.

Knowledge is the mind and perception I possess within this material world, like a judge who relies solely on what his eyes can see. Faith, however, is what stands above this knowledge, as Bina stands above Malchut. And to rise from the degree of Malchut to that of Bina, I must advance through faith above reason.

If I count the money and find that there are $999 instead of $1,000, then $999 is my knowledge, and the remaining “$1” is the measure of my faith. But if the envelope contains only $1, or is completely empty, and still I believe the higher one, considering his view to be true, then I elevate myself above my own reason and begin to see from the vantage point of the upper one.

The mind of the upper one is the opinion of the group or the teacher. If I strive each time to rise to faith above reason, this means I am ascending spiritual degrees. If I make no effort to accept the mind of the upper one, I neither enter nor approach the spiritual world.

Faith above reason is the only point of free choice granted to a person in this world.

If I accept the upper one’s view and agree that the envelope holds $1,000, although I counted only $999, then I rise to his degree. And then I myself witness how the envelope becomes filled to the full measure, not with money, but with the greatness of the Creator.

Faith above reason is a special mechanism, a unique method that lifts us from the material degree to the spiritual one, and from a lower spiritual degree to a higher one. This is the only way to ascend: by taking on the opinion of the higher one.

Each time I am as if born anew on the next degree, again and again. I enter the new state like a newborn who carries nothing from the previous one; I cling to the mind of the upper one and proceed with it.

With my own senses I see only $1 in the envelope. Yet above my senses I must accept that it is $1,000. I do not nullify my knowledge, I leave it as it is. I clearly see the gap between what I know and what stands above knowledge.

This gap defines the difference between Malchut and Bina. On one hand, “the judge has only what his eyes see”—this is Malchut. Yet I must go against this knowledge and prefer the knowledge of the higher one—Bina, faith.

And within this interval—this divergence between Malchut and Bina, between knowledge and faith above knowledge—the upper world and spiritual reality begin to reveal themselves.

All the work in the ten proceeds by faith above reason. I may see no love among the friends; on the contrary, we seem ready to devour one another. Yet we work to love each other. In the eyes of the upper one our ten is perfect and stands in complete unity; in our own eyes it appears entirely otherwise. This difference is what we must examine and rise above.

And this contradiction remains. I cannot reconcile one with the other, for this distance is the very gap between Bina and Malchut, it cannot close; in fact, it continues to widen.

This is the difference between the Creator and the created being as it awakens within me. And the more I follow faith, the more I cleave to the Creator instead of clinging to my own mind and animal body. This is how spiritual advancement unfolds.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/20, “Work with Faith Above Reason”

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Question: How can we verify that we are bringing contentment to the Creator? What should we feel?

Answer: We should feel that we have an inner connection with the Creator, that is, feel His presence in my heart, His attitude toward me, and my attitude toward Him. In essence, this is the foundation of connection.

Question: I will feel it internally with my heart, but is there any external indication, relative to the environment, that I am correctly directed toward the Creator?

Answer: We constantly learn from the sources that it depends on love for friends, on connection with them, and on mutual help.

All of this relates to the connection within the group. Without it, we cannot advance.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Question: How can one learn to accept all the twists of fate? It says here: “Accept all the turns of fate. It is a playful picture” and so on and so forth. How can one learn that? Nowadays fate takes sharp turns.

Answer: You need to perceive all of this with a certain excitement, as a game. When your opponent makes a move on the chessboard or plays a new card on the table, you begin to see your next move. You should rejoice that you are in connection with such a “player.” And you wish, through this connection with him, to reveal the Creator.

Question: So then, each of my responding moves, that is the adventure? My inner one. And all my thoughts are “how and what?”

Answer: Yes.

Question: And then you said the phrase: “You find yourself in connection with the Creator.” Even if that thought does not actually exist within me, it is precisely that which leads to such a journey through life?

Answer: Yes, that is what you wish to attain.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 11/7/25

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It is impossible to directly measure our attitude toward one another or our attitude toward the Creator, it can be only relative to an outside standard that is not in Him, not in us, but in between. In this standard, which stands between us, we can find what connects us and what separates us.

This standard is the group. If I attach myself to the friends in the group, then to that same extent I discover myself in adhesion with the Creator. The group gives me the ability to measure concrete parameters, the “height” and “weight” of my love and hatred, through which I attain adhesion with the Creator.

According to the measure of my adhesion with the ten, I can determine the measure of my filling with the light. After all, I have no possibility whatsoever to measure the light itself, it is only indirectly, through the group. Through the shared desires in the group, I begin to feel the light that fills it.

I can only feel pleasure in my own desires, and this is not enough. I need to check how, through the pleasure in these desires, I connect with the one who fills them, and whom I, in turn, fill. Therefore, there is the condition that “From the love of the created beings one comes to the love of the Creator.”

We cannot judge the light itself, but only the desires that are filled by it, just as one does not speak of electricity itself, but only of electrical phenomena. It is telling that electricity does not pass inside the wire, but around it.

Therefore, the group is the perfect standard for my adhesion with the Creator, like a tuning fork by which one evaluates the sound of a string on a musical instrument. Until I touch the string and it begins to sound, nothing can be said about it. Only by the desires (Kelim) can one judge the light.

A similar example are musical notes by which one evaluates a melody. The notes indicate which strings must be plucked or which keys must be pressed. They are the score of desires with which we work in order to hear the sounds of the music within ourselves. A note does not indicate the sound itself, but the instrument that produces it. Therefore, by attaining the instruments of connection with the group, we attain adhesion with the Creator.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/18

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