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: When there is serious separation within the ten, what is the very first action to prevent us from falling apart?

Answer: You must feel as if you are a society threatened by such separation and distancing from one another that it will be impossible to reunite afterward.

Question: What do we need to do to gather into the point of unity?

Answer: You need to destroy your egoism. Gather together, “light a fire” in the center of the group, and burn all the egoism in it.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/25, “Connecting to Lishma“

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Question: If our pleasure comes from the outside, is it still slavery? Do we need to reach a state where we become the source of all changes that enter a person’s life?

Answer: No, we will still need the Creator and the desire to receive from Him, and only strive for this. This is the foundation of our desire.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/25, “Connecting to Lishma“

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Question: You said that the Creator’s gift does not extinguish the Hissaron that He Himself creates for our advancement.

How can we ensure that all the gifts the Creator gives do not extinguish the Hissaron, but only increase love for Him?

Answer: It depends on how you relate to the connection between you and the Creator. The most important thing is to keep the Creator in focus at all times. And then everything will come to you at the right time.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/25, “Connecting to Lishma“

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Question: Have you ever done anything in life that might seem strange to an outside person?

Answer: Never! I have never done anything like that! On the contrary. I act like the most ordinary person or even lower—like I might crack a joke, and so on. And it comes naturally.

Imagine you are carrying millions of dollars in a small suitcase. Would you show it off? No. You would hide it as if you were carrying a worn-out bag with old sneakers, heading to a workout.

That is how everything should appear in essence. You would wear modest clothing, something a bit worn-out, to avoid drawing the attention of others.

If I really have great inner potential, a reserve, wealth, then I keep it hidden from others.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Without Showing Off” 5/21/10

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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: The Book of Zohar says man has an unchangeable nature. Despite this, can I come to a burning desire to be in Arvut (mutual guarantee)?

Answer: Of course. You only need to think about the light that returns to the source (the reforming light) because you want to attract it in any state.

Question: Can we say that the state of Lishma is the final stage of the degree that depends on a person’s measure of bestowal?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You talked about feeling fear for everyone. What should I do if I try my best to achieve spirituality but fear that nothing will work out?

Answer: You must keep going and in no way step back. There is nothing more that can be done. Act only in this direction.
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From Daily Kabbalah lesson on the topic “Connecting to Lishma” 2/1/25

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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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Question: In the previous reincarnations of life, all your students have received some training. That is, there is no such person who comes to Kabbalah from scratch. Is it so?

Answer: No, it is not like that. It is just that people who come to study Kabbalah today have done some work in previous reincarnations, so that this time in this world they can feel its hopelessness, uselessness, and meaninglessness, and disagree with their animal existence.

And all the others who still cannot react to it in this way, are spinning in their animal interests: honor, fame, power, even knowledge, culture, and science. During this lifetime, they are interested in all kinds of achievements at the level of our world.

A person who comes to pure Kabbalah is only interested in spiritual attainment. Whatever you offer him in our world, he does not see anything in it that would captivate him. You can tell him, “Let us become billionaires in ten or twenty years” and he is not interested. “Let’s make you prime minister in ten years” is also not interesting.

He is only interested in the spiritual revelation of the meaning of life and in achieving it in order to give his body such content at the level of our world that it would not distract him from spiritual expansion.

Therefore such people must already go through some states in the preliminary reincarnations of their lives, not spiritual ones, but simply certain disappointments in our world. It is quite possible that in this cycle, in this life, they will go through them.

That is, they will achieve some opportunities to become rich, noble, respected, and—having achieved or not achieved this—they will quickly reveal the inconsistency of such aspirations, that is, the lack of fulfillment from all this, and then they come to Kabbalah.

Of course, a person is driven by selfishness, a feeling of emptiness, and the question: “Why do I live, because there is no fulfillment in life?” It is healthy, normal egoism that leads him to Kabbalah, egoism that eventually kills itself, that becomes its own gravedigger.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Cycles of Life” 5/10/10

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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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