Question: The language of the Ari is called a system of screens. The screen is an anti-egoistic quality, when a person can perform some action without taking into account his personal interests. What is this system, what does it consist of?

Answer: The system of screens means that a person can connect with the upper world and rise above his earthly nature. The earthly nature of a person is very simple; it is our egoism, which exists in everyone and forces us to perform certain actions, which are called desires to enjoy. It seems to a person that these actions are intended to fulfill him. But in fact, it is not so.

Our nature is the inner feeling that by acting egoistically, for our own sake, we are fulfilled and feel satisfied.

But there is the opposite; not engaging in self-enjoyment, but making efforts to fulfill not myself, but others. It is not easy. A person is unable to do it. But by trying to do it, one begins to feel that there is a second part of nature, opposite to our world, like a looking glass.

If we gradually develop the qualities of bestowal and love for others, which are opposite to our egoism, then we can begin to feel this looking glass, this opposite world. It exists next to us, but we do not feel it because we do not have its qualities. All of the qualities we have are egoistic, and they close us in ourselves.

Question: Does the screen allow you to objectively look at reality?

Answer: Yes. The Ari first described the qualities of the screen and explained how we can create it in ourselves, develop anti-egoistic qualities, and feel the other world not inside, but outside of egoism. That is why the upper world is called “the other world,” i.e., undisturbed by our egoistic organs.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/2/22

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Comment: It often happens that the place of residence defines many things in a person. Let’s say, if a Hindu grew up in England, he is no longer a Hindu, but an Englishman.

My Response: This happens on a corporeal level because ordinary people have a clear link to earthly culture, statutes, and conventions. But a Kabbalist does not have this. He departs from his body, from all conventions, and enters a completely different space, into the quality of bestowal.

Therefore, what difference does it make where he lives? What difference does it make who he lives among? He is inside himself, inside the upper world. After all, Kabbalists lived in all kinds of different places and there were never problems with that.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The World through the Eyes of a Baby” 2/10/13

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Comment: You said that the person who takes a long time to enter spiritual perception, has more to gain because he passes through a large number of states.

My Response: I did not say that, these are the words of Baal HaSulam. This is, in fact, so. Not because a person lingers on this path, but because he has such a soul that must necessarily include within itself the entire universe.

I have exactly this type of soul. I am not rushing forward on the spur of a moment, and I am not carried forward. Until I master this vast system at my level and in breadth in such a way that I will see it from one end to the other, digest it in myself, will be able to retell it, and fully adapt to it and adopt it in myself, I will not be able to rise higher. Although from the highest level, looking down from above, I perhaps could have done it faster and more easily.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Correct Spiritual Path” 2/17/13

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “His Legacy Is Our Duty”

This month, eighty-two years ago, one of the founders of the State of Israel, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, passed away. Jabotinsky was a gifted poet, a celebrated author, and an eloquent orator. But most of all, he was a Zionist leader who had fought his entire life for the establishment of a Jewish state in the historic land of Israel.

From my nation’s elders I did hear,

As He formed every nation and tribe

He vowed that in this land here,

A Hebrew nation will reside…

These lines from the poem A City of Peace reflect Jabotinsky’s passion for Zionism, which he felt was the only way to prevent a Jewish slaughter and annihilation in Europe. He was right about the slaughter, but he did not manage to bring European Jewry into the land of Israel in time.

Jabotinsky was a contemporary of my teacher’s father, the great kabbalist Baal HaSulam. Both were born in Eastern Europe, and both believed that the vocation of the Jews is to come to the land of Israel. In that sense, not only Baal HaSulam, but all the kabbalists were Zionists, as was my teacher, RABASH, Baal HaSulam’s firstborn son and successor.

However, where Zionism sees its end goal in the physical return of the people of Israel to the land of Israel, kabbalists see it as merely the beginning of the fulfillment of Israel’s calling, and not the zenith of it, but rather the basis for the realization of Israel’s vocation: the unity of the world.

As just said, RABASH, Baal HaSulam, and all the kabbalists were avid Zionists. Baal HaSulam even had the words “State of Israel” etched on his Sabbath knife, with which he would slice the bread on the ceremonial reception of the Sabbath. But their Zionism was not an aspiration for physical relocation from Europe to Palestine; it was a yearning to see the people of Israel unite as one, and the world unites along with it. The physical return, therefore, was a significant step toward it, but only a step, and certainly not the ultimate goal.

Jabotinsky’s dream was to see the Jewish people dwelling in the historic land of Israel. I believe that if the people of Israel focus on their unity, and intend for it to be a model for humanity, a proof that people who hate each other from the bottom of their hearts can unite as one man with one heart, then Israel’s unity will spread throughout the world without any borders whatsoever.

When kabbalists speak of “the final correction,” they mean the final correction of hatred, the abolition of enmity, and the establishment of complete and undying love among all people. In such a state, no borders are needed, and no borders are erected between people or nations.

Like my teachers before me, I am a Zionist. Like my teachers before me, my Zionism is dedicated to the unity of our nation as a model for the unity of the world. Like my teachers before me, I believe that the place where the people of Israel can unite and become that model of solidarity and love of others is here in the land of our fathers, the land of Israel, where Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your neighbor as yourself, this is the overarching rule.”

Jabotinsky’s anniversary is a good time to reflect on Zionism, what it means for us today, and what it should mean. Today, Zionism is disintegrating. To many people, the very word has become derogatory. However, if people only knew the real meaning behind the word, the love for all of humanity that was the cause of the establishment of the Israeli nation, I believe that they will change their attitude.

That said, unless we Jews rekindle the spirit of unity that is the basis of our nation, no one will understand what Zionism is about or why we need a Jewish state. We, Israelis, through our choice of unity or division, determine our own fate. Zionism must be taught at all the schools and educational institutions, but it must be the complete version of it, the one that sees its end in the unity of the world, and the unity of Israel as a means to the final end. If we do this, we will have no enemies to worry about. If we do not do this, nothing will prevent Israel’s decline.
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Question: There is always some kind of struggle and mutual rejection between us. How can people introduce mutual complementing between them and begin to actually coexist together, really together? What role does the concept of true love, which you always talk about, play in this?

Answer: People need to be taught. They need to be constantly taught how important it is to be connected with each other, how much they need support from each other. The most important thing is the purpose.

They should unite and constantly feel that from day to day they are getting closer and closer to each other. This getting closer to each other raises them increasingly higher to the Creator, to the one single force of nature. They should feel their future in this.

Practically, this is what we exist for, in order to take several steps toward the Creator during our life. And we will continue further. It does not matter how or when.

This is what we need to take into account. Therefore, we must further develop those basics that we can receive from our mother and from school.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 8/5/22

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Question: The Ari described the system of relations between souls. It is called the system of lights and screens. Did he, in principle, do something that no one before him had done? I mean, were the language, the approach, and the system itself new?

Answer: Everything was new: the system, the methodology, the approach. The Ari made a revolution in the attainment of the one single upper force in the world that governs everything and with which we can interact, reveal, and understand.

Comment: Let’s say, I have a certain desire and you have a certain desire. The Ari described the connection of how my desires can connect with yours, how my fulfillments can correspond to your fulfillments as well as to other people, everyone included.

My Response: He described the laws of commutation between man and the upper single governing force of the world.

Before the Ari Kabbalists felt and described what was happening to them. He, in addition, revealed the reason for these sensations. This is the most important thing.

Therefore, by studying him, and following his methodology in the course of our lives, we can develop such qualities in us that will help us attain the world in its entirety, not just be passively impressed by it, but become active participants in it.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/2/22

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Make an effort to connect with your friends and you will feel that in the gap between you there is no room where the Creator can be revealed. When we come closer to each other we do not narrow the space by doing so, but on the contrary, we discover the space for the revelation of the Creator. After all, this obeys opposite laws.

There is no space in spirituality; it is zero! Therefore, if we unite so closely that we completely adhere to each other, we create a space for the Creator. The spiritual space is the need to reveal the Creator in a common desire, in one Kli.

We need to connect our desires in such a way that they become as one desire.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam. Letter 38

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Question: Were there any other methods before the teaching of the Ari beside the method of suffering?

Answer: No. Mostly, it was about the method of suffering, which allowed people to rise above egoism, because we feel bad in it. A person even deliberately drove himself into egoistic suffering in order to force himself to rise above the ego, run away from it, and thus awaken altruistic qualities within himself.

Question: Does it mean that suffering softens egoism and it is easier for a person to run away from it?

Answer: Yes, but only at very small levels of egoism because this method does not work at higher levels.

Question: Why? If I have a high level of egoism, will suffering not affect me? Or on the contrary, does a person with a huge egoism become more sensitive?

Answer: No, you cannot force yourself to approach such suffering. Previously, people consciously approached them. That is why it was said, “Eat bread with salt, drink plain water, sleep on bare ground, and study Kabbalah, and then you will succeed!”

But there is a limit up to what level of suffering a person can go against himself. This does not mean simply to cut yourself into pieces. This means that he must live this way.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/2/22

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Comment: In ordinary life we often do something not for pleasure but out of necessity. And we sometimes even force ourselves, let’s say you need to feed your body or do basic home maintenance.

My Response: No, it is necessary to receive pleasure, and not deny it. Let’s say I’m thinking about the spiritual, about the exalted, about bestowal. But if I can enjoy it to that extent, I must do so.

After all, the purpose of creation is enjoyment and fulfillment because the Creator is good and doing good. It’s not clear, I understand. I feel how these contradictions collide in a person. They are not easy to reconcile, but in the end they will be reconciled.

A person should not give up normal pleasures for a single moment in his life. On the contrary, he should only aspire to the Creator above all pleasures, and then he will make the correct restriction on himself. And if he begins to shut himself up and deny himself, it will not be a restriction, but a torture against the Creator’s will.

The Creator wants a person to feel fulfilled at every moment of time. When your fulfillment is in what you give instead of what you receive, then replace one with the other. You will still enjoy. By making a restriction on yourself, you will not cry, suffer, and torture yourself, but you will enjoy the fact that you have achieved the ability to bestow. There is such joy in this!

In no case, if it is not to the detriment of others, should a person deny fulfillment. Only to prefer more exalted pleasure to the lowly ones, until they replace each other, alternately, gradually, and reach the highest level.

And then one constantly thanks the Creator. Otherwise, he curses Him in his heart. If a person does not get pleasure, he curses the One who gave him this life, who governs it.

In everyday life, eating normally, sleeping, doing everything you need to do for yourself becomes part of our spiritual work. My teacher Rabash, the great Kabbalist, the last Mohican, loved to eat delicious food, ate with pleasure and praised the taste and smell of food.

That is, in no case you should do it! This is the embodiment of small pleasures that the Creator gives us so that we can begin to combine them across the entire spectrum: from the smallest to the greatest. And all this together comes from one light.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Enjoy Life?” 2/16/13

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Question: Letters are forms of interaction of two opposite forces of reception and bestowal.

Will the extent to which I can balance my egoism within myself with the light, with the quality of bestowal, that influences me and pass it on to the other already be a letter, a word, or a sentence?

Answer: Yes. This will already be an expression of the relationship between the two participants in spiritual communication. It remains only to feel all this. This is ahead of you.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/26/22

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