We cannot rise above what we feel. If we feel a world full of suffering, it means that we ourselves are actually like that. And inside, we do not really want to see the world differently. We actually want it to stay that way.

Question: So do we want this suffering?

Answer: Yes, we are used to it, we are in it. And this is the problem.

Comment: But this is actually an anti-life.

My Response: That is where we are.

Question: We are not living, are we?

Answer: We are not.

Comment: This is a total revolution—us wanting suffering.

My Response: Our whole history, of all people in general, is just a continuous
stream of suffering.

Comment: But we think we have been led into this. It is even written in the Torah: “Go and suffer.” By and large, it says that you will suffer. That is, we do not attribute it to ourselves; it is not us who want it, we have been launched into this cycle of suffering. It is not our fault. But you say that it lives in us.

My Response: I think it is our fault. We do not wish to rise from this level. We do not want to!

Question: So the whole task is to want to?

Answer: To want to turn it all around, to get out of this knot of suffering.

Question: What should one do to achieve this?

Answer: To achieve this, a person must stop hating others and bring himself closer to them. Then everything will change. I think we just need to forbid people from suffering, because doing so causes suffering in the world. Wake up and sing!

Question: “Wake up and sing.” That is, if it hurts you, wake up and sing. That very song: “Wake up and sing, try it for once in your life…”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What should we figure out? What is in front of us? What is it?

Answer: The Creator! Nothing else! He makes such scenes and visions for us all the time so that we are constantly afraid and so that we would gradually come to understand these mirages.

Question: So, my desire for suffering should transition into the fact that before me is a…?

Answer: A mirage.

Question: And I have no right to suffer, you say?

Answer: No! As soon as you start suffering, it turns into some kind of corporeal actions or scenes.

Comment: Wars, and so on.

My Response: Yes. But if you do not allow suffering, everything gets better.

Question: And then I slowly begin to see the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When you say “the Creator,” what do you mean? What is before me, before us?

Answer: The force that controls the world, us, that wants to bring us to the realization of the right state of nature and ourselves.

Question: What is it?

Answer: Joy!
[354510]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/13/26

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We are constantly advancing. In reality there is no turning back and no descents on the spiritual path. Ascent is taking place all the time, although it can be either in the Kelim or in the lights. This is how we should think, and this is what is really happening.

If it seems to us that we are falling, this is not a descent, but rather an accumulation of empty Kelim that later will receive their fulfillment. In this constant forward movement, a person needs absolutely everything they have. It may seem to you that something is hindering you on your way, but in reality, you are unable to advance without your “Pharaoh,” without egoism.

Pharaoh is all your Kelim. If they are not corrected by you, then what are you going to use for your advancement? Every time you take from him, correct it and advance. All the obstacles that exist in your head, along with the sense of powerlessness you feel, occur precisely when you are obtaining new, empty Kelim. However, this is an acquisition, and you must remember this,  you must believe in this, even if you feel that it is literally death: They can kill me, but I am unable to move.

Do you think that someone is going through this path in a different way? I used to have states when Rabash would call me and say “you should come.” But I was sitting home and crying because I was unable to move a bit and leave the house. I was not capable of getting up, getting in the car, coming to him, and taking him for a walk to the park.

Different things happen to a person, he goes through a great variety of states. We have to believe, just believe, that difficulties help because we are unable to see or know. Later on, you reveal that this is what happens, after all, you can justify everything only later.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/26, Rabash, “What Is the ‘Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man’ in the Work?”

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Question: If the spiritual leadership cannot replace you as the Kabbalah teacher, then who can do it?

Answer: The Creator, who will be revealed between you if you remain together. But if you do not remain together, you will fall apart. That is all.

The role of the spiritual leadership is to call for unity. It cannot issue commands; it can only determine and say: “We must unite, we must unite.”

If you heed its words, the Creator will reveal Himself within your unity and you will learn from Him and from no one else.

There is not a single one of my students who can replace me. Only together, as equals.
[353931]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. In the union” 9/11/10

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It is written: “Work for the Creator in joy.” If there is no joy, it is a sign that we are not in spirituality. Bestowal is impossible without joy.

It is written in the The Book of Zohar that the Shechina dwells only in a perfect place: not in a place of lack, not in a place of defect, not in a place of sadness, but in the proper place, in a place of joy. In a corrected place there is an illumination from the presence of the Creator, and this brings joy to a person.

By this criterion, one can always determine whether a person is in spirituality or not. When a person first begins to study, for a long time one does not yet sense the corrections taking place within them, or they may perceive them in an inverted form; therefore, they may experience despondency or irritation and find themselves at odds with the changes happening within them.

Here joy is a very clear indicator. If a person does not feel joy, it means that his desires do not correspond to the Creator but oppose Him. As the desire is corrected, joy is revealed within a person. And the stronger and deeper the joy, the more the upper light is revealed, the presence of the Creator, the Shechina.

If the upper force is preparing to reveal itself within a person, then first joy is revealed and only afterward the Creator. Joy is an illumination from above, a special force of the light that appears in response to prayer, to a request to the Creator from below. When we turn to the Creator with questions and requests and want to connect with Him, in response we receive light from above that corrects our desires and fills them.

This light first brings joy, and only afterward all the other revelations. Therefore, the Shechina (the presence of the Creator) is revealed only in joy, which appears first.

If I want to attain bestowal, I must always be in joy. And if it is absent, I must examine myself to see where uncorrected egoism remains within me that prevents me from revealing the Creator. We do not know whether we are approaching the revelation of the Creator, and therefore Kabbalists give us a criterion for checking: Am I approaching joy, or, on the contrary, moving away from it with each day?

By these movements toward greater or lesser joy, one can judge how much one is approaching the revelation of the upper force or distancing from it because joy is the result of “good deeds,” that is, corrections.

In any state one must hold on to joy, because “there is none else besides the Creator”; everything comes from Him. No one can do something bad to us without the Creator’s knowledge or consent. That never happens; everything comes from above. Behind every person stands the Creator exerting His influence on us through this theater of “reality.”

If I do not have an egoistic intention to receive, I will always be in joy. It does not matter to me what the Creator gives me; the main thing is that He constantly takes care of me. I do not weigh what is more pleasant or beneficial for me in my egoism; therefore, I accept everything with joy.

By this criterion, we can evaluate ourselves: Are advancing as a group toward correction and the revelation of the Creator? Are we setting an example to the friends that we must always be in joy in order to bring the revelation of the upper force ever closer?

Joy is a consequence of my act of bestowal, of bestowing to the friends, to the Creator, and to humanity. Joy is the result of bestowal because by bestowing I become similar to the Creator. Therefore, through this action I receive an illumination that is called “joy.”

Spiritual joy comes from the fact that through my actions I help the Creator fill all of creation. Joy is the result of the fact that, with the help of the Creator, I fill all of creation and thereby bring Him pleasure.
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From the International Kabbalah Convention 5/18/19, Mexico, Lesson 5

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Comment: While working within a group, a person feels a certain satisfaction from having submitted himself to the group and doing what the friends want from him.

My Response: It is true. If a person has performed a specific task and succeeded, then he feels satisfaction, pride, and vanity. But this is not important. Let him do everything for the sake of that, and then, as it is written, from “Lo Lishma” he will come to “Lishma.” Then he will see whether it is worth doing it for the sake of praise and whether he needs this praise at all.

The main thing is to make an effort as much as possible. But if you begin to consider that after all, you are doing it out of your desire to receive, and not yet for the sake of bestowal, you will never do anything at all. These are indeed the correct questions that Pharaoh asks: “Who are you, what are you, and why are you striving so intensely?” But if you do not strive in this way, you will never break free from your current state.

Imagine a child. If he does not learn anything smart or useful, he will remain stuck in his childish games and will not grow up. One should not be overly clever; one simply needs to act.

This is also a problem. There are many seemingly contradictory pieces of advice. On one hand, it is said that one should not be too clever, and on the other hand, that one must act and think. And a person rushes about and does not know what to answer his own doubts because his mind is cluttered with a host of counsels, resolutions, and sayings from the sages.

But after all that, if you cast aside all these intellectual subtleties, you are left with only one choice: to invest your efforts in the group.
[354539]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/26, Rabash, “What Is the ‘Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man’ in the Work?”

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Question: You said that breaking free from the power of the Klipot is a significant challenge; a person can remain in such a state for a long time. What could be done to disconnect from it?

Answer: Klipot are any thought and any disturbances that disconnect me from the Creator. What can I do about it? There is only one thing: remember that the Creator sends this to me. Without Him, I have no ability to fight them. I must arrange matters so that the Creator, who resides within me, fights with the Klipot that are in me. Regarding this, it is written: “Come unto Pharaoh!”

Pharaoh is the entire concentration of the Klipot. The Egyptians were so wise, even in the material world, that they made the body eternal by embalming it. They got to the point where they made living material inanimate, and in this form, as if eternal. To such an extent is this a Klipa.

In the Torah, it is not said that Moses has to fight on his own. He should only be present, be impressed by the actions of the Creator, and by this awaken all his desires, called the people of Israel, to follow Him. And that is all. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a mighty hand he will send them.’”

By yourself, you are not capable of fighting the Klipot. What forces will you use to do this? A Klipa is the reverse side, the Achoraim, of the Creator. He enlivens it and brings it to you to be revealed precisely with the help of the Kipa.
[354483]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/26, Rabash, “We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work”

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Question: Why is the addition of egoism not felt as a great desire in the preparation stage?

Answer: A greater will to receive that comes to you lowers you from your degree. But you do not feel it as greater egoism, you feel it as additional pleasure.

The new will to receive that arrives gives you this opportunity; it obliges you to act. You don’t feel that the desire itself has grown; rather, you feel that your pleasure could be more intense if you were to indulge in it since you are thinking only about the pleasure itself and not about the One who gives it.

What spoils your connection with the Creator? The new desire! It does not erase the pleasure; it erases your connection with the Creator. If it had erased the pleasure, you would suddenly feel emptiness and immediately awaken. Instead, you feel that you are immersed in pleasures; it only that the Creator has vanished from your perception of reality.

Furthermore, the sensation of pleasure bribes you. Gradually, a person becomes accustomed to this state of affairs: he enjoys for himself, naturally not for the sake of the Creator, since he is still in “Lo Lishma,” yet at the same time he does not want to lose the connection with the Creator under any circumstances and constantly seeks it.

He wants to feel that he is in the Creator’s world, in some kind of sphere filled by the Creator, and he continuously tries to hold onto this state. These are the efforts. He tries to carry them out by all possible means, and as a result, the sum of his efforts fills his “cup,” and he crosses the Machsom.

As for the descents along the way, nothing can be done about them. How many will there be? No one knows. It is impossible to say how much time will pass between ascents and descents, because this depends on the person; in this lies his effort and his choice.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/26, Rabash, “The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]”

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Question: What do we have to manage to do in this world?

Answer: In this world, we must manage to feel His entire system, the upper mind, and the will of the Creator that governs all of it.

Question: But we begin from a state where we absolutely do not feel this?

Answer: We do not feel anything. Then we begin to feel that we are completely confused. There is a period when a person simply does not know the why, the wherefore, or the how. Then gradually this goal begins to appear in us, the reason why everything is arranged this way. Starting from this goal, we, as if, unwind our life back to our birth and begin to understand how it all came to pass.

Question: And this point —the goal—that suddenly appears within all this confusion was it already in us, or is it put into us in response to our efforts?

Answer: Inside of us, there is everything. Absolutely everything! But we must sort all this out, and while holding on to the beginning and the end of life feel that we have lived through it precisely with the help of the Creator, in accordance with His intention.

Question: So, in principle, throughout our lives, we clear away all this garbage in us? We clear and clear until we find this point? Is this what human life is?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is “garbage” all the other desires, other thoughts?

Answer: It is that which deliberately confused us so that we would dig deeper and figure it out.

Question: “Deliberately confused,” so we are given this on purpose?

Answer: Of course.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/25/26

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Question: You say that the Klipa is a very powerful force. It is like a counter-force that drags you down and does not allow you to do something. Are we really in a very strong Klipa?

Answer: Yes, but not in a very strong one. We have been given good conditions, practically everything we need, and yet we still cannot make the effort.

Question: Does this depend on a small group or on everyone who has joined us?

Answer: It depends on everyone who wants to participate in the mutual guarantee (Arvut).

Comment: You give such precise answers that present both sides. But it is impossible to connect them.

My Response: It is still impossible, yes. But one must constantly strive for it. To correctly aspire to spirituality means to strive, together with the friends, to create one single, unified common desire. Then it will acquire a quality similar to that of the Creator, and He will be revealed within that desire.
[354194]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Klipa” 10/9/10

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Question: Many say that we lack unity, that supposedly there are elements that hinder our breakthrough. How long does the accumulative process have to work for this to be revealed?

Answer: It depends on those who are trying to reach the state of unity. What does “long” or “not long” have to do with it? It is possible to achieve this relatively quickly with great effort or it could be stretched for many years with small efforts.

Ultimately, a specific level of shared desire should develop in a person together with the other friends that would be ready to disconnect from each of them and be one.

In this unity, which is called “one,” not each one but one single whole, the point of unity, the Creator will be revealed to them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. We lack Unity” 9/15/10

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