Question: The state called “witchcraft and sorcery” comes from above, from the spiritual root. The Creator seems to be playing with us for us to discover a single law that is direct, exact, and scientific. Does He also give us a place of uncertainty to try to find our way?

Answer: There is a quality opposite to “witchcraft and sorcery.” It states: “Borrow from Me, and then pay it back.” This is how the Creator appeals to us. This is possible.

That is, I do not need to conjure or fortune-tell, I can simply ask Him: “Give me strength, opportunities, and knowledge so that I can do the right thing to reach the goal, and then I will pay You back. I know that I have no strength, no knowledge or willpower of my own to elevate myself.”

This is not sorcery. You are consciously using His power. Like a small child, you take His hand and ask Him to lead you to the goal. This is natural.

While sorcery and witchcraft is when you try to steal the same power to advance, not in  connection with the Creator, but independently. And here, of course, lies a problem. After all, you are given these powers so that you can use them, although not in every case, because here you do not follow the direct law of nature. But then you have to pay it back, which is very difficult. This path is undesirable.

Comment: You’re telling us very complex things. They are not easy to understand.

My Response: We are talking about a person who is advancing and beginning to feel the spiritual world and himself—the Creator on one hand, and one’s egoistic desires on the other hand. A person begins to feel how he should be acting.

And then he has to choose between engaging in “magic” or raising a request. For in a spiritual place these two options are equal; thus, this is where they arise. And, naturally, those who raise a request win. But one still has to pay it back.

Witchcraft makes it seem like I’m going to dive in and achieve my result. While here I have to annul myself before the Creator. This is hard. Therefore, unfortunately, most people lie to themselves and others every moment, and then come to face the reckoning.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #4

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati 34, “The Advantage of the Land“: What should one do in order to come to love the Creator? For this purpose, we are given the remedy of engaging in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], for the light in it reforms him.

We need to attain the state in which we will permanently feel the Creator. The permanent revelation of the Creator ensures that we will be in eternity, in wholeness, in pleasure, in filling and attainment. The only thing we need to do is to attain the revelation of the Creator.

There is light there which lets him feel the severity of the state of separation. Bit by bit, as one aims to acquire the light of Torah, hatred for separation is created in him. He begins to feel the reason that causes him and his soul to be separated and far from the Creator.

A person feels very sharp and accurate sensations of getting closer to the Creator or further away from Him, but he does not know how to coordinate them with his development. But this is not a bad thing since nothing disappears. We do not disappear, and we do not go anywhere, not from this life or death.

All we need to do is to ascend to the next level, in which we will float in constant energy and general love.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/22/19

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We are in a society, surrounded by many different people. Regarding spiritual work, when a person wants to merge with the Creator, which is achieved precisely in the intention, society can be divided into three parts.

One part is the people of Israel (Isra-El), which strive directly to the Creator.

The second part are the “Egyptians,” that is, a society of people who do not care about spirituality at all. They naturally do what they feel is good for them. They may not understand what I am doing, and it does not matter to them. The main thing is that they feel good.

The third part is the “Erev rav” (mixed multitude), i.e., people who believe that one should obey the commandments without intention.

The intention is a completely different picture. A person must rise above his egoism, attract the upper light to himself, convert egoism into altruism, and to change absolutely everything within oneself and to begin to feel the Creator, the higher world.

This is huge and very difficult spiritual work. Therefore, there are people who believe that it should not be done. They once fell from the level of correct intentions for the sake of others and for the sake of the Creator into egoistic intentions for themselves.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/22/19

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The ascents and descents give us a sense of life. If there were no change in life, then it would not be life but death. The pandemic has driven us into paralysis and we are forced to lead a sleepy life, locked inside our homes.

Apparently, this will help us find out new forms of life, these ups and downs, not on the stock exchange and in the everyday squabbles that fill our lives, but ups and downs of a different type.

And so we find ourselves in quarantine so that we feel that changes in life can be of a different degree, and they are called life. We will begin to appreciate the descents without which ascents are impossible.

From the very beginning of creation the Creator arranged one big fall for us through the shattering of the common soul. And we must raise this vessel by our own efforts and restore it to its former state. But by adding our participation, our search, our emptiness, our prayer, our request, our difficulty to unite, we increase the initial ascent by 620 times.

Before the shattering of the soul of Adam HaRishon, our existence was unconscious. Only now, due to all the preparation, we begin to feel the ascents and descents, and we ourselves try to rise after each fall: from the inanimate level to the vegetative, animate, and human. Finally, we began to feel what it means to be human, what I live for, how far or close my state is to human life.

So, in the descents and ascents we gradually discover the essence of life, its purpose, the meaning of our existence, we develop sensory organs, find out what it means to be dead and alive, in a descent or an ascent.

One cannot be without the other. Everything begins with the fall. The Creator shatters the vessel to make preparations for all our future states. He established that everything begins with night, with separation, with a sense of detachment from the Creator, the goal, the friends. Only from this state can we begin to pick up our pieces to come to a big, final ascent.

The ascent is not possible if there has not been a descent before it. The ascent is about figuring out the descent and wanting to rise above it. That is why the Creator arranges for us to fall, so that we have something to rise above, to turn separation into unity, hatred into love.

From this, we can understand what the rise and fall really are, not according to our egoism, but in relation to conditions of complete connection that we need to achieve.

The number of descents and ascents, their frequency, depth, maximum speed, and amplitude determine our progress toward the end of correction. Everyone is assigned a finite number of ascents and descents in his particular Kli for him to join the common soul, as well as for each ten and for all of us together.

The power of the ascents and descents and the speed at which they change is taken into account. Don’t stretch the ascents and descents out for a long time. There is no time in spirituality; one moment is enough for each state. As soon as it is revealed, it should immediately be replaced by the next state.

Let us increase the intensity of the work on our connection so that there is no room for downtime between descents and ascents and even between ascents and descents. The main thing is to quickly clarify the state and its benefits for the next step.

We must try to treat both the ups and downs constructively, as data from above. They are already prepared by the upper force, and we are obliged to go through them all. Only their frequency depends on us.

It all depends on our preparation. If we associate the ups and downs, not with our own feelings, but with the general process of correcting humanity and the Creator as our goal, then every moment becomes a good and correct step on this path. And all I have to do is push forward even more to get closer to the final goal. Then all ascents and descents will come together, and I will feel these two states as one whole: “The darkness will shine as light.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/21, “Ascents and Descents” (Preparation for the Convention 2021)

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Question: You keep repeating the same phrase: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and you say that this is the way to live. But if I hate myself, what should I do about it? Don’t you need to first love yourself and then your neighbor? Or is there something I do not understand?”

Answer: You are right. This is exactly what this phrase really says. You are actually on the right path to understanding the meaning of this great phrase. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” that is, you must love yourself and your neighbor as yourself.

You exist in this world. What does it mean to love yourself? Make it so that you feel good in this world, warm, safe, and calm. How to do it?

How would you do it for a loved one, as a loving person? Imagine yourself in place of everyone else around you Then you will see that the entire world is really just you.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/7/21

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It is believed that prophecy has disappeared in our world. But why? Maybe there are such people among us, but we do not know them. They quietly live next to us, but we do not even suspect that they are prophets.

A prophet is a person who has a connection with the Creator. He either hears the Creator or sees Him. These are two types of spiritual connection because there are no tactile sensations in spirituality. Hearing is the level of the light of Hasadim, vision is the level of the light of Hochma.

In our world there may be such people; they just do not open up to others. But, as they say, one cannot be a prophet in his own homeland. This time has passed. Today we must all rise to this level and become prophets.

The great Kabbalist Ramchal in his book The Creator’s Way writes that everyone must rise to the prophetic level. We live in this generation. This time is not so far away and obscure.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar,” Part 5

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Question: What is the correction of the egoistic nature of man?

Answer: To the extent that I correct myself, I see only goodness in the world.

Question: Suppose a couple of million people died of hunger now. Does a Kabbalist not see all this or does he see it differently?

Answer: He feels all this and feels that he is to blame for it because he has not yet corrected all these properties in himself.

Question: And if he has corrected them, does he see this phenomenon as positive?

Answer: No. He realizes that all this is still not corrected because he cannot completely correct the entire universe. However, he corrects a part of it.

Question: But he has no complaints against anyone? He takes all claims upon himself because he understands that something hasn’t been completed yet?

Answer: Only to yourself. Fix yourself, and you will fix the world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/13/19

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Question: How can I fight the desires called Erev Rav (the mixed multitude)?

Answer: Each time a person begins to analyze his actions, he sees what he needs to fight with and where the condition called Erev Rav is located in him.

This is most visible in the group, in the ten, when we try to connect with each other. Connecting and striving to love your neighbor as yourself is the most important thing.

Here for sure you are literally faced head-on with the condition that the main thing is to connect in intention. If you pursue it all the time, you definitely move from the simple degree of Israel, or even before that, to the degree of Erev Rav, and from the degree of Erev Rav to the degree of a Kabbalist.

Question: Does it mean that the desires called Erev Rav are saying: “Perform actions, this is the main thing. And your intentions are for your own sake”?

Answer: No. They do not think that they are doing it for themselves. They think that the intention automatically follows the action. In other words, if a person does some bestowing actions, then it follows that his intentions are the same. He no longer has to control and check whether they are altruistic. He gave to another, it means he is an altruist.

Therefore, if he cannot scrutinize that he did it for himself, and in the end our egoism does everything only for itself; otherwise, it does not have the energy to do anything, then this is not determined by him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/22/19

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The Book of Zohar, “Chayei Sarah” (The Life of Sarah), Item 87: When one observes the tweeting of fowl to know the future, why is it called “a serpent” and “witchcraft”?

Witchcraft means that I want to ascend to the highest level, to the so-called “birds,” not through my correction but with my existing egoism.

To invent some kind of system that would raise me without changing me to an altruist from the property of receiving to the property of bestowing, this is called sorcery, fortune-telling, witchcraft.

When do I go to a sorcerer? When I want to gain what I am not supposed to. If I was supposed to, then I would have walked straight, just like the true, direct law goes.

If I go to shamans, sorcerers, or fortune-tellers, it means that I want to act in some unclean, wrong, perhaps unknown way. But “unknown” also means wrong because I have to go only by my own choice.

Therefore, in the Torah, it is forbidden to bewitch and prophesize. So it is said: “Do not bewitch and do not guess, and burn every sorcerer.” A person has no right to try to ascend the spiritual levels with the help of indefinite, undeserved forces. After all, this contradicts spiritual elevation, which is possible only if you acquire the corresponding property.

Comment: It looks like some kind of amateurism.

My Response: But people believe in it. They are at those levels when a person is confused, like a small child. Children believe in fairy tales. And adults, while remaining children, believe in fairy tales.

The science of Kabbalah teaches us exactly the opposite: there is no miracle in the world, do not bewitch and do not prophesize, but not because you cannot. You cannot because it does not exist, and you are deceiving yourself by it. You must discover all the attributes of the world, all its laws, and use them correctly.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #4

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 34, “The Advantage of the Land“: Thus, one must believe that His guidance is benevolent, but since one is immersed in self-love, it induces disparity of form in him, since there was a correction called in order to bestow, called “equivalence of form.”

The question is what does it mean that a person must believe? To believe what one is told is nonsense. Self-persuasion is also not worth it.

Faith refers to feeling the Creator. To attain faith is to attain the feeling of the Creator in the light of Hasadim. If a person constantly keeps himself on this level, he does not feel afraid of problems he encounters in life. He knows where everything stems from and where everything is going. He is in constant contact with the upper force. This is his anchor, the root of his existence.

We must therefore attain the attribute of Bina, the attribute of bestowal, where we adhere to the Creator even to the smallest extent. And then everything, whatever we feel will be like connecting to eternity, to the eternal flow of our states.

Question: Why is it called faith?

Answer: Faith is the attribute of Bina—when I ascend above my ego and see everything not inside my egoism, but above it.

Comment: It turns out that the concept of faith is totally distorted in our world. We are told something and we believe blindly.

Answer: In our world, I am told something and I accept it as a fact. This is totally wrong. True faith is when I perceive the presence of the Creator and my connection with Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/22/19

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