The second commandment… it is love—that one should love one’s Master with whole love…even though you do not know if I will come after you to support you… [and] although I am not giving you anything, your love will still be whole, to adhere to Me with all your heart and soul (Zohar for All, Introduction of The Book of Zohar, The Second Commandment, Item 198).

Ultimately, we are talking about desires. If the other’s desire and my desire are arranged in such a way that I want to use his desire to fulfill my own, this is called “self-love.”

If we are in an equal state: “I give to him, and he gives to me,” each of us perceives his desire and the desire of the other as one.

For example, as in a combat team or as “one man with one heart,” this is the condition “do not do to the other what is hateful to you.” Then you will be connected to each other, but on condition that you are connected together by one desire. This is not love, but the connection of friends.

Whereas love means that I take my desire and put it below the desire of a friend (the level of love depends on how much lower) in order to use my desire only to fulfill the desire of a friend. His desire determines everything for me, and I live inside his desire, like a mother inside a baby. She feels everything he feels and what he needs, and only exists for this. This is called love.

Therefore, “to adhere with all your heart and soul” means to perceive the desire of the other as your own and take care only to serve his desire day and night. When is this possible? When everyone connects together under the influence of the upper force.
[34972]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/11, The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Second Commandment”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I connect myself with the spiritual world?“

We connect with the spiritual world by rising above our ego.

What is the ego? It is our inborn nature that desires to enjoy at the expense of others and nature.

Rising above this nature means bestowing good onto others, even though it is not to our own benefit. In other words, we place a restriction over our own benefit: we stop thinking about ourselves, and solely consider the benefit of others. Doing so makes us similar to the qualities of the spiritual world, those of love, bestowal and connection.

The key here is that we work on our connections with people. Our ego operates in relation to others, and by rising above our egoistic forces of wishing to receive from others for ourselves, and wishing to benefit them instead, then to the extent in which we do so, we enter into a perception and sensation of the spiritual world.

We thus connect with the spiritual world by correcting our connections to each other. We then start understanding, discovering and perceiving the spiritual world not as outside of us, but that it truly envelops us.

Based on the video “Is Your Spiritual Connection Real or Fantasy?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who is a spiritual person?“

A person with spiritual attainment is one who starts feeling the upper reality of love, bestowal and connection, and who lives in that reality. It is a person who rises to a level of connection with the reality beyond everything we know and feel in our current reality. There are no words to explain the sensation, and about it is written, “Taste and see that the Creator is good.”

Based on a video “Who Is a Person With Spiritual Attainment?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “When will the Messiah come?“

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that the Messiah, (Mashiach in Hebrew) is a force of salvation. It pulls us out of our ego and brings us to love and mutual connection. The Hebrew word for Messiah, Mashiach, comes from the word “to pull,” Limshoch. This force, which pulls us from bad to good—from an egoistic reality of prioritizing self-benefit to an altruistic reality where we prioritize love and positive connection among us—will appear when we want it to, and the reason it has yet to appear is that we have yet to desire it.

It is written that the Messiah will arrive on a white donkey. The Hebrew word for “donkey” (“Chamor”) comes from the word for “matter” or “substance” (“Chomer”). The matter or substance of creation is the desire to receive pleasure. When this substance becomes white, the Messiah will come. By no means does this relate to colors in any physical sense, but internally, if we wish to get rid of our egoistic quality, which is represented by black, and to turn it into the white substance of bestowal upon humanity, then the Messiah will come.

The Messiah is not a person or an imaginary figure. The Messiah is the inner desire that awakens in us such that we will want to pull ourselves out of this evil that stems from our ego—the competition and unfounded hatred between us. This force, when we want it to govern us—is called “Messiah.”

Naturally, we await the Messiah.

Based on a talk “An Inside Look” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do we improve spiritual health?“

Spiritual health is a state where we positively connect among each other in order to draw closer to spirituality, i.e., to a state where we are united with a common intention to love and care for each other.

It is a state where we establish a connection with the upper force of love, bestowal and connection that fills reality through our common intention to connect as a single soul with such qualities in our connections.

By doing so, we evoke the upper force of love, bestowal and connection, a force that in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the reforming light,” into the connection between us, and this force binds us together with a common intention to love, care and bestow to each other.

Several people try to reach a state of spiritual health and well-being on their own, assuming that it is possible to do so. However, it is impossible to attain anything spiritual alone.

In order to attain spiritual health and well-being, we need to feel that we are in the field of the upper force, a force of love, bestowal and connection, and that we depend on this force. If we understand the extent to which we depend on this force in order to hold any sort of connection with spirituality, then we will aim our requests, demands and prayers at this force, similar to how a child holds its parents’ hand, not letting it go. We will then turn to this force in order to make improvements and corrections on ourselves, that whenever we discover anti-spiritual egoistic thoughts and desires in ourselves, i.e., thoughts and desires that prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others and nature, then we will request a change the direction of these thoughts so that they will be loving, giving and positively connecting, similar to the bestowing direction of the upper force.

We thus move toward a state of spiritual health and well-being by learning about spirituality, participating in a environment that supports our spiritual progress, and drawing the influence of spiritual forces (the “reforming light”). Such a process takes place until we discover where we are spiritually unhealthy, i.e., by reaching a state called “recognition of evil” in Kabbalah, where we see how our egoistic nature opposes and resists spirituality. Through such states, we gradually develop a true demand for spiritual health and well-being, a state called “correction” in Kabbalah, i.e., the correction of our ego that brings about division and hatred among people, to its altruistic opposite, which brings about unity and love among us—the qualities of the soul.

This is how we become spiritually healthy. We place ourselves in the place of the upper force of love, bestowal and connection, and become more and more like that force until we completely discover spirituality.

Thus, we should consider how to strengthen human connection and make it more positive, with bonds of love, care and giving. We will then eventually discover the great single soul that we are all parts of, perceiving and sensing how we are all like its cells and organs, mutually complementing one another to sustain the spiritual health of the entire system.

For the time being, we are still far from such a state. We have yet to begin a process of realizing our interdependence and interconnectedness in a positive manner, where we each aim to love, bestow and positively connect above all the egoistic forms of indifference, apathy, division and hatred that surface. We would thus be wise to learn and scrutinize the laws of mutual guarantee and mutual responsibility that bind the spiritual system together, which should lead us to actively seek how we can draw the spiritual forces into our connections and establish a spiritually healthy, peaceful, harmonious and balanced state among us.

Based on a Kabbalah Lesson at the World Kabbalah Convention in New Jersey, on May 12, 2012. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is spirituality?“

Spirituality is when I want others and nature to enjoy from everything I do, and that the enjoyment that goes to others and nature will not belong to me in any way.

Opposite spirituality is corporeality, which is when I want to enjoy for self-benefit alone.

Based on the afternoon Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on March 13, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are 5 facts about spiritual love?“

1) The attainment of spiritual love and spiritual connection can only take place above sensations of hatred and rejection. If we love others without having built love above hatred and rejection, then it is not spiritual love.

2) It is written about the attainment of spiritual love in the Torah, that “Love will cover all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12).

3) Spiritual attainment requires holding onto the rule of “Love will cover all crimes,” and that we cannot hold love without feeling the “crimes,” i.e., hatred and rejection of others. The attitude to love and hatred thus needs to be equal in importance. We attain spirituality between them both, and thus those who wish to attain spirituality need to equally position love and hatred, or connection and rejection, before themselves.

4) The human ego, which is a desire to enjoy at the expense of others, is the cause of feeling hatred and rejection toward others; it is an “anti-spiritual” quality. Developing spiritual love thus requires feeling hatred and rejection illuminating in our ego’s rejection of spirituality, then reaching a decision to restrict the ego, and then above the ego, developing an attitude of love and connection to others. Moreover, such an attitude needs to be constant, where we feel love and hatred simultaneously, and choose love above the hatred. It is unlike our corporeal world, where we love and hate at different times. Holding these qualities together gains us access to the sensation of eternity.

5) The development and discovery of spiritual love above its opposite hatred and rejection is the “artistry” of spirituality. In the language of Kabbalah, it is expressed as follows: that the spiritual Partzuf (a spiritual entity or identity) takes its Aviut (coarse egoistic desire), which is a sensation of hatred and a complete lack of connection to others, and through a Tzimtzum (restriction) of the egoistic desire, the Partzuf rises above the Aviut to connect—elevating values of connection much higher in importance than the natural egoistic inclination—and to the extent of the oppositeness between qualities of love/connection and hatred/rejection, the new, higher, more spiritual and giving Partzuf is discovered: both through the Aviut (coarse egoistic desire) below, and the Zakut (purity) above.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on January 27, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “If spirituality is a lifelong journey, how does one know whether or not they have made progress?“

Spirituality is a quality of love, bestowal and positive connection that becomes revealed in our connection as a single soul. By contrast, corporeality is a quality of reception and characterizes the perception we have in this world.

Therefore, spiritual progress requires a method of connecting to each other where we discover our eternal and perfect interconnection as a single soul above our corporeal state of transience and detachment in this world.

Spiritual progress thus becomes revealed after we try to resemble its purely altruistic connections in connection among each other, and we discover our opposition to spirituality: that we are egoistic, and constantly want to receive self-aimed fulfillment. We feel such oppositeness as a “crime” that we need to detach from and rise above. Moreover, our corporeal quality remains with us as a foundation upon which we elevate ourselves into spirituality. As such, time and again, we increasingly feel this clash of qualities the more that we try to spiritually progress.

Therefore, by engaging ourselves in a supportive environment of fellow spiritual seekers who wish to attain spirituality, and applying the method of connection—the wisdom of Kabbalah—which lets us attract the forces of love and bestowal from our spiritual root as one soul, then we eventually discover how indifferent we are to each other, and afterward we feel rejection to each other and see all kinds of negative qualities in others.

Such revelations are in fact positive signs of spiritual progress, where the spiritual forces of love and bestowal (called “lights”) that we attract reveal the distance between us—the extent to which we are opposite and different from our spiritual state as a single soul—and from that revelation of oppositeness, we can start establishing a spiritual form of connection with each other and spiritually progress.

Spiritual progress is thus felt as an increasing need and yearning to positively connect with others. And when do we know that we need positive spiritual connection with others? It is when we know the extent to which we reject each other, do not want each other, and have all kinds of complaints about each other. At this juncture, we can say that the breaking of the soul starts revealing, i.e., the point where we originally detached from our perception and sensation as a single soul, where we all functioned as parts of a greater whole, and thus felt the eternal life of that whole.

The coarse desire that detached us then becomes revealed, and we have work to not cancel or revoke that desire, but above it, start building connection, so that the spiritual connection that we build will not neutralize the rejection between us, but that they will exist together.

Spiritual progress is thus a process of increasing wisdom and inner growth where we mature in our understanding and ability to hold onto two opposite states together, that reception and bestowal, egoism and altruism, hatred and love, will live among us, and we relate to every negative quality that surfaces in us as a foundation upon which to apply increasing yearning for love, bestowal and positive connection upon it.

This is the meaning of “one recites a blessing for the bad that befalls him just as he does for the good” (Masechet Berachot 9:3), because all bad and good surface only for us to reveal more and more positive connection between us, and ultimately, to discover our connection as a single soul in contact with the force of love, bestowal and connection (called “the Creator”) that vitalizes us. The outcome of this spiritual progress is the sensation of eternity, perfection and truth, which in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the revelation of the Creator to His created beings in this world” (Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”).

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 28, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is spiritual love different from the love we know? If yes, can we do something to nurture it?“

The love we know, or corporeal love, involves loving whoever or whatever gives us pleasure. Spiritual love, by contrast, is built on feeling an inner distance, rejection, and opposition to others, and building love upon that distance.

In other words, the love we know is that which appears in our inborn ego, where we feel a natural attraction and closeness to one another. Each person who feels such love does so based on the calculation that they will ultimately benefit from that love. Such is the calculation of our egoistic nature, which is a desire to enjoy from other people and things. Therefore, according to the love we know—corporeal love—we feel love, attraction, and closeness to each other sometimes, and at other times, hatred, rejection and distance.

Spiritual love, however, requires feeling distance, rejection, and opposition to each other together with an attitude of love, connection and attraction that we build above those sensations. In our current reality, we cannot simultaneously feel love and hatred toward others, but we feel those sensations at different times. Spiritual love, therefore, requires great artistry in the spiritual process of rising above the ego to positively connect with others, and we need to become worthy of attaining that lofty level of love.

However, we are reaching a level in our development where we become increasingly prepared to experience spiritual love. On one hand, we see that the love we know is leading us into more and more problems. The bigger our ego becomes, the more we demand in order to fulfill ourselves, and the harder we find it to become fulfilled. On the other hand, we are getting prepared to become more mature.

Sweet food can help us see an example of this maturation process. Children usually like sweet food that is only sweet, but when we grow up, we often like to have sweet food together with or after something spicy, bitter or sour. The more we mature, the more we feel incapable of enjoying from one thing alone, but require the thing and its opposite.

We also see how if we had experienced only positive states in life, without the need to strive and overcome, and without feeling boundaries and criticism, then we would feel as if our life lacks something. We are built in a way where we desire to have graspable points for other calculations, and thus we develop a need to add bitterness, sourness and spice in order to taste and enjoy the sweetness. This tendency stems from the basis of our existence, where we—created beings—were originally created opposite from nature: Nature is a quality of love that solely wishes to bestow pleasure and fulfillment, and we are made of an opposite quality that solely wishes to receive pleasure and fulfillment.

Therefore, in order that we “taste the sweetness” of spiritual love, we need to attain the quality of love and bestowal that does not exist in our inborn receptive nature, and thus need to build that quality in us upon our natural rejection and distance from those qualities. This is possible with the guidance of a method—the wisdom of Kabbalah—which teaches the ways of rising above the transience and incomplete nature of the ego in order to discover the quality of spiritual love, which is eternal and whole.

Kabbalists have written about spiritual love—“Love will cover all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12)—where the “crimes” are the distance, rejection and opposition we feel in our ego. The more we implement such a form of love in our spiritual development, the more we will attain everything that nature laid out for us in order to attain our ultimate purpose of existence: the sensation of love in its perfection, wholeness and eternity.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 29, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does it feel like to be spiritually enlightened?“

The feeling of spiritual enlightenment is a feeling of unification with nature.

It is that we exist in a field of a single common connection, with a force of love and bestowal connecting between us.

Moreover, total unification as integral parts of nature is our life’s ultimate destination; it is what we discover when we reach the purpose of our lives.

Through positive connection among us all and with nature, the force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature awakens and illuminates. It gives us a new heightened sensation of harmony and eternity—a feeling of enjoyment through giving contentment to each other and to nature.

Based on the “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” lesson by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 9, 2018. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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