Question from Facebook: I have always been certain that I live in Israel, and specifically in Jerusalem. But from what you say, it turns out that this is not really the case. From the Kabbalistic point of view, what are Jerusalem and Israel?

Answer: The Kabbalistic perspective is concerned not with geography or history, but with the development of egoism as a fundamental part of nature. Kabbalah speaks not about the physical planet Earth, where people, animals, and everything else exist, but about desire, the primary force of nature, and about how this desire is governed by the higher force of nature, the Creator.

There are two forces: the force called the Creator (the force of bestowal) and the force called the creation (the force of reception). The Creator, the upper force, governs the lower force. That is the entire picture. Therefore, all of history is the development of the lower force, the desire to enjoy, under the influence of the higher force, the Creator, whose desire is to delight His creation.

Question: So when you speak of Jerusalem and Israel, are you referring to desires?

Answer: Of course. Desire at the inanimate level is called “the earth.” Within it is Jerusalem, or the so-called Holy Mountain upon which stands the Temple, and so on. All of these represent desires, and they all exist within a person.

This is where people encounter difficulty; they do not immediately understand what is being discussed. All of this exists within a person, because there is nothing outside of us. We perceive everything only within ourselves even though it seems to us as if it is unfolding externally.

Question: What is the desire called “Israel,” and what is the desire called “Jerusalem”?

Answer: Israel is the desire directed toward the revelation of the Creator. The word “Isra-El” means straight to the Creator. Jerusalem represents an even more specific aspiration toward the Creator, beyond the general desire.

That is why there is the Land of Israel, called “Eretz Yisrael.” “Eretz” means desire (Ratzon). “Yisrael” means directed toward the Creator. Within the desire called the Land of Israel is Jerusalem, which is a more inward desire for the Creator. Within that is the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit), then the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash), and so on.

Question: So my desires become increasingly refined and focused until they reach their highest point. What is at the very top? What is that ultimate desire?

Answer: At the very top is the point in the heart, the most hidden and innermost of my desires, that must attain complete contact with the Creator. This is the direction to which I aim it.

Contact with the Creator means that the Creator fills all of my desires that are directed toward Him through this point.

Therefore, our work is to correct our desires so that they are all directed toward Him. Ultimately, He fills them with Himself. In this way, throughout all of my desires, only one higher force is revealed, the force called the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/11/23

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Question: Can a thought be called the Creator?

Answer: The Creator is not a thought, but a movement of the soul. There is a desire and a vector of its direction: either toward oneself or away from oneself. If we build our world above the desire, directing it outward, beyond ourselves, it is called the spiritual world.

The Torah and the wisdom of Kabbalah enable us to direct our world outside ourselves. With their help, I can reorient it, expand it, and create an entire realm in which I exist outside myself, above myself. That realm is called the upper world, and it is into that realm that I move.

As I gradually enter it completely, I begin to see that everything in which I previously existed (my body, this world, and everything else) was merely a matrix that gave me the perception in which I lived.

People, history, my family, myself, the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, all of these existed within my former perception of “within myself,” “for myself.”

But now, as I begin to perceive everything not inside myself, not within the bubble centered on myself, but within the bubble outside myself, I gradually give birth to the spiritual world, enter it, and live within it. I begin to feel that the previous bubble never truly existed; it was like a dream. This is why it is said in the Psalms of King David that when we enter the upper world, we see our previous state as though it had been a dream.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: The Creator speaks to me as if in a foreign language. How do I learn to translate His words.

Answer: At least we can hear what is said in another language. But we do not even hear the Creator. It does not seem to us that the entire world is the language of the Creator.

We think that the world revolves on its own, according to its own laws. Someone offended us, shouted at us, and someone else did something good for us. We do not perceive all of this as the influence of the upper force, beside which there is nothing else.

The whole world is busy with squabbles and politics, like little children in a sandbox, constantly fighting with each other. But if I want to understand what the Creator is saying, I need to imagine that everything that happens in my life comes from the Creator. There are only two of us, me and the Creator.

This will be the beginning of my correct perception of reality. I do not yet grasp it, but this is precisely how I can hold on to the end of the thread that leads to the truth. Apart from this point of the oneness of the Creator that I am now holding on to, there truly is nothing else; there is none else besides Him.

This is the very first point from which I begin to understand Him. Outside of me there is only the Creator, one force, one authority, one desire. And inside me too, everything has been created by the Creator except for the desire to know Him.

And even this desire to know the Creator has also been created by Him. But within it, He has left me freedom of choice that I must develop. And then I will become a free human being, a creation called Adam, which means “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator.

Question: And what about all these people around me?

Answer: There are no people. There is only the Creator. This is the starting point of the correct perception of reality through which I can see the path. And then I will have to overcome various obstacles and problems, focus my gaze more and more on the Creator, and build an ever deeper relationship with Him in order to understand how He speaks to me.

He deliberately confuses me so that I will penetrate more deeply into Him, and understand His qualities and method. I absorb all of this from Him, and by this build myself in His likeness.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 516 – The Wisdom Of Kabbalah: God And I, Part 2” 2/7/15

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Question: We say that creation cannot attain the Creator. What is the Creator and what is the intention to bestow?

Answer: Every uncorrected quality in a person corresponds to a corrected quality in the Creator. We will know who the Creator is only when we correct our damaged qualities into the intention to bestow. You can only attain what is clothed in your Kelim (vessels). You cannot attain the Creator while uncorrected.

As you correct yourself and become like Him, you attain your corrected vessels, and then you will know who the Creator is. However, you will not perceive Him, but rather your corrected Kelim: “Everyone judges to the extent of his corruption.” You judge only according to the extent your own vessels are corrected.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work? ”

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Question (from Facebook): How can God be placed within a system? God created this world, yet you believe that He can be comprehended by the human mind?

Answer: No, I do not think so. You are absolutely right. God cannot be placed within a system. He cannot be revealed through the human intellect or human senses.

To do this we must create such conditions within ourselves to acquire properties, sensations, and discernments that correspond to the Creator, correspond to God. Then, within these, we will begin to perceive Him.

It is like everything else in our world: If I perceive a certain phenomenon, then it exists within me, and I can thus perceive it outside of myself. This is how all of our instruments work. If one of my instruments is not tuned to the frequency or the phenomenon that I wish to investigate, then I will not perceive it. For example, without a radio receiver I cannot receive radio waves, because I do not possess such sensory apparatus.

Therefore, an ordinary person in our world cannot perceive God, the Creator, unless he correctly tunes himself to Him. What does it mean to tune oneself? There is a method for this called the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the method for revealing the Creator to a person in this world.

It is based on gradually enabling a person to acquire properties that correspond to the Creator. Then within those properties, a person can discover the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/23/25

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Question: What does “Atzmuto” mean?

Answer: We do not talk about Atzmuto. Atzmuto is something above the desire relative to us, above any relation to us. Whatever exists before His connection with creations is called Atzmuto.

Whatever begins from the point of connection with creations is called the Creator (Boreh). What does “Boreh” mean? Bo Re—come and see. This is already attainment, something that can be reached, seen, attained.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/26, Rabash, “What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work?”

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Question: What is the depth of a word?

Answer: A word is a universe; a word is everything. “In the beginning was the word.”

Question: So you are saying that it contains the universe within itself?

Answer: Yes, in general, this word is “Yod‑Hey‑Vav‑Hey.”

This is the four‑letter name of the Creator, which explains the four stages through which the upper emanation descends upon His creation. That is the word, and everything else comes from it.

Question: If you say that “everything else comes from it,” does it mean this word present in every word, in every action, in absolutely everything?

Answer: In everything! Yod‑Hey‑Vav‑Hey includes absolutely everything.

Question: What kind of magic is this? What kind of secret? What are these four letters that are in everything, absolutely everything?

Answer: This is the name of the Creator. In other words, it includes the four stages of the spreading of the light from the Creator Himself to all creations.

Question: So the light exists practically in every word, in every action, and in everything?

Answer: Yes. And this word includes within itself all words; absolutely everything, everything that happens.

Question: This name of the Creator includes everything?

Answer: Yes.

Question: These are four letters. What does the first letter, “Yod – י,” mean?

Answer: “Yod – י“Yod is the source of the light. ״Hey – ״ה is the expansion of the light. ״Vav – ״ו  is its descent downward. And the last ״Hey – ״ה is the clothing of the light in the lower ones that already exist.

Question: It is said that one must not pronounce the name of the Creator. What do they mean by this?

Answer: In principle, you cannot pronounce it anyway no matter how hard you might try. It is because these are merely letters, and this word, in and of itself, it is not a word. It is simply a code.

Question: Are we saying “Yod‑Hey‑Vav‑Hey” is a code?

Answer: Yes, it is a code.

Question: And when it is said that it is forbidden to pronounce the name of the Creator?

Answer: This means that one must not try to name His action. Because, in principle, it is hidden from a person. So do not try to do this. “Forbidden” here means “impossible.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman”

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Question: Why is it necessary to change our qualities in order to feel the Creator?

Answer: For example, a dog perceives the world through scents. Dogs have poor eyesight, and vision is less important to them. Their senses of smell and hearing are extraordinarily developed and serve as a substitute for everything else. A dog can hear what its owner did a hundred meters away and runs to him.

In addition, a dog has an exceptionally developed sense of smell. We see how dogs, running along the street, are constantly sniffing something. For them, smells serve as a map of the world. Therefore, if I want to become closer to a dog, I need to develop the same sense of smell and hearing as it has. Then we will understand each other and will be able to communicate in the same language.

And what if I wanted to see the world the way a snake sees it? Snakes navigate only by thermal sensations. For them, nothing else exists: only heat or cold. But this sensation is so developed in the snake that it is enough for it to feel the entire world as we see it with our eyes.

It seems to us that if we see with our eyes, nothing more is required. But in reality, there are many additional phenomena around us that we do not perceive. Therefore, we know nothing about them and are satisfied with what is necessary for the existence of our physical body.

The snake is also satisfied with its thermal sensations alone. But if I want to come closer to a snake, then I must develop an additional sense—heat and cold. Then I would be able to navigate using that sense, even with my eyes closed.

In other words, we all perceive according to our organs of sensation. The Creator possesses such qualities that He simply passes through us; we do not perceive Him, it is much like radio waves that fill the air. We must develop a special organ of sensation that will have qualities similar to those of the Creator.

If we want to understand a snake or a dog, we need to develop the sensitivity to heat and cold like a snake, or the sense of smell like a dog. In the same way, we must develop an organ of perception similar to the Creator in order to sense Him.
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From KabTV’s conversation “New Life 516 – The Wisdom Of Kabbalah: God And I, Part 2,” 2/5/15

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Question: Is the Creator infinite energy that is inconceivable to our imagination?

Answer: It is possible to say it that way. But in principle, the Creator is the quality of bestowal, of emanation. If a person acquires such a quality, then the Creator channels His force into the world through the person, and the person becomes an extension of the Creator.

Question: What does it mean “to bestow to the Creator?”

Answer: You cannot bestow anything to the Creator. That category is absolute perfection.

Question: And what does it mean “to be a conduit of the Creator in this world?”

Answer: It means trying to convey this method to others. As they gradually master it, they too will become conduits of the Creator, the upper light will pass through them, and they will come to perceive themselves as the Creator. By becoming similar to the Creator, a person becomes a conduit of His energy to others.
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From a Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 1/21/18

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Question: In the science of Kabbalah, you talk about the human ego, about connection with everyone, and that we must reach balance with nature. But what does this have to do with the connection with God (Elokim)?

Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we talk about nature. According to Gematria (the numerical value of a word), “nature” and “Elokim” are one and the same. This means that if we talk about the upper force, nature, or God, or the Creator, call Him whatever you want, everything around us is only a manifestation of this force.

If we are talking about the upper force, what difference does it make how we call it—Elokim or nature? There is the upper force (truly upper!) that gives birth to everything and governs everything, and we want to know how to connect with it, how to reveal It, to understand It.

Therefore, if I come out of myself, out of my ego, and I begin to reveal the reality outside of me, above my ego, this is called understanding, awareness, and revelation of the Creator. Obviously, this happens only in me and only relative to me.

By gradually organizing my desire, my spiritual structure, that is, the quality of bestowal and love for others—Keter, Hochma, Bina, Chesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut—and by aligning myself with this structure, I come to discern the connections between them and thereby attain the Creator.

Elokim is also called the Creator (Bore), from the words “come” (Bo) and “see” (Re), because we must “see” Him; we must reach a state in which we understand Him as if we see Him with our own eyes. For this purpose, we were created by Him.
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From a Lecture in Rome, 5/20/11

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