Comment: Sometimes during the lesson you are asked absurd questions that are completely unrelated to the topic, and you patiently answer.

My Response: Because I see that it will benefit the group. This is my only criterion. Nothing else.

If it were up to me, I would be sitting in my room, not going out, and not talking to anyone. Absolutely with no one in the world. I am not interested in being popular or famous. I am not interested in screaming to the whole world to look at me.

I am invited to some appearances, to some famous places, but I do not want to go, only when there is a need for it and it helps disseminate the teaching, only then. Therefore, if I start talking in class or anywhere, it is only when I am sure that it will help the correction.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Ask a Kabbalist a Question” 3/6/13

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Comment: Usually when moralizing a person doesn’t help, he can be greatly influenced by the example of others.

My Response: Yes, only by example. That is right. Kabbalah uses it. The whole methodology comes from Kabbalah. That is why we need a society, a group, and friends.

Comment: It is not punishment that works, but an example, as you see the selfless work of others and you feel ashamed.

My Response: Yes. Shame, envy, and jealousy are good qualities. It feels like others succeed more than you, which spurs you on to good deeds.

You do hate, but you hate yourself, your own laziness. Then everything goes through its stages of development in a completely different way. How can we make the world feel it sooner before the blows because we have a very serious rod ahead hanging over us? I pity the people.

Advancement through suffering lengthens time. Imagine if the entire Second World War could have been passed in a week of intensive world congress with good interactions, inspiration, and everything else.

Why was such tremendous suffering necessary? We simply have no idea how to fit all this within ourselves; we cannot imagine it.

Question: Are the impressions we receive from suffering useful or not at all?

Answer: They are useful, but they come in a very painful way. Very small impressions that in practice do not lead to the right conclusions. What right conclusions have we come to after the Second World War? None.

Question: And if it had been a result of a week-long congress, would we have received the same impressions without suffering?

Answer: There is no need for suffering! It is not necessary. Only advancement toward better and better. We should advance only toward goodness.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A Living Example” 12/3/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “Who Created These of Elijah” 

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why should adults also play every day?“

Playing is a very important means for development. When we play, we develop new relationships and connections.

While it is common knowledge that children need to play in order to develop, which is why we buy them games and put a lot of effort into working out the most suitable games for each stage of their development, it is not so clear with us adults. We do not really like to play. Our relations end up quickly deteriorating into each one of us degrading the other, which ends our playing.

As a result, we miss out on a lot of what we can get out of life. We fail to examine all of our options for development as adults, and we thus put a halt to our further development.

We have turned our daily lives into a prison of sorts. That is, we need to look, behave and talk in certain kinds of ways—and only in those certain kinds of ways—otherwise, we will not fit in with others and gain their respect. Without their respect, we get treated in ways that harm us. We suffer from living in such a prison, but it has become such an integrated part of our lives that we cannot escape from it.

The essence of our playing as adults should be that we treat each other positively even if we do not feel like it, and to teach others to do the same. Playing in such a way would emulate the higher state of positive connection that nature is developing us toward, and we would thus draw positive forces of connection that dwell in nature into our relations, and start feeling happier, more confident, and that our lives are purpose-driven.

Based on the video “Why Adults Should Play” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “How to Conquer Fear – A Kabbalist’s Advice”

Just let the fear go. Don’t think about what will happen in the next moment.

We know nothing about what is truly going on in our lives. It is thus best for us to just let go. We hold such potential within us. Letting go of our fears requires some training, but we need it.

Fear comes from our will to control situations we find ourselves in, and when we cannot control them. When we let go of fear, we then seemingly control the situations from another end. For instance, take one of the most common fears: the fear of death. Our death is inevitable. Accepting the fact that we will certainly die, we can then imagine how the world will continue developing after we are gone, agree with that picture, and let go of any current fear we have.

There are no set steps, however, for how to let go of fear. It is different for each and every person. Some people start thinking along the lines of “What will happen to the world after I’m gone?” “How will my loved ones and my relatives continue their lives?” “What will happen with my inheritance?” and “How will my legacy unfold?” Faced by these questions, we need to make another correction—of our attitude toward life and death, which is behind our every fear.

We should transform our fears into an absolute surrender to the will of nature—the will bestow that created and sustains us—which requires us to make a certain kind of effort. We might still have to go through a lot of frightening moments until we reach the end of our earthly path, so we should try to calm ourselves down.

The laws of nature that created and sustain us, and which we are ultimately being led to discover, are in a state of absolute calmness and rest. We should thus aim to emulate nature’s calmness.

We are calm when we are not worried about what will happen in the next moment. It is a difficult point to express because it is not simply about flowing with the currents of life. On the contrary, we need to rely on the laws of nature that operate on us at every moment, which control everything and everyone.

Since we live within fixed and determined laws of nature that are in total control over our lives, then we have nothing to worry about. Do we want to interfere with the laws that are driving everyone and everything through corrections? Of course we don’t. We then might as well calm down and move on with our lives.

That state of calmness indicates agreement. It means that we agree with the laws of nature, which is quite difficult, because we always want to hold back, check what is happening in nature’s plans, and argue that maybe things should play out a bit differently.
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The branch desires, loves, and covets every conduct in the root, and does not tolerate and hates any conduct that is not in the root.

This is an unbreakable law that applies to every branch and its root (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, Inner Observation, Chapter 4, Item 19).

Question: The Creator, who is the desire to bestow and not to receive, is our root. Yet we, who are a branch of this root, do not like to bestow and to unite. Where is the logic here?

Answer: We are the product of this consequence. Here happens the division into source and effect. Our source bestows, emanates, loves, and develops. And we are His consequence. This is why we love everything we receive from Him. We want to receive everything pleasant from Him, but we do not want to receive His qualities.

It turns out that we do not want to acquire His qualities, but we want what He fulfills us with.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/4/22

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In the News (South China Morning Post): “A video of a 10-year-old Chinese boy having 30 vials of blood drawn to check his suitability to give his mother a life-saving bone marrow transplant has gone viral on Douyin.

“In the video, which has attracted more than 237,000 likes online, the boy’s eyes are steady and firm as a medical professional draws blood from his arm.

Question: It seems like such a simple story, on the one hand. On the other hand, where does this depth and understanding of another’s life in a ten-year-old boy come from?

Answer: I don’t know. This is really a special attachment and responsibility that suddenly manifests itself in children.

Question: Where does it all vanish? We know that there are examples of nobility among adults, but less and less. Where does it all disappear to? What kind of sand does it all go into?

Answer: It disappears into the sand because the impact of the common world, which is completely different, dissolves all these qualities that, in principle, we have.

Question: But is there this nobility in us?

Answer: Yes.

Question: By the way, there is also a secret here of how not to be afraid and how not to feel pain. The boy said: “I wasn’t afraid, and I didn’t feel pain because I was doing it for my mother.”

Is it possible to give some advice for an adult about how not to be afraid and how not to feel pain?

Answer: I don’t know. There might be many words, but it is not likely to be felt. It is a bond between a child and a mother, or could be between a donor and a recipient, or between just friends, or loved ones who feel connected like that.

Question: That is, I am happy when I can give something to someone else. Will this formula ever work in humanity?

Answer: It will work. We have such Reshimot, records. But when? In the meantime, we clearly push it away with all our hands and feet. The fact is that we ourselves create our living environment in such a way that it separates us from our parents, from each other, and so on. In general, it will work, but when—it is hard to say.

Question: And why did we choose such laws of life that push us away from each other?

Answer: They don’t oblige us to do anything. Everyone thinks only of himself. Children do not listen to their parents. They leave home early. And parents understand that children have their own nature, their own way. And that is how we quickly disengage.

Question: It is written in the Bible: “And he shall cleave to his wife.” It is written that one way or another a person must leave the house.

Is it written somewhere that we should come to the point where we will feel good when we give to another?

Answer: In the same Bible there are many such sentences. But it is not meant only for family ties. It means when everyone feels like family. And we will feel like relatives when we become interconnected in one single desire, in one single source, that is, in the desire to give, to help, to unite, which is higher than our earthly life, and in which we remain forever.

And we will want to come to this.

Question: You end almost all our clips with these lofty things, as if calling on a person one way or another to come to this. And then you always say, “I don’t see this happening any time soon.” You kind of add bitterness to it all the time.

Why shouldn’t a person just be given this thought and be kept at it? Is it necessary that this bitterness be, that it is not known when it will be?

Answer: It is so that people do not immediately push us away. If we talk about a kind, bright, good, and sweet future, then people will think that we are some naive, frivolous people and they will shut us down.

Comment: And so, you say: “It’s true.” You say: “And it is not known when this will happen.”

My Response: It will be, but not only through a very serious test— awareness, awareness of who we are and what we should be.

Question: Can we jump over this long period? Can we reduce it as much as possible?

Answer: Only through war, great war, and suffering, otherwise nothing. But I don’t think it will be through war, although this is the easiest and fastest method. I would like to hope that we will get through without a war.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/13/22

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Question: Did the great Kabbalists, whose books are sources of wisdom and ideas, speak about the intolerance of Jews toward each other?

Answer: Of course. Many sources say that the hatred that is revealed between Jews is the greatest in the world.

Question: Could this be one of the sources of anti-Semitism?

Answer: Without a doubt. The basis of mutual hatred, opposition, and intolerance that are embedded in the Jewish character are in the same way the basis of those events that have accompanied the Jewish people for thousands of years and accompany them to this day. This can be seen, among other things, in the example of our [Israel’s] government.

Question: I watched the swearing-in of members of the Israeli government. I was amazed when the representatives of the Arab part of the State of Israel not only did not take photos near the flag but simply left. How is such a state structure possible in which representatives of one part of the population are against the very state in which they live?

Answer: It is not only Arabs but Jews too. This is quite natural for our country. This is a special country that goes its own way.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations, Israel and Its Impact on the World” 11/18/21

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Question: How can we who are so small suddenly move the worlds? You said that when a little child just gives a cry, his mother immediately runs up to him and does whatever he wants.

Answer: Yes, the smallest is the strongest.

Question: Even those who are just starting their advancement?

Answer: But they are doing it! They want to get in touch with the Creator. Yes, they are the strongest.

Even though they do not understand anything, like a baby who is lying in a cradle and screaming. The baby does not even realize that he is crying—he is just in pain, and this is a natural scream. He does not realize that in this way one can call a mother who will come and give him something. He has no understanding of the chain of actions he invokes. He is screaming because it is a natural reaction to what is happening to him.

Question: Can we say that someone who is trying to read, for example, the Torah or Kabbalistic sources, begins to give this cry?

Answer: Yes, of course. But not just to read, especially the Torah. The Torah will not help here. One needs either The Book of Zohar or some other Kabbalistic books.

Comment: But I mean not the external principle of reading, but the internal one—the search for oneself, the search for what is inside me.

My Response: No, besides this, a book that can evoke the upper light most brightly is needed. The Book of Zohar is the most effective one.

Question: That is, your advice is to read without understanding?

Answer: That is my advice because I went through this with Rabash. That is my advice because this is how it works. We used to read The Book of Zohar for only half an hour in the evening before going to bed. And it was just reading without any comments.

There were 20 people sitting around the table with Rabash at the head, and for half an hour we took turns reading: the first one, then the second, the third, and so on. So, we read a page or two, and went home. This is how the day ended.

But when Rabash and I studied alone on trips, in personal conversations or lessons, there was a different attitude. We came to the park, walked around, and then sat down on a bench. I pulled out a book, and we discussed the book or just talked for about two hours. After that, we again walked around and went home. And so it was for 12 years.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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