Money and Happiness

627.2Comment: After surveying 1.7 million people across 164 countries, American psychologists determined how much money a person needs to feel happy. It turns out that there is a threshold of income beyond which the feeling of happiness starts to decline.

The ideal income for an individual is, on average, $60,000 to $75,000 per year. “Now we understand,” the researchers say, “that happiness has a limit.”

My Response: In reality, they are talking about the limit of happiness that money can buy. But happiness itself has no limit. One simply needs to properly balance “appetite” and “food” when there is happiness but just a little bit is missing. Then everything falls into place.

As for money, it is a tool to achieve goals in our material world. For a spiritual goal in the upper world, a different kind of money is needed. There money turns into a means of elevation, a means of bestowal. That is the true feeling of life.

A wealthy person in spirituality is the one who constantly has the opportunity to fill others to the extent of his connection with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 8/27/24

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Questions Are Never Old…

231.01Question: How do you have the strength and patience to answer the same questions that you are asked over and over again?

Answer: First of all, there is a great love for a person who sincerely asks and wants to grow. He does not understand, and so he asks again. He still does not understand and asks once more.

To others, it might seem like it is the same question being repeated. But it is not like that at all! Each of you can ask the same question, yet you awaken completely different desires in me, different deficiencies in fulfillment.

If I am alone, I have nothing to say. I absolutely need an audience and a question that comes from people. I come to a lecture, feel the audience, and in that moment, I know what to say.

Sometimes I step onto the stage in front of thousands of people, and until the very last minute it is as if I am in a fog and don’t know what I will say. I can leaf through books beforehand, plan topics for the lecture, but I can never say in advance what I will begin to talk about.

Then suddenly contact with the audience happens, and that is it, I have caught their need, their desire, and I work with that desire.

So when thousands of people ask me the same question, each one is driven by a different desire. I perceive the desire of one, and another, and a third, I feel that it comes from a different place, and that is why it does not irritate me. Because each time it is as if a new question comes to me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2010, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 131


Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 131

How Are the States of Male and Female Felt Before the Barrier?

The myriad spiritual discernments RABASH writes about exist within us as a copy. Even before the barrier, we can imagine various spiritual states. True, they exist only in imagination, but we already experience certain subtle sensations. We do not yet have full feelings, and what we imagine is inaccurate, but there is some shadow of truth.

In other words, within the point in the heart, there is already some volume, a space for each concept, sensation, and for the relationships between them. There is a certain distance, a kind of hollow, between every definition inside the point in the heart. We can sense that something belongs to the right side, and something else to the left side. One thing feels a bit closer, another more distant. We have an inner sensation corresponding to these, though not yet a real feeling, only a slight sensitivity, as if we can “smell” the real thing. Due to the breaking of the vessels, there are sparks left within, which allow some form of sensing.

How can we feel something through the sparks? If we work with the point in the heart, we attract various surrounding lights around ourselves. The light that comes during the study is not uniform; it carries many possibilities according to the vessel. It is simple light (Ohr Pashut), not inner light (Ohr Pnimi) or surrounding light (Ohr Makif) in the full sense, but a subtle illumination that constantly surrounds us. Depending on how we work with the point in the heart, how we develop it and make discernments within it, the surrounding light acts differently on these discernments time after time.

Even though this light is not yet like the clear inner light NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida), which is distinctly tied to specific degrees like Hassadim, Hochma, and so on, it nonetheless contains nuances and shades. Therefore, it not only develops sensitivity within the point in the heart, but it also causes it to swell, and prepares it for the growth of future organs, like a seed cell. We can have a certain sensitivity that within this seed cell are tiny points, minuscule seeds, from which the future body of the soul will develop. Even before the barrier, we can have such sensitivities.

Of course, it is still just a seed, a drop. We must therefore prepare ourselves toward this drop, wishing for it to develop organs and different parts and relations toward the Creator. The organs—“hand,” “foot,” “liver,” “head,” etc.—represent different relationships arising from our various desires toward the Creator. We wish for it to be so, but do not yet find those desires and discernments within us, yet we still search for them and seek how we can relate to the Creator through them.

When we complete this search, this effort (when exactly is in the hands of the Creator), only then does the Creator give His response: He revives the seed, and it begins to develop. In other words, we must do half the work through our own efforts, and after dedicating all of our effort and completing our share, which is called “filling our measure,” we then receive from above.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 6/1/25

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “The Time of the Giving of the Torah”

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Selected Highlights

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Thirst for Arvut

938.07Arvut is a force that grants the ability to annul oneself, that is, to subdue one’s will to receive and accept the opinion of the group.

Question: But how can one come to Arvut without first performing annulment?

Answer: In myself and in the group there is no power to accept this force called Arvut. But through our effort aimed at making it happen, we draw the surrounding light from above upon ourselves.

Where do we draw it from? From that state in which we are already united with each other at the end of correction, whether we are on the first or the third stage. Through our yearning, the surrounding light comes precisely from there. And only with its help do we begin to rise.

Naturally, neither in the individual nor in the group is there such a force. That is why we speak of a “readiness” for this to happen, and then the light shines from there.

Question: Does Arvut mean that we are guarantors for one another through the Creator?

Answer: Of course, Arvut is given by the Creator. This is what distinguishes a group that advances toward correction from a group that may resemble Sodom or other kinds of communities.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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How a Common Kli Is Created

938.02Arvut (mutual guarantee) takes place when each person passionately desires to return to the corrected state. This means being connected with others as one man with one heart.

Kabbalists advise us to engage in study, dissemination, and group work with the intention of drawing the surrounding light, advancing, and coming closer to the Creator. All of this is done solely to gain strength and personal corrections in order to integrate with others and form a unified Kli (vessel).

We have nothing else to think about except the correction of the Kli. Its correction means connection with its other parts. The light is in absolute rest, and only the Kli needs to be corrected.

The result of our personal work should be inclusion into the general Kli and becoming an inseparable part of it where everyone is included in each one and each one in everyone. When I reach the necessity to precisely realize this, it is called my personal advancement.

And the general correction is realized through the connection of all. We must agree to this because by practically implementing Arvut, we become a Kli for the light to dwell in. The light begins to reveal itself within us. This is called crossing the Machsom (barrier), and to the extent of the Arvut between us, we reveal spiritual degrees.

The more united the Kli becomes, the more parts join it, the greater the desire, the ego within it grows, and at the same time, the Arvut, the mutual inclusion and devotion of one to another, increases, the Kli becomes stronger and more effective in its intention for bestowal.

Then a greater light is revealed within it, which is defined as ascending spiritual degrees.

What does ascending mean? There is no movement up and down! When we increasingly reveal the desire to receive between us, and against this background reveal unity, Arvut, this is what creates the Kli.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Make Use of the Merit of the Fathers

234Question: From what Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”, it seems that spirituality is passed down genetically. Once, thanks to the merits of the forefathers, their sons received it, and now we do as well. What does “the merit of the fathers” mean? Is it something passed on through genes?

Answer: Attraction toward spirituality is not hereditary. It is clearly stated that the Torah is not inherited. So what is the merit of the fathers?

The merit of the fathers means that within a great Aviut (coarseness of egoistic desire), there are sparks through which even a person immersed in deep egoism feels an attraction to what lies above the ego.

If a soul is in a state of zero-degree Aviut (Aviut de Shoresh), it naturally feels drawn to spirituality, to the Creator, to adhesion, to striving for mutual guarantee, for connection. Where does this come from? From the closeness of the properties of the Kelim (vessels) to the lights.

In this case, no prior actions or special limitations are required because it is clear that under such conditions we receive the Torah, spiritual life, and attain bestowal, which is felt as something special and exalted in a pure vessel.

But when the Kli (vessel) has a high degree of Aviut, meaning its desire to receive is more developed, it becomes difficult to understand how bestowal could fill the Kli and bring satisfaction. It is hard to imagine that the condition of Arvut—exiting oneself in order to serve the other, to unite with the other, to connect specifically with their vessels in order to fill them instead of one’s own desires—could be something good or elevated. This is not felt as something real in a coarse Kli.

However, if this coarse Kli is a result of the development of “refined” vessels, then it contains a pure part that has truly been close to the light and has fulfilled the condition of Arvut at the level of zero Aviut.

And even if the Kli now has a first-degree Aviut (Aviut Alef), it still has a foundational base called “the fathers within it.” It can be awakened through certain actions or, alternatively, suppressed, as if returning to zero Aviut.

This is what it means to “make use of the merit of the fathers.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/8/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 130


Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 130

How Can We Be Concerned about Improving the Society?

As much as it depends on us, we need to prepare ourselves and act. We must be sensitive to what is happening among our friends. Perhaps everything they lack is already there among them, but they do not see or feel it, like a cat walking around between people’s legs, unaware of the changing states around it. Therefore, before anything else, we need to awaken our sensitivity to everything happening in our society, be impressed by our friends, and not dismiss them.

We must ensure that our sensory receptors are highly sensitive to things that can evoke admiration for the society. To achieve this, we should:

1) Awaken ourselves by reading Kabbalistic texts, listening to Kabbalistic music, and so on.

2) Demand from the society that, despite our sensitivity, the friends “perform” for us, that is, act in a way that stimulates our senses so that we can perceive their actions through our senses, to see and to hear them, and that the friends do not remain like hidden righteous ones. By making their actions visible, we can be impressed by them.

Indeed, this performance is somewhat of a lie, but through this lie, we reach the goal. Therefore, it does not matter if people act in front of each other. In Judaism and in Hassidut, it is customary for everyone to demonstrate to their friend how they pray and how they conduct themselves, because they learn from one another accordingly. However, in Kabbalah, this is done for the sake of attaining an internal state.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 127

Audio Version Of The Blog – 5/30/25

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