Question: Let’s talk a little about what happened this year. There have been many events, we need to read and explore all of this. I checked what people searched for the most on the Internet: the Olympic Games in Paris, elections in different countries, and the most was Donald Trump’s victory. This greatly interested the world. I’ll share other things that were highly viewed.

There were millions, almost billions, of views for the pygmy hippo Mu Deng born in Thailand. She bathes, she smiles, and people just keep watching, watching, watching.

There was the confrontation between two rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake. They lived peacefully creating their rap music until suddenly they started fighting, hating each other, insulting one another, pouring it all into their songs. And people are following this fight.

The successes of SpaceX—the space company; it seems people still dream of leaving the Earth.

Dubai chocolate is of great interest. There is a milk chocolate with pistachio filling, which got billions of views.

And then there’s natural disasters and much more.

Meanwhile, wars continued here and in Europe.

People are barely interested in scientific discoveries, Nobel laureates, or history.

I would like to ask you: how would you sum up 2024?

Answer: I do not know. It is time to shut it all down.

Question: You mean all of this?

Answer: All of it, really.

Comment: So you have little optimism about…

My Response: It is not that I have no optimism; I just have nothing to base it on. Everything is going downhill.

Question: Why do entertainers, like these rapper conflicts, interest people much more than anything else?

Answer: What else can they do? Where else can they throw themselves?

Question: So there is less empathy for wars, tragedies, suffering?

Answer: Of course.

Question: People are escaping, right?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: So a person does not go where…

Answer: They already have enough pain of their own. Personal troubles overshadow global ones.

Question: Is it possible that through interests in sports and entertainment people might eventually come to understand deeper things? That they will watch all this and gradually begin to ask: “Why am I watching this?”

Answer: They will. All this will lead them to the question of the meaning of life, of everything.

Question: So there is a positive seed in this, right?

Answer: I do not see people being able to evaluate their lives, their mission, and their purpose from a perspective where they would demand the Creator to reveal the full picture of creation to them. Humanity has lost itself.

This, I would say, is my diagnosis. At this point, millions will jump up and shout: “How can this be? What about this, what about that?” Live and you will see that even including this and that, and everything else, in the end, will all turn into one impassable swamp.

Question: Then tell me, if you could somehow guide humanity toward a single topic, and people would listen to you, what topic would you direct them to?

Answer: That is obvious—the meaning of life. I rely on the Creator; I completely believe in Him.

Question: Are you speaking about humanity or yourself right now?

Answer: About humanity.

I completely believe in Him. I completely align myself with Him. And in my understanding, that is how it looks. Give unto the Creator what is the Creator’s and to man what is his after the Creator takes His due.

Comment: I simply rely on Him, that is all.

My Response: Yes.

Question: But that is the right choice, to rely on the Creator?

Answer: I do not see any other option.
[339936]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/16/24

Related Material:
Next Year Will Be a Turning Point
Is It Better to Be Kind or Evil?
Man Is Someone Who Is Compassionate

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: You say that the Creator never changes. Let’s say we are trying to think about someone so that the difficult situation facing the person will change. And it is really changing in the direction we think about.

If the Creator does not change, then how does reality change? For example, a person went to take tests knowing that he had some kind of illness, but it turned out that everything was fine.

Answer: The fact is that human qualities change in which he sees himself and the world around him as different.

There is nothing outside of us! Everything about us can change instantly. Moreover, changes occur either inside or supposedly outside. A Kli is multifaceted.

We simply have not yet encountered serious spiritual actions in our world, nor have we come close to spirituality to see how much it changes our world.

Now nature will slowly accustom us to this with all kinds of cataclysms, sudden changes in us and outside of us, so we will be convinced that there is nothing absolute in the world, everything is relative and depends only on our inner state, because our inner attitude to ourselves and to others actually paints a picture of the world for us. The whole picture of the world is like in a movie; I can order it with my inner change.

In a matter of seconds you can change absolutely everything, like ordering a movie on television, or logging on to the Internet and choosing a picture. It all depends on you because apart from you there is only a flashlight, and you paint the whole picture only with your qualities. It is all in you.

Question: But if I have a certain path, how can I draw another path for myself?

Answer: The path does not matter! It all depends on your attitude toward the path; it paints you a picture of the world. In fact, when you look at the world, you see your attitude toward it, toward the Creator, toward people. It is an attitude, it is not the world itself.

Everything we study: sounds, colors, all kinds of notes, words, images, parts of the world, times, any temporal, spatial, sensory axes along which we act, and the relationships between ourselves and others, all this is inside us. I can change it, own it arbitrarily, build a picture of the world, rearrange this mosaic as I like: countries, sides, perceptions, sensations. Everything is inside me. I can do all this arbitrarily however I wish. If I own it all, there is no problem.

Question: Is this what you do?

Answer: No, I do not do this, I do not need it. You have to be an important person to do that. But why? I am just talking about this possibility. We all need to put together a good picture of the world when the whole world would be like the light, the absolute. It is possible. But we need to put this mosaic together ourselves.
[339881]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Picture of the World” 5/26/10

Related Material:
Измени себя и мир изменится
By Changing Ourselves, We Are Changing The World
Switching the Channels of Your Own Perception

Filed under: Children, Crisis, Education, Globalization, Q&A | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 65

How Much Are Daily Corporeal Actions Connected to Spirituality?

We need to distinguish between the soul dressed in human form and requiring correction and the body. What we do throughout the day in relation to our surroundings, whether through our body or our animalistic and human desires, does not pertain to the Torah, spiritual progress, or the Creator. People lived before they knew about Torah and Mitzvot. They had partners, children, homes, and the means by which to make a living. None of that relates to spirituality.

Ordinary life disconnected from Kabbalah does not relate to spirituality. It is a bodily, corporeal existence in this world. While such life is not entirely disconnected from the spiritual world, since everything exists as “branches” stemming from spiritual roots, it can be compared to the desire to receive as it manifests in inanimate objects, plants, animals, and humans within this world. In its slow progression, it advances to the end of correction according to the universal timeline of creation.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 64
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 63
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 62

Filed under: Talks about the Steps of the Ladder | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 28

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “The Creator Is the Place”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

3rd part of the Lesson — The Book of Zohar, “Bo,” “There Was a Day When… Satan Also Came Among Them”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Selected Highlights

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Comment: You say that a person should develop in many ways. But as a rule, there is some association or community that builds a framework and walks within that framework all the time.

My Response: That is natural. These include religions, all kinds of spiritual practices, and everyday cultures of humanity. In this way, people create a reliable environment for themselves within which they exist in confidence, and it supports them.

But for a Kabbalist, it is like death. He needs to constantly develop, change, transform his environment, and feel highly unconfident so he would have a need to hold on to the Creator and the group. He has a need to find his support in bestowal and love for the others rather than in the notion “my house is my fortress.”

Question: Does it mean that “we only dream of peace”?

Answer: You bet! And you should not dream of it; it is bad. “We only dream of peace” when I am forced to come out of the state of rest, and not that I am pulled out of it. I exit this state on my own into the raging inner world where I feel completely lost every time, and it is precisely because of this that I am ready to cling even to love for the neighbor.

Question: Does it mean that the step your students are taking is one of the many steps ahead?

Answer: Yes, of course. And the entire humanity will go this way. We are only beginning to shake. Ahead of us are even bigger social and natural disasters. We will have no choice but to look for a true and serious decision.

There will be no escape. It is like an exploded volcano. Imagine that it is really erupting, approaching you, enclosing you, the day becomes night, and this will be for the next couple of years. The temperature drops to the negative 40 to 50 degrees. What can you do here? You can oppose these forces of nature only with the spiritual force. Only! You have nothing else.
[339542]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Efficiency of Combined Actions” 4/17/10

Related Material:
We Can Only Dream About Resting
Don’t Resist Change
The World Where “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Kabbalah Study, Religion, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Every morning, you give three hours of lessons, and throughout the day you record a vast amount of material. Some people think that when you receive energy through a crowd, you enjoy it, feel empowered, and rule over it.

Is it really possible to structure your schedule so that you enjoy yourself every day by supposedly channeling energy through yourself?

Answer: In truth, it is an immense pleasure to see thousands of people in front of me who want to reveal the upper world, spirituality, and the Creator, who want to unite and correct our state. I gain tremendous inspiration from this.

At the same time, when I look at my students on the screens in front of me, I see that some of them doze off, fall asleep, or are in various difficult states, disconnected from the material being taught.

Of course, I understand and love them. I was like that myself. Many times I wanted the same thing during lessons.

I absolutely do not want to say that every day, by giving lessons, I am making a sacrifice. Not at all! I feel immense inspiration and significance in these lessons because I know what they do for the world.

I know that thousands of people live around these lessons, that they are a source of energy for them. Without them, they would feel bad, would be unable to find themselves, would get stuck in depression, and would never think about the Creator. Life would feel heavy for them.

I am proud and grateful for the opportunity I have. And of course, the strength for this comes from above.
[339796]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Energy of the Crowd” 5/27/10

Related Material:
The Power of a Kabbalist
The Magic of the Lesson
Replenishment from the Spiritual Level

Filed under: Dissemination, Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

It would seem what the connection between love for one’s neighbor and love for the Creator is? But it only seems to us that we understand what it means to “love one’s neighbor as oneself.” In fact, it is not the kind of love we imagine.

In this world, everyone talks about loving people, but on an animal level. And we see that nothing comes of it except hate. If love for creatures follows from the desire to achieve love for the Creator through it, then it will be completely different. It will no longer lead to mistakes, to Nazi regimes, or to dictatorships under the guise of socialism and communism.

After all, love for the Creator obliges us to study the laws of nature and obey them. We will understand that there is someone above us controlling us, and according to His command, we will come to love our creations, and not because we wanted to do so out of a “kind heart.” This is the whole reason for Nazism, Socialism, etc.

To love one’s neighbor as oneself means to stop feeling that I am more important than any other person. For me, everyone becomes equally important as one body. Love for the Creator obliges me to come to such love for my neighbor otherwise, it will be Nazism.

Love for one’s neighbor must be of a spiritual level, otherwise it will result in hatred of people. After all, by loving some people, I will hate others even more.

Loving my neighbor as myself means giving to my neighbor the way I would give to myself if I were the most selfish person. If the main thing for me is to come to love the Creator, then I perceive love for creatures as a means.

Therefore, I understand that the love of creation has spiritual value, the value of the Creator. The Creator hides in the creations, which become His vestments and tools for comprehending the Creator. If I comprehend their desires, thoughts, and aspirations, then through them I can reveal the Creator, not in any other way.

There is no other way to reveal the Creator except through love for the creatures. It is only through people that I reveal Him.

It would be nice to write a book that talks about such love. It is impossible to imagine how much we do not feel and do not understand what love for creation is. It is the exact opposite of what we think. People are tired of listening to conversations about how to love each other. Everyone talks about loving people: all religions, the whole world. Of all of them, Ahmadinejad has succeeded the most in this.

Love is a tool for achieving unity, that is, the property of “One, singular, and only.” Our goal is to achieve the disclosure of the essence of this One within the union of broken fragments that are distant and hate each other. And love is the means to achieve that One thing.

When we come together in one soul, we get a huge desire that is 620 times more than what was originally created. It combines all love and all hate, all selfishness and all holiness, and we give all this to the Creator for His enjoyment.

Spiritual love is a union, but for the sake of union with the Creator, that is, in order to give Him a vessel for His disclosure. If you talk about such love, you would get the most fascinating novel. At least give people a hint of spiritual feelings of unity. How else can you touch their feelings because it is not with the same dry formulas as in mathematics: light / Kli / screen.

Einstein wrote the formula: e= mc², and who is impressed by it? No one still understands his theory of relativity. That is why it is so important to write a book about love, which is supposedly born in this world, but in fact does not relate to it at all.

Love of creation is a law of nature. A Kabbalist feels himself in the integral system of nature, encompassing all reality, all worlds, except for the Creator Himself, and therefore it is natural for him to fulfill this law. He sees the world from one end to the other, and therefore understands that in the end everyone will be obliged to join the integral system of nature.

Nowadays, there is a rapid acceleration of human development. Once again, we are on the verge of a large, multifaceted crisis that may manifest itself piecemeal in different areas of the world, or it may unfold everywhere at once because the world is interconnected.

And then it will become clear to everyone what is happening. A person learns the laws of nature only through blows, then he immediately clutches his head not knowing what to do: suddenly a hurricane hits him, extreme cold or heat, etc. From year to year, we see that nature is increasingly out of balance due to the fact that we develop selfishly, but do not develop connections between us that would correspond to our development.

In the end, everything must unite as it was originally in the system of Adam HaRishon before the split, both in spiritual form and in material form. Everyone should perceive their ten as a mini-universe. There is nothing but the ten: I have ten Sefirot, HaVaYaH, and the Creator, the animating force that sustains existence. And everything else is related to maintaining my animal body.

The main thing is the ten. If I try to realize in it everything that the powers of the Creator require of me, then I must succeed.

Just as the Torah talks about the spiritual world in allegorical language, in the form of a historical story, so a book about spiritual love can be built on an ordinary story about a couple of lovers: a guy and a girl. Such an example will touch every heart because everyone knows this feeling.

Gradually, from material love and hate, the book will lead to the realization that it is not really about that, but about a much higher relationship built on giving. It will tell you how this loving couple grows and rises.

This will be understandable and close to the reader. He will be carried away by this adventure and will  empathize with their mutual desire to raise their love to a level where it will not depend on the body, on selfish calculations.

From simple psychology, they will come to a separation from themselves, and this is already spiritual, where new sensations and new phenomena begin. In this way, a person will be sensorially involved in a spiritual experience.

We are all human beings and we are not strangers to material relationships. And from this material love, which is understandable to everyone, you can gradually climb up. It will be interesting and fascinating for people because this is no longer an abstract idea, but is connected with hormones, with the experiences of this world, and gradually the book will raise the reader to higher levels. This will happen naturally.
[248474]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Writings of the Last Generation”

Related Material:
Love for the Creator Is Perfect Love for Created Beings
Love that Egoists Are Not Familiar With
Looking For The Mysterious Unknown

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Suppose I see the group as either thriving or in some kind of dire state. Can I assess my progress by the way I perceive the group in one state or another? For example, if they are all striving toward the goal, does that relate to me or not?

Answer: What does “the group in a dire state” mean? There are ascents and descents, disagreements, confusion, objections, and moments when the yearning to move forward suddenly seems to pull backward. But these are essential elements of growth. How else can one advance?

I hear from our groups in different countries about all kinds of conflicts, and I receive seemingly unpleasant news. But I do not feel it as unpleasant; I simply understand that these are growing pains.

Growth cannot happen without difficulties or without mistakes. Every step forward is built on mistakes, on trying, on doing something incorrectly, and on recognizing where you went wrong. That is how you correct and move forward.

Why does it have to be this way? Because from the start, we are not making mistakes,, but are uncovering the evil within us, the flaws we were born with. These are not mistakes that we create ourselves but our egoism revealing this evil, our flaws.

So when a person does something for the first time and fails, these are not mistakes but the uncovering of their inherently flawed nature.
[339804]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Signs of Advancement 2” 3/11/10

Related Material:
The End of Growing Pains
The Basic Principle Of Spiritual Development
To a World of Love

Filed under: Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Every friend who is in the same boat has been chosen by the Creator. I must share in his troubles and obstacles. What should I do if it seems to me that he is drilling a hole in the boat?

Perhaps, as you said, it is time to leave this little boat and board the large ship called Bnei Baruch?

Answer: I think the most important thing is to simply hold onto each other. Otherwise we will get lost in this raging sea and our little boat will not save us.

Therefore, let’s put aside what we once thought was important and focus on what really matters: with my behavior in the group, I must create a positive force around me that will bind us together.

Let’s try to do this at least until the congress. We can test it and then talk about it.
[339809]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]”

Related Material:
In A Boat Through The Waves
Ten In One Boat
World In A Frantic Whirlpool

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →