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: Are you saying that there is no connection between corporeality and spirituality?

Answer: Yes, because they exist at different sides of the screen. Practically, we live in the same domain, but we perceive this world and that world in polar opposite ways: this world through the lens of egoism and the other through altruism.

Spirituality is perceived in completely different properties. If I sense this world in the property of receiving for my own sake, with the intention to receive pleasure for myself, then the upper world is the intention to bestow, to fulfill and give pleasure to others.

Question: Does it mean that everything depends on a person’s perception? Is something corporeal also spiritual, but just a part of some kind of picture?

Answer: Of course. What else is there besides the light and the desire? The light created the desire, and whatever is happening with the desire is done by the light. After all, our world did not appear from somewhere unknown. It is the final descent of spiritual states from above to below.

Question: Why do you distinguish between these two realms when you say “You can ask me questions concerning spirituality, but you should turn to other people if you have questions about corporeality.”

Answer: The thing is that the corporeal world where we try to work directly with egoism is doomed to failure and problems from the start. Therefore, I do not want to work with it.

A person can live in it comfortably only if he fully aspires to the upper one. Then whatever one is unwillingly obliged to do to maintain one’s existence in this world will be beneficial for them. Otherwise, there is no way. Any excess will do just harm. Although it is hard for us to agree with it, this is the most optimal existence.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Difference between the Material and the Spiritual” 9/25/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 178

Can Criticism in the Group Weaken in the Same Way as Slander?

No. There should be criticism, but it must be objective and constructive, such that, as a result, people gather to discuss a problem and ways to improve and correct it. Without criticism and without seeing the evil, it is impossible to progress.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 39 “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?” (1990) (8.7.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Various Lamentations

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Question: What does it mean to build an internal system?

Answer: One must build both internal and external systems must be built so that one’s innermost thought is always focused on connection with the Creator.

Through every action, every thought, and every desire within me now, we are connected together through the thought, desire, or action that I am currently performing.

Is it possible to remain in this all the time? It is very difficult. It becomes possible only after the Creator truly shines His light on you. Try to remain in this all the time, that is, to provide the required sum of effort so that He will reveal Himself to you even slightly, and then you will see Him and will remain in this all the time.

How can you perform these exercises constantly and with high frequency given that the feeling fades in an instant and you have to go back to it again? It is said that you must make the internal and the external preparations for this.

The internal preparation consists of constantly thinking about this whenever you are able to think. In the external form, there should be all kinds of signs around you reminding you of the need to connect with Him. You are constantly inventing something for yourself, looking for all kinds of aids that can bring you back again to this point—the point of connection with the Creator with the help of some external sign.

Internal and external training truly gives a person the opportunity to accumulate the sum of efforts in the search for the connection with the Creator. Constantly entering into all kinds of thoughts, actions, desires, circling around one point day and night, as a yearning seeker seeks. “I want a connection with You.”

Question: Can it become a habit?

Answer: No. There is an element of habit here, but habit remains at the previous degree. Each time you will be given a point of connection with the Creator at a higher degree, and habit does not exist there.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/26, Rabash, “What Are Holiness and Purity, in the Work?”

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And they turned and went up to the mountain, and they came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out. And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hand[s] and brought it down to us, brought us back word, and said, “The land the Lord, our God, is giving us is good.” But you did not want to go up, and you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, your God (The Torah, Deuteronomy, 1:24-1:26).

Entering the land means changing one’s intention. Everything outside the land of Israel represents a desire with which you work for your own sake while standing outside its boundaries. Everything within the land of Israel represents a desire with which you work not for yourself, but for others.

You murmured in your tents and said, “Because the Lord hates us, He took us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand[s] of the Amorites to exterminate us.” Where shall we go up? (The Torah, Deuteronomy), 1:27-1:28).

When we study Kabbalah, we feel that we must rise to the quality of bestowal now, come out of ourselves, shed our egoistic skin, and belong to the surrounding space, to the world.

But what must we do with ourselves in order to feel such a state?! We do not understand it! That is the problem! The children of Israel, those who wish to attain the spiritual degree, must pass through precisely this stage.

Moreover, they are ready for it, since they have reached the level of Bina, and now they must rise from it to Keter, and begin transforming their egoism into “receiving for the sake of bestowal”.

They acquired the level of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal” during the forty years of wandering in the desert, and now they must enter the state called “the land of Israel,” “receiving for the sake of bestowal,” meaning to completely change their attitude toward themselves and toward the surrounding world.

What is to be done? A problem arises. Therefore the people stand and complain. In other words, all the qualities within a person resist it because they do not know how to ascend to the degree that lies ahead.

The state of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal” is different. I do not actually bestow anything to anyone, nor do I work against my nature. I simply come out of it, and rise above my egoistic levels.

I am driven to this by the suffering I experience along the way because the greater the suffering, the fewer the desires. If I suffer from something, I move away from it, and stop dealing with it. My egoism helps me rid myself of it; it itself pushes me toward the quality of Bina: “What does it cost you to give up your desires? The less you want, the fewer problems you have.”

I completely annul myself, stop using my desire, Malchut, and rise above it in every respect. This is the quality of Bina, when practically I want nothing, and I elevate myself from Malchut to Bina.

But when I approach the land of Israel, an inversion takes place. I must perceive everything around me in a completely different way.

Now, from the quality of Bina, I must descend once again into Malchut, into my egoistic desires, and with their help take everything possible from the world in order to pass it on to others, transforming these desires into goodness for them.

I have this ability, I was born this way, and I exert my utmost effort to carry out this action. I use immense egoism, and employ all my skill in order to “break open the bank,” and give it to others.

How can I activate my egoism, my enormous desires and capabilities, in order to bestow to others, when in fact I wanted to take all of it from them? Here I am dealing with the inverse use of my evil, and I convert it into good, while I absolutely do not understand or feel either the reward, the likelihood of success, or the result of the action.

The entire “people” are the desires of a person that ascends to a new degree. Therefore it is natural that all one’s desires rebel as the person stands before entering that degree.

While in an egoistic state, they longed to reach the promised land because it seemed good to them. After all, when I work with my egoism, it is clear to me what needs to be done.

But here I pass through stages of complete detachment from my egoism, and now I must bring it back again in order to work for others. But for whom? For the most repulsive, most hated people (desires), that is, seemingly to my own detriment.

Yet until I attain the level of Bina, it is impossible to understand this. This is exactly what the spies teach the people.
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From KabTV’s “The Secrets of the Eternal Book”

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Question: They say that the Ari was Mashiach ben Yosef. What does that mean?

Answer: The correcting force called “Mashiach ben Yosef” carries out the preparation before the “coming” (revelation) of the correcting force “Mashiach ben David.” Yosef points to the Sefira Yesod, and David to Malchut. Yesod prepares its influence on Malchut in order to correct it.

The Mashiach is not a person, not the Ari himself, not his physical body, but his teaching, his method, his force. It is a soul that operated in the common system of souls in such a way as to open a path for the light and illuminate all souls with it.

It stands on the path of the light from above downward, connects the higher corrected souls of the Kabbalists of the past with those souls that are still uncorrected, receives the light in its higher clothing and clothes it in a form suitable for our souls, distributes it by degrees, and brings the light closer to our souls.

Therefore, starting from the Ari and onward, souls began a mass correction, as in the times of the Baal Shem Tov, with the emergence of Hasidism. In this way humanity began to advance spiritually.

If not for the Ari with his method, there would be no Baal Shem Tov with his Hasidic movement (which gave rise to numerous Kabbalistic groups among the people). And without the Baal Shem Tov there would be no Baal HaSulam, and without Baal HaSulam there would be none of us today studying Kabbalah.

These stages are called the “steps of the Mashiach.”  In other words, it is the development of the method and practice of correction toward its final completion. We are the first to implement the final stage of correction, because we use the force of Mashiach ben Yosef in order to attain the revelation of the force Mashiach ben David and to correct Malchut itself, the general assembly of all souls with a common screen.

Question: Will a person with a special soul appear in our world who implements the method of correction and who will be called Mashiach ben David?

Answer: It is possible that Mashiach ben David is our common desire, which in the end will carry out this action, and not a particular individual. We are not interested in the people who lived in this world—the Ari, Baal HaSulam or even Rashbi—but in their influence within the system of souls. We are speaking about a soul that reveals the light of correction to us.

And we act in the same way. Together we create a system of souls in order to draw the light from above and pass it on to all the uncorrected souls. We perform an action that already belongs to the Malchut of David.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/11, Baal HaSulam, Preface “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 177

Is Speaking Slander About the Creator Worse Than Condemning Him?

Without a doubt. We condemn the Creator when it is how we feel, due to our lack of correction, and it is our natural reaction. If we are dissatisfied with our life, it is considered that we condemn the Creator, but we should not discuss it. The worse we feel, the more we say that the Creator is bad. However, we say this out of our suffering, and then gradually we correct this feeling, see the evil came to us for a certain purpose, and attain the correct attitude to Him.

However, if we hear slander about the Creator from the outside, we add negativity to ourselves from the outside. The purpose of the group is to unite and gather a good attitude to the Creator, an attraction to Him, a desire for Him, from one another so that we will increase our desire. Let us hope that we never hear slander about the Creator or about the goal from our friends. Doing so means receiving a bad influence from the outside. A single bad rumor can spoil much work that was already done. Therefore, this is a very important matter.

For this reason, there is even concern about seeing a person who became weaker and shows contempt in a group. This does not refer to someone who became weaker due to tiredness from heavy effort that they invested in the work. Such a person sleeps a lot, and it is evident that they are drained because they are in constant effort day and night, and they have no time or energy and collapse from exhaustion. Such a case evokes respect, because it is clear that they truly work with all of their strength. However, if we simply begin to show contempt toward the group, we might be capable of exerting effort, but do not want to and even justify ourselves. Then, it becomes difficult for the society to tolerate us. We might be a decent and intelligent person, but our behavior interferes greatly. It becomes a bad example even without a single word being spoken.

Slander is not necessarily speech itself. It is anything that arouses contempt for the goal in another person that weakens them. Speech also means something we read or see, not only something we hear.

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