Question: A man is walking through the market, and a dealer in fighting roosters shouts to him: “Buy my rooster, he fights to the death.”

“Why do I need a rooster that fights to death? I need one who fights to win,” the buyer replies.

Basically our whole life is full of fighting: small and big fights and so on. Are we fighting to the death or to victory after all?

Answer: If we only knew. The most important thing for us is to understand what is required of us.

Question: So by and large we don’t know the purpose?

Answer: No, we don’t know.

Question: Then how should we conduct these battles? Let it be our cockfights, but how should we conduct them?

Answer: We just need to imagine what we want to win, what will happen when we, we or our rivals, enemies, win. It is only going to get worse. Along the way, we will destroy many of both. As a result, there will be devastated countries, people killed, and so on.

Question: Is this a victory or defeat?

Answer: Whether it will be a victory, I do not know.

Question: So often, and maybe even almost always, our victories turn out to be our defeats?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, what will turn out to be a victory then?

Answer: When we realize that we need to get closer, connect, and put things in order together in ourselves and in the world around us.

Question: Without capturing anyone or anything? Without threatening anyone?

Answer: No, those who capture usually lose.

Question: Do we defeat ourselves with this?

Answer: Yes, victory is a victory over oneself.

Question: Can we say that every moment in life is a fight?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You once said that every day, every moment, should be spent as if it were the last.

Answer: Yes. A person should be aware of how long he has to live, whether he will live to the end of the day or not. What will happen if he does not live; with what calculation he will leave this world? That is the way you have to live.

Comment: Usually a person does not ask such a question.

My Response: But it is not clear why. After all, for all of us there is the beginning of the day and the end of the day. So why can’t there be a beginning of life and an end of life.

Question: Now, in a moment? Do I really have to keep this up all the time? It’s impossible to live like this!

Answer: On the contrary, it is very good.

Question: I should think about what I will do because at the end of the day it is not known what will happen to me?

Answer: Yes, everyone can do it. You just need to train a person to look at it normally, and then he can do a lot of useful things in his life.

Question: And what conclusions do you think he will draw then: How am I going to live this day if it’s going to be my last?

Answer: Think about your attitude to everyone, to the world in such a way as to leave a good impression of yourself in the world.

Question: What does a good impression mean to the world?

Answer: To do as much good in the world as possible.

Question: What is the benefit to the world?

Answer: The benefit to the world is the good connection between people that remains after you.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/4/24

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Question: Sometimes it seems that you exert a lot of effort but the Creator, on the contrary, moves away from you. What does this mean? Does it mean that the Creator wants you to put more effort or that perhaps the efforts are incorrect?

Answer: No, the Creator has actions that are similar to the movement of a fleeing deer, as it is said: “My beloved is like a gazelle.”

It seems to us that the Creator is running away from us, but it is similar to how a deer runs away from a hunter and turns back to see if the hunter is chasing it or not.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Completing the Labor”

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Question: At what point does the attainment of the upper world take place?

Answer: Attainment of spirituality takes place when the Creator wants it to be revealed to a person. There is no definite moment.

Question: What should we strive for more: to correct our nature or to attain?

Answer: It is the same thing. Correction is the means, and attainment is the consequence. The degree of attainment depends only on a person: how much he wants to rise and become like the Creator.

Question: What do we attain when we connect with the Creator?

Answer: We attain our common Kli, the influence of the Creator on it, and how our common Kli in turn affects the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “All the Worlds”

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Question: What should the prayer be like so that a person receives mercy from the Creator?

Answer: Prayer should come from the heart.

Comment: But we always pray from the heart.

My Response: Precisely this “always” kills everything. The quality of prayer depends only on your heart, on whether you are thinking about how to turn to the Creator.

Prayer is an effort. But it depends on when and in what.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Completing the abor”

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Now you can understand that sleep [Tardema] in Gematria is “translation” [Targum]. It is also the letters Tered MA [MA will descend]...(Rashbi, Zohar for All, “Heaven and Earth”).

Question: What is the significance of the numerical value of words?

Answer: Language is a code that contains many different symbols.

We know that the Kabbalistic sources are written in Aramaic and Hebrew. And here we are also talking about the fact that there is a simple language, a written language, and a numerical language, which all indicate how words can be combined to form other words.

This is a very broad concept including how letters form words, how words form sentences, and how we can use sentences to manage the world.

The numerical value of a word implies that I can represent the word as a number or a specific set of numbers.

Question: So, could the Torah be written in the form of numbers?

Answer: Of course. How do programmers compose instructions for a computer? They write various letters, symbols, and then input them into the machine. The machine, understands these symbols, reads them, and executes the program.

Question: The thing is, the letter itself appears as a combination of certain symbols and has a specific form that expresses the relationship of forces. But what does the number mean?

Answer: The number indicates on what level these forces operate. So when a Kabbalist reads that some character in the Torah lived for 900 years, it signifies the spiritual level of that character.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 1/21/24

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Even [stone] is called “faith” (stones to weigh with) (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 170, “You Shall Not Have in Your Pocket a Big Stone”).

Question: It is said: “Let there not be in your pocket a great stone or a small stone.” Does this mean that there is a preferable level of working with faith: above it or without it?

Answer: You do not need to pay attention to whether the stone is light or heavy. You need to learn to handle any load with faith above reason.

A person should always be prepared to have a stone with which he can weigh his wrong thoughts. And it does not matter what it is: big or small.

Question: Does this mean that we take these stones from the outside and not from our acquisitions?

Answer: We take these stones from our egoism.

Question: What does it mean that faith must correspond to the will to receive?

Answer: The point is that you answer any questions that arise in your mind based on faith, faith above reason. Therefore, you should ask the Creator to shine His light upon you, your egoism, and your desire, and then you will be able to be in faith above reason.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “You Shall Not Have in Your Pocket a Big Stone”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Are Revealed and Concealed in the Work of the Creator?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 3, Part 10, Item 55

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Body and Soul”

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Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “What Are Your Thoughts and Needs to Be Happy?”

There is a parable about three brothers who saw Happiness sitting in a pit. One came and asked Happiness for money, and he received it. Another asked for a beautiful wife and received one too.

The third bent over the pit. “What do you need?”, Happiness asked.

The man asked, “What do you need?”

“Brother, get me out of here,” Happiness requested.

The brother extended his hand, pulled Happiness out of the pit, turned around, and walked away. And Happiness followed him.

The parable shows us that happiness followed the brother who demanded nothing, and who did a good deed, providing a service to happiness. I do not think that this should be interpreted as a condition for happiness to follow us though, nor that we should have no demands.

I think that happiness depends on each person’s fate. We each behave according to what we are served, and we either give away happiness or demand it for ourselves. Most importantly, we should agree with it.

In practice, we cannot change. Maybe the upper force can sometimes enact a change according to our earnest request, but we ourselves cannot personally change anything.

It is not easy, but we can reach a state where we do not like demanding happiness solely for ourselves and not wishing it upon others. Also, if we wish happiness upon others, why? It is usually because we calculate that we also gain happiness as a result. If we were not to gain from our seemingly positive wish upon others, then we would have no such wish. There is no way out of this self-centered loop, since the egoistic desire for self-benefit is human nature.

I do not think that we can find happiness. Rather, we need to create happiness. That is, we need to place ourselves in a state where we know exactly how to make happiness reveal itself, and we will then feel it.

What is happiness? Happiness is the feeling that our life was successful, and I think that this feeling comes to us closer toward the end of our lives.

Life itself is constant work, i.e., when we seek ways to rebuild our lives again and again so that it brings the happiness that we imagine. Gradually, we shift from imagining happiness for ourselves and instead wish it upon others. Moreover, we find the meaning of our lives in such a vector: “from me to others.” Through this vector, we can reach a conclusion of happiness. It is constant and incessant work, and we would be wise to seek the understanding of how to do it.

We likely encounter myriad disturbances on such a path, but the key to enduring it is that we imagine that path, and then, as it is said, “the road surrenders to the one who walks it.” So if happiness is following us, it does not mean that we are happy. We rather need to constantly work to make others happy, which is no easy task. However, it does not matter whether or not it is easy. Nothing is easy in life, but that is the way to a meaningful and happy life.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we discuss two paths of development: the path of light and the path of darkness. The path of light is when we bring light to other people, and the path of darkness is when we cannot and do not want to. “Cannot” and “do not want” are one and the same in this case.
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Question: When spiritual and material desires are so intermixed that it is hard to distinguish them, what should we do about it?

Answer: I think this will gradually sort itself out and you will see which desires are spiritual and which are material.

Question: It seems material desires are pulling spiritual desires along with them. Is this an illusion?

Answer: No, this is indeed so. Material desires gradually turn into spiritual ones.

Do not worry, it will all be corrected.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Rewarded—I Will Hasten It”

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