All of the souls extend from the soul of Adam HaRishon, for after he sinned in the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, his soul divided into 600,000 souls (Rabash, Article 10, 1984 “What Is the Degree One Should Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate?”).

Adam HaRishon is a system of desires, which in the beginning were as one desire, and then shattered into 600,000 parts, then into many more parts, and more, so that in each of the created beings, there is some part of the common soul “Adam.”

Therefore, during our lives, and even during several life cycles, we need to try to change those egotistic desires that we reveal in ourselves into altruistic ones.

To do this, we must be in a group, among friends, learn correction from them, and they must learn from us, and through our efforts, we will help each other rise from egoism and obtain actions of bestowal and love.
[323428]
From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 1/2/24

Related Material:
The Shattering of the Unified System of Adam HaRishon
That Is How We Were Created
The 600,000 Faces Of The Common Soul

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: In the article “What Does the Rule, “Love Thy Friend as Thyself,” Give Us?,” Rabash explains that with the help of this rule, you can come to love for the Creator. Then why are there all the other actions and fulfillment of the commandments?

Answer: How else will we come to love for the Creator? We must move from love for the other to love for the Creator. We cannot develop this feeling in ourselves in any other way.

After you already have some direction of love for your friends for the Creator, the rest of the commandments will be fulfilled.

Question: If the main law of the Torah is “love your neighbor,” after implementing it can we fulfill all the other commandments? Or, on the contrary, do we complete all the commandments first and then come to love?

Answer: No, you need to do both. But the most important commandment is still “love your neighbor.”

Question: The article says: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Rabbi Akiva says: “It is a great rule in the Torah.” It follows that if we keep this rule (Klal), all the individual elements (Prat) are already included in it, i.e., we will come to these elements automatically, without any effort, and there is nothing more for us to do.

What is the order of our correction?

Answer: In principle, it does not matter what it is. The main thing is to do it. Try to be closer to others in your heart.
[323000]
From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/19/23

Related Material:
Love As The Law Of Nature
The Basis Of “Love Thy Friend As Thyself”
Earthly Love Is Worthless From The Start

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

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “Letter 29”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 6, “Cause and Consequence, ‘Seder Siba ve Mesubav,’” Item 34

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

3rd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic, “Preparation to ‘Life in the Ten,’ Convention”

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:MP3 Audio

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

Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “Is It Better Not to Have Expectations at All?”

Tis but a day we sojourn here below,
And all the gain we get is grief and woe,
Then, leaving our life’s riddles all unsolved,
And burdened with regrets, we have to go. …
O unenlightened race of humankind,
Ye are a nothing, built on empty wind!
Yea, a mere nothing, hovering in the abyss,
A void before you, and a void behind!
– Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat, #3 and #424

Omar Khayyam, a man who delved deep into the pursuit of meaning, concluded that everything he once cherished and lived for amounted to nothing. His realization echoes throughout his body of work, and it highlights the futility of his endeavors.

When we expand this perspective to encompass any person, it could be argued that recognizing life’s inherent nothingness is a significant tragedy. However, it also gives us mental readiness, understanding that every journey has a beginning and an end, and ultimately, everything is indeed nothing.

So, what then is “something”? It boils down to living in positive connection among each other, collectively acknowledging that the true meaning of life lies in acceptance. If we accept the given circumstances, we become satisfied with our lives.

But what if the desire for more persists? Wanting more is no virtuous pursuit. The essence of human life lies in understanding its limitations, reconciling with them, and not demanding more for ourselves. It is about trying to help others, accepting help in return, and thereby, existing.

Joy and happiness emerge as byproducts of this kind of existence. Ultimately, we come to realize that it is fruitless to expect anything more out of life.

Where does the Creator, i.e., the upper force of love and bestowal, fit into this picture? We find the Creator in the satisfaction we derive from the comforts we acquire in their measured and limited existence. Acknowledging and agreeing with the Creator’s design, without demanding more, then becomes our source of joy.

When we recognize life’s limitations, embrace them, and find contentment in the simplicity of existence, we discover true fulfillment. The Creator, then, is present in the agreement with the given circumstances and the rejection of surplus demands.

Filed under: New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “What Are Your Thoughts on Elon Musk’s Concern About the AI Threat?”

Elon Musk’s warning about the potential dangers of AI has sparked discussions about its risks and the need for regulation. Musk, deeply involved in AI through various companies, highlighted the significant threat that it poses, that it holds the potential to bring civilization to destruction. He emphasized the importance of government regulation before it might be too late.

Musk’s concerns echo broader anxieties about the future of AI and its unabated progress. The more we advance, the more a dystopian fear of machines turning against humans shifts from fantasy to a potential reality. We can see throughout history that human inventions, even seemingly positive ones, have had negative consequences.

Since human nature is egoistic, where we prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others, then our inventions, including AI, reflect our self-centeredness. While there might be positive outcomes from various human creations, since we are prone to exploit, manipulate and abuse each other for self-interest motives, such as gaining wealth and power, we then see how our technology likewise fuels these negative motions toward each other.

Our narrow egoistic perception greatly limits our understanding of reality, and this is why any kind of positive transformation of ourselves requires connecting to the forces dwelling in nature, beyond our minds and hearts, in order to let the laws of nature navigate our lives.

In addition to the threat of machines causing physical destruction in the world is also the known threat of technological unemployment and the idea that much of today’s workforce will find itself unemployed due to AI developments. I have already written and spoken extensively on that topic, that a post-work era has the potential to give rise to a new kind of work: to treat connection-enriching learning as work through which we gain a stipend that covers our life’s essentials. However, that too requires a paradigm shift in how we think about work: that work no longer defines our lives as it currently does for much of society, but rather work takes on a more necessary form, and positive human connection becomes our central engagement.

Regardless of changes in technology and work, we should nonetheless seek how to adjust our attitudes to each other, to again and again choose a motion of uniting above our divisive drives, and develop our systems of learning and social influence in order to do so. The more we do, the more we will transcend our narrow egoistic limitations and activate a broader movement toward a harmonious and peaceful world.

Filed under: New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: How can we attract the light of Hochma, clothe it with Hassadim, and receive it in a good way and not through suffering? Does it depend on us or on the readiness of the world?

Answer: It is written: “Thanks to righteous women, the children of Israel came out of Egypt.” So if not everything, then a lot depends on women. Therefore, I appeal to women so that we think about and strengthen this part of our Kli.

Naturally, as is customary in our organization, we have absolute and complete equality. We do everything that is necessary with the same effort, both women and men.
[323952]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/24, “Preparation to the Convention”

Related Material:
Correction of The World Depends on Women
Women—The Crucial Factor in Spiritual Development
My Greetings On International Women’s Day

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

A person was created with the egoistic desire to receive for oneself so that everything would be only for one’s own benefit. He considers only this. That is the purpose of his life.

But the purpose of creation is for a person to reach the highest level of creation, that is, to acquire the property of bestowal and love for the whole world. In this way, one reaches one’s full, absolute development.

Thus, two opposing currents meet here. The first is egoistic, when a person takes everything to himself; the second is altruistic when he must give everything from himself.

These two opposing forces exist in nature and determine everything that happens to us.
It is on this basis that we study the wisdom of Kabbalah, which helps us make the transition from egotistic desires for our sake to altruistic desires for the sake of the whole world.
[323367]
From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 1/2/24

Related Material:
Unifying The Two Forces Of Nature Within
Not For My Own Sake
Connecting The Creator And The Created Being

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

Advice to a person who has begun to study the wisdom of Kabbalah: “Do anything you want, just do not leave!” Do not leave the group, this society, this place where the Creator brought you from the very beginning and said: “This is your destiny! Here you can advance. You have been given this place, and I will wait for you at the end of the road.”

This is how you need to treat this opportunity given by the Creator, and it is very important to stick to this path and hold on to this environment as much as possible. I know from my own experience that sometimes a student has a burning desire to run away, to give up everything, but there is no choice, one must try to hold on.

Moving to another group or another ten is a big problem. After all, the environment has already made room for this person, and now one is obliged to fill it. The ten must work on him and connect him with itself, like an organ with a body.

We know how complex and dangerous an organ transplantation is, and what complex preparatory work and subsequent rehabilitation it requires until the foreign organ takes root and starts working like a native one. The same thing happens to a person when changing tens.

The Creator organizes the ten and the best conditions for advancement for us. But we think that we can change it as we want. Of course, in our egoistic perception of reality, we see it in this way. But in fact, this is wrong. We must take this very seriously.

I do not know now whether this will be a strict condition until the very end of the correction because before us there are stages that no group in this world has ever gone through. But for now, we must try to tie ourselves to the ten in such a way that the departure of any friend feels like the cutting off of an organ from the body.
[323587]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/23, Writings of Rabash “What Does It Mean that Moses Was Perplexed about the Birth of the Moon in the Work?”

Related Material:
Hold on to Every Moment of the Path
In the Same Direction
The Beginning of Spiritual Work

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

Question: How or through what action do we accustom ourselves to prayer so that our hearts agree?

Answer: We explore our thoughts and desires and try to bring them closer to each other.

Question: Are there any example of how to do this?

Answer: When you hear what your friends say, try to be with them in your heart.

Question: The best state for my friends is when they are in faith above reason. Then they have no claims against the Creator. How can I help them have faith above reason? Or is this still a group action? What means are there besides prayer?

Answer: Nothing exists except prayer. You and each of us must listen to the friends and be with them with all our hearts because connection happens precisely in the heart.
[323523]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Understanding What Is Written in Shulchan Aruch”

Related Material:
Nothing Will Help But Prayer
The Only Weapon Is Prayer
The Work Of The Creator Is Done By The Creator

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