Question: How can I understand that I am going backward relative to the group?

Answer: You have to look at your friends, see their actions and properties, and then you will discover how far behind you are. Checking whether you are going forward or backward can be only relative to the group.

Hold on to each other. You have no other way. Try to combine all the efforts of the ten. It is impossible to teach this.

You should talk and think about the greatness of the Creator, how much He wants to attract you to Himself and to create a place for you inside Himself. In this way you will advance.

Question: What is this state when “he will not turn back to folly”?

Answer: When he realizes that everything he is doing is folly and is on the verge that both the Creator and his friends can simply stop interacting with him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/23, “The Need for the Creator’s Salvation”

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“What is repentance like? When He who knows the mysteries will testify that he will not return to folly.” …

 In other words, when will one be certain that he has been granted complete repentance? For this, one is given a clear sign: “When He Who knows the mysteries testifies that he will not return to folly.” This means that he will attain the revelation of the face, at which time one’s own salvation will testify that he will not return to folly. (Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 56). 

Question: What is “testimony”? Does a person have a new basis for making decisions in order to evaluate their actions differently?

Answer: The Creator shines a special light upon a person from a certain degree, and this indicates that he will not fall below this degree.

He has a new foundation, which depends on the light of the Creator influencing him.

And above that he has freewill, and he must climb the degrees of the spiritual worlds by himself. He himself is now looking for ways to advance further and continue his journey and his ascent.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/23, “The Need for the Creator’s Salvation”

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Question: There is a feeling that we run away from our work all the time. How do we not run away from disturbances? How can we rise above the necessary, and how can we raise the necessity? And what is the difference between them?

Answer: The main thing is to be in connection with your friends more and more until all the points of action build the correct line in front of you.

Question: Is it possible to determine exactly what we are raising and what we are rising above?

Answer: We rise above our egoistic demands, feelings, sensations, and goals. And we raise our striving to the spiritual.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/23, “The Need for the Creator’s Salvation”

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Question: Is it true that all our failures are new Kelim (vessels)?

Answer: Both successes and failures are all new. We must treat both equally.

The most important thing is to gather them together, to understand that they all come from the Creator, and to wish to connect them with your future correct state.

Question: I can’t let go of the fear of losing the ten and the spiritual path because without the ten I am nobody. How can I deal with this fear?

Answer: That’s right. Without a ten you are nobody. You can’t fight fear alone either, only through the ten. You need to hold on to your friends, and fear will help you not let them go. Fear is good; it is help from the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/23, “The Need for the Creator’s Salvation”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I overcome my gambling addiction?“

The attraction to gambling stems from a strong feeling of lacking connection with fate.

What is a lack of connection with fate? It is a lack of a harmonious connection between people and nature, or to a pathway to such a goal.

At the basis of all of our desires is a desire to connect with the source of our lives, the force of love, bestowal and connection that created and sustains us, and which can fulfill us completely.

We are on a developmental course to discover that force, but we do not all know about that goal or about the process we are in toward its attainment.

We thus wish to know our fate, the process we are in, what is rooted in nature and the plan by which nature operates.

Accordingly, by gambling, we feel like scientists in a lab. We express our desire to reveal the formula by which nature and humanity operate.

I understand and feel gamblers, even though I am not a gambler myself and I have never held any attraction to gambling. My wife, however, an adult lady, has an interest in playing various gambling-style games. It stems from searching for the force of fate that works on us and if we will bring people an opportunity to meet that force, then they will feel it.

It might seem as if an obsessive gambler just wants to make money fast, but it is not about the money. They can happily lose and win money, so it is not about losing or gaining. Rather, internally, the gambling addict seeks connection with the upper force that is operating on us at every moment. There is a spiritual aspect to it, as there is with all games.

What is the spiritual aspect to games? Games are actions in which their players rise from one level to another. When we play games, we do not know their outcomes. That is how life is. In such a sense, we could say that a scientist conducting various experiments or research is a kind of gambler.

We behave likewise in many areas of our lives. If we wish to progress on safe grounds, then we need to detach ourselves from the idea of fate and enter into a gamble.

In terms of overcoming a destructive gambling addiction, then it is written that the Torah heals everyone. I recommend that anyone addicted to gambling open and read the books of Kabbalah. The method of Kabbalah provides a process of gambling, i.e., undertaking risks, experiments and searches to find and feel a certain spark that exists within us. It leaves us on the edge of our seats, so to speak, in that we could either lose that spark or increase its intensity at every moment. By applying ourselves to the Kabbalistic method, we gain a lot of fulfillment while acquiring more knowledge, awareness and wisdom about our lives, and we regularly engage in a game to progress ourselves to greater and higher levels of perception of reality.
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Based on “Ask the Kabbalist” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 18, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash.

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Question: What does the concept of kindness without any additions mean?

Answer: It is an absolute, pure good without any egoistic additions to the extent that we can isolate it and hold only on to it.

Question: How can we move from egoistic to pure love in the ten? Do we do it ourselves, or does the Creator transition us due to our requests?

Answer: As much as we want to be in a real non-egoistic connection between us, we are closer to the Creator. He is correcting our connection.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 8/17/23, “To Come to Feel Others”

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Everyone in the group has various temptations that distract them from the spiritual path. In order not to stray from the correct path you need to rely on your friends; otherwise, you will not be able to sustain and go straight to the goal.

Although they have the same temptation, if you hold on to each other and go precisely this way, choosing the spiritual environment all the time, you will definitely get to the goal.

At the same time, you should not put pressure on your friends, but only show them how committed you are to the goal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/23, “The need for the Creator’s salvation”

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Hasidism is a trend built on the exaltation of the teacher, the exaltation of the Creator. And a Kabbalist, besides this, also has a critical attitude toward a teacher because a person who studies Kabbalah consists of two properties: egoism and a point in the heart directed against the ego.

The fact is that the egoistic property of the Hasid is ready to submit to the teacher, just as small animals serve a person and they feel good next to him.

I remember when I began to study Kabbalah, literally a year or two later I met my friend, who by that time had moved to America, to the Lubavitcher Rebbe: “Michael, I found a Rebbe! I found a teacher!” He said this with such enthusiasm that I became envious: “And me? I don’t have any of this. And he is so happy, overflowing; he found the whole world.”

The next day I came to my teacher Rabash and told him everything. I was young, independent and said everything as it is: “I am, of course, uncomfortable in front of you, but I don’t feel that I have found a teacher that I am so happy that it fills me and I have everything in the world. I do not have anything. I didn’t find anything, I’m always under pressure, searching. In my life I have already gotten used to this, but why are the paths so different?

He replied: “You were given a good lesson from above—the feeling that you really have nothing in your hands.”

And it will get worse and worse until the person really screams, demands with all his might, feeling: either death or a decision. There can be no other. But to reach this point, he must invest a lot. He should not wait until it manifests itself, but put pressure on it all the time.

It’s very hard. It takes a lot of nerves, many, many years. All this applies to those who have a point in the heart. And those who do not have it, they have no complaints at all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hasidism” 10/1/11

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Explain to me please, how can intelligent, thinking, educated people agree that a woman is made of a man’s rib, that snakes can speak, that there are magical apples in a paradise and you can eat them and know the truth, and many, many other things like that on every page of the Bible.

Where does our reason disappear? We clearly see that there is no such thing in nature. Why do we agree? This is why I am an atheist since I cannot agree with this. How do you, an intelligent, educated person, explain this to yourself? (Oleg)

My Response: I explain it to myself very simply. I just delve into what the Bible says, sink my teeth into it, and dig into it. There I find completely different explanations, different layers that amaze me. They do not simply satisfy me, but amaze me with their explanation and depth.

I discover such continuous, consecutive findings that I see that for those who do not want to attain them, our world, even without a biblical or some other interpretation, remains a mystery and worthless anyway. But the one who digs into this text and understands its allegory, really reveals the upper world for himself.

Question: In your program “Secrets of the Eternal Book” you explain this a lot. But for those who are asking now: What is this surface layer for when they write “snake,” or when they write “a woman is made of a man’s rib”? Why confuse humanity? Can they just say, “Let’s look inside” and to describe what is inside?

Answer: People looked at the root of the action, at the root of the problem, and therefore described it this way.

Question: So, they look at the root of the problem and write “serpent.” What problem do they see?

Answer: They see that from all our world, a similarity to this action can produce an image of a serpent.

Question: What action are we talking about?

Answer: That it lies, that it thinks only of himself, slanders, and so on. The feeling of the inner forces of the world leads them to such a language. Basically, when they were writing it, they felt these inner forces and desires.

Question: Can we say that this is behind every word of the Torah?

Answer: Absolutely everything is like that! Behind every word.

Question: What is the Torah about? Let’s say people do not know. They think that this is really a body of laws, that it is such a historical book that talks about the history of the people. It actually is there.

Answer: All of it is also there, of course.

Question: The commandments are also there: what to do, what not to do, let’s say. In general, what is the Torah written about?

Answer: It is about a person, about his place in nature, about his history, and his future.

Question: When you say “about a person,” is it about every person?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So how should I look at it; is it an external text or is it about me?

Answer: It is about you.

Question: Is this how I should start reading?

Answer: Yes. In general, this book itself is a guide for you and the world in which you exist.

Question: “The world,” do you mean this world in which I live now? In which we live with you?

Answer: Of course, yes.

Question: This book that was written 3,000 years ago, is it about today’s world?

Answer: Of course.

Question: What does it say? What is it really calling me to?

Answer: It urges you not to stay in a limited vision of this world, but to try to reveal it more deeply.

Question: What will I see?

Answer: The forces that control you and the world around you. Then you will see, discover, reveal, and get acquainted with a single force that is concealed behind the manifestation of these various forces.

Question: Does it mean that this book leads me to this single force? The more I look into it, remove the layers, the closer I will come to this single force. Is that the purpose of this book?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, are we talking about the Creator?

Answer: Of course.

Question: The last question then. Oleg asks. He looks at it, of course, the way he sees everything around. He says: “We do not see this in nature.” This is his opinion. Such a single-layered opinion so far. But still, please tell me, what is the “Garden of Eden”? What kind of force is this?

Answer: The Garden of Eden, paradise, is a state of a person when he attains all the layers of nature in depth. This is the feeling of a person. The fulfillment he receives at that time is called “Garden of Eden,” a “tree of good and evil” and so on.

Question: What does it mean that a woman is made of a man’s rib? Eve was made out of Adam’s rib.

Answer: A man and a woman here represent two parts of the universe. The woman is more lively, intelligent, and I would say insidious. But at the same time, she fulfills the program of creation. She pushes the man to be more active. Which, in principle, is true up to our day.

Now it is still difficult for us to understand where the role of a man is here and where the role of a woman is here. But, in principle, they are interconnected in such a way as to reveal in all the actions of nature, the force, role, plan, and purpose of the Creator.

Question: Then what is called a “rib”? What is it?

Answer: A rib is that part of the desire of a person, of a man, which can be combined with the desire of a woman and correctly coexist with her. That is the part in a man that can become the basis of a woman.

Question: When you say “man,” what do you mean?

Answer: The quality of bestowal. And a woman is the quality of reception.

Question: The last question is a serpent; what is a serpent?

Answer: A serpent is a cunning one, I would say, in which the Creator hides, through which He shows a man and a woman how compatible they can be only in a certain connection with each other. Therefore, such a connection of a man and a woman with the help of a serpent is the beginning of life.

Question: When you say “serpent,” is it a force, is it a desire? What is it?

Answer: It is the force of desire.

Question: Why is he whispering to a woman? Here he comes to her and whispers: “Come on, do the forbidden, tell him…” Why is he egging on if the Creator is within it, as you say?

Answer: Because you cannot do this in a direct way, but only through deception, as it were.

But deception is actually a holy deception. Not in the name of deceiving and stealing, profiting, taking possession of something else, and in someone else. Because the very nature of creation is false, and it is necessary to deceive it. It is necessary to bring a person from a state of evil to a state of good, so the serpent does a big serious work.

That is, our world directs to evil in order to come to evil, and here it directs to evil in order to come to good.

Comment: It means that the serpent performs a great function.

My Response: A serpent?! It is the basis of life.

But to this day we are experiencing these problems and cannot understand where this serpent is, how to pull it out of us, remove it, and how to get rid of it. It surrounds us and is inside us. It rubs with us all the time.

Question: What is the future for the serpent and for us? Is it going to whisper like that, are we going to follow it like that? Will everything keep happening like this?

Answer: No, we have to reveal the true picture of the world, and then we can correct the serpent.

Question: What is the true picture? What should we reveal?

Answer: We must all together grab this “serpent” that is between us and hold it until it agrees to work together with us, and act together with us. When it says: “I agree,” we will believe it. And the world will suddenly become different.

Question: You say: “So that it would work with us,” and then where would we come with it, all together?

Answer: To reveal the truth, which is in being in the serpent’s wisdom, but for the sake of others.

Question: What did you mean by “serpent’s wisdom”?

Answer: This is wisdom.

Question: Why did you call it the serpent’s one? It sounded very beautiful!

Answer: Because the serpent has it. It is located between all the elements of nature and is ready to connect everything in order to take the best that each part of the element of nature has for the sake of others.

Question: Is this the serpent? So, is it something high?

Answer: There is nothing higher than it.

Question: Can the serpent be called something else? We called it strength and desire. What else can you call a serpent?

Answer: It is the upper wisdom.

Question: Why is it said that “it should crawl on the ground”? When it sinned, whispered to Eve, it was told: “From now on you will not walk, you will crawl on the ground and eat dust,” and so on. Why?

Answer: Because it told the person what the cause of his suffering was, and showed the person the correct solution.

Comment: It should be praised for this, but instead…

My Response: The fact is that the serpent must. The Bible does not seem to say this, but it must tell and show a person, reveal the future to a person, that is, bring Adam and Eve to the Garden of Eden. To the same Garden of Eden in which they were born and developed, but in a corrected form.

Question: So, after everything that happened, and there was a fall into our world from this Garden of Eden, do we need to go through this world with all its suffering and wars and climb back into the Garden of Eden? Is this the work of the serpent?

Answer: Yes. Then the Garden of Eden will be revealed all over the earth. Forever.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/7/23

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