Dear Michael Laitman,

You have been a replacement for me for radio and TV for a long time. I have been with you for three years. I want to ask a question, Where do desires come from?

Moreover, such desires are shameful to admit. And sometimes you cannot get rid of them. They were not in me, generally, I have a completely different character. Please tell me how to deal with such desires that are not good? 

Answer: I do not know what “bad desires” means.

Comment: A person is somehow uncomfortable with the desires that suddenly arise in him.

My Response: Well, desires arise. Man is a complex animal after all. He consists of an animal part, a human part, and possibly a spiritual part.

Question: Meaning, desires from all degrees come to him?

Answer: Yes. So there is nothing to worry about. All desires have the right to be revealed and to exist in a person.

Question: Any desire?

Answer: Absolutely any. And a person can have all kinds of relationships to this.

Question: What does one need to do if bad desires arise, even those that shake a person?

Answer: I see. What to do? Shake yourself, shake them off, and continue to exist. You need to engage in something else, and then the desire will change.

Comment: Please answer the question “where do they come from and why?”

My Response: From above! Why? In order for a person to develop. In order to develop him.

Question: When you say “develop,” what does it mean? So that some specific desires arise in him?

Answer: Desires, emotions, intentions, and so on, such that will match the more developed person that he will become.

Question: You said “from above.” Is there a bank of desires that one needs to go through?

Answer: Yes. There is a bank of desires that we have to go through, each of us and all of us together.

Question: And when this bank is emptied, desires pass, what happens next? When all the desires have already passed through me, what does it mean?

Answer: The end of the world. We have worked out all our desires and are at rest.

Question: The end of the world, what is that in your opinion?

Answer: The end of the world means that there is no one to live onward, there is no need, and there is no goal.

Question: So I will not be coming back here?

Answer: No.

Question: Where will I end up? This world has ended. Where do I end up?

Answer: In the next world.

Question: And what is there in the next world?

Answer: Happiness, peace, and all good things are waiting for you in the next world.

Question: I already like this. That is, in principle, this whole chain of desires should lead me to the world where there is happiness, peace, everything?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How should I work out these desires in order to come to this peace and happiness?

Answer: You will come to it anyway. So, do not worry. The only thing you need is to agree that you will be brought there. And therefore, in accordance with this, live calmly, breathe calmly, and be peaceful toward the upper force that will lead you there.
[316377]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/20/23

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Question: What is the inner Kabbalistic meaning of common currency? Is it a human effort?

Answer: Yes, it is the universal equivalent of human effort. In Kabbalah, money is the expression of the screen, and the screen is everyone’s anti-egoistic effort.

Question: But this effort is built in relation to others. Can I somehow measure it or buy something with it?

Answer: Of course. In the same units. You can measure your anti-egoistic force in grams, in Newtons, in anything.

Question: What is a wealthy person from the standpoint of Kabbalah?

Answer: Someone who has many anti-egoistic forces, and can use them.

Question: Is there a direct relationship between one’s screen and material wealth?

Answer: No. Our world is not yet created to give us material manifestation.

Question: There have been very different Kabbalists throughout history in terms of their means. Baal HaSulam, for example, gave away all his money to have none the next day. They say the Ari was a very rich merchant. Is there any relationship or special mission of the Kabbalist here?

Answer: Everyone acts as he sees fit for his spiritual ascent.
[317027]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah in the modern turbulent world” 8/3/23

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First, the world was created with the quality of judgment; He saw that the world could not exist, and associated it with the quality of mercy (Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Book of Zohar, “Two Points“).

Our world exists in a combination of the attributes of judgment and mercy, but mostly within various constraints. We cannot simply enjoy things; we are constantly pursued by various sufferings. All of this is the attribute of judgment.

In Kabbalistic terms, the attribute of judgment is the desire to receive. However, the world could not exist if everyone only wanted to receive for themselves. There must still be some attribute of bestowal, and only then can interaction occur.

In other words, even if people give to each other with the intention of benefiting themselves, there is still some connection between them. We see from history that humanity developed only through collaboration, which is the fundamental attribute that transformed us from animals into humans. This is the manifestation of mercy in our world.
[316898]
From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What was the happiest moment in your life?“

I think the happiest moment in my life was when I found my teacher, Kabbalist Baruch Ashlag (the Rabash).

I had been looking for a teacher for several years. I traveled to many different teachers, asked them many questions, but I received no answers.

Then one day, all of a sudden, by chance, I found my teacher.

Based on KabTV’s “Kabbalah in the Modern Turbulent World” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on August 3, 2023.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “General Preface,” Item 4

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3rd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Reforming the Heart”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: The Creator gives me different thoughts and I am afraid that my friends will find out about them. Who should be responsible for this? Where is He? Where am I? What am I responsible for? What should I pass to Him?

Answer: Until you reveal everything that is in you to the Creator and to your friends, you will not correct yourself. And so it is for each of us.

We are talking about spiritual thoughts. We are interested only in how we can connect and help each other. And the fact that each of us is a small animal does not interest us.

Question: What does it mean to “open myself completely to the Creator”? I am already in before Him as if in the palm of His hand.

Answer: Do not hide your love for Him from the Creator.
[317131]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/23, “To Come to Feel Others”

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Question: Is it true that the human degree is a degree where we are collectively one man, and not each a person individually?

Answer: Yes. Eventually, when we all unite as one man with one heart and fully feel each other, we will again come to the degree of “one man,” the degree at which the Creator originally created us. In the meantime we see each other separately. This is called the “wild donkey” degree.

We will move into the human degree when the feeling of giving to another is revealed in us.
[317133]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/23, “To Come to Feel Others”

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There are two points, one concealed, (hidden), and one disclosed. And because they are not separated, they are called first, meaning only one and not two (Baal HaSulam, Introduction of The Book of Zohar, “Two Points”).

The two points represent the beginning and the end of the universe. Both points are connected to each other since the end of the world is laid at the very beginning and the beginning is laid at the end.

Question: It is said that the world was created by the letter “Bet – ״ב with which the Torah begins—Bereshit. In this letter, two lines are connected: the upper and lower. What do they mean?

Answer: The upper line is the line of Keter, which is completely bestowing. The lower line is Malchut, which only receives. Both lines interconnected symbolize the beginning and the end of creation. As a result, they must match their properties of receiving and bestowing so that everything turns into a circle.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that the top point in the letter “Bet” is called mercy, and the bottom one is judgment. What is it about?

Answer: Mercy is a property of the Creator, the highest property, bestowal. Judgment is the property of receiving, the property of Malchut. That is, there is a connection between the upper and lower lines, which they should pass through themselves.

Therefore, our work is to understand the bottom line from the top line and to understand the top line from the bottom line and connect them together so that there are no contradictions between them, so that each property in them supports the opposite property in the other line, and thus the program of creation would be fulfilled in its entirety.
[316846]
From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 8/6/23

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Dear Michael Laitman,
I live in Israel. You can see what’s going on here, right? Confusion and discord. I will not ask what to do, who to vote for, whether to be right or left. I want to ask only one thing: What should the prime minister of our country, namely Israel, be like? What qualities should he have? What laws should he adopt? How to rule our country wisely, where every Jew is the prime minister, everyone has their own opinion? If you can, describe your Prime Minister to me.

My Response: I don’t think it’s even possible nowadays. I believe that we are at a stage of development when there are no “sacred cows” and it is impossible to elect anyone. Nobody!

Only some minor internal squabbles occur and thus give us the opportunity to exist for one day, and then again for another day, and again for another day. And only in this way do we, in principle, exist.

We have no program of creation; we have no program of life. Each of us has nothing at all. Each of us lives only from what we can acquire, earn, calm ourselves, eat, relax, and that’s it.

Everything comes from us. I think that in this way, even at such a low stage of our development, we will still come to the point that we will need an intelligent person who will be accepted by almost all citizens.

And he will only care about giving us the opportunity not to tear each other apart. And we will understand that this is how he fulfills his most important task.

And what will happen next, I think the upper force will take care of it. I do not see the possibility of surviving in such a state as today, the state, the people.

The people of Israel have no base, they have no power, they have no truth. There is nothing to fight for.

There is just nowhere to go, and that is why he fights. And this is a very small incentive to defend your country, land, people, state.

I think this is a very bad state, and it can also get worse. But let’s hope that people will understand that they need to artificially raise themselves to some higher ideal. And the artificial highest ideal can only be that we rise above our egoism.

Question: So, we somehow come to this point?

Answer: Yes.

Question: My question is this. You said “smart leader.” And then it seems they said what the mind is so that we don’t tear each other apart. This is his main mind. That is, the one who will compromise and do everything so that there is no fight in the people. Is it the mind?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is there anything else you can add there?

Answer: Nothing is allowed because no one knows what the truth is. And the ultimate truth is that everyone should continue to exist.

Question: Are we talking about our country now?

Answer: Yes. So that tomorrow you can get up, as you got up today, and continue this life of yours, although it is full of mistakes and harm to others.

Question: So, you are saying that perhaps there will come a moment when you will not be able to get up and continue your life tomorrow, and therefore this smart leader is needed?

Answer: Yes.

Question: This is the first question. And the second one is very sharp, you said that we have no goals.

Answer: There is no goal.

Question: The protection of the land, the protection of children, the state – is this not the goal?

Answer: No, nothing! We do not have a divine goal, which many peoples in the world still have. Despite the fact that we live in such a terrible age.

Question: What should be the goal?

Answer: The goal should still be divine. That is, without accepting the upper force that governs us, and to which we must give some kind of account, without this, a person both lives meaninglessly and dies meaninglessly. Therefore, as it is said, “If there were no God, he would have to be created.”

Question: So, you’re saying it’s impossible to just live here in Israel? Just live, I just live.

Answer: No, it is impossible. This is such a country, this is such a land, this is such a part of the earth’s surface that does not tolerate the “godless,” as they say.

Question: Are we under supervision? It’s us.

Answer: Yes, everyone is.

Question: Who is an “atheist”? What do you mean?

Answer: That there is no higher power that would be above man.

Question: Just this thought: There is an upper force over me, and I have to live and work with it?

Answer: Yes. Somehow establish a connection and live in accordance with its plan and desires, and so on.

Question: What is its plan and what is its desire?

Answer: This you must understand yourself and reveal, and behave toward it.

Question: And if the people begin to exist like this, then there will be a leader, a ruler, and so on?

Answer: Yes. Then it will be for what. And the most important thing is that we don’t have it.
[316620]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/3/23

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