Question: Baal HaSulam wrote the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” after the Second World War as one of the four prefaces to The Book of Zohar.

Answer: Yes, this material is very difficult to present, especially in such an accessible way as he did.

Question: Why don’t people study it? After all, he described it in the late 40’s of the 20^th century. Many years have passed since then.

Answer: This information is practically impossible to apply anywhere except within a man himself. And nobody wants to do it. If only it could be used to make money.

Question: I still do not understand. People study many things which do not provide them with an income. I am not talking about changing oneself, because it is very difficult to change your nature, but just to read it as a source of information, as something important. After all, Baal HaSulam describes the creation of desire in such simple language for the first time! Why are his works not studied anywhere?

Answer: Because people think they do not need them. They are very far from them as if the material is happening somewhere in the sky, not on earth.

Question: However, materials relating to Egyptian mummies, for example, are researched at universities, and what is not made of them? And here, specifically, things are explained in such a language…

Answer: This is done on purpose so that people do not have a specific desire for this, and anyone who wants to would not grab and poke around in it. Nature protects this science about itself on purpose.

Kabbalah is the science about the foundations of nature. Therefore, nature protects it in order to open it only when humanity wants to renounce the picture of nature that we imagine today and to really understand that it needs to change in order to save itself and the world.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 7/16/23

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Question: If I carry a state of rejection to the ten, how do we work within the ten without falling into the left line and making it worse if the friends have a similar state?

Answer: Add up your states with the rest and achieve a positive effect.

Question: Why is it important to state the intention before the lesson? When I hear my friends, my heart opens. What happens when everyone says the intention and comes to the lesson with it?

Answer: You get a common intention. You connect with each other, and it means a lot. You open a common Kli, vessel.

Question: When we meet with other tens, we interconnect, open up to each other, unite, and feel great inspiration as if the Creator is between us. At our ten meetings, it all goes away and is erased as if we are shy and do not appreciate each other. How do we work with it?

Answer: The Creator shows you that you are not trying to keep yourself in a state of unity with each other all of the time. It is bad. There must be the importance of friends.

Question: It happens that during the lesson the head is empty and does not want to think, and the heart is full of love for friends, for the world Kli, for you, and for the Creator. Is this a normal state?

Answer: The normal state is when both are included in the work and you feel very close to each other.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/23, “Revealing the Glory of His Kingship”

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Question: Most people know some other language in addition to their native one. Why can a person never master a foreign language at the same level as his native language even if he is fluent at it?

Answer: It is because the original information is written within us in the native language like for example in a computer: every program is written in English and after that other languages are added to it. Exactly in the same way the original programs are written within us. This is why it is called “mother tongue.” A person receives it from his mother. You cannot escape it!

Comment: Even when people have lived in another country for a long time and have learned let’s say English or French, it is still easier for them to express themselves in their native language.

Answer: Of course, this is the way the person has recorded his perception of the world: this is called red, this is yellow, this is so and so, and so forth. This information is initially written within him. However, the second and third layers, other languages come to him as additional ones, and they are based on the first language called mother tongue.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Mother Tongue” 9/21/11

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Comment: You once mentioned that truth is what is supported by a large number of people.

My Response: Any lie that is supported by a multitude of people becomes the truth for them even though it has no real connection to the actual truth or what may be factual. Humanity has many such misconceptions.

We are like small insects on a tiny planet in a small galaxy somewhere on the outskirts of the universe. We know nothing about anyone or anything. We just tamper with nature a little bit, and we have already ruined it. We have dug ourselves into a hole where we no longer desire anything. So there is no point in talking about any truths. What truths are there? Everything is relative to a person, as he imagines it.

If you talk to astrophysicists or specialists in quantum physics, i.e., people who deeply study matter, they will say things that the average person would not agree with. They are already considering that there is no time, no space, no movement, and that our universe is not what it seems, that it is folded, holographic, and that man is not how he feels and perceives himself at all.

In principle, we currently have a completely distorted transitional picture. We are in a phase transition, at a point of bifurcation where all sorts of inexplicable phenomena are happening to us, and we do not know what to do with them.

And what is the truth here? Every time we make mistakes, and again search for the truth, and again accept something as truth only to find that it is not accurate. Everything is relative, and it should be that way!

The main thing is for a person never to be deceived by the belief that they have caught the truth by the tail and now it is absolute. Nothing is absolute in the world because our understanding, our perception, is just a reflection of our internal changes: we feel ourselves and not the universe, not the cosmos.

By feeling ourselves, we constantly see a variety of completely different pictures because we ourselves are changing and are in the process of some kind of evolution that we do not understand.

Now we are also going through a very serious stage of evolution. How we will perceive ourselves after passing through this state is unknown, but it will be completely different. Many scientists are already talking about this. We will perceive the world not individually, but through a collective lens, in general. And it will feel completely different.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Where is the Truth?” 8/27/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Which is more important between praying and working?“

There is a parable about a fisherman who was transporting a passenger by boat. The passenger urged the fisherman, “Hurry up, I’m late for work!” Then the man noticed that one of his oars had the word “pray” written on it, while the other had “work.” Curious, he asked, “What is that for?”

“To remind us,” replied the fisherman, “not to forget the importance of both prayer and work.”

“It is clear to everyone that work is necessary, but prayer seems unnecessary. Why waste time on prayer?” the man persisted.

“It may seem unnecessary, but it’s not,” the fisherman replied calmly. He then pulled out the oar with the word “pray” and started rowing with only one oar. As a result, the boat just spun in circles.

This parable shows us that not everything depends on us, and there is always room for prayer. At the same time, if the fisherman had pulled out the oar that said “work,” the boat would also spin in place. Without work, there is no progress. Praying alone is not enough.

Most importantly, we should direct ourselves in accordance with the development of nature and humanity. Advancing according to the laws of nature means doing everything in our power and leaving the rest to the Creator. In Hebrew it says, “HaShem Igmor BeAdi,” meaning “the Creator will finish for me.” That is, we do all that we can, and the Creator completes the rest for us.

That does not mean just praying to the Creator when we hit a dead end or terrible suffering. It means accepting the Creator as the force of nature that determines everything, and trying to resemble that force.

It is constant movement: we exert effort, but we know that the Creator will finish the work for us. We can then advance correctly, i.e., in a way that brings us closer to the Creator. We move ahead using both oars and pray that they complement each other.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” on May 15, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Photo by jean wimmerlin on Unsplash.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “I Am the First and I Am the Last”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 166

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: In the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam describes the four stages of the development of the desire. We understand that desire is the basis of man. How did the Creator create it in four stages?

Answer: The fact is that initially, there was a source of light. Light is defined as the force of pleasure from everything that the Creator wants to fill the world with.

The force of light generates desire because the main and only quality of the light is the desire to fill, saturate, and delight the future creation. The Creator’s desire is to bestow, to love, to fill. In general, this is what comes from the Creator, and this determines His relation to creation.

The Creator’s intention to create and fill the creation is called “the first stage of creation”—the Creator’s attitude to the future creation. It is considered to be the first light that comes from the Creator.

Then this degree begins to create a desire within itself, the desire to receive from the Creator. All that comes from Him is the desire to receive. This desire to receive, which almost simultaneously comes from the Creator and is filled with light, is called the first stage of the development of the world, the universe.

Then the desire develops further under the influence of the light that fills it and begins to express itself in a certain way, meaning, to perceive from the light not only the filling, but also the qualities of the light to fill, animate, and love, all that is positive that the Creator or the upper light carries. Thus, from the first stage arises the second.

The second stage, first reacts to the fact that the Creator created it in the desire to receive and enjoy. But the light that works in it transmits its qualities to it—the qualities of bestowal, love, and fulfillment.

Therefore, the second degree, which is formed from the first, is absolutely opposite to it. It does not want to receive, but wants to give just like the Creator.

If the first degree, that is, the desire to receive, and the light that fills it are called Hochma, then the second degree, which is absolutely opposite to it, is called Bina and does not want to receive the light. It would like to give in the same way, but what can it give? Therefore, the second degree, in principle, remains empty except for the fact that it is filled with a sense of existence emanating from the Creator, in the sense that by wanting to bestow, it is still somewhat similar to the Creator.

Then comes the development of the first and second stages. Closing in on each other, they build the third stage, which is called Tifferet or Zeir Anpin.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 7/16/23

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Question: When you say something, do you generally say it from the point of view of truth?

Answer: Relatively concerning the person who receives it and no more than that. There is nothing absolute in our world nor in attainment of the upper world. But there it is clear.

Question: Let’s say you explain something to the students, and with regard to one this is the truth, but with regard to the other two, in their perception, this is nonsense. Where is the common ground for these three people?

Answer: The common ground is that each of them understands that what the other feels is true with regard to him, but maybe not with regard to me.

Comment: There are people who take it as a truth that they can cure all diseases by vegetarianism, others by raw food, and others by yoga. And this does not change at all throughout life.

My Response: It does not change the same way it does in animals. The more often a person’s opinions change, the better because it means that he himself changes, which means that he is human. The one who does not change is an animal, a petrified frozen individual.

When he has many opinions and is constantly in doubt, does not know with what to agree and with what not to agree, and is in some special state, then he is human.

Truth is born from doubts and then is refuted in doubts, and the next one is born. This is how we grow: day and night and day and night, in our sensations, conclusions, analyses, synthesis, and decisions.

Therefore, one who does not make mistakes is not human.

It is humans who make mistakes. Animals do not make mistakes. If an animal makes a mistake, then it is sick. In a person, this is his normal state because he is constantly developing. His evolution takes place throughout his entire life, whereas for animals this is not the case.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Where Is the Truth?” 8/27/11

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Comment: Question from Ghenghis: “Thousands of years of wars, revolutions, famine, and poverty, right up to the troubles of today’s reality. If a man needs a piece of bread, what is the role of books in his life? Why are they needed?”

My Response: It is written that, “If there is no flour, there is no Torah; and “if there is no Torah, there is no flour.” That is all. So it is interconnected. Torah means a blessing from above, from the upper force of nature. Without this there will be no bread, and vice versa, without bread you cannot achieve real blessing.

Question: Does “If there is no flour, there is no Torah” mean “if there are no necessities”?

Answer: Of course.

Question: But obviously Ghenghis is not asking about the Torah, but about books in general. Why do I need them if I am hungry? Why do I need them if there are such troubles and suffering around?

Answer: You really do not. You only need to know one principle: how to approach the Creator and follow His instructions, which brings about balance in the world, in the universe. That is it.

In the course of my life, I need only one true guide: how to use this life to achieve its true single upper goal, which is to reveal and adhere to the Creator.

We must acquire the properties of the Creator, the properties of bestowal and love, and thus unite with Him. This is the purpose of life.

Question: There are certain books for this, but do I not need all the other books, all these novels? Do I need any of them at all?

Answer: No, of course not. Because they are written by humans and because they are imperfect and only twist a person. What do we get from them as a result? They just mess with people’s heads people!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/17/23

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