Ask the Kabbalist (May 22, 2008)
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Bold: Questions/Comments
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Regular: Commentaries of Michael Laitman, PhD
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lowercase italics: emphasized words
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Capitalized Italics: Transliteration from Hebrew
Questions: What is the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer about?
Michael Laitman: It’s a holiday of fire, a holiday of Light, a celebration of the departure of Rabbi Simon Bar Yochai, who authored the Book of Zohar. Therefore, it’s a holiday of Light and a concealed Light as well. It’s a very special day, a very special holiday from the Exodus from Egypt until the reception of the Torah.
Moderator: Are you talking about the counting of the Omer?
M. Laitman: Yes, 49 days, but it’s called “thirty-third in the Omer,” because it’s the 33rd day from the beginning of the count. What are we counting? We’re counting in total 49 days where each day symbolizes an individual desire of ours that becomes corrected from the form of ego to the form of love of others and there are 49 such desires.
Altogether, we have seven parts in our egoist desire to receive, seven Sefirot: Hesed, Gvurah, Tifferet (HGT), Netzah, Hod, Yesod (NHY), Malchut. Each of these Sefirot includes seven Sefirot as well. Therefore, seven times seven equals 49 individual desires that we have to correct from the egoistic use, which is exploiting others for my own benefit, to serving others that I want to use what I have, precisely, in order to serve others, to love and give to others, just like I do with my children.
If I try doing that, then I achieve the revelation of the Light, the revelations of Godliness, spirituality, which is called Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah). Before that, there is a special number in that count: 33 out of 49. The number 33 symbolizes a special point in this process. If I achieve the thirty-third correction, which is Hod in Hod (it’s such a Sefira, Hod within Hod), then I’m sure that from now on I will finish my correction and achieve the Light, the revelation of the Torah, where the Torah means Light.
Then I will feel myself entering spirituality and the Upper world that will open up before me, in addition to this world. This is why it is a special day. Now we can understand why Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai passed away on that day, because he had finished his role. He opened the wisdom of Kabbalah in the Book of Zohar; he structured our method of correction there, until the Sefira of thirty-three.
Then he was no longer needed to be present in this world and his soul went back to where it descended from. He fulfilled his role and then his soul departed. We also celebrate the fact that this soul came from Above and gave us a method by which we can enter the eternal world, the world of Light, from within this world of ours that begins with darkness, problems and worries. We also light bonfires, since this is the holiday of Lights.
Moderator: So do all the fires symbolize the Light that comes out of the darkness?
M. Laitman: Yes, this is why we do it at night as well. We also go to his gravesite and honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai; it’s a holiday entirely about Kabbalah. And, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn that on this or that day, we correct this and that Sefira within our soul.
Moderator: When a person counts the Omer, does he correct something by that? What is the purpose of counting?
M. Laitman: No, if we would really do it, then we would achieve the revelation of Godliness. We do it because this is a custom and, from that custom, we have to ascend to real inner corrections, but all the corrections are love for others. If you have the intention, the aim of reaching the love of man, which is the whole of the Torah, then the way to individually correct ourselves opens up to us through the 49 small parts that are within our desires, and thus we achieve correction.
Moderator: So a person has to do it specifically in these days of the year—between Passover and Shavuot. Is it possible to do one correction every day?
M. Laitman: No, no, of course not. A person can go through this correction within weeks, or within months, or within hours or minutes. It doesn’t depend on that because in spirituality, there is no time. In corporeality, we follow the calendar, the days and nights, and light and darkness etc. For us, in this world, this is how our customs materialize.
Moderator: In Lag Ba’Omer there’s another custom, which is cutting the hair of the children. Some people don’t give boys their first haircut until the age of three.
M. Laitman: The reason why we do this is because the age of three means the first correction of the soul in spirituality; this is its symbol in spirituality. Of course, it doesn’t mean that a kid corrects himself after he lives for three years in this world. However, in spirituality, if a person progresses and goes through these three steps, called “three years,” then he achieves a correction called “Halakah” this is how we call it in Hebrew.
It means that he is worthy to have the first deficiencies for spiritual revelation, because hairs come from the Hebrew word Se’arot Se’ar (stormy, i.e. that something is lacking.) And when we cut the hair, we symbolize the new revelations of desires for spirituality. After three years or three steps, we are able to discover them and with them, advance into spirituality and keep growing.
It’s a very interesting correction. All of our customs, actually, are symbols for the spiritual corrections that the soul needs to make. If a person asks, “Why do I do this, why do I do that in my life?”, he will eventually realize that it’s all connected to spirituality, whether it’s dietary laws, prayers or anything.
They’re just symbols, pointing at the corrections of the soul. Therefore, it says that the Creator doesn’t care in which way a person slaughters a beast, from the throat or from the neck, because the Mitzvot (commandments) were given in order to cleanse the people. So these customs, in our world, are just signs. What the Creator cares about is how you cleanse yourself, how you purify yourself from the ego and achieve love of man.
Moderator: So all the customs, when I do them, will be within my desires and within my soul?
M. Laitman: Yes, these will be the true Mitzvot; this will be the realization of true Mitzvot. In our soul, there are Taryag (613 numeric value) desires, and we have to correct them from “in order to receive” to “in order to bestow”—from the egoist use to the use for the sake of others. Then it means that we have corrected our Taryag desires, which are Taryag Mitzvot.
Moderator: Let’s finish the Lag Ba’Omer topic with this question. When I was a child, we used to collect the wood a month before, and all night, on Lag Ba’Omer, we had a bonfire. “What does it mean to make a bonfire in your heart?”
M. Laitman: It starts from the darkness that a person feels before he has a spiritual revelation, when he has already accumulated enough troubles, difficulties and Aviut (coarseness) within him, and also the strength of the importance of spirituality. He wants to transcend this world and to transcend his ego, to transcend all the evil that he discovers, and he is willing to ignite it. Then from the darkness, from the night, he lights the Light within his heart and that is the happiness, the hope for really achieving Light. If a person starts lighting the Light within his heart from darkness, he will eventually reach the reception of Light, which symbolizes the holiday of Shavuot and the giving of the Torah.
Question: How is it possible to cope with a boss that doesn't like you—to say the least—and always tries to search for ways to harm you? How can I use Kabbalah so that there will be more love in him?
M. Laitman: First of all, try to transcend your natural reaction, even though you work under that boss. A person feels the way we relate to him. Try to break him with love. Break means to change him. First, you need to reach a state where you restrict herself, meaning you shouldn’t pay attention to anything negative that you receives from your boss.
Everything that happens with us in this world comes from “There is none else besides Him;” One force that exists and operates. The boss is just a puppet as is the whole world. We were all created as animals and all perform instructions that come to us from Above, and this is how a person should relate to it; not to people, but to the Upper force that works on him through the whole environment.
If you unite all of these things and ascribes them to the One force, then you should try to see how the negative things are coming in order to correct you. Why does it happen to you? Maybe you are supposed to change so that you can see that only good comes from the Creator. He is the only One and “There is none else besides Him,” and besides that “He is good that doeth good. This is so even if you are going through the horrible things that are in the world.
Look at King David who wrote Psalms; look at what things he wrote about the horrible things that happen to him, and through it all he tries to see the One force that operates. He said, “You are working behind all these things. Look at how my enemies fight me, but I know that this is You.” It symbolizes all the Malchut. This is why he is called David ha Melech (King David), he symbolizes all the great desire of creation. This is why he is called “the King of Israel;” he was able to take this great desire and aim it straight to the Creator. Yisrael comes from the words Yashar El (straight to the Creator).
Therefore, this isn't psychological; this is something that works internally, through the forces of nature. If a person starts relating to his status towards the Creator, through the people who he is dealing with, he will certainly discover depth—the forces that work behind the reality of this world. Suddenly, he will see that the people change as well, because their only role in their behavior towards him is to awaken him, to connect him to the Creator through them.
Moderator: So, that boss who is yelling at her, when he treats her negatively, she needs to try and connect to the Upper force that operates him, that operates everything, the Creator. And, if she does that action, what happens when she sees that this negative relation from her boss? Does it dissolve?
M. Laitman: Yes. If not, it means that she has more work to do. It is certain that it happens this way. I am telling you this from experience.
You can read it from a wonderful article by Baal HaSulam called There Is None Besides Him in a book called Shamati (I Heard). There he explains how we discover this in the entire world around us; tangibly, within our senses, and not just some belief that someone is telling us that the Creator exists and that's it. No, the wisdom of Kabbalah actually reveals the Creator to the creature, so we will feel that force; that force that activates and operates us from within and without, through the whole environment.
This is why we experience such reactions. We should try to use it, not react to it in the natural way of this world. With our correct attitude towards the environment, we can discover the Creator and then identify with Him. Then we are exiting towards the feeling of the spiritual world and will live an eternal life, even if our body dies. If we connected to the Creator before we die, then we will continue to live in this way. This is what a person should manage doing while living in this world.
Question: I am an expert in Indian medicine. I wanted to ask Michael Laitman if Kabbalah uses many terms like Peh (mouth), Tabur (navel), Eynaim (eyes) etc. I wanted to know whether there is an ability to learn medicine through Kabbalah or if there is Kabbalistic medicin
M. Laitman: If we will take the definition of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will see that it says, by the Kabbalists who wrote it, “The wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the creature in this world.” Meaning that a person lives in this world, and he has the opportunity to connect to the Creator, to discover the Creator and then achieve spiritual, eternal life. This is what Kabbalah was intended for. It takes the person from the plane of this world and raises him internally, spiritually to the level of the Creator. It's not that the Upper forces are here with man and attracted down to this world. It doesn't work this way; it's exactly the opposite.
This is why people, mistakenly, ascribe to the wisdom of Kabbalah all kinds of amulets, charms and mysticism. These things don’t belong at all to Kabbalah. It's only because the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed for thousands of years, so people mistakenly linked all kinds of things to it, however it's really not the wisdom of Kabbalah. The wisdom of Kabbalah is intended only to raise a person from the corporeal level to the spiritual level; not to heal one's body, not to bring him luck in this world, nothing. It explains to us how this world is structured and how it functions. However, to attract the Upper forces to this world is possible only in order to raise yourself from this world to the spiritual world.
So, all the names we use in the wisdom of Kabbalah —Peh, Tabur and all parts of the body—all the things that the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about, where it seemingly uses the anatomy of a person, is only the language of the branches. Meaning we take words from this world, but they point at their spiritual roots in the spiritual world, because in the spiritual world our spiritual soul has a structure in its desires and forces that is like the structure of the physical body. But, there is no connection between the soul and the body.
Therefore, when we use words of physiology and anatomy, words that we know from this world, we nevertheless, talk about the soul that is found in the spiritual dimension. In addition, you can't take what is written in Kabbalah and attract it to this world, but only through your imagination, which is completely false.
Unfortunately, there are still many myths about the wisdom of Kabbalah. People think that you can do all kinds of tricks with it and all kinds of supernatural things in this world, but there is nothing like that. I have been dealing with Kabbalah for 35 years; I learned with the last greatest Kabbalist in our generation, and I even did a Ph.D in Kabbalah at the University.
You can look at all the writings of the Kabbalists, and, if these are authentic writings, you will see there is no word about this world, they are all talking only about the spiritual world. Also, in the Torah as well, if we are reading the weekly portion, for instance, it doesn’t ever speak about this world. It only speaks about spiritual things. This is why these books are called “holy books,” holy meaning separated from corporeality.
Moderator: If Kabbalah is not for this and not for that, what it’s for?
M. Laitman: Only if a person has what’s called “a point in the heart,” meaning a desire, a yearning for something beyond matter. I don’t want matter, I don’t want this world; I am attracted to something above it, and then the wisdom of Kabbalah is for me. Everything we want to arrange in this world doesn’t belong to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Question: What is so special in Kabbalah books?
M. Laitman: The viewer who asked this question can open the Introduction to TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot, The Study of the Ten Sefirot), item 155 where it says that there is a special remedy in the books of Kabbalah. The people who wrote the books were in revelation of Godliness, the highest level. They knew the system of all the High forces of nature.
If we have the desire to know this Higher force, to get out of this narrow world, then by reading these books that talk about the Higher states, together with their desire they can demand, so to speak, the Upper force they are talking about and they are reading about in the book. And this is how they receive spiritual Light, Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), which is a spiritual illumination that operates on a person, and gradually changes him, starts to raise one’s awareness and sensitivity to that Higher level.
This is the unique remedy that exists in books of Kabbalah and doesn’t exist in any other book, however, we have to understand that we are only talking about authentic Kabbalah books. And the Kabbalah books that especially work on us are the books of our known Kabbalists like Abraham, Moses, Rabbi Shimon, Ari and Baal HaSulam, especially these books. Of course, there are additional books accompanying these books like the Rambam, like Ramhal, the Agra and more, but especially the books of Baal HaSulam.
Because in our generation, our souls are so very new and different that we need Kabbalah in a modern fashion, so we can understand it, so it’ll be written in a way that it’s close to our souls. Therefore, Baal HaSulam, who is the last great Kabbalist of the twentieth century, brings us all the Book of Zohar with the commentary of the Sulam and all the writings of the Ari with his commentaries, TES.
Therefore, today we have true authentic books of Baal HaSulam that we can study in order to extract that Surrounding Light that will draw us back like through a ray of Light and let us penetrate through this corporeality and feel spirituality. However, in order to attract people to this, to show them what’s in the wisdom of Kabbalah, there are additional books that we write. Nevertheless, these books are only in order to get to know what the terms of Kabbalah are because it’s hard for a person to start reading the source materials right away. Like the books you see around you, there are books written by us, and they take the source and explain it easily and simply. After these books, it’s worthwhile to go to the source.
Question: What do you think will happen with fashion when the world is corrected? People will not relate to external fashion or will there be a new kind of fashion? For instance, people will learn clothes in order to represent some idea, maybe to mention the Creator to one another, because as long as we are with bodies, we will have to wear clothes or will we stop that as well?
M. Laitman: When the world is completely corrected (it is said, “And they all shall know Me from the greatest of them to the least of them.”) and if we achieve the final End of Correction, then this world will disappear.
Moderator: But before that, when there are bodies we are still, let’s say, in a spiritual correction.
M. Laitman: We are, anyhow, correcting ourselves and advancing in spiritual correction.
A person will buy in a mall whatever is comfortable to him, because a person in his development reaches the state where he doesn’t need so many external signs. A person who engages in something that’s a bit higher than his body, worries for his body only for its necessities.
As far as fashion designers go, I think they will work along with doctors and people from maybe biology or something, and they will design the most comfortable and healthiest clothes for our body so that we will feel comfortable and good in every state.
Moderator: So, we won’t have jeans?
M. Laitman: Maybe jeans are comfortable, it depends. However, the comfortability, the cleanliness and healthiness will be the purpose of design in fashion.
Moderator: Will there be a motive that a person will wear some clothes in order to express a certain idea, notion?
M. Laitman: I don’t think so, because people who live internally don’t pay attention to external things; it doesn’t go together. As much as a person advances, the little things stay the same; it’s not that he neglects them, but he just worries for his body to be clean, healthy and that’s it. He doesn’t demand more.
Moderator: It’s already encouraging. It’ll be much more comfortable!
M. Laitman: Yes, that’s certainly encouraging. I don’t think we will walk around in pajamas our whole life, but something similar like that might happen and everyone will be happy with it. Maybe some people will want something different, but it depends on their level, as much as they can stop paying attention to externality.
Question: Do diseases have spiritual roots and why do they appear in certain manners?
M. Laitman: Yes, diseases, like all suffering, certainly have spiritual roots. It may or may not be heredity, or an epidemic that is occurring to the general public and not a personal disease. There is a lot to talk about here. Generally, we have to understand that all the sufferings we experience in this world, including diseases, are not because we are being blame for something and then these disease come to us; it’s because we are all connected in one system. All our souls together are one soul called “Adam (man/human).”
Only through our bodies do we perceive everyone as being individuals. However, we are in one common, mutual body, only we don’t feel it. We feel that everyone is separated with his own corporeal body. Therefore, since our interconnection is so tight through that one common soul, we can’t say that something happens to us because of things we did or did not do. Usually, people ask, “Why do I deserve this or that? Why did that baby die or innocent people die?” It is not a question of innocent or not, we are all interconnected.
Until the world achieves general correction, all of us will always suffer because of the others, because we are interconnected. There is nothing we can do about it. A person gets some kind of sickness, and he doesn’t understand why or where this is coming from. But, if you look from Above, you can see that he belongs to this one system, with all kinds of other souls, and they, somehow, influence him by their interconnection; in addition to what the souls have done or not done. Eventually, the correction happens to them through the suffering called “disease.”
Moderator: Please explain why there are a host of various diseases in the world.
M. Laitman: We have different levels of corruptions of our ego. Our ego has 125 degrees, and it contains different Taryag (613) desires in each of us. Then our integration with each other created a network between us with billions of connections. This accumulation and mutuality created different states, different diseases, different problems and also the opposite; better situations.
How can everything be put in order by us? There is no choice but to transcend to the level of the common soul called “Adam,” identify with it, be in it, and start to feel how we are interconnected there on that level. When I rise to it and identify with the other souls, I am in the sensation of love and giving towards them, then it is promised that nothing badly will happen to me. However, if it happens to me, I know why, and I understand that this is the matter of becoming healthier.
Kabbalists had many diseases, but they knew and understood how it cleansed them, made them healthier, and then they accepted the disease in a completely different way. They saw how they corrected themselves and all the others by that acceptance, and what the expected profit from this.
This gives the answer for anything that happens in our world. Actually, we have no answers in our world; unless we rise to the situation, the level, the place, where the decision of the forces is, and from there the forces descend that manage our world.
Question: In Kabbalah, why is there no explanation about sex? It is the greatest pleasure in the world, and we were created in order to have pleasure.
M. Laitman: It’s not only one of the pleasures; it says that this is the biggest pleasure, because in contrast to this pleasure in this world, we have the pleasure of connecting to the Creator.
The soul that connects to the Creator in spirituality is called “Zivug (coupling)” Where did this word, Zivug, come from? It comes from our world. When a man couples with a woman and they have pleasure from it, it is a sign, so to speak, to that same Zivug that we have to do in our souls with the Creator and there, we reach the highest pleasure. Therefore, in our world the pleasure of coupling is the greatest pleasure of all pleasures in the world.
Kabbalah talks about sex all the time. It only speaks about how the soul can come closer to other souls and connect to the Creator. All these connections in the spiritual world are called “Zivugim (couplings).” And if you open the books of Kabbalah, you’ll see that when it talks about Masach (screen) and Aviut, the Upper Light, the Zivugim; how the Light expands in the soul, what pleasure it brings to the soul, how the soul yearns for the Higher Zivug again and what pleasure it receives from that.
They are always talking only about couplings and pleasures, but they are not talking about the corporeal definition of them, but the spiritual definition; when a person achieves the same desire of love and giving as the Creator. It is not our corporeal and maybe animal love, but is the love of true giving, mutuality, and true connection. It is when one becomes integrated with the other, and then they achieve the exalted coupling. Then we, in fact, reach our realization.
For instance, The Song of Songs completely talks about love. They say that it’s the highest song that can ever be. It talks about the general soul’s connection with the Creator in the “End of Correction;” there is nothing higher than this state. However, look at the words it uses. It sounds to us like it’s a man and a woman that are trying to have fun. So, we have to first distinguish the language that is taken from this world. What does it talk about? It talks about the souls and their connection with the Upper force, with this eternal fulfillment.
Moderator: Nevertheless, if Kabbalah talks about pleasures, why doesn’t it have some directions, some references to sex in our world?
M. Laitman: Kabbalah doesn’t speak about anything in our world, not just sex, anything. because the Torah is not intended to make any change in our corporeal life in this world.
Moderator: However, the goal of creation is to enjoy, as this person asks.
M. Laitman: No, the goal of creation is to enjoy, but not to enjoy as we define enjoyment in this world. Why? There is no pleasure in this world. What you achieve is a second of pleasure, and then you feel emptiness right away. Then you chase another second of pleasure, and once again you feel emptiness. You discover that you need this pleasure, because without it, our life is just tasteless. On the other hand, the pleasure always disappears, and you stay empty. So, these are not the pleasures that the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about.
Moderator: So, what pleasures does it talk about?
M. Laitman: Eternal pleasures. Imagine yourself a Zivug that its pleasure is eternal, and it keeps growing and doesn’t ever stop. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about and brings us to.
Imagine the littlest spiritual coupling in the beginning of the spiritual levels, the minimal spiritual level, is one billion times greater than all the other pleasures you’ve experienced in all of your life, and that it is not even the end. This is the meaning of the benefiting the creatures, not the corporeality, which gives us just slight moments of enjoyment and leaves us empty. So, look at our life as an opportunity to achieve real pleasure.
Question: I have a desire for money. Is it okay for me to try and get it or by doing so do I turn greedy by that?
M. Laitman: All our desires in this world do not belong to spirituality, period. Let’s say, this is me and within me I have desires for food, sex, and family—these are called “bodily desires.” My body demands this and it doesn’t matter where I am, where I live, along with humanity, in the woods—my body creates these desires (food, sex, and family). I yearn for them.
Besides that, there are human desires that we absorb from the environment, because we are in the society of humanity. These are desires for money, respect, control and knowledge. We absorb these desires only if we are in the society; and, to the extent that these desires are evolved in the society, we absorb them, and we have them as well. The lowest desire is for money, then for honor, for control and then for knowledge.
But it’s not worthwhile to stop with these desires—whatever you do in this world doesn’t matter. You realize all of your desires, because they work within you, they demand to fulfill them. Therefore, take the books of Kabbalah and try to find yourself there. Perhaps, you will discover that there is the source of pleasure that is much greater than money.
It’s much more abstract because with money, you can only fulfill something small. What about honor, what about control, knowledge and other bodily pleasures? The wisdom of Kabbalah offers you an abstract pleasure that comes to you and fulfills you entirely. This is something that we don’t understand in this world.
I want to eat, so I am completely focused on the food. Oh yes, I am eating, and that’s it; I fulfilled myself. Now, I am willing to enjoy something else and then another something else. When I am busy with one thing, the rest of my desires are oppressed. However, with the wisdom of Kabbalah it isn’t so. We operate all of our desires, we let them be stronger, and intensify as it says “one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him” and then he fulfills them all. So, it’s worthwhile to study the wisdom of Kabbalah!
Question: An eleven years-old boy asks, “How do I overcome the ego?”
M. Laitman: How do you overcome the ego? You don’t have to overcome it. The path has to be very nice and easy. You don’t need to try devastating yourself forcefully. I don’t want the gum, or I don’t want to eat ice cream, and I always have to struggle with myself, God forbid, no. Stay the way you are—nice little boy and accept yourself with love.
However, only through the books are you able to attract the Light that reform. It says simply, “I created the evil inclination,” says the Creator. He created the evil inclination, and He says, “Don’t fight it, don’t correct it. I created the Torah, which is the spice for it.” Just turn to the Torah and receive its force, and that force will correct you with comfort, and pleasure and fun. You don’t have to try struggling with yourself, manipulating yourself, not being satisfied. Be satisfied and advance nicely, all you need is the Light of the Torah.
The Light of the Torah is a force that descends on a person when he reads the authentic books of Kabbalah. Take our books; start reading them without doing anything else besides that. Stay the way you are and gradually, this Light will affect you and change you exactly according to the way the Creator wants.
Question: On the one hand, they say that the Creator is the quality of bestowal that a person has to reach, and it’s within him. But, on the other, we always talk about the Creator as something outside of us, as something that we have to pray to, the Force that dominates everything. So, who is the Creator? Is He within or outside of us?
M. Laitman: The truth is that there is nothing outside of man. This is what we learn from Perception of Reality. There is a large part of Kabbalah that explains the perception of reality, on the website, and in our books. Baal HaSulam and all the other Kabbalists wrote about this.
We perceive through our box (our five senses). All kinds of influences enter us, and they all join in our mind and create the picture of reality. We think we see something on the outside, but in truth, we see something within our self. Therefore, how do we depict everything? This is what everything depends on, either it is outside or inside of us. The truth is that it is only correct to describe anything within us.
The Creator is that force of bestowal, that force of love and connection to others that exists within us only in a concealed fashion, and we have to discover it and connect to that force. We want Him to be revealed within us and to control us. This is called “getting to know the Creator” and not to look for Him behind some corner or in some hiding place. There are no places in spirituality; everything is within man.
Therefore, our whole study is only to cleanse our senses a little, so we will feel how He fulfills them. Suddenly, we will see that He is inside; He was only concealed within us, and now, when we became pure, we will feel that He is there, and He doesn’t conceal Himself anymore. No matter which way He is revealed, it’s all within.
Question: The matter of importance of society is always emphasized. I don’t know where or how can I reach an environment where I live.
M. Laitman: It doesn’t matter where you live. We have people in Alaska and Sydney and many other places, and they are all connected to us. They watch us through the Internet and TV channels. They read our books, and come to our lectures. They come to our congresses; we have the congresses at least once a year. That connection is called “a society” and it’s not my neighbors.
Frankly speaking, I don’t know my neighbors at all. I say “hello,” “good morning” or “good evening” to them because I know they are living in my building. That’s it! I don’t know them. However, I am not walking on the street and saying “hello” to everyone.
Whom do I know? I know those who are close to my heart; those who are closer to what is important to me. They are called “close.” Closeness is not according to physical distance. The neighbor, in that case, is closer to me. However, a person who is closer to me, i.e., to my opinion, to my purpose in life, he is closer to me and to those I connect.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter where she is. I understand that she lives in Kiryat Motzkin and it’s probably hard to find people who will be close to her in her opinions and her search. Nevertheless, we have communication tools. Through these communication tools, she can be connected to us, that will be her environment, and she doesn’t need more.
The rest of the world is just a place she lives in, and she can also tell others about what she can attain by the wisdom of Kabbalah, i.e., what happiness she can attain. Thus, she can also build a physical environment near her as well to enjoy, if she can.
Question: It’s very technical, everything you are talking about. Where are the simple good deeds we can do for others? Sometimes, little deeds save people, like encouragement and good words. I don’t understand, our society is filled with so many negative things—drug abuse, the depression, suicide, so many negative things. Where is the compassion we are supposed to have for others? After all, we are human beings.
M. Laitman: He is right, but we are only growing worse. Humanity’s development is propelled by the ego, and it won’t help us to smile to each other. It’s all good, because it raises one’s spirits, it helps him to overcome things, it even helps him to be healthier; it’s all good. However, the world will not be corrected this way.
Kabbalah doesn’t talk about these little corrections that we are able to do in terms of relating nicely to one another. I am not saying it is not worthwhile doing it. Furthermore, a person who is working on himself goes through phases of development in acquiring love towards others; he refers nicely to others. He, at least, doesn’t harm them, and he is willing to be friendly to everyone.
However, we have to understand that the correction is in the soul, on our spiritual level. What does it mean on our spiritual level? It’s all about our internal desires; it won’t help us to talk nicely to people by saying “good morning” and “good evening” to them. If we cannot attract the Light that Reforms from Above, we won’t be able to cope with our growing ego. This is why it’s called the Upper Light (the Light of the Torah) that appears in order to correct our evil inclination. As it says “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.” Therefore, only by the Upper Light, that you can attract only by the study of Kabbalah, can you correct yourself and then achieve the state you are wishing for.
And, so far, in the entire history of humanity, we didn’t use that great instrument called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.” We didn’t use it, because it was forbidden to use it. We waited and waited until our egoistic desire grew to dimensions that we could no longer stand.
Today, when we start to recognize that it is a horrible place to be in, like you are saying, the wisdom of Kabbalah appears and says, “Take me, use me and achieve the good state, because you have grown already, you are ripe for correction.” Therefore, we need to take this Light and use it in order to achieve the good, happy state and the good world, like you described.
Question: What is the meaning of assimilation? What does Kabbalah say about it? Could it be that a Jewish woman will connect to non-Jewish man? If there is one Creator, then is it correct that there is no difference between Jew and non-Jew?
M. Laitman: It says that the Creator wanted to give the Torah to the whole world, but they didn’t want to receive it, because they were very egoistic, without sparks of bestowal within them. Therefore, He brought that Torah to the people of Israel, because they had sparks of bestowal, which they received from the Torah of Abraham.
Therefore, Israel must correct themselves first, and this is what we have to implement today and this is why we are working hard with our dissemination project. We have to bring this method to all the peoples, as it says, “My House will turn to a House of Prayer to the whole world and they shall all know Me from the greatest to the least of them.” It also says, “And all the nations will come to Him.”
The correction has to be general; The Book of Zohar writes about it in length. It is intended for the whole world, and the whole world has to rise to the level of the Creator and unite with Him. However, towards the Creator there is no difference between a Jew and non-Jew; someone who is wise or someone who is a fool. Everyone has to reach the perfect state, the most beautiful state. But, there is an order of correction. Israel has to correct themselves first, and then they have to correct the world; to bring them the method of correction.
Moderator: In this process where is the phenomenon of assimilation?
M. Laitman: There is no assimilation; on the contrary, when we went into Exile it says, “The people of Israel went into exile only in order to attach the souls of the people, of the nations.” This assimilation is desirable; however, it is not in corporeality but that which happens Above it, in spirituality and internality. When we fell from the level of the Temple, from the level of “love of man” that we had, to unfounded hatred, we went down to the same level of the nations of the world, and then we assimilate and mix with them. Eventually, we have to raise ourselves, and then also help them rise.
Moderator: You are talking about the internal mixture on the level of desires, not about weddings of someone who is Jewish and someone who is not Jewish. Let’s go further into the future. In the corrected state, when we will all be one, will there be a difference between the Jewish and non-Jewish?
M. Laitman: No, there won’t be any difference; the world will be one, like one soul and this is how people will feel, equal.
Jewish comes from the word Yehud (united). Who are we? We are a nation because we took the method of correction that Abraham discovered. Therefore, we became Jews (united), nation of Israel, straight to the Creator (Yashar El). All of our civilization is a spiritual one.