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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
Question: Do Kabbalists also enjoy the small material pleasures in life?
Michael Laitman: Each desire we feel stays the same throughout the process of spiritual development and also afterwards, because it was created by the Creator and is therefore eternal. As to your question, the greatest Kabbalists pay special attention to the smallest things, tiny pleasures like flavors, the birds and the skies, and little and big children. Actually a Kabbalist’s senses are deeper more developed, and through these pleasures and impressions from everything within and from without, he feels the Upper Force, the Creator. Therefore, it doesn’t disappear.
Look at great people, important people, inflated people; they feel they are dealing only with important and high things, so to speak. But a Kabbalist sees the whole of nature to its depth, as well as the force behind it, that operates it.Therefore, for him there is no greater or smaller pleasure; he feels the whole of nature as one.
Usually, it’s what is hidden from people; whether it’s small pleasures, or the fact that adults can’t understand youth, or understand people that are sometimes immersed in specific activities like sports, recreational activities, scientific research or even bad things like stealing and cheating. A Kabbalist can experience all these things, thus feel them. They are so precisely within him, that when he corrects what may seemingly be unpleasant desires, he feels through them the One who designs all these desires, which is the Creator. In fact, he becomes more sharply focused and more knowledgeable of all the pleasures. He can turn into a little child or an animal. He can’t really turn into them, but he feels what each and every creature feels, even a stone.
A Kabbalist simply includes the whole of creation, all the desires, including all the desires of all the souls, in all the levels; the still, vegetative, animate and human. So, these things cannot disappear from him, or be forgotten. On the contrary, he achieves the end of correction with all of that and he receives the whole Light of Infinity called NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya and Yechida) in this great Kli (vessel).
Moderator: I want to ask you a question, and I don’t know if this is something you can say in words, but I’ll ask and if you can, please answer. I know that every day, you do some sports at the beach. I know that every person, even if he’s not a Kabbalist, when he’s at the beach near the sea, feels that there is something special there. Can you try and explain the difference in sensations and how it was before you were a Kabbalist, and now, so we can understand the difference, the additional senses and the addition of that sharpness.
M. Laitman: I’ll tell you. I feel that the whole of nature breathes, that there is an addition of something that lives, with a goal and a relationship to man, and there is a thought within it, a great force that is aimed to influence the whole of humanity, all together. Through all these things, the Creator wants to turn to mankind, and wants to talk to them, that’s His language, through the sands, the sea, the clouds, everything.
I don't want it to sound like mysticism, but I’m saying that from the sensation of the desires of all those levels in nature, what you feel is the force of the Creator, His Thought of Creation and how it should clothe all the levels of still, vegetative, animate and man. I also have no words for it. Man includes the whole of creation and therefore, he feels the whole of creation. He starts feeling that everything is a part of him.
Question: Is it correct, like it says in the Torah, that every person goes through tests during his life and this is how he is examined by the Upper Providence? Does it mean that all of man’s life is a test by the Upper Providence?
M. Laitman: Of course; the most obvious thing for us is the story of the exodus from Egypt. It talks about us being in our ego. A person, who has prepared himself, starts to discover that his ego works on him, controls him, overcomes him, and he constantly tries to overcome it. Through this burdening of the heart, he starts feeling that this is Pharaoh; this is his ego, his enemy. There is a point called Moses within him that attracts him to the other side. In this game with the Creator; Pharaoh, Moses, the people of Israel, and the Egyptians, are all within a man and he starts to discover these forces within himself. He sees how lost he is in the hands of Pharaoh without the force of the Creator that can take him out.
If we go through life knowing that this is our Egypt and that we have to rise to a higher level and not remain in the ego, where our inner Pharaoh and Egyptians want to keep us, we will learn how to utilize our lives correctly. We will see that life is man's attempt to escape his nature and go out to what is called ‘redemption’ which is the sensation of the Upper World, eternity and Infinity.
Moderator: Something happens in every given moment in a man’s life. Is that a test that the Creator gives him? How does He test him?
M. Laitman: A person should try not to detach from his goal in this life. He was given this life, not to just be here like a beast, because if we start our life and end it this way, we are just like animals and beasts. But if we can rise to a higher level where we achieve the level of the Creator, then we are called humans. Adam in Hebrew, meaning man, comes from the word ‘similar,’ to be similar to the Creator.
So, our lives are an opportunity. If I constantly try to see where and how the Creator plays with me holding on to the thought “there is none else besides Him,” and wonder why he disappears from me, where is my free will? What does he do to me and how can I turn it to my advantage to attain the purpose of my life? I find myself with the thought “if I am not for myself, who will be for me?” Then, if I utilize my life, and realize that my life is worthwhile, that it truly is a test, but it’s my test, it’s not the Creator’s, and that there is no reason for Him to test me, since I test myself. All these exercises should bring me to a state where I rise above the corporeal level, to the level of Adam. Then I earn life: the spiritual life, the eternal life; the body dies and I am alive. If we continue living like animals in our corporal body, when we die we disappear, and then again, we just wait for the next chance in the next life cycle.
Question: I heard on the news that the talks regarding international trade failed nine days after they started because the rich countries and the poor countries refused to open their markets to import. They blamed one another for being inflexible. The Prime Minister of Brazil also compared the approach of the rich countries regarding world trade to the tactics of the minister of propaganda in the Nazi movement, a statement that caused a storm in the discussions. The question is where is the world heading? The truth is that it is very frightening to make a comparison to the Nazi period.
M. Laitman: First of all, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if we do not implement what Kabbalah tells us, meaning if we don’t correct our nature and rise to a spiritual level, which is actually what we must do now with all the problems on the global and the individual level in our modern times, we will find ourselves in Nazi regimes in all the developed countries.
Moderator: But why Nazi regimes, we have gone through this already?
M. Laitman: No, the communism in Russia, the Nazis in Germany, Italy, and Spain, that was only the beginning. Because Germany was more developed than all the other countries such a thing happened. But it seems that the Nazi regimes appear after the democratic regimes.
So the Brazilian Prime Minister is right. This is the approach, and this is what happens. He doesn’t want to open his country to the whole world, because they will come with their cheap products and his country’s workers will be unemployed, and there will be hunger because they cannot get work or money for food.
If I were the Prime Minister, I would do exactly the same. I would close the country inside and not let any kind of imported products into my country. So, what does a country earn by that? After a democracy collapses, each and every country has nothing to hold on to, but only keeping itself, and sustaining itself with respect to the world. Will America be worse than Brazil?
Moderator: What does this have to do with Nazism?
M. Laitman: This is what happens.When I start closing my country to external influences, in order to keep what I have, it later brings about a Nazi regime. Why? The country wants to control, to organize itself, to protect itself from foreign people, from immigrants, from foreign products. It doesn’t want to be connected to the whole world, because the whole world is headed towards chaos and it wants to be on its own.
Look at what might happen now. After all this development we are like a global village, we’re all interconnected, all the markets are interdependent and interconnected and the banks are international. Nothing will remain from that. What will remain is only a struggle until wars occur between all the countries, the developed ones in particular. That is the reasonable development that might occur, because everyone will have to protect themselves.
Look at what's happening in Europe. If it lets all the immigrants inside, and if all the cheap products come in, the Europeans will have nothing to do. What will they live on, if they don't have their own products? If the immigrants come and take money and escape home or send their money home, then nothing will prosper. So, in fifty years Europe will be worse off than Africa.
Moderator: So, what you’re depicting is a very dark future where every country closes its gates and tries to keep what it has. And these places will fortify themselves all over the world. So what will happen, what will our world be like?
M. Laitman: The democratic organizations with all the workers’ organizations will turn into Nazi organizations. They will say we don’t want foreigners, and we don’t want foreign products to come into the country, in order to protect the local workers.
Moderator: So the future looks very dark.
M. Laitman: This is how we advance. If we advance with our ego, then in the future each and every country will isolate itself from the rest of the world. That goes against the general force of nature, the general development. Therefore, what we reach here is such a thriller that has never happened before and might explode in the form of a world war.
Moderator: Is there an alternative?
M. Laitman: Yes, only to rise above the ego and no other alternative. I think that it is understood, because today people in every country have arrived at a dead end and they don’t know and won’t know how to continue.
Moderator: Can you give some practical advice?
M. Laitman: The dissemination of Kabbalah. And I’m not just saying that. There is no other choice because this is how it is. There is no other escape but higher, above, transcending our nature. In our egoistic nature, we have reached the end, and we will gradually discover that there is no way out; we will discover that all our attempts to come closer, to move toward connections between the East and West, and big wars and peace processes are futile. The next regime after this post-modernism is Nazism. This is where every country worries about itself and is willing to destroy all the others because its general force of ego, forces it to survive.
Therefore, only by the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah can we correct things. The general despair on the one hand and the private despair on the other hand; the ecological natural disasters which we are going to feel as getting worse in the next few years; the blows from nature that will bring man to a question: “What will the next moment bring?” This is how life will be. Then they will hear what the Creator says.
Therefore, they will then hear that there is a way to rise in a healthy way; that there is a way for all of humanity to rise to the level of the Creator. That is what He invites us to do, in a way that is a bit coarse, but this is how it is. I started with the story about Egypt, because these things happen exactly according to the story of Egypt.
Question: Why do women always find themselves angry with men? They’re like children that do stupid things and are insensitive and treacherous. On the other hand, we can’t do without them. Why is it so?
M. Laitman: It’s a curse. The secret of the curse is that the woman has to bring to the man the desire for the attainment of spiritual life, like in corporeal life. The same way she sends her man to hunt or to bring sustenance to the children, while she by herself organizes her house and the continuance of the generation.
So in the same way, a woman has to bring the right desire for spiritual sustenance, and she should aim the man towards this. By doing this, she corrects the sin of Adam ha Rishon (the First Man), where we came from and that brings us to a corrected world. Throughout history, women have not been satisfied with their lives, because they have not yet reached the understanding by Kabbalah, as to how they should pressure men.
Moderator: How should they pressure men?
M. Laitman: To attain spirituality is really the spiritual sustenance that is eternal both for men and women and their descendants, and that is certainly the best result. As it says, “We are redeemed from Egypt thanks to just women.” This is said in many places. Therefore, I am very happy that more than half of our audience is women and I’m happy to hear that they advance properly and understand the material. That gives me great hope for advancement towards correction.
Question: I have a question about reincarnations. I would like to know whether each soul achieves correction or whether there are souls that disappear along the way.
M. Laitman: There is no such thing as anything disappearing. Sometimes something is hidden or seems to disappear and we don’t know where it is. This is because we don’t see the whole picture of the whole world. Nothing disappears; there is a law of the preservation of energy where matter changes form, from solid to fluid to gas and so forth. Nothing is lost, neither in thoughts or desires, magnetic fields or anything. There is no such term as disappearance. That concept doesn’t exist in nature; things only change their form. We call it the ‘wheel of change of form.’
The same thing happens with reincarnations of man’s soul, or the changes in man’s body; it’s everything, whether it’s spiritual or corporeal.
Moderator: So there are no souls that are lost on the way.
M. Laitman: No, God forbid, there is no such thing. The number of souls is six hundred thousand, it is rationed and this is how it is. It divides into billions, but in its foundation, it is six hundred thousand souls, and it divides to more and more people and everyone has a root of the soul. By the root of his soul, a person is capable, of obtaining his Upper root from his point. That is what he is intended to do and that is why we find ourselves in this world; in order to attain the highest, the complete, the eternal place we have, while living in our body.
Question: Do animals, and nature, in general, feel their upper “I” and feel reality different from us, or are they like us and feel reality in a limited way?
M. Laitman: Like us, maybe?An animal doesn’t feel that it’s alive. It just feels life, like a little baby, or people that are not developed, who feel a bit more. They just live; they don’t ask about ‘me,’or ‘myself,’ ‘Am I alive or not?’ They don’t differentiate between life and themselves; they just live. Look at the vegetative; do they have a philosophy about life, do they think about being alive, or why they live the way they do and how they turn toward the sun, or does it sleep at night or not? No. But the laws of nature manipulate them and bring them to an order of actions.
Moderator: But they are not connected.
M. Laitman: The still, vegetative and animate, are definitely connected, but they don’t realize it. They are not aware of it. A person who is on an animate level is not aware of it either.
A person starts asking seriously, “What do I live for?” and starts asking about the purpose of life and what it is for, whether it is worthwhile and for what purpose, and even if you give him this whole world, he doesn’t see the need or reason to be here, when he doesn’t see the goal. Then he starts feeling there must be a higher purpose from nature’s side and thus that inner sensation brings him above beastly life, and that is the level of man. From that, man starts.
Moderator: So, such questions don’t exist within animals, the vegetative, and not even within every man.
M. Laitman: Precisely.
Question: What is the purpose of all the stars in the sky that are far from us and are there other life forms there?
In the development of matter, there are levels of still, vegetative, animate and speaking and the ratio between them is qualitative and quantitative. The more there is quality, the less there is quantity and vice versa. Therefore, Israel is the fewest of the nations. Why? Because it has the greater quality. Diamonds for example, their quantity is less, but how much does one diamond cost? There are tons of sand, but how much does it cost? It costs only pennies. Just think of the price of one diamond compared to the price of tons of sand! So this is like the still level.
Moderator: So all those stars are just at the level of still?
M. Laitman: Yes, it's like a pyramid, first the level of still then the vegetative. Look at the difference between still and vegetative. Still is the whole of the universe; the vegetative is only on the face of earth, and then there is less animate and less speaking. In the speaking, you also have the levels of still, vegetative, animate and speaking, meaning the quality level within man’s level. Because, eventually, that is in order to develop man. “Everything comes from the land,” as it says and this is the way of development.
Question: While smoking marijuana, I had amazing sensations of detachment and was able to look at nature in a completely different way. After I did some research, I discovered that in the period of the Bible, including the period of Abraham, they used the cannabis for spiritual ascent.
M. Laitman: No, that’s not spiritual ascent.
Question: (cont'd) In addition, I discovered that almost everyone who smoked pot in the past or who now smokes pot, better understands Kabbalah and is more open to talk about the meaning of life from an experimental viewpoint. He usually, has a higher level of perception of reality. Also, I know that in other beliefs and religions, people ascribe huge remedies to the cannabis pertaining to the essence of life and spiritual ascent.
So, according to Kabbalah, are there signs or hints that the cannabis has high abilities in everything that belongs to perception of reality, to spiritual ascent and is it true that Kabbalists used or are using it for spiritual ascent?
M. Laitman: God forbid, no! He can take any Kabbalah book and find nothing in it besides the studying. Because by studying about the higher levels of my soul, I draw myself to those levels by Ohr Makif (the Surrounding Light). That is the only means to reach spirituality.
What all those people who smoke reach and achieve is only a vagueness of their senses and therefore, it seems to them that they become more open. Of course, it detaches them from the bitter reality and enables them to philosophize and walk around in their own imagination. But, there is nothing realistic or spiritual in this.
There are religions that do use it. In the past of course, people used it even more than today. People used it for religious purposes and for all kinds of rituals. But this doesn’t belong to spiritual attainment. Spiritual attainment is only by the Upper Light that clothes within the person, and for that, a person doesn’t need to be twisted or detached from his own senses. On the contrary, we need to sharpen and deepen our senses and be aware of them with both our mind and emotion.
So, we need to open up our senses, both our mind and emotions and that is totally different from all kinds of intoxication; that is completely incorrect. The fact that drugs have been known for centuries is correct, but Kabbalists never used them. Show me, what books he is talking about? I know the phenomenon of cannabis and other kinds of drugs and synthetic drugs we have today. I know these phenomena, because unfortunately many people come to me today. I see students, who start studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, and are able to detach from all that.
Moderator: Today, the phenomenon of using light drugs is very common.
M. Laitman: Kabbalah is neither against nor in favor of this.
Moderator: Let’s say a person is watching us now, and he is used to smoking pot.
M. Laitman: Yes, let’s say in the evening he smokes some pot.
Moderator: So, is Kabbalah closed to him?
M. Laitman: No, God forbid, no. I have many people come to me; thousands of people from all over the world. Students who come to study and no one forbids them from doing anything, they continue doing what they want.I know that gradually, they won’t need it anymore; they will go through such inner experiences that they will realize that the smoking just takes away the spiritual impression from them. They will see how it collides, because on one the one hand they realize that it is imagination, and on the other hand, something real has opened up to them.
I’m not closed to anything and I’m not forbidding anything, and we see that it’s impossible. But, gradually, a person sees from within that he has no need. Suddenly, he will look at himself and see that he hasn’t smoked this thing for a few days.
Question: I want to know how the force of the subconscious and what it says in the book The Secret, goes together with the wisdom of Kabbalah and the fact that everything is predetermined and we are puppets on strings. According to the theory in that book, The Secret, it’s possible to influence reality with our subconscious force and our desire, and there are things that prove it; people who have become successful and rich.
M. Laitman: You can become successful and rich, not in this way, but only in the Hollywood way. I know the people that make these movies, and I have met them as well, and I just want to say that there is nothing true about this. The real scientists keep away from these things, as there is no proof for it. According to what we learn about man’s soul, you can’t influence souls or the Upper Forces. But, psychologically, of course, you can influence and manipulate people the way you want, at a corporeal level. There are techniques for that, and people use them, like in the KGB. I read that they used it. However it has nothing to do with spirituality. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who confuse others with this. I also see that through these confusions, people discover faster that none of this belongs to the truth.
Moderator: Okay. I’ll try to ask a few questions so things will be clearer. Man’s desire doesn’t work when a person convinces himself to be rich; I want to be rich.
M. Laitman: Yes, that persuasion works; it’s like a placebo, it works. Let’s say you’re telling me, “That this water is holy and will make you feel well.” And I believe you, and I say that this is really so. Many other people say that it helped them and so on. Then I drink it and I convince myself that I feel better; I can even be healed of a bad physical illness.
Moderator: So there is a force of the desire.
M. Laitman: Yes, but don’t call it a spiritual desire.
Moderator: Okay, so let’s go back to this idea. It is said that there are people who are successful and rich because of the force of the desire. So, one asks if it sits with the wisdom of Kabbalah that says that everything is predetermined and we are puppets on a string?
M. Laitman: But that doesn’t belong to spirituality.
Moderator: Explain, how it doesn’t belong? I was poor until the end of last month. Then I read the book, memorized it, and performed what I needed to do and then I became rich.
M. Laitman: What is the difference between going to study, taking courses, doing some sports and then becoming strong or something?
Moderator: Yes, but let’s look at it from Above. I’m supposed to be a puppet on a string, Kabbalah says.
M. Laitman: No, no, no. Wait a minute. First of all, you may use some techniques to awaken the forces within you, or use the force of some doctor or other ways to awaken your abilities. That’s the same thing, that’s one and the same. How things happen to you from Above just happens from Above.
In our world nothing is determined and nothing happens here; it’s only a world of consequences. It is all incorporated in the private providence over man. Even if I curse the Creator and bless Him later, it all happens as something that descends to me from Above. A person in this world commits a good deed or felony only in wanting to correct himself, and whether in the feedback he raises the desire to be closer upwards or not. But, whether he brings himself closer or not, there are consequences below and that’s it, he executes. In this world, we have no free choice in anything. “All are like beasts.” Therefore, whether I go to some old lady that talks to me about fortune telling, or whether I go to the university, or use amulets or whatever, it’s all the same.
Moderator: So, my idea to focus my thought and desire in wanting to be rich also comes from Above?
M. Laitman: Yes. Who gave you that thought? Even before you start, it has already entered you and you’re following it, that’s it. It didn’t come from you, you’re just performing it. Your thoughts and desires, nothing is yours. Where did this thought come from? It just came, right? From where, you don’t know. This is why we think we have some choice. The regular religion, even Judaism speaks about it, not just the wisdom of Kabbalah. “We have no deeds,” there is the verse that says that; “We are as matter in the hands of the Maker.” Yes, these things are known.
Moderator: Well, to say it is one thing, to feel is a different thing.
M. Laitman: Yes, but according to science, we also discover that we’re just matter and that everything works according to hormones, genes, and in man’s semen, you can discover the qualities the person will have. If you take two twins, and you put them in two different places in the world, you see that they grow to be the same; the way they both arrange their home, the way they call their children and even their wives will be similar. This means that everything is already instilled, rooted in man; that’s it.
Moderator: So, what’s left?
M. Laitman: Nothing, you see that no one has free will. You see that he performed what he had in his life.
Moderator: So, you’re canceling human will completely?
M. Laitman: Your choice is only to develop upwards. You’re invited to do it.
Question: Why do bad things happen to me in life?
M. Laitman: What do you mean by why do bad things happen to me? Everyone measures himself, according to some standard. If you’re connected to us, you somehow have a connection with the Upper Source. You arrived to the method that connected you to the Upper Force that arranged you and designed you with all your thoughts and desires in life. First of all, by somehow being connected to that source, you can be the boss of your life. And then you might see that everything that has happened to you in life so far is by the Upper Force, so that you will want to know it and use it to raise yourself to the highest, best state. Then you won’t feel yourself deprived, you will feel yourself the most successful, and it will really be so. Try it and see.
Question: Lately we see that many accidents happen to Israelis abroad. Does it mean that our place is in the land of Israel? Why do Israelis go overseas to search themselves?
M. Laitman: Israelis are looking for themselves everywhere. They think that this will change something, that they will really find some place of rest, or peace, some place where they will be respected, or a place where they will discover something good. I see them in the Far East, and in the close East, in America and Canada. There are Israelis everywhere and all that indicates their search. They think the external search can help them. I hope that there will be an understanding, a development that there is nothing to look for externally; they need to look for a different essence, and not a different place.
What can change on the face of Earth, or even if you go to Mars or the Moon? What can you find externally that will change? You will still have to die; still have to think of how to fulfill yourself, because in the next moment, you need something else. I went there, I saw something; I went here, I saw something else. Every time a person has to constantly change these external impressions.
I myself love traveling; I go to nature, and I like doing that. I get a lot of strength from that and I also get some rest from the foreign thoughts, and I am able to be with myself. But, finding some goal or real fulfillment there is impossible.
What you are doing is only going to the levels of vegetative and still while looking for a fulfillment to man’s level? That can’t happen. At man’s level, the fulfillment can only be something similar to Him, the Creator. Only He can fulfill man, nothing less than that. Therefore, all our searches today are only to discover this nothingness.
It’s like in Egypt; we built Pithom and Raamses, meaning all the cities that accumulated all the products of Egypt. What was left to man from that, after he accumulated all these things in his ego? Look at all the countries, the bourgeoisie (materialistic) developed countries. They are the number one countries in depressions, suicides, divorces. Man looks for another thing and another thing and remains empty. That is all in order to understand that our fulfillment, the fulfillment of man’s level only comes from the Creator. Only He can fulfill us, and only He is willing to do that; it all depends on our desire. We can go out to nature, we can have some physical rest to have better strength for spiritual development, but the source we look for has to be understood, and that’s Him.
Question: What are mountains according to Kabbalah? What is the mountain of Sinai?
M. Laitman: Mountains are man’s ego. Mount Sinai means “mountain of hatred.” The word Sinah means hatred in Hebrew. It is a mountain that separates and isolates us from each other. If we rise above that hatred and connect together, we do what we call Arvut (guarantee), as one man, one heart on top of Mt.Sinai, and then we clarify this point of connection called Moses. Then we reach contact with Godliness, or the Upper Force. We discover Him within us because we have risen above the hatred between us and we have reached ‘love thy friend as thyself,’ which is the greatest rule of the Torah. What does the rule mean? It means that the connection between us includes everything and it is the vessel in which we discover the Creator, the eternal life.
Moderator: You’re saying that mountain is ego. I remember that there is an article by Baal HaSulam in the book Shamati that says that mountain comes from the word Hirhurim (ponderings).
M. Laitman: Mountain comes from Hirhurim (ponderings). Because it is our ponderings and confusion and where we are isolated from each other and rejected from each other that we constantly have to rise above. This is how we rise above that mountain, and we turn that mountain of hatred into the mountain of the Creator.
When we have reached the mountain peak, we meet the Upper Force. We go into the King’s palace, as Baal HaSulam explains in the Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot. Then the hatred, that ego that we have, the “help against it,” turns to help.
Moderator: So, the King’s palace, if we continue this allegory, the King’s Palace has to be in the mountain’s peak?
M. Laitman: Yes, because we build it from the connection between us. It doesn’t exist, but when you come there by nullifying your ego and connecting to others who do the same, and bring yourselves to connection (Arvut), to love of man, by that you build the house, the home, the receptacle. Everyone is a brick in that building, and in that Kli or vessel you feel the revelation of Godliness. He has no other place to be revealed, only in the connection between people. Where there was a breakage between the souls, where we became hateful towards one another, there the place of correction and revelation has to be.
Question: From studying Kabbalah, I understand that a woman equals a home, but I don’t understand what home is in spirituality? What is its root, and is it connected to the fact that man lives in a sensation that he wants to go back to the home, to the house, to the root?
M. Laitman: Home means desires. Our egoistic desires within each and every one is called ‘woman.’ When these desires push us to search the purpose in life, they are called Gever (man) from the word to overcome in Hebrew. Man who overcomes his desires and wants to use the desires in order to attain the Upper Force, the spiritual Force, means that he works correctly with the ‘man’ and ‘woman’ part within him.
Moderator: So ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are two inner parts found within every person, both men and women?
M. Laitman: Yes, in each and every one of us, in our chromosomes, there are also male and female chromosomes. Among people in this world there are also men and women. In the mutual work between us, we also take part in this process towards the advancement towards Godliness.
The woman part today only begins its role, but in the future, it should give the world the great desire to reach the proper life that is filled with spiritual sustenance. The male part has to be intended to connect that desire to the Creator, to the Upper Force.
A woman is called ‘home’ because she is the receptacle; she brings the main desire. She demands sustenance, and a man is the means for that sustenance that comes into the house. That is, a woman is ‘home’ because it is the place where the abundance can enter.
Question: Is watching Kabbalah TV enough in order to advance?
M. Laitman: In our framework of the worldwide Bnei Baruch, we have two million students from different places, and countries. There are men and women from all of mankind. They are usually with us through the internet channels. With TV it’s even better, and in Israel we have the ability to appear before people on a TV channel. The internet, TV, reading or just listening is enough. If a person, no matter where he is, has some kind of connection with us, that’s already enough to develop his soul. Later, life may show him some other forms as well.
Continue to study with us through whatever communication channels you have. Besides that, I hope we will have a big Congress in February 2009 and everyone is invited. You should call us in advance and register. There, we will have an international meeting and you will be able to attend the live lectures and meet students from all over the world. I recommend doing that, and you will see that they are much farther from us and they learn through much worse communication channels other than TV, and they succeed.
Question: What do you do with all kinds of sensations of sadness and depression that stem from the thought that it will take me so much time to correct myself and the world?
M. Laitman: What a great ego! He says, “WhatifI don’t succeed correcting myself and correcting the world? That's why I’m depressed?” I am demanding of the Creator, “Why did you do this; the path is so hard, why, why, why?” This is the ego, the pride.
But, it is not up to us, as it is said, to finish the work. And on the other hand, we cannot get rid of it. First of all, we have to understand that everything works according to the purpose. A person has to discover the purpose, and to the extent that he discovers the purpose, he feels that he advances. But you don’t know exactly in what stages you are and what should be discovered
We are in a very special phase in human history, where everyone has to reach spirituality, meaning the masses. Therefore, it is like the health of the general body; if some part is ill, then all the other parts are ill, as well. You might have finished many corrections, but since you are connected to many other souls, and they haven’t finished their corrections, you can’t succeed and rise according to what you deserve as yet, and this is because we are all interconnected in one inclusive soul.
Therefore, dissemination is the sure key to success. The more and faster we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, the sooner we will reach a state where all the souls that depend on us will know about it and we will rise together with them.
Question: If everyone sees the advancement through his personal viewpoint, then how is unity attained?
M. Laitman: My personal advancement is in the connection with everyone else. I by myself am never able to progress. I’m just a point; I’m not even a vessel in which to receive spirituality, I’m just the foundation. It’s like you cut off a glass and keep only its bottom. All of the rest of the walls here, that make the vessel, are my connection with all the others. It is the same thing for each and every one. We have to put together all these walls, and then we’ll have this nice vessel where we will discover the Creator; only in this way. No one person has these walls; therefore a person simply sees that he has no other choice but Arvut, ‘love thy friend as thyself.’ All these demands of the Torah are necessary and vital in order to feel Godliness.
Question: If the Creator is a law…How can you love a law?
M. Laitman: It clothes within me and I love these states. Within these states, I discover the love that comes from something that is higher than me. The Creator is a law, means that I think it is a law, and when this law clothes in my senses, I start feeling the thought that precedes it. There is someone that does it from love, giving and bestowal. When these qualities unfold within me and they are my own qualities, I turn to be an essence like the Creator. This is how I discover love. Love is a result; you can’t convey it and teach it, it comes from feeling the root that created me. That brings me to love towards Him.