Ask the Kabbalist (July 10, 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
Question: If the correction is to be done by only 600,000 people why do we need the other six billion people in the world to participate?
Michael Laitman: We learn that the all inclusive soul, the creature called soul which has the purpose of reaching the level called Adam (man) as in Adameh le Elion (similar to the Upper One), is divided into 600,000 souls or individual parts. Those parts are divided into many, many more parts, and they are found in each of us. Baal HaSulam explains to us in the article Body and Soul that every person has a part of that inclusive soul and eventually, one has to concentrate on resembling the Creator with his part.
It simply means to be giving and loving. “Love thy friend as thyself.’ Why does it say that this is the greatest rule of the Torah? Because just as the Creator relates to all of creation in love and giving, so should a person relate to all as goof. This is what we have to achieve, whether we like and understand it or not. That’s the end of our development.
In each of us there is some small part of that inclusive soul. This is so that the burden on us of something we don’t understand and we don’t agree to be eased. No one thinks of loving others as one loves one self. It is still far from us. But in order to soften this idea for us, so that we will understand that it’s for our own good, those 600,000 parts divided into many more millions and billions of parts. Thus everyone has just a small part, that he needs to understand, to digest, to go against his ego and realize himself that way. After each and every one corrects himself, they all join together and then we will be as one unit.
Everyone has to reach that over 6000 years. All people, seven billion or so, give or take, will have to reach this goal. And after everyone achieves their personal correction, we join once more in that single soul structure that existed before we divided. Then we become as one man in one heart, united with God, on the same level, with the same degree and status as Him. That is our purpose and in reality that state is the best that can be attained, to be as the Upper Force, as Him and that is what we have to achieve.
Moderator: When the billions living on Earth go through this process and emerge out of the natural self-love, with which we were created, to the love of others, the quality of the Creator, does that mean that each of those divisions and subdivisions join together into the 600,000 basic parts?
M. Laitman: Then they become one, as in a pyramid; they unite into one
Question: You’re always saying that even the negative qualities of man were not created in vain. My question is how can we cope correctly with anger, which is so destructive? Even though I have been studying with you for a few years now, I’m always afraid that it’s going to burst. How can I channel this energy, through Kabbalah?
M. Laitman: First of all, nothing was created which does not have its time, place and a correction. Everything was created so that with the correct use of our qualities, we will eventually reach the perfect state. Anger, lust, pride and fraud etc, are all things that we need. Against every positive thing, there’s a negative thing and in the right connection between them, we achieve the beautiful actualization.
It is written that when the Creator created the world, He created everything for that purpose, and there’s nothing superfluous here. There are those who think that we can erase, or cut away something from man, the way we think there are redundant parts or qualities in our character to a various degree, or that there are creatures that are unnecessary in nature like flies. That’s incorrect. Because there’s one inclusive structure, one whole, where we have to include everyone and use everything.
Everyone’s problem is that we want to face things squarely, butt heads and break those qualities we deem negative. This is incorrect. For a start, we don’t know what’s negative and what’s positive. Talk to people, they’ll tell you, everyone has his own opinion.
Secondly, you don’t have the power. How will you do it and what form do you need to achieve? We don’t have any beginning, middle or end to this process, of correcting yourself and the world.
Therefore, what is to be done? The Torah tells us very simply, “I created the evil inclination” (so don’t use a screwdriver or pliers to begin to correct it, break it to pieces and kill it) rather “I created the Torah as a spice.” What is “the Torah as a spice”? You have to learn the Torah, called Hora-ah that contains the Light that Reforms.
This means that in studying the books of Kabbalah about our advanced spiritual states, those we need to reach, we attract our beautiful corrected future state so that it illuminates us now. That is called the Light that Reforms and it corrects me. The anger, coarseness and everything that is not good about me, or things that seem to me good now, but are not, will all be taken care of by the Light. The Light knows exactly what to do with my qualities, in what way to convert them and how.
Moderator: Let’s focus on anger, specifically. This is a quality that is destructive towards everything around. A person who is angry or has an anger fit can sometimes break things.
M. Laitman: Nothing will help such a person until he draws the Light.
Moderator: When the Light comes, what will happen to the anger, to this rage?
M. Laitman: I don’t know and maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe all this rage and anger I will revert against my ego; it will be directed in order to correct all kinds of bad inclinations within me. Maybe I’ll concentrate on this and be angry at this, not at a stranger, outside but at something internal. I don’t know how to use this anger correctly or when and where... I do not need to know about it. I am simply told, “Invite and draw the Light that Reforms.”
Kabbalists get angry too. Usually, they get angry about their still being unable to use the Light that Reforms in order to correct themselves. And that anger brings them to accumulate the strength in order to draw the Light more effectively and achieve correction. But again, all our concentration should be only on “I created the Torah as a spice”.
Moderator: So the approach must be indirect not as you said before, head on?
M. Laitman: We see that we can’t do anything; we see it from history. The questioner mentions it too and is right and aware that we cannot correct ourselves. Let us relate to the correction process correctly. Let’s invite the Light that Reforms from Above.
Question: In order to adhere to the Creator, should a person be moneyless? Can you be wealthy and still be in adhesion? Is this a condition?
M. Laitman: No, it’s not a condition at all. In comparison with the people of today with those who lived thousands of years ago, then we are all ‘Rothschilds.’ I have everything; I have a few rooms in a home, have a water closet at home, I have tap water, I go to the supermarket and I fill up my car with things I need. What did people have in the past? People ate just pieces of bread and that’s it and they were pleased and happy about it. Happiness is a relative thing.
And in general we don’t have to get rid of anything. The Torah talks about giving a tenth of your income (Maaser) to the development of the world, to the correction of the world. In the past, we gave it to the Temple and today we give it to the dissemination of Kabbalah. It has the same purpose of bringing everything to Kodesh (holiness) which means bestowal and love. It is therefore our custom. Yet we give no more than a tenth, no more than ten percent, meaning nine parts, as it was in the Temple. It is as they tell us: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and the tenth for the Creator, Kodesh to the Creator; no more than that. And all the rest, you can have billions, it all stays with you.
Eventually, you see what the proper way to use it is, but there is no ‘must.’ If a person does this, he is already settled as far as his money is concerned
Moderator: Is it right to consider this issue of happiness in a way that someone is successful and rich while another desires this, but gets neither success nor wealth. Do the qualities of a person, whether he is smart or slow to understand or angry, determine whether he gets rich in this life or not? Is it something that is given from Above and you don’t have to worry yourself about it? As you say, “what there is, is” you give a tenth of your income to the correction of the world and keep nine tenths for yourself. That is the way it is and do not occupy oneself with it.
M. Laitman: One must not occupy oneself with it. This is simply an obligation to perform and that is all. Then forget about it. As we discussed, in the previous question, focus on drawing the Light that reforms. We have to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, correctly, from the authentic sources, which in our generation, are the writings of Baal HaSulam, we need to interpret and understand them correctly and by that, draw the force that changes us.
Stop thinking about money and all these things. After I give what is levied from me, which as it says, is exactly a tenth part as against Malchut that part of the soul that I cannot correct. I as though separate this part which I cannot correct and thereby I am exempt. All the rest of the parts of the soul I do correct.
Question: A thirteen-year old boy is asking, “What do they say in the Book of Zohar about the War of Gog and Magog? What, in principle, do you think about it?”
M. Laitman: Gog and Magog are forces operating in this world. They are not something that will be in the future rather they existed from the beginning. The Torah has already written about Gog and Magog. What do I think about this? I think as the wisdom of Kabbalah says: we need to understand that all the evil in the world is man’s ego, in which there are such forces which include Gog and Magog and theyare parts of them. We have to correct them by the Light that Reforms. Only by the study of Kabbalah do we attract these forces and we correct Gog and Magog as well.
And all these wars are internal wars. We have to shift everything that emerges in the world externally, to an internal form. If a person scrutinizes everything within and corrects himself, he doesn’t need all the negative forces in nature to pressure him and cause him all kinds of external trouble. We are able to scrutinize within, all our forces, all our qualities and come to a point where if we correct everything within us, outside there’ll be heaven.
Therefore, we who disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, very much hope that by the dissemination of Kabbalah and by people like those asking us questions right now, we will reach a state where we will correct this internally. Then we will not have any problem such as Gog and Magog externally, causing people to think that some great wars and horrendous events have to happen in the world. Let’s hope that we will complete our internal correction, nice and quickly.
Moderator: You’re saying that if we go through these wars internally, everyone in himself, then there won’t be external wars?
M. Laitman: Of course; everything that exists outside is a replica of our inner state. If our inner state will be peaceful, meaning balanced forces, corrections, according to the way we have to advance and then on the outside we’ll see the same thing. That is why the external crisis we see today in all areas of man’s life in which he is occupied, is a replica of our inner corruption and we are unable to settle ourselves internally.
Moderator: Maybe you as a Kabbalist can describe to our viewers one scene from that war of Gog and Magog that takes place within man?
M. Laitman: It is, so to speak, the final battle where we really kill our ego on its final level and by that we rise to be similar to the Creator, to Godhood. We ascend to His level and finish the correction.
I have nothing more to add, because in our world, in physical forms, this is really world wars with atomic and hydrogen bombs. Kabbalists write that it might happen if we won’t correct ourselves internally. The internal correction determines what happens outside and therefore, there’s no need to think about what happens outside. We will not be able to help something that happens outside with weapons or anything. We can only help ourselves with inner correction.
The people of Israel must come to know its message; what they must reach as the chosen people, what their obligation is towards all of humanity. It is to bring them the method of correction, how to be a holy people, light unto the nations. If we carry this out, there will be no problem. We will be in a nice world where everyone will relate to us with goodness and love.
Question: Why are there so many toys in the world? I buy and make efforts and eventually, the toy that my boy loves most is me. So why are there so many toys in the world?
M. Laitman: First of all, it’s not the children’s doing. For the children it’s enough if you just give them a shoe box, attach a string it to it and they’ll play with it as though it is a car and it will suffice them, they don’t need more. The parents are the ones who are corrupted and they bring the children all kinds of games that drive the children crazy. It’s not even according to what they desire and according to their imagination. It’s a big industry that starts from television and all those examples that the parents later look for in the stores and it’s a corruption over corruption.
Moderator: But are you saying the parents are corrupted? How are they to blame? They’re going to buy gifts to their child.
M. Laitman: Yes, but we think that this is what’s needed for the child, this is what suits him. And what the child actually needs are much simpler, natural things, not artificial things. He needs an internal development; he needs to be directed to express himself, not given these external things. I’m playing a game that lets this one will kill this one and that one will vanquish that one. These fights always take him out of himself, outwardly and let him be competitive, fight and win; we are really making him miserable
Moderator: But there are toys that aren’t just wars. Look at girls’ toys, there are dolls with different dresses and doll houses.
M. Laitman: Yes, but that happens more naturally. With boys, we are really creating an artificial world for them. To some extent for girls as well, but it’s right, this is more so for boys.
It happened because man has evolved and man encompasses the whole world. Children know what ships and planes and everything is. They see on TV examples of the whole world and want it next to them and in their control.
Moderator: Are there toys in spirituality as well?
M. Laitman: All of spirituality is a toy, it’s a game. It says that “the Creator sits and plays with the whale.” It means that everything is a game. A person who enters spirituality takes his qualities and he starts to play with them. If I want to correct myself properly, to develop myself, I need to look at myself from the side. Who am I? I’m Michael. Who’s Michael? He is these and those qualities; these inclinations and urges. Now I’m looking at this doll from the outside, as though coming out of myself. And looking at myself from outside, and saying, “How can I take all these qualities, all these thoughts, desires, urges, inclinations that are in me, in order to bring that creature called Michael to the level of the Creator?”
And that’s the game I’m playing; I’m changing different things in that puppet. And I refer to it as a third body, outside of me, and then I play with it, I work with it, as I would with a puppet.
Moderator: Okay, you made one toy, you built one puppet. Do you have any more?
M. Laitman: There’s the image of the Creator, as much as it reveals itself to me, and there’s my image as it stands now, and I’m trying to bring them closer. That’s the game, that’s the game of life.
Question: What is so good about living eternally? It sounds infinite, without escape. With death there is some kind of a renewal, it’s like you click reset on the soul.
M. Laitman: Yes, death, sometimes, seems to us as an escape from all troubles as well. These days, many people commit suicide. Or even before suicide, people take drugs or medications to help them relax and sleep. They want to detach from the life, to feel life less. So the more they detach from life, its better. Many people would have liked to do that, but there are inner forces, in our world, in our children that force us to advance and live. Otherwise, we would all lower ourselves to some kind of a very small form of life,” the less knowledge the less pain.”
But an eternal world doesn’t mean that it lasts for an unlimited period of time, because there is no time in spirituality. You go above time, space and motion, above these dimensions, axis of time and distance that we have in this world. We cannot describe what it is like to be above time now. But we see that physicists start to talk about it as well, that outside this world, exists a reality that is above time, where time is zero and speed is infinite.
Rambam also writes that our world is created below the speed of light and all of spirituality is above the speed of light. Above the speed of light means that there is no place, because you can be everywhere at the same time and this is what we see in quantum physics as well. Time turns to zero also, because if I can be everywhere simultaneously, then there is no time, I just fill everything. There is no motion for where do I need to go if I am everywhere? Where to and from where?
So when we start feeling spirituality, we start feeling completely different dimensions. I am everywhere, and I am motionless, and with no time, because I perceive everything within me. I ‘swallow’ the whole of reality and that sensation that I am full, I’m fulfilled by the Light of Ein Sof is wonderful. But besides that, although he says that there’s no renewal, there is renewal. Because I perceive the world of Infinity, where there’s no boundary, I constantly renew it and discern more and more things in me and in it. And therefore, we always rise in Sanctity, which is what it’s called. I discover more and more and I am in an adventure, but a beautiful adventure that fulfills me more and more. I don’t want to detach from it, as we do in this world and a sleeping pill and feel less.
So I wish everyone will achieve that and then we will justify creation, because we are definitely reaching an infinite, good state, which is worthwhile ..
Question: A seven-year old girl asks, “I have a sister who’s one year younger than me and sometimes, we fight. So what do we need to do in order to be loving friends to one another?”
M. Laitman: That’s a very hard problem; it stems from man’s ego. And truth is that at the level of this world there is no solution. Only if both of them will understand, which at the age of six or seven they are old enough to. We educate our children from the age of three or four with the wisdom of Kabbalah in ways suitable to small ones and they really understand it. And then they understand the mutual dependency. They understand how they increase the benefit to both of them. And besides that, listening to the excerpts, the sources of the wisdom of Kabbalah, in a way that is suitable for their absorption, improves the children, it corrects them in a way that they already understand that they need to cope with their nature, and that brings peace.
Moderator: So, what should he tell the older sister?
M. Laitman: Let’s read together all kinds of legends of the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Question: If I am not sure what the Light feels like, then how can I know what is the right yearning?
M. Laitman: He is right. Yet we do not approach this by asking where is the yearning, where is the Light or where these conditions, these urges, these desires within me, are. But slowly it opens up to us and again, only by the study. I open up the book; I don’t understand a thing and I read it.... The Kabbalists tell me that I need to study in a systematic way, that I need to be in a group, so I can be impressed by the group, impressed with their desires, so it’ll pass to me as well. Being envious of them, since they know more, they understand more, I can increase my desire.
And in this way, gradually, I start receiving from the study the right impression of who I am, what I am and what I need to correct, by what forces and where to direct myself. These are things that happen within the person and gradually they unfold as they study. The study doesn’t mean that I have to enter a given place and attend ten years of studies, ten hours every day. No; every person can take half an hour or an hour a day, of his free time, to dedicate to this and to specifically hear something from our materials in their own free time or maybe in the morning lesson, whenever they can. And in a few years you will feel how you open up a big inner world to yourself.
We don’t have the desires that we need for spirituality, for opening up the spiritual world and our eyes; they gradually unfold.
Question: I am interested in knowing who is an Israeli according to Kabbalah, what is its root? Is there any significance in the many different nationalities coming to one country, similar to a gathering of exiles? Where did the people of Israel originate and what is its foundation. Is it, as it is written in the Torah, from our father Abraham?
M. Laitman: Yes of course, from Abraham. Abraham was a Babylonian, as all people at that time lived in Babylon. Having discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah, Abraham gathered a few students, as it says that he opened his tent and invited people and Sarah his wife did the same with the women. And therefore, he created a group of people who wanted to follow his method. His method was “love thy neighbor as thyself,” the quality of Hesed, achieving the level of the Creator. That is the purpose of the method of Kabbalah. Abraham discovered, through that crisis in Babylon, that the crisis was in order to force people to actually come together, to bond and reach the level of Godhood. But only a few of the people heard him and with them he created his group.
This was until that group reached a dimension of a people called Israel, according to their purpose, Yashar El (Israel). Yashar El means straight to the Creator, that is, achieving His level, His qualities, the dimension of the Creator.
And this is what we were until the destruction of the Temple. In the time of the destruction, like those Babylonians, we once again had fallen into unfounded hatred and we couldn’t be together in brotherly love and that is, actually, called destruction. And since then, we have existed in unfounded hatred, in that ego, until our times.
Moderator: And then we scattered. People went to Yemen, to Russia, anywhere.
M. Laitman: Right, like the Babylonians in the times of Abraham scattered over the face of Earth. We come together again, all the people of Israel, to our place and the method of Abraham which is Kabbalah appears again. That helps us to once again be on top of our nature, on top of unfounded hatred, to come back to a brotherly love and be united together, interconnected as a small people, not just a gathering of the exiles, where we remain in our own mentalities and cultures, as we were.
We have to achieve a bonding between us, a connection. So that we will be once more as one man in one heart as we were in the status of Matan Torah (giving of the Torah), in Arvut (guarantee), in unity. And if we will do that, we will be able to teach the world how to do that, to be a light unto the nations.
So an Israeli is one who yearns to be like the Creator. Today, it can be both, a person who had a Jewish mother or a person from any nation or community, no matter from where and from what. If he feels a yearning in his heart to reach the Creator, he is called Yashar El (Israel).
Moderator: But, specifically, in relation to the state of Israel, how do you define an Israeli?
M. Laitman: I don’t see any Israelis here. The truth is that after 60 years there is a whole crisis of identity here, no one can define what an Israeli is.
People don’t want to recognize themselves as Israelis. Just give them an opportunity to run away from here and the majority will. People don’t want to go into the army in Israel. It’s a sign that we are not a people and that we are not Israel.
Moderator: If the definition of Israeli doesn’t exist, please define how do you see the Israeli society of today? And how does the wisdom of Kabbalah define an Israeli? What form does an Israeli in our country today need to take?
M. Laitman: It’s just raw material; it’s some kind of preliminary condition for correction. We need to advise these people of their purpose, their designation their obligation in this world and how to reach the good state. This so that the whole world will respect us, that we will be accepted as a special principal part, as it says “a kingdom of Priests and a holy nation,” “the Light unto the nations.” Because we have the method that can help the whole world today, save it and create a nice, beautiful enlightened place... The world has started recognizing its crisis and the fact that it’s heading into chaos. If we will present the method to the world, then we will truly be awarded with being the Light of the nations. And that is why we’ve gathered, as back then, in Abraham’s group. All the troubles that we have are only in order to force us to do this work. If we will explain that to the people of Israel, I think they will see it and they will understand.
We can also show them an example of how we disseminate Kabbalah to the world and how, because of that, we are awarded with love and a favorable attitude from all nations and states including Arab countries. We have groups, people who understand what we disseminate and they all love us and want to be closer to us.
Moderator: So, let’s summarize: To be Israeli is to be the pioneers on the face of Earth who change their nature from self love to love of man, to the quality of the Creator and teach it to all the rest.
M. Laitman: And then it will be as is written in Isaiah, “And everyone will know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them and all the nations will come to Me.”
Question: I don’t understand the connection between nature and the world being a dangerous place to live in and the fact that the salvation of the world depends on the connection between us. Can you explain how it works technically? How can man, in his relationship with others, save nature from disasters?
M. Laitman: Everything that exists in the still, vegetative and animate, meaning the whole of nature that’s surrounds us, is a copy of our internality. It’s our relation to ourselves and to others, because we are on the highest level in nature, the speaking level, the level of man. Namely everything that happens within us internally, the way we quarrel and exercise our tendencies to exploit others with our thoughts and desires, are the primary forces in nature. No matter how concealed it is, it is still the strongest and with it we influence the whole of nature, the still, vegetative and animate, and this is how we ruin nature.
If we only change our thoughts and desires, this will suffice to save the world. Our environment is a replica of our inner state. And if we will understand that, then we will not start these struggles of burning less coal or saving something else and not heat or not cool. We have also discovered that it doesn’t work; it can’t create corrections in the world. Only man’s relation to his development, his purpose, if he develops correctly, if he is concerned with it, brings him correction in the generality of the world.
Moderator: Why? What is the connection between me and you having a good relationship, with love instead of with hate and the fact that in Iran there will be more oil from the wells that will come to the power station here, in Ramat-Gan?
M. Laitman: …as a gift from Ahmadinedzhad. This will happen.
Moderator: But how?
M. Laitman: Very Simply. You have to draw the Light that will Reform, will correct the whole integrated world of still, vegetative, animate and speaking. You have to draw the Light that will create the proper relationship between all the parts of nature. By your not drawing it, you, man, who specifically are the one who engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah and can do it through the wisdom of Kabbalah, cause harm to the whole world.
Moderator: But how does it work, where is that concealed connection?
M. Laitman: It is through the Light. What is missing in our world is the Light, the Upper Force that fills that arranges and interconnects the whole of reality. If you are able to draw that Light and you don’t, then you are to blame for the bad in the world. Open the Introduction to the Book of Zohar and read items 70 and 71 regarding this. “Israel is to blame for all the troubles in the world.” they have the means in their hands to bring the Light to the world, that correct the world and make the world a better place and that is what they don’t do. Therefore, all the nations of the world subconsciously, not knowing why, feel we are the cause of all the evil.
Moderator: I understand the equation that if we’ll do this—that will happen. Now I want to know, why is this equation built this way? If we, here in Israel, change our thoughts by the wisdom of Kabbalah and our relationship to others, how does nature feel that?
M. Laitman: It is not by changing your thoughts and attitude to others. By changing your attitude to others, you become closer to the Upper Light, because that Light is relating nicely to the others with love and bestowal. By doing this you bring it closer to our world, which brings about peace and a proper interconnection between everything. You are able to draw that Light and no one in the world is able to do that. You have that ability, as you already in generations previous to the destruction of the Temple had awakened to spiritual consciousness. You have the Torah of Abraham, you know how to do it and if not, it is written in your books. The nations of the world don’t have these books.
Moderator: Okay, we did it; we drew the Light and brought it closer to the world. What is the result in matter?
M. Laitman: The result is that the matter starts feeling more of the positive force, the force of the Light. The still, vegetative, animate and speaking—all of them start feeling that man’s hand is in everything; they all rise and fall with man, as is written in The Zohar.
Moderator: So, the Light comes closer to our world and it brings more abundance, more wheat more rain, more crude oil and water?
M. Laitman: Of course, because these are consequences. You think that wheat depends on the rain or on warmth. It just seems to us this way. Internally it is dependent on that force that creates and sustains and enlivens everything and that is called Light. Warmth, moisture, minerals, rain, sun that that all work together and influence the wheat are external consequences. Behind them lies that force, which sustains everything. And you are bringing close this benevolent Upper Force and thereby you change the world and only you have the ability to draw that force. Therefore, the nations of the world feel that and they say, “We hate you; you are to blame.”
Moderator: Let’s take a negative phenomenon. You talked about wheat and abundance etc. Let’s take something else, a tsunami, for example. Can you explain a tsunami in terms of Light? What is behind that tsunami? What changes are in that Light, at times close or far or slipping away? Suddenly I see a tsunami and hundreds of thousands of people die and portions of the earth are ruined? Can you explain this tsunami in the terms of the Light coming or not?
M. Laitman: Our world exists between two forces: negative and positive, a pulling and a pushing force as in magnets, North and South, it doesn’t matter how. It is always between two opposite forces. There is no quality, no force no phenomenon without there being an opposite. Therefore, we cause these forces to balance so there will not be one greater or lesser. The balance between them is called: “He makes peace above and He makes peace on us.” Peace is called perfection, completion between these two forces. All things have to exist in the world. But if these forces are in beautiful contact in balance, in the correct equation of connection then everything falls into place and that is called peace.
Our world lacks the Light, the positive force in order to balance the negative force. If we don’t draw it and that’s possible only by the wisdom of Kabbalah, by studying it you bring that Upper Force closer to our world. Then you don’t have the Tsunami, there is nothing that can cause evil. Of course, there will be all kinds of phenomena of nature, but they will all be good and known to you.
Question: Rav Laitman says a person who studies through the Internet is able to go it alone and even cross the Machsom (barrier). What does this person do when he is in a descent?
M. Laitman: Well, we can feel that he is in a descent.
A person experiences bad states, because these bad states cause him to question the meaning of his life and what does he live for. Today almost the whole world questions this. This is the reason people experience depression, despair, suicides and drugs etc. That’s a result of this unanswered question. After all these experiences, a person finds a book that tells him why he lives and then he starts ‘drinking’ from that book more and more and he starts advancing in the authentic books of Kabbalah.
After advancing for a while, he starts feeling that he has come to a dead end. He stops understanding, he stops feeling and he has a dulling of his senses. And it’s correct; it is a part of the way, because he feels exile. He starts feeling now that he is detached from the enlightened world, from the spiritual world.
It is a spiritual exile; he doesn’t enter spirituality. There is something there but it is far, not understood, repelling it is some darkness. And there are many stories about this in the wisdom of Kabbalah that describe what a person feels. What does he need? Only two things: stubbornness, meaning the order of the study, let’s say an hour a day, every day and not to give up on this. Also, he should be connected to the system of study with all and ask questions. You have to join their forces. You need a group, even through the Internet, a virtual group. You need to feel other people, those who are in ascent, those in descent, those who despair and those who are inspired. Then you receive from everyone, both, the desires and the power of being inspired, everything.
Then you develop and your ups and downs have to happen as you go through development. It’s like a scientist, sometimes he understands and succeeds and then he doesn’t, over and over again. Our path operates on two sides, right, left on both legs and this is how we evolve. The problem is that probably, our viewer is not sufficiently connected to others, who are also on that path. If he was more connected to others, he would go through these states much faster. I am saying this from experience and from seeing many students.
Question: For a number of months I have been studying Kabbalah with you over the Internet. Sometimes my ten year old daughter joins me to listen and asks questions. Lately, she started to have fears: fear of her death, fear of my death and she also has trouble breathing and feels weakness, as if she is about to faint and die. What do I do to help her?
M. Laitman: Explain to her, in simple ways, that these things are not serious. We are dealing here with Godliness, with the good Force that surrounds us, pats us and cares for us. And in this way, briefly explain to her about creation. I never saw that a true explanation about the wisdom of Kabbalah gives a person fear. On the contrary, it removes all the fears and the little child starts growing correctly. You can explain from what age we start developing our children.
I trust only one force, which is the Force of the Light, the Light that Reforms, that works on everyone. As it says “it heals all flesh.” Therefore, read the books that are intended for children and older. Take from the archives all my lessons for children and show her these lessons; we already have many lessons with children. Look at how they ask and answer and sing together. There is also a puppet theater. Show her these things, the Light is in them. When she brings that force closer to her, which is the only remedy for our whole reality, it will influence her and she will get rid of fear. I am certain of it for I have seen these things working for thirty years.
Question: What happens when one implements, “love thy neighbor as thyself?” Even if you try doing it, some people repay your goodness by being mean. When you finish helping them they respond sharply, noxiously, causing you to regret helping them. Wherein lay the respect for the helper? By helping you often appear to be a sucker. How can you implement the wisdom of Kabbalah?
M. Laitman: So what if one is a sucker? I look at the world and the world is a dummy. Not that I have disrespect for people, but I am looking at them as the way the Creator relates to me. He presents me with this picture; He wants me to learn how to relate to it correctly, to each and everyone. Therefore, I don’t pay attention to how a person relates to me in return, whether good or bad, except for the cases and incidents where we, actually, have to defend ourselves. But in ordinary relationships I accept his behavior as a given that I have to overcome and only correct myself. And as it says “the greatest hero is the one who turns his hater to a lover.”
And therefore, the whole world for me is a playground, it is a theater. It is a lab where I am playing, where I am correcting myself, where I am making myself more and more similar to the Creator and that is what a person should attain. In fact it can be bad behavior in another where he may well as a “helpmeet against him that shows him what he needs to correct,” as it says “Pharaoh, the symbol of all evil, brought Israel closer to the Father in Heaven.”
So maybe I should thank all the people who sting me, who attack me, because they help me in this way to be stronger, to be more understanding, to overcome myself more. Then I advance slowly as much as I am able, though sometimes I am not that capable as they upset me. Usually, we have to understand that the world is a show and relate to it as being the Creator; Elokim (God) in Gimatria equals ‘nature.’ And if you relate to it correctly, you achieve His status. And then, what else can we say to the people who sting us, who hate us? We can tell them, “Thank you, it is with your help that I reached spirituality”
Question: Can we reach spirituality without knowing the structure of the worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot and etc.?
M. Laitman: Yes the truth is that you don’t need to know. The wisdom of Kabbalah found in many different books was not written in order to know. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) in item 125. A person doesn’t need to know. If he reads and doesn’t understand, yet he wants to be in the spiritual world, he wants to discover the true reality and not the one that is around here, he wants to feel eternity where he exists above all of the nature, he doesn’t need to know anything, because we can’t understand this with our intellect...
He will only open this up by his desire and being persistent in reading, because by reading and without understanding, you draw the Light that surrounds you and opens up your soul. Then, with your soul you feel naturally, just as you perceive this world through your five senses. In the same way, through those senses of the soul you will feel the spiritual world and for that, you don’t need any wisdom. Don’t learn, just read and read not for the sake of studying, but for the sake of something that will open up your heart.