Question: There were two books on the bookshelf, one was expensive with beautiful binding and the other in a cheap, poor binding. The owner read the expensive, pretty book and said: “This is neither for the mind nor for the heart.” He read the inexpensive one, cried, and said: “I have never read anything more useful for the soul.”

He still left both books on the shelf, one for the soul and the other, beautiful one, for people.

Why, after the owner found the truth, does he think so poorly of others?

Answer: He does not think poorly. First, he has no right to take away their freedom of choice or impose anything.

Second, only in this way, when you have two sides of the same coin can you show a person which path leads him where. Therefore, we must leave both books.

Comment: He found the truth. He wants others to slowly get closer to it too.

My Response: Certainly.

Question: Still, can one live only through inner work, only through this unsightly book that contains the truth?

Answer: No, this work must be combined with practice. Practice is a struggle. It is a physical fight with those who oppose it. That is why we returned to this country, to this land, and why the Creator prepared what for us to do in advance, these trials.

Question: If we reach the truth, will these trials seem to dissipate? Isn’t that why they exist, to push us?

Answer: Certainly, trials exist so that we can build ourselves and this truth to enter us.

Question: Do we still meet a person based on our soul or appearance?

Answer: I do not know. It depends.

Question: I will ask it even more simply: Is love at first sight based on one’s soul or appearance?

Answer: At first sight, something that is brighter catches your eye.

Question: What about love at first sight when, for example, one can no longer live and walks around thinking only about it?

Answer: If this is already becoming awareness, the first glance will not help.

Question: So the look is still external?

Answer: Yes, it is simply blinding. And then, when you begin to look closer, it is no longer love and not the first glance. It is already a feeling of similarity, closeness, understanding, devotion, etc.

Question: Does the similarity of properties allow people who live 50 and 60 years together to continue like this?

Answer: Certainly, those people who have lived together for more than 10 years, even just 10 years, already live on what they have acquired—those common feelings, properties, understandings, and so on.

Question: Grigory Perelman, a famous mathematician, refused a million-dollar prize and did not want to move anywhere. He lives, or lived, with his mother, alone, and so on. He has nothing external; he is always dressed the same. He lives internally. What is it? Or is this a natural state for scientists?

Answer: This is the natural state of life for people like him who live to understand creation. Feeling the image of creation within himself is the most important thing for him. He is disconnected from everything.
He is not interested in politics, war, or anything else, only in his cerebral uneasiness, which does not give him peace.

Question: What kind of world do such scientists live in? It isn’t in this one, is it?

Answer: No, not in this one of course, not the world of today. Most of the scientists live in some kind of interstellar space.

Question: Is this world enough for him? What is enough for him? Sandals, trousers, shirt, and off you go?

Answer: Yes, that is how he appears.

Question: His world is different. Is it a rich world?

Answer: It is a world in which he feels rich and sufficient. There is nothing else.

Question: I will ask you as a scientist, how does he perceive all of us, everyone around him who make films about him, talk about him, and so on?

Answer: Indifferent.

Question: As if we do not exist?

Answer: Yes, for him, it does not exist.

Question: Great scientists, were they like that?

Answer: There are very few of them. Each of them has its little devil inside.

Question: Kabbalah is the science of inner experiences and desires. Even though we are disseminating Kabbalah, are we still making it external to people and gradually attracting them? Or what are we doing?

Answer: We want to attract people to the inner state of Kabbalah that speaks about the revelation of the Creator to man in our world.

Question: Do we make it attractive to them for this? Is this right?

Answer: How else will you do it?

Question: So, do we have to spruce it up for them?

Answer: Of course, all people are like children. When we approach something or someone, we approach from afar, gradually.

Question: Is it possible to take complex texts and popularize them gradually?

Answer: Of course, yes. Baal HaSulam did what the Ari and other great Kabbalists before him did. They devoted a lot of time and attention to this.

Question: To bring this science to people?

Answer: Yes, it is very challenging. Although their highest texts are high for us. And for them, it was descending to people like us.

Question: So this is the correct process: do not rise to me, I will go down to you and raise you?

Answer: What else can you do? Otherwise, we will never have contact with those souls who have reached the Creator and are at that level.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/26/24

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Question: Will a person who does not study Kabbalah be able to learn about the force of bestowal? Can people intuitively take this path?

Answer: They can. It is said: “There are many paths to the Creator.” Based on the root of one’s soul and desires, each person follows their path, but the general principle is still the same for everyone.

Question: Is Kabbalah the most painful path?

Answer: Kabbalah is the only way because we attract the upper light that corrects us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/24, Writings of Rabash “The Need for an Act from Below”

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Question: Over the years of working on spirituality, we have accumulated stacks of notebooks in which we write down lessons and leave notes in the margins. When making notes, you feel a special taste in it and at the same time an effort. What is the value of taking notes during the lessons?

Answer: Once we were not allowed to take notes; we had to remember everything. And this was welcomed. Today everything is recorded; there is no end to it.

Initially, I also took notes. I wrote a lot, but eventually I stopped.

First of all, it is best to pay attention to the heart. That is why it says to write it down on your heart; this is is very important.

Even if later your heart changes and what you wanted to remember leaves, still the fact that you brought your heart closer to what you read, heard, and wanted it to remain in you remains, although not that you can always use it. But when you need it, you will remember everything.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Looking in the Book Again”

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Question: What initially guided you in life?

Answer: Like everyone else, I was driven by the desire to understand the meaning of life, its mysteries, because I saw that everything must have some form of control. Not a single cell, organism, or the entire universe, if it is an interconnected system, can exist without being controlled, according to what our sciences say.

But they only reveal a small part of the nature surrounding us. We scrape off some specks of dust and call it “chewing on the granite of science.” Indeed, before us stands an enormous granite wall, and where we can chip off a piece, that is our science, and everything else is the unknown.

That is how I clearly felt standing before this “granite wall,” which I could scrape slightly to collect a bit just like everyone else.

Newton had a different analogy. He is quoted as likening himself to a “schoolboy collecting pebbles on the shore of the sea called knowledge.” And he is only collecting pebbles, not even in the sea yet, but on the shore.

When I felt this, science stopped attracting me. It seemed so petty and insignificant to me that it was not worth dedicating my entire life, being devoted to it, for the sake of some small, isolated pieces of knowledge. However, that does not mean I disregarded it. Not at all! I still love it, read about it, and stay interested, all these years.

Nevertheless, I was strongly repelled by it. What is the point of scratching the “granite” like everyone else to pick up a couple of crumbs, understand a bit more, and know a bit more? If I were to engage only in my biocybernetics, I would not even understand or recognize it.

And what about biology, zoology, botany, geology, mineralogy, earth science, and cosmology? A vast array of other sciences in principle speak about all of nature, about all this “granite.” But each one scrapes and collects different “specks” from different places, and from this arises geology, zoology, mineralogy, and so on. What would I gain from engaging in them?

When I looked at this, I felt immense emptiness within me: There is nothing worth living for. I was left with only one question: How can I find the meaning of life? What interested me was not the trivial knowledge of partial, scattered, disconnected sciences, each of which scraped together something for itself, but the overall understanding—the design of the Universe.

This is what is called the “meaning of life” because human life, as we observe, is the highest form of existence. What is the purpose for nature, the upper force, (call it the Creator, emanator, or maker, it does not matter) to create all this?

This greatly puzzled me. My whole life until I found Kabbalah turned into some sort of emptiness. I worked, served, opened my own fairly successful business, but all of that was somehow in the background. Inside I felt absolute emptiness and the insignificance of existence. That’s how it was.

I think today millions, maybe even billions, of people in the world feel the same way. This feeling precedes a person’s search and helps them feel the system in which we exist. Basically I used to ask myself: “What is this? Why is all this around me, including myself?”

When you look at the starry sky and see this infinity, you think and wonder how to understand and comprehend all this?

For what? Why? What? There is such a question that comes from the Universe itself when you look at it on a dark night. If this question truly torments a person, they come to study Kabbalah.

For those people who simply feel a crisis, somehow, they need to understand the system they are in. After all, if they do not balance themselves with this system of nature, do not bring themselves to homeostasis, to harmony, then nature will crush them with its catastrophes: tsunamis, earthquakes, shifts in tectonic plates, and even nuclear war.

Then there are only two options: either they start seeking the meaning of life out of animal fear, or they die out like dinosaurs who disappeared because they did not fit the changing system of nature.

But dinosaurs did not have another solution. We have a very simple solution: either we change, or we perish. A small part will remain that will still come to balance with nature. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, it may happen like this.

Moreover, only those who can participate in integration will remain. They will create balance. All the others will be in this system but not in the earthly form because their current animalistic egoism will not allow them to participate in integration.

However, there is an easy way when people, through education and explanatory work, each one and all together helping each other, come to integration between themselves, become similar to nature, enter into balance and harmony with it, and feel all its perfection.

I really hope for such an outcome.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Meaning of Laitman’s Life “1/4/12

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Question When reading Kabbalistic sources, should we strive to feel what the author wrote or feel the Creator?

Answer: We need to be as close to the author as possible.

Question: What is the best way to read The Book of Zohar, alone or in the ten?

Answer: It is better in the ten. At Rabash’s, we also read in the ten and took turns.

Question: Should I try to read our sources more often during the day?

Answer: Yes, even piece by piece, paragraph by paragraph.

Question: If the Creator complicates my material life, does it mean He complicates the task in the spiritual?

Answer: No, maybe, on the contrary, He wants to attract you.

Question: What does it mean to spend time usefully during the day after the morning lesson?

Answer: This means repeating at least the same texts that we studied.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Looking in the Book Again”

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Studying primary sources is the main thing in Kabbalah because great Kabbalists wrote them. We recommend using the works of such pillars of Kabbalah as Baal HaSulam, Rabash, Ari, and Rashbi.

Question: We have a whole sea of ​​different information in our heads. How can we clear our perceptions when reading our primary sources?

Answer: Shake your head so that all sorts of evil thoughts and information fly away.

Question: We have amazing books by Ramchal, Rambam, and others. Is it possible to read them individually if you want to, even though we do not study these books in class? Or does it distance us from the group?

Answer: No, this is not moving away from the group. These books can be studied. But avoid getting carried away with them instead of our lessons. That is when alienation can occur, although in principle it will not take you away from the purpose of creation. These are true books.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Looking in the Book Again”

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Question: How can we not limit the study of the Torah to previous impressions and knowledge? How can this approach be applied to all aspects of the methodology?

Answer: You will learn how to do this gradually. The main thing is not to fear a new approach and to always demand a new attitude toward the Creator and what the book says. We mean the Torah, Neviim (Prophets), and Ktuvim (Scriptures), the holy sources, because the force of the Creator is inside them, on which all other details cloth.

Question: What kind of analysis should everyone do for the light to reveal new Reshimot in them?

Answer: It depends on what he wants and how he relates to what is in the sources. The Torah is written as dictated by the Creator. Therefore, by reading it, a person can see, hear, and understand what the Creator thinks about him and what He wants to convey.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Looking in the Book Again”

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Question: What does it mean to look at a book anew each time?

Answer: It is as if you do not remember at all what you once read and you look at the book like it is the first time.

Question: If we have to perceive a text every time as if we were seeing it for the first time, then what about the fact that some passages from the Torah or The Book of Zohar pop up in your memory and literally resound in you?

Answer: It does not matter, do not fight it. Everything will settle down on its own and take its place.

Question: There are people who speak quotes from sources without using any of their own words or who remain silent. Is it good?

Answer: On one hand it is good if they really know the original sources and can play them back from memory. But beside this, you need to be free and as if travel through all the original sources and be connected with them in many ways.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Looking in the Book Again”

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Comment: In ancient times many people did not know how to read. Apart from Jews, virtually no one had books.

My Response: But the Torah does not address other nations. It was written in Hebrew. Since then, nothing has changed, not a single letter or shape. A unique book called Tikkun Sofrim allows you to check texts.

People who copied the Torah first had to study the shapes of the letters and correct spelling. Therefore, everything stayed the same for generations. If you find a book written 2,000 years ago, the letters will have the same shape today.

Comment: Other nations did not teach children to read and write until almost the 19^th century.

My Response: Yes, but it was not like that for the Jews. Their children started studying at three years old and even earlier. Usually, a school was located in the house of one of the teachers.

Comment: That is why we envy Jews; they are so bright.

My Response: This is not intelligence; it is simply working on yourself. In earlier times, there were practically no other books. Therefore, people knew the Torah by heart. This is an entirely different attitude to life than the current one.

Question: What mission did women perform if only boys were studying?

Answer: Women practically could not read and only listened to conversations held for them.

Question: But at the same time, the wisdom of a Jewish woman is unique. I have a feeling that she is very different from others.

Answer: Yes, but not because they studied a lot. Of course, they knew by heart what was written in the Torah. This is how the Creator decreed it and how they carried it out for thousands of years. This approach led to notable development in people’s memory and attitude toward writing, science, and nature.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Looking in the Book Again”

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Question: It is said that after a person has seen certain words of the Torah in the book and memorized them, what entered the mind is already damaged. What does it mean?

Answer: It means that a person interferes with his feelings in the text.

Question: It appears that we need another influence from the book every time. And there is no way we can act differently?

Answer: You can, but it is not easy. Even in a person, you can see how when saying something he repeats what he saw, heard, and perceived the first time.

Question: How do you ensure that what you read enters your heart and does not require you to be impressed by a primary source every time?

Answer: You must move forward in connection with your friends because it continually cleanses you.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Looking in the Book Again”

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