After the Tzimtzum (restriction), the Upper Nine became the place of Kedusha, and Malchut, over which there was the Tzimtzum, became the place of the worlds. It’s because in Malchut, there’s the sensation of the Creator, the Giver. As against that she has her own sense of self, the receiver, and that brings on shame.

It is written, “O ye that love the LORD, hate evil; He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivered them out of the hand of the wicked.” He asks, what is the connection between “hate evil” and “He delivered them out of the hand of the wicked?”...

When one feels oneself in a state of ascent, that he is high-spirited, and that he has no desires but for spirituality, it is then good to delve in the secrets of the Torah in order to attain its internality. Even if one sees that although one exerts oneself to understand anything and still does not know anything, it is still worthwhile to delve in the secrets of the Torah, even a hundred times in one thing...

Concerning Lishma (for Her Name). In order for a person to obtain Lishma, one needs an awakening from Above, because it is an illumination from Above, and it is not for the human mind to understand. But he that tastes knows. It is said about that, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”...

The essence of one’s work should be how to come to feel taste in bestowing contentment to one’s Maker, since all that one does for oneself distances him from the Creator, due to the disparity of form. However, if one performs an act to benefit the Creator, even the smallest act, it is still considered a Mitzva (commandment/precept)....

It is written (Song of Songs, 2), “Until the day breathes, and the shadows flee away.” We must understand what are shadows in the work and what are two shadows. The thing is that when one does not feel His Providence, that He leads the world in a manner of “Good that doeth good,” it is regarded as a shadow that hides the sun...

Through accustoming oneself to some thing, that thing becomes second nature for that person. Hence, there is nothing that one cannot feel its reality. This means that although one has no sensation of the thing, he still comes to feel it by accustoming to that thing...

When one studies Torah and wants all his actions to be in order to bestow, one needs to try to always have support in the Torah. Support is considered nourishment, which is love, fear, elation, and freshness and so on. And one should extract all that from the Torah. In other words, the Torah should give one these results...

Lishma, it is not in one’s hands to understand, as it is not for the human mind to grasp how such a thing can be in the world. This is because one is only permitted to grasp, that if one engages in Torah and Mitzvot, he will attain something. There must be self-gratification there; otherwise, one is unable to do anything...

We must know the reason for the heaviness felt when one wishes to work in annulling one’s “self” before the Creator and to not care for his own interest. One comes to a state as if the entire world stands still and he alone is now seemingly absent from this world; and leaves his family and friends for the sake of annulling before the Creator...

The Holy Zohar says: “He is Shochen (Dweller), and She is Shechina (Divinity).” We should interpret its words: It is known with regard to the Upper Light, that they say that there is no change, as it is written, “I the Lord change not.” All the names and appellations are only with respect to the Kelim (vessels), which is the will to receive included in Malchut—the root of creation. From there it hangs down to this world, to the creatures...

There is an idiom among great sages when they come to disclose a profound matter: they begin their words with, “I am disclosing a portion and covering two portions.” Our sages took great care not to utter words needlessly, as our sages instructed, “A word is a rock; silence is two.”...

For a long time now my conscience has burdened me with a demand to come out and compose a fundamental composition regarding the essence of Judaism, religion, and the wisdom of Kabbalah, and spread it among the nation, so people will come to know and properly understand these exalted matters in their true meaning...

Baal HaSulam said that first, the world is corrected and then there is complete redemption. That's clear. It's because the whole of creation is the will to receive. In the beginning it was given to us in a corrupted form with the intention to receive...

What was created is the will to receive. It was created through the Light that, with respect to the will to receive, is called the “Creator.” He created it as “existence from absence,” as darkness from Light, because they are opposite in their attributes. The will to receive is actually something constant, existing...

We learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah that the whole substance of creation is the will to receive. Therefore, the entire science about creation, how that substance behaves, how it changes, how it reaches its purpose, the final form, is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah” from the word “to receive.” The sages of Kabbalah determined that the science about the substance of creation would be called “Kabbalah” according to the functionality of the substance itself, everything that had been created, which is only the will to receive...

From Lo Lishma one comes to Lishma. If we pay close attention, we can say that the period of Lo Lishma is the more important time, since it is easier to unite the act with the Creator.

This is so because in Lishma one says that he did this good deed because he serves the Creator in wholeness, and all his actions are for the Creator. It follows that he is the owner of the act.

We’re here in the studio with the foremost Kabbalist and scientist of our era, Dr. Michael Laitman. Our topic today is, “Perception of reality.” Speaking with Dr. Laitman are instructors with the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute, Michael Sanilevich and myself, Eugene Litvar...

It is written that when Abraham the Patriarch did the circumcision, the first three days after the circumcision were very hard for him. So the Creator sent him angels that visit the sick. Of course, we should not consider this in the corporeal way, that those were winged angels or some images that came down from heaven. It is forbidden to even say that. We have to keep ourselves above all those images...

The stranger is all of our desires, the 613 desires versus the point in the heart called Israel, which wants to pull into itself all of the desires in a person. In total, there is a will to receive within a person which was created by the Light. That will to receive is divided into 613 particular desires. Each and every desire first appears in us or awakens in us as a gentile. And then by awakening the point in the heart, we begin to relate to these desires as strangers. And when we pull them toward correction, toward using them in order to bestow, they then enter to what we call Israel...

Baal HaSulam describes in this article that same descent, decline, and the states that occur to those who want to reach the purpose of creation. We understand that it’s possible to reach the purpose of creation only if a person overcomes his egoistic will to receive which constantly is reawakened in a person. That egoistic desire seemingly draws a person back, but it’s a “help against him,” that’s what it’s called, and it is only intended for a person to overcome it and come closer to the Creator, to the goal, to Dvekut (Adhesion)...

We must understand that there are not more than two degrees, either Kedusha (Sanctity) or Sitra Achra (Other Side). There is no intermediary state, but the same rod itself becomes a serpent, if thrown to the ground...

It is written, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” We should ask, “What does the text come to tell us, that the secret things belong unto the Lord?” We should not say that concealed means unattainable and that revealed means attainable. We can see that there are people with knowledge in the concealed part, as there are people who have no knowledge in the revealed part...

“O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” He said that even though King David had already been awarded perfection, he still craved the Torah, because the Torah is greater and more important than any perfection in the world...

“A sage comes to town.” The Sage is called the Creator. The Creator comes to town. On Shavuot (Pentecost) He shows Himself to the world...

The student who studied in secrecy, Betash be Bruria and he said he’s prepared in everything. If it is prepared in Ramach (248 parts) it exists. 'Chashai' means Katnut (smallness) and 'secrecy' means Katnut: from the word 'Chash-Mal'. ' Chash' means the vessels of the faith (anterior side). And 'Mal' are called the vessels of the posterior side, which are the vessels below the Chazeh (chest), which bring to the aspect of Gadlut (greatness)...

We usually learn that as many virtues, mistakes and sins a person has, they are weighed with a scale. One forces himself and the whole world to a scale of merit or, G-d forbid, to a scale of demerit. It’s all weighed. A person puts out one and adds to the other. How can there be this rule of weighing sins as against merit, against Mitzvot...

A person shouldn’t complain about anything. Everyone has a group of some sort, some kind of a connection, books of some sort, prepared conditions and other benefits. Suddenly I get the desire to write a book in Russian, and as a result you have a book...

May it please You, our Lord, God of our fathers, who hears the outcry of pleas and listens to the voice of the prayers of His people, Israel, with mercy, to prepare our hearts, set up our thoughts, and send our prayers in our mouths. Do lend Your ear to the voice of the prayer of Your servants, who pray to Thee with an outcry and a broken spirit...

We are basically just a will to enjoy. A will to enjoy is a desire and it’s built in such a way that a person cannot want a thousand things. There is always one desire which is more than the others, if it’s a scrutinized desire. Therefore, it is most important to examine the desires. In total there are 613 desires, but the question is, what are they aimed at? According to the extent of the desire and its scrutiny, our clarity is in how great it is. Accordingly, we can weigh our situation, and ourselves...

Dear and beloved friends, we want to start the opening ceremony of the most important thing to happen to us and to the history of the humanity....

We have been talking a lot about group, about the necessity of unification. We have been talking about phases a person undergoes in our world, about emergence of the Universe which took place 15 million years ago, and then about emergence of our Earth and of a human being on it; about the path of a human being—how he evolved on the Earth, what is the purpose of his existence, whether people are temporary on the Earth and in the Universe...

Rosh Hashana (the beginning of the year) is called the Rosh (head) of the degree, of life, of existence, when a person determines his goal and toward where his efforts will lead him. This is why the scrutiny of our sages on the month of Elul symbolizes our work...

A women’s group is not just a group that consists of individual people but it is women who unite in order to participate in the spiritual ascent. Together with children and all those who don’t participate actively, women comprise the greater part of humanity. The woman’s part is very important and very powerful. If they are able to organize, then it’s great and if not, then men lack this help and pressure from women, and women lose out as well. Therefore there is need for a serious organization, mutual help and connection. If it exists, it exists; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t...

Question: According to Kabbalah, how long has the world existed?
What do you mean by “the world”? Do you mean our universe? In essence, our universe is on the same level of existence, or period of existence as what modern physics tells us: about fifteen billion years. The universe developed over fifteen billion years. It is precisely according to physics. Kabbalah says this very clearly. The Kabbalistic sources stated this before our time...

Basically, everything that is in the Torah can be explained; we have commentaries on this topic. Soon we will be publishing a book of our conversations on the radio, where the Torah is explained in a general sense...

That is, everything that exists in our world is controlled from Above. There is not a single desire, action, intention or thought in our world; there isn’t anything that does not come from Above — from the Upper World...

This was introduced on the lowest level of egoism. Everything operates this way on still, animate and vegetative levels of egoism. These levels of egoism see and sense what it is that they need. An animal never makes a mistake. A baby calf, a lamb or a puppy, knows from the start what kind of grass to eat, and they know if they’re sick. Nobody has to teach them. They’ll never stumble and fall off a cliff or cause any harm to themselves. They have an instinct that serves them in all of life’s situations, whereas a person lacks knowledge about our world...

The leaf refers to the shade that it makes on the light, meaning on the sun. There are two kinds of shades: one comes from the side of Kedusha (lit. Sanctity), and the other comes due to a sin...

Here you have to pay attention because Baal HaSulam explains that it is not enough to reach bestowal, but it has to be with gladness. It is not enough to want adhesion. This desire has to be with adornment and the sign for adornment is gladness. Gladness is the enthusiasm in one’s Kelim (vessels), and it indicates, it proves that a person is found in wholeness with one’s way, with what one wants or with what one is about to obtain...

We are currently in a state in which it is being revealed that the whole of the world is gradually approaching a crisis, a general and all-embracing crisis in all fields of human activities. It is a crisis in science, art, literature, and family relationships. The crisis reveals itself in a huge number of suicides, depression, drugs and terrorism...

What the Creator created is called Hissaron, Nekev, which is an empty, unfilled space. While the masculine part is associated with the Creator, with the one that governs and fulfills, with the giver, the female part is always associated with the one that receives, the scarcity of something, lack, un-fulfillment, unrealized desire...

We all understand that at each instant, we live in a new state. If before, we did not know how to study Kabbalah, how to organize groups, how to further advance, what to do with ourselves, how to explain ourselves to the world, juxtapose ourselves with the world, or even connect with others, then we now gradually start to see that the world “succumbs” to us, so to speak...

If I aspire towards the goal, how should I treat this interference when dealing with circumstances in this world? How do I find that borderline, where I need to work in the bounds of our egoistic world in this interference? And where is that level that I should have developed in myself in relation to the goal?...

Life conditions of the last generation. On the one hand, it must be good to be living in the last generation, but on the other hand, prophets warn us that these states will be frightening and horrible. What can we make of it? Perhaps, they will be “frightening and horrible” only with regard to our present understanding, while in reality everything will be different. The question is, what life conditions are we talking about?

The use of uniqueness as a means for the development of an individual and society. The perception of uniqueness comes to us from the Creator, who is the Only One. For this reason, this attribute manifests in us as His personal attribute. However, since within us the uniqueness lays on top of the egoistical desire (rather than altruistic desire as it does in Him), it harms us.

Hopes for peace. There are people in society who are successful and wish to use others in order to achieve their goals, as well as people who, by their nature, can never be successful and have no choice but to serve those who are able to rule over them. Although the smart, skillful, cunning, crafty and refined really do have a great qualitative power, nevertheless, there are few of them in comparison to those who are stupid, weak, and simple.

Four categories: mercy, truth, justice and peace with regard to an individual and the society. Four categories simultaneously control us and can be controlled by us, with the help of which we can change the surrounding world by changing ourselves. After we clarified what the genuine good is, we should analyze the means at our disposal to accelerate the approximation of happiness.

It turns out that two powers act in this process of development. One is the so-called “power of heaven” that guarantees the transformation of everything evil and harmful into good and useful. This path is slow and painful; the object of development goes through боль и terrible suffering. The road-roller of evolution crushes it with utmost cruelty.