“Secrets of the Eternal Book”

Video program with

Dr. Michael Laitman and

director and screenwriter Semen Vinokur

Part 1, Chapter "Bereshit"

SV: Hello, dear friends. We are starting a series of talk shows called "Secrets of the Eternal Book."

SV: As you may have guessed, we will be talking about the Five Books of Moses. My regular companion in these conversations is renowned kabbalist, doctor Michael Laitman. Hello.

ML: Hello.

SV: For the first time we are starting a series of talk shows on Russian television about the Five Books of Moses. My first question, as we have got to start with a prelude here, my first question is: how is it possible that the collection of stories is published in millions, say, billions of copies for ages over and over again? In fact, many believe, when they read the Five Books of Moses, they read a collection of stories. What is it really?

ML: Indeed, it is the most popular book.

SV: The most popular book.

ML: It is well-known to all, and serves as a basis for philosophies, ethics, economics – anything you can think of. It is a plentiful source of inspiration for painting and music – for everything. Of course, this is a special book, and I think people do not really understand what is so special about it. Its author is special. He is, none the less...

SV: It has an author, this book?

ML: the Creator, in the very least. More precisely, the revelation of the Creator is the basis of this book. The revelation of the Creator to a man, as felt by Moses, or Moshe, sometimes I might still call him Moshe out of habit. This is certainly a unique event in the history of mankind. This force that he has perceived - the highest force, which is hidden from us, and is therefore called secret - he has discovered it, and he wrote about it.

SV: Why is this force called a secret?

ML: Because we do not feel it.

SV: This is why it is called …?

ML: This is why it is called a secret.

SV: The Five Books speak about the revelation of the secret force, correct?

ML: Yes, about that only. All books that are called holy – meaning everything that was written by Kabbalists, the men revealing the Creator – all these writings are called holy, because they speak about what is hidden from us. In Hebrew, holiness is called "kadosh." Kadosh comes from the word "separate," "isolated".

SV: Right.

ML: As if it were cut off, located somewhere else. And all the Kabbalists, meaning the people who were comprehending this hidden part of creation, they were describing this in their works, and this is why we also call these works holy. Not meaning that they are sacred, but most of all, because they are special, and are beyond the reach of our five senses.

SV: Why did Moshe, we will call him Moshe or Moses, write this in the form of stories? Why confuse people by writing it in the form of stories?

ML: Basically, it is a consistent, causal unveiling of the world to a man. That is the story. Only that it is not the story of the people who wander the desert, as it is described there. It is an allegorical narration of a man revealing a Higher Force, which in our time, if someone wants to experience it, specifically, to discover inside of him additional senses of the Higher World, something that is beyond our world, he would go through these states exactly the same way as described by Moses from his own experience.

SV: So, anyone who is reading this book correctly can go through all the stages that Moshe-Moses went through?

ML: Indeed.

SV: And reach the Creator?

ML: Right.

SV: know the Creator..

ML: Yes.

SV: See him.

ML: This is practically, essentially, the reason of our existence in this world. As it goes: "For they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them". “They all” means absolutely everyone that exists on Earth.

SV: And how do you say, "to know, to behold the Creator?" What does this mean? It sounds a bit mystical. This is ...

ML: Comprehending it makes it is no longer mystical. And scientifically and clearly, it means to sense, to touch, to taste, to experience.

SV: And I may also see him, just like I see you?

ML: A lot better, a lot clearer, and much more inside of you. In a greater, stronger contact – pervading through, completely filling our senses.

SV: The Creator – what is it? It is a high level information? Is it a thought?

ML: The Creator is a force, a Higher Force that reins our entire world.

SV: Can one say that the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses), which we are going to discuss now, is like a manual for understanding that force?

ML: Yes.

SV: A step-by-step guide.

ML: Yes. In general, all Kabbalistic books talk only of this. What else would they talk about? The entire method -- every Kabbalist adds to it, refines it, as with any science: revealing it more and more, broader, in more detail, tailoring it to each generation, because we are changing from one generation to another. This is how the Science of Kabbalah is formed. The only point is that unlike other sciences (those that reveal our world to the extent of our technological progress, or in other words, with the aid of all kinds of auxiliary instruments and mathematical tools) the science of Kabbalah requires from the researcher to make changes within himself, because he has to acquire a sensory organ that is capable of perceiving the upper world. Then, with the help of this sensory organ, he explores this higher world, just like he explores our world with his five senses.

SV: You have just said something that may sound very new for many people, especially, for many scientists: a man must change himself ...

ML: Well, there is a good joke that the professor of mathematics should not be a triangle.

SV: {laughing}

ML: Right. And in Kabbalah, a Kabbalist has to become precisely such a spiritual triangle, if I may.

SV: So, a Kabbalist, and generally a person who truly wants to understand this book, Five Books of Moses, as we are talking about it, he has to transform in the course of the study. Right?

ML: Indeed so.

SV: This is something the scientists have never heard of.

ML: There is no such thing. In usual science, we are not required to do so.

SV: In usual science we study this external world that exists.

ML: Right. That is why it is studied in the same field of our senses, our properties with which we are born.

SV: But here, it turns out, as though a man studies himself – deeper and deeper ...

ML: Through himself, by changing himself, he is studying a higher force that created him.

SV: Does the man transform himself in the course of reading, even simple reading of this book?

ML: Before one starts reading the Pentateuch, if he thinks to seriously enter into its depth, in its internal layers, get through this story, generally speaking, this historical, romantic and so on ...

SV: Adventure...

ML: Adventure, exactly.

SV: Detective.

ML: If he wants to work his way through this all, he has to equip himself with a special dictionary and a special comprehension. So he should build the dictionary, noting what is meant by each word. What we now comprehend from these words are the superficial meanings that we know from our world. When we read this book, understanding in every word what it means in this world, I draw myself a picture, and the result is a historical novel. If I give these words another, more internal meaning and explanation, then their deeper inner meaning would draw a different pattern for me, a pattern of forces. An arrangement of all kinds of forces, a network of forces that govern our world. Which is to say that I am beginning to see through this external picture drawn by the book, a more internal one, as in a puppet theatre, there are hands that manipulate these dolls.

And now I am starting to see those hands, and then I come to see the plan, the operating program of these hands, of these forces. And so on and so on, until I get to the very primary source itself, which I call the Creator. There exist four such layers. Kabbalah speaks of all of these four layers. How to ...

SV: Four layers of immersion?

ML: Immersion, yes. And how we can gradually go through the ordinary layer of the book and delve deeper and deeper into it.

SV: Well, I suggest that we start our first dive now. Into the first layer. To develop a certain set of laws or to understand the Kabbalistic meanings of words. We have actually met with you today for this purpose, to deliver this to our audience. So that they begin to read the Pentateuch in this particular way.

ML: I think it might not be worth it now to just give them the dictionary: say a word, and how it is treated in the kabbalistic terms, at a deeper level.

SV: No. In general.

ML: In the course of our conversation they will gradually, step-by-step, begin to see (through the outer picture that is created by external reading) a more internal picture of what the book speaks. Moreover, these internal pictures are multi-dimensional. They often talk about the transformation of a person, they often talk about the governing of the Creator from inside, and so on and so forth. They do not mean here an absolutely external view, that people in our bodies are travelling somewhere on earth, something is happening to them, and it is described. Obviously, if this book only talked about the history of an ancient people, it would not be so special.

SV: Let's start reading the Five Books of Moses. And along the way, I would ask you for comments, step by step.

ML: Alright, let's try it this way.

SV: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day."

ML: Right.

SV: This first passage speaks about some light that suddenly divided day and night.

ML: So here we are already confronted with a small paradox. What does it actually say? It says that the Upper Light, meaning the Higher Force whose property is bestowal and love, absolute bestowal and absolute love, this force in itself is absolute. It has no inherent personal needs, but only to positively give, influence, fill. And it is this force, having this property of bestowal and filling, of love, it has begot the creation. What could it create? What kind of creature? Well, if this force is bestowal, it has created the force of getting, the will to receive.

SV: This love?

ML: Yes. These two desires, they exist in the creation. The desire to give - it is called the Creator, and the desire to receive – is called Creation. These two desires - they have created one another - and here they exist together. One in another. One force in another force. The force of Light, of the Creator, creates onto itself a kind of a sheath, an envelope, a shell – the receiving force, the creation, the desire to get, the desire to enjoy what comes from the Creator. Practically, this construction is the entire creation. And all that is said after that, is said about the connection between them, what kinds of all possible relationships exist between them. This is the entire picture of the universe. There is nothing else. Only these two forces.

The matter of fact is that when the Upper Force creates us, in other words, we are the will to receive, it has an agenda why it actually does it. Since originally, the purpose of creation was to call into existence a creature that would rejoice -– such is the property of the Upper Force, the property of bestowal and love – it turns out that by creating a creature, it is not enough to simply create it as wanting to enjoy. It is necessary to bring it to the state of absolute pleasure, absolute fulfillment. The same perfection as the Creator himself. And how can this be done? The creation has to be given the ability to evolve, to decide, to actually come to a desire, a wish to become like the Creator, and to achieve this by itself. Then this original desire, through its own evolution and development would reach its own perfection by itself. Only then it will be able to feel it. Precisely that is the program of creation. And its final purpose. And everything that happens to us from now on, in all the higher worlds and in our world, until the end of the entire creation - is the implementation of this plan.

SV: When I read this passage, for example, I talk about my feelings. What is happening inside of me? What is the Light in me?

ML: We are talking about two properties here. At first, the Light created the desire, which means it created the earth. Earth is the will to receive. Also, it created the water - the will to bestow. These two desires - water and earth - they are opposite from each other and they are separated from each other.

SV: We will get to that, but first, I wanted to ask you something. It speaks of the day and night. What is the day and night? Can you tell us what is day and night inside a man?

ML: Of course. Day and night is akin to what we sometimes say: my life is complete darkness. This is not because the light is shining or not. The Sun may shine, a thousand suns may shine, but I am missing that light inside of me, my inner light, my inner filling. Or, on the contrary, I felt in my life the light, a beam of light. And so on .... In other words, a kind of a revelation, pleasure, filling comes to a man. This is what is meant here, and not the physical light and darkness. This is why it speaks of this before the heavenly bodies are created, the sun and the moon.

SV: When it is says: "And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day." What does it mean?

ML: When a person feels a lack of something, this is an evening, a night. The word “evening” in Hebrew comes from the verb "learvev", to mix: "erev" meaning "intermingled", when inside a person the states of comprehension, misunderstanding, good and bad are all mixed up, and he does not understand what and where, he is confused. That is out of this confusion that he comes into the darkness, into the night. And when he goes through these confusions and darkness, new sensations to light gradually sprout in him. And this is why "there was evening, and there was morning." After the evening, after darkness there comes an insight, a filling, an understanding, and it completes one of the cycles – day one. And there are many such cycles in every person who evolves.

The same way for us in our world, basically, we always evolve from a confusion, misunderstanding - and then we grasp it. Again, there is something we don’t get, and then we sort it out – until the next one. But in our world it is not happening as intensely as in Kabbalah, because in Kabbalah you feel these confusions, misunderstandings, all sorts of embarrassments, inside of you ...

SV: The feeling of falling.

ML: … of resentment. And then there, at last, comes the Light, a sort of an insight, a revelation. It is much stronger than in our ordinary existence.

SV: When it says: «the first day», what does it imply here?

ML: This is a stage of understanding the Creator. If under the influence of his inner work, a man experiences a change of his internal states: evening, darkness, depression, what I am here for, why do I exist?

SV: These questions arise, right?

ML: Questions appear, and through these issues, when he comes to the Light, he reveals and he gets an answer - it is already a certain kind of knowledge for him. And then again, it happens on the next level, only deeper.

SV: When it says "the first day" - it is like the first step of understanding of this property of love, of which you spoke, absolute quality of love, but it is only the first step.

ML: Exactly.

SV: He only feels it as a kind of a glow ...

ML: Right, but already a certain revelation of Light appears within himself.

SV: Well, I think our audience little by little is beginning to understand what we are saying. For me, it's very tangible.

...: “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. “

The earth is not mentioned yet. It speaks of the sky.

ML: Yes.

SV: The sky is created. What does this mean? The sky. It does not mean our skies, does it?

ML: It speaks about the two forces that stand against each other, separated by a space like a void, where neither of these forces works. And these two forces are inside of a man. That is how he has to find them. That was how, say, Moshe, had discovered this condition in him, and that is why he described it.

SV: He describes his state.

ML: Of course he does. He cannot describe anything that is happening outside of himself. What we feel, we feel inside of us. A picture of the world perceiving us is drawn inside of us. And this is why, when Moshe writes about the apparition of the Upper World, Higher Forces, of the Creator, he feels it inside of him. So, that is where the science of Kabbalah stands: The science of receiving, absorbing in oneself of these Upper Forces, which the Kabbalist now, in the extent of his development, begins to describe.

Thus, where does he begin to gain insight? His comprehension of the upper world commences when he starts to determine for himself that there is a power of darkness, and a power of light. And between these two forces, the force of darkness and the force of light, there is a space. This is an empty space, and it is as if he feels himself there.

SV: As if he is in limbo.

ML: It is empty, not yet filled with anything. And here he is up in the air between these two forces. This is the second day. Meaning the next more profound definition of the first day, when, based on the impression of the first day, he penetrates further into what he has revealed, and it already means the second day.

SV: So, during the first day he learned what is day and night. These states.

ML: yes, in a kind of rough form.

SV: In a rough form. And the second stage, also near there...

ML: More internal already. The sky ..

SV: The feeling of the sky, right? Meaning this space, where he is located...

ML: But he already gives definitions: the higher waters, the lower waters. Namely, the water means the property of bestowal.

SV: In the water. This is interesting.

ML: The property of bestowal that exists at the top and at the bottom, and in between there is an empty space. The sky, the air. Well.. a certain kind of light is meant by this sky, the light that consists of these two properties, to be more exact, the higher and lower – the higher water and the lower water - but it represents some common property of theirs.

SV: And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.”

ML: So we have the next definition, the further, deeper comprehension. It comes to a more focused and more clearly determined higher force, which is the water, and the lower force -- receiving -- which is called the dry land. And they are separated in front of the man into these two categories: the higher and the lower force. The man is so far only a researcher, an observer of these two main forces of creation.

SV: Then we cannot say what is land and what is water for a man?

ML: The will to receive is called land. “Land” in Hebrew sounds like "eretz" coming from the word "ratzon," desire. This means that the land and desire are the same - the will to receive. And the water is, as we have said, the quality of bestowal, the property of giving. So, further on, we discern here between these two parting states. Not like the second day, when there is water above and water below, all together, and it is not clear how everything is mixed. On the third day, a complete separation of water and land is underway, that is, the force of bestowal and the force of getting, they stand against each other, going, as it were, in two different poles, and this is already the subsequent osmoses of a man.

SV: Can one say that this is all going on in the feelings of a man: these two forces are inside of him, the force of bestowal...?

ML: That is, as I have said, because he perceives it proceeding from his intrinsic properties, namely, changing himself at all times he goes through the first day, the second day, and the third day of creation. These are not the days of our world. It may take months until a man moves from one state to another. Such a gradual deepening in the system of creation, it is happening in a man only to the extent of his internal transformations.

SV: How fascinating it gets to read it this way. When you indeed explore your feelings.

ML: If at the same time, you are making changes in yourself.

SV: If you are making changes in yourself.

ML: And you start seeing it all inside of you, like a tremendous universal phenomenon.

SV: Well, you start feeling it as an infinite depth.

ML: Indeed.

SV: So, if it is infinite, is it still possible to grasp, to comprehend this infinity? I am getting ahead here, just asking.

ML: Infinite does not mean unlimited in space. Because it still says here about the lack of space. Though it seems, as if there is a sky, the earth, and something between them. But these are not yet the skies, nor the lands. And by infinity here we mean boundlessness, without end, something without borders, when comprehension has no limit. In other words, everything that I comprehend, I conceive in totality, completely. Absolute clarity. There is no measure left with white or black spots. This is called an infinite osmoses, comprehension. Boundless.

SV: Hence, there goes the third day. Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

We are talking about this third kind of a surface step ...

ML: Yes, but he «saw that it was good.»

SV: Now that is interesting.

ML: Right.

SV: It is written every time. Under each day it says: "and saw that it was good." What is this? What kind of phrase is that?

ML: A clear stage, which is completed with a new comprehension. This way, the person who goes through that stage, no matter what he feels, darkness or light, he eventually determines the correlation of each of these stages with the purpose of his development. And so, no matter how he feels, since all these states lead him to his goal, he defines it as good. In this state, he coalesces with the Creator and with His plan of development, with the metamorphoses that he undergoes. And this completes each stage.

SV: So, the man sees that it is good, right?

ML: Of course.

SV: The one who comprehends?

ML: And, if he had not seen or felt this, he, Moshe, would not have written it.

SV: But he goes: "And God, God saw that it was good." God saw everything.

ML: That was him who felt it, because he reveals it in himself. Otherwise he would not have discovered it.

SV: Meaning that when he says, "God saw that it was good," he speaks about the realization of a man?

ML: What a person understands when he feels the Creator, and coalesces, fuses with him, unites with Him - he feels the pleasure that the Creator enjoys when He sees that the person goes through all these states, approaching Him, becoming like Him.

SV: Well, good here means good, I hope. It is the same as in our world: I feel good. That is the state.

ML: From what we spoke with you "For they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them," the osmoses of the Creator is the greatest pleasure. It is the greatest pleasure, because this is the way we are created in our desire, so that gradually comprehending Him we get imbued.

SV: Dr. Laitman, unfortunately, we have to finish our program. Our time is up. But I hope that we will continue this kabbalistic study, the reading of the Five Books of Moses. And I hope our viewers will get to a deeper understanding that a great deal depends on them and how they approach the study of this book.

End Credits

         

Operators:

Igor Kotlovsky

Yuri Podolsky

Yuri Manahimov

Michael Goldberg

Sound: Sergei Susin

Jonathan Gaiman

Alexander Motel

Vitaly Adamenko

Sound engineer: Jonathan Gaiman

                          

Linear Editing: Yuri Podolsky

Mounting: Victor Wiener

Music: Igor Zhigunov

                                David Krupnik

                                David Gru

                                Haim Cotton

Video company " Gourman"                                 

                                Dima Graziani

                                Slava Lyustik

                                Vlad Medvedev

                                Richard Bonnet

Graphics: Alex Knishevitsky

                               Gleb Tregubov

                            

Artist: Gia Basilaya

Director-producer: Semen Vinokur

Producer: Ariel Elhananov

General Producer: Leonid Ilizarov