There are people who are used to praying and there are those who have never prayed and are not accustomed to thinking of themselves as dependent on a higher power, on fate. However, for the one who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, all these differences become insignificant. One no longer relates to prayer as to a habitual action familiar from childhood. The study takes a person through all kinds of states that cleanse one from all previous confusions. Now a person understands that he or she does not have any connection with the Creator and all requests were artificial.

It takes a long time until one begins to feel that nothing will help one advance, understand, feel, and connect with the system of creation. No matter how much effort one invests in the friends, in the study, nothing helps. A person understands with more and more clarity the complete hopelessness of one’s attempts and comes to the only conclusion: “Only if the Creator helps me, will I be able to do something and come out of this state.”

Only the Creator can help me, no one else, not even myself. With the help of all means, I managed to undergo different states, ascents and descents, to experience all kinds of sensations in order to eventually understand that nothing will help me but the Creator. Here I truly reach the need for prayer. If the Creator does not help, then nothing will.

So, what should one do to receive the help of the Creator? How can I convince myself that help will only come from above in order to reach this correct request that the Creator will answer? This is what Kabbalah teaches: how and what to ask and how to prepare myself so that the request will bring the help of the Creator.¹

Prayer is work in the heart. The heart determines all desires and the brain only helps to realize them, to prioritize them. Working in the heart means arranging desires such that they will be ready to change.

This is work above reason. If you pray for what you know, then it is a usual egoistic prayer of a person of this world and therefore does not cause any significant changes in you. Any animal prays because prayer is the feeling of lack in all the atoms, molecules, and organs, the whole body. The Creator initially created a deficiency; He Himself is complete, and therefore, He created a created being that feels a deficiency.

True prayer does not come from the deficiencies created in us by the Creator, that is, from the lack of money, health, and other problems that the Creator awakens in each of us. We see that the entire world is suffering from some kind of deficiency because the matter of creation is the will to receive, which lacks fulfillment.

However, by creating such a creature, the Creator wanted a person to ask to be elevated so that he will not remain inside the desire asking for its fulfillment, but to rise to a higher degree, above these deficiencies.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/19, Prayer
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 11:10

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New Life #176 – Prayer And Human Development
The Power Of Prayer
Everything Only Through Prayer

Question: Can a thought of one person change the entire world?

Answer: Unfortunately, no, because then that person would change our whole world. This cannot happen. All of us together must connect our desires, then we will have the right thoughts that will change the world. The main thing is the desire.

Question: Does intention drive desire and thought?

Answer: Yes. It manages both desires and thoughts. But the intention appears only after the appearance of the desire itself. When the desire is processed through thought, an intention appears, and thanks to it, the action takes place.

Question: Is there a connection between thoughts and the reforming light?

Answer: Certainly. The reforming light influences you and awakens particular thoughts in you. But everything depends on how you react to them.

Question: What do I gain if I attribute all of my thoughts and desires to the Creator? What should the right response to these thoughts and desires be?

Answer: You will gain a connection with the true source of all your thoughts and desires. First you connect yourself correctly to the source and then everything depends on what you want from it, how, what you are giving back, what you are asking, and what kind of desire you are raising.

Question: How does the thought that “there is none else besides Him” translate into sensation?

Answer: Only through your efforts, your aspirations constantly to try to feel that “there is none else besides Him,” that the Creator manages you completely, and that your connection with Him is absolute and complete, passing through all the cells of your body.

Question: How can we make sure we are giving the Creator pleasure?

Answer: It is very simple. If I give pleasure to the friends, it means that I am giving pleasure to the Creator.

Question: What if we were to see how our thoughts work immediately?

Answer: No, that will never happen. I must only think about the fact that I am working in the right group where everyone will merge together into one single mass and how this mass will become homogeneous, merged without any identification, where our desires and intentions are subject to one thing: to attain the Creator, the one and only power.

Remark: At first, my mind gladly perceives the Creator as an ideal of all the good, without any flaws. But then immediately there is the contact with the ugly realities of this life.

My Comment: Correct. However, I must be ready to perceive these ugly realities of life as being directed at me in order to correct them. They are nothing more than that.
[247933]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/3/19

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/14/19

Yesterday my students came from all over Israel for a special evening of connection, with great food, a live performance of Baal HaSulam melodies, along with quotes from the sources and a workshop about what it means to be united as one. Enjoy the photos!

The Times of Israel published my new article “European Anti-Semitism: More Outspoken and Widespread”

I emigrated to Israel 45 years ago. When I was young and living in Leningrad (today St. Petersburg, Russia), walking down the city street one day, I witnessed a man suddenly violently attack a Jew and instinctively intervened to protect him. The aggressor was arrested and I was taken to the police station to make a witness statement. When I asked the police officer what kind of punishment the assailant would receive, he replied: “Two weeks in jail,” explaining that such behavior would not be tolerated, and he added, “I don’t care what he was thinking or feeling, we’ve received high-level instructions to stop anti-Semites because they help the Zionists. If there’s anti-Semitism seen here, more Jews will want to leave Russia for Israel and this is not in our interest. Jews are a useful and beneficial force: workers, engineers, scientists, teachers, doctors. We want it to stay that way, so we fight for it.”

Back then, if someone even dared to say a word that sounded anti-Semitic, they would be sent to jail. Therefore, even if deep inside the police officer harbored anti-Semitic sentiments, he would never outwardly express them. But what I did understand from the officer’s explanation was that Jews were not necessarily loved, they were actually hated, but they were needed to advance national interests and thus were useful in the service of the nation’s pride. After all, if the Jews were expelled, who would be the chess champions or space explorers? It’s not that the Jews were so bold or dominated all the key positions, but they held respectable, solid professions. Afterward, the situation changed. At the point when Jews became the bankers or the wealthy with no other contribution to make other than being rich, they were no longer considered indispensable. Therefore, the open anti-Semitism once prohibited was gradually allowed to surface.

Those memories from my youth come flooding back today when I see the uncertain future of European Jewry, particularly from the perspective of the new generation. While they are not being formally expelled from their countries of origin, they could be forced to leave by rising anti-Semitism. Since the Jewish contribution to society seems to be overlooked and unrecognized nowadays, the associated protective shield surrounding them has also virtually been lifted. Today, four of ten young European Jews do not feel safe and have considered emigration due to rampant anti-Semitism in their countries, according to a recent survey conducted by the European Union. As troubling as it may seem, I see it as a positive report since it shines much needed light on a problem that cries to be addressed without delay. The call to action is clear: to start working to unite as Jews, to become one diverse yet monolithic body. As such, we will be safe anywhere we live.

Anti-Semitism has not resurged in Europe, it actually never left. In the current more permissive climate, it now displays itself in more open, evident and widespread ways from myriad directions: neo-Nazis, the far left and radical Islam. It is raising its head both online and in the streets of major European cities. France, for instance, experienced a 74% increase in anti-Semitic incidents just last year. Germany and the UK registered record numbers of hate crimes against Jews, with an average number of 100 cases each month per country, according to monitoring groups.

It is not surprising then that the new survey commissioned by the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed that more than 80% of respondents aged 16-34 perceive a rise in anti-Semitism or have experienced anti-Semitic harassment in their homeland countries. Half of them prefer not to wear or carry items that openly identify them as Jews.

The loss of safety among European Jews should not be accepted as a new norm. Also, we should not wait for the situation to worsen before we react. As it is written by our sages in the book Shem Mishmuel, “When Israel are ‘as one man with one heart,’ they are a fortified wall against the forces of evil.” This means that in order to stand firm as a single united front in face of the great challenges, the young generation of Jews face on the Old Continent and elsewhere in the world, our single goal as Jews must be to focus on our connection as a people.

Why can unity guarantee our safety? It is so because the pressure against us from the nations of the world is rooted in their instinctive feeling that Jews are failing to fulfill their role, which is to unite. By connecting above all differences, Jews provide an example to the world, a world so hungry for tranquility, peace and fulfillment. Therefore, the external demands upon the Jewish people are expressed as hatred that will not cease until we deliver the remedy revealed to us to cure an ill world.

This is the reason the good future for all depends solely on us. This is the contribution to human society we are expected to deliver. As it is written by the greatest Kabbalist of our generation, Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “It is the wisdom of faith, justice and peace which most nations learn from us, and this wisdom is ascribed to us alone.” (The Writings of the Last Generation)

When we Jews are bonded together, we succeed. When we forget who we are and fall into separation and hatred, our enemies fall upon us. Our unity is our strength, and when we finally revive our brotherly love, no enemy will be able to harm us and we will find that the road to peace is wide open and boundless.

The main work of a person is to add to the ascent the lack of the greatness of the Creator that he felt previously during the descent. These states are called descents precisely because the greatness of the Creator disappears—there is no Creator between us. We want to add the lack we felt in the descents to the ascent.

It is clear to us that both ascents and descents come from above and do not depend on a person. The only thing that depends on us is how to work with both states, meaning to connect the minus, the lack of the greatness of the Creator within me, to the plus, to the greatness of the Creator, that glows upon us now during the ascent. I myself awaken the lack of the greatness of the Creator, trying to feel, evaluate, measure, and add it to the ascent, to the feeling of the greatness of the Creator that I now receive.

This is the person’s work, everything else comes from above. We need to learn this art of evaluating ascents and descents only with respect to the Creator and not with any other feeling. We need to feel with our whole being the full depth of the separation from the Creator, the absence of His control, and also how this greatness of the Creator fills us in order to work between these two poles.

During the day, we should try to live only according to one parameter: the greatness of the Creator, checking whether it is smaller or greater, disagreeing with its diminution. I constantly check the intensity and character of the greatness of the Creator that fills me so that it will be the only thing that directs me in life.¹

My whole life should be examined only with respect to the greatness of the Creator. This is how I check all my words and actions, trying to increasingly feel the greatness of the Creator. It is my only goal; everything else is secondary. Gradually, this whole world loses its importance and I enter another world, another dimension, where I am connected with the upper one.²

The greatness of the Creator is measured by the extent to which it compels me to love my friends. It is written: “From love of the created beings to love of the Creator.” But why should I love the created beings? It is because I want to bring contentment to the Creator. The Creator is the goal; He is the first, and because of Him, I need the love for the created beings, for the friends.

The Creator is the cause, but the implementation is in the group where I must reach love of friends. Therefore, the Creator becomes the means. Once I attain love of friends, I can concentrate on love of the Creator.³

As soon as I feel that there is no longer the Creator amid all my thoughts, I immediately grab the lifeline: the group. Together we undergo ascents and descents as if floating on a raft in a rough sea. One side rises and falls, then the other side, and we maintain the balance between us. Together, we think how to maintain the general balance and try to feel the state of each of us, which is best felt in such an unstable situation. Our life depends on this.

There is a common feeling of the greatness of the Creator in the group, and therefore our ascents and descents become common. Each one invests his part in them so that we would constantly rise. Each one rises and falls rocking our raft on the waves, and so we advance.

This is our game with the Creator: we stand on one side, the Creator on the other side, and the egoism created by Him in the middle. We keep the raft in balance by trying to connect in one heart.

We try to hold onto the Creator in the center of the group so that His greatness would hold us and connect us together. The Creator is in the center of the raft and is playing with us. We are overcoming both external disturbances: the waves of life, underwater rocks, and the internal ones, constantly balancing our common feeling of the greatness of the Creator, keeping Him between us. He must be the first and the last, that is, we receive everything from the Creator and constantly come back to Him in our work.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/19, To Learn From the Descent in the State of Ascent
1 Minute 0:25
2 Minute 23:10
3 Minute 24:50
4 Minute 39:10

Remark: The ten richest people in the world are not going to leave their fortune to their children.

My Comment: The custom of leaving possessions to the next generation has become outdated. People understand that it does not give children any happiness.

That is, a child has to be given a good education, and a minimal, normal right to exist, slightly above average. But no more than that. That way the child will make efforts to achieve more. He will also learn to save himself and his family in order to protect himself from all problems. Without this, one will be all over the place and will not know what to do and where to hurry.

It corrupts people. By the way, the Torah says that a father should not tell his son about his wealth and that it will go to his son.

Question: What about the fact that rich people leave their millions to charities?

Answer:  Where else could it be left? People will donate to research and for the ecology, and little by little it will all be gone. There will be all kinds of organizations that will advise about how to divide one’s money, dissolve it in parts, and that is all.

Question: Is giving everything to charities a selfish act? Some people have earned a lot of money.

Answer: Yes, they earned the money, but now, at the end of their lives, they understand that this money cannot be taken with them, that nothing can be done, and no one is eternal. They hope that in this way they will nevertheless leave their name and themselves with humanity. This is some kind of redemption.

Remark: There is a word: “to perpetuate.”

My Comment: Perpetuate, yes. But I do not envy them. If they still hope that this will proved them with some service after they have already parted with this life, then, of course….

Question: It does not serve them? What would serve then?

Answer: I do not want to talk about this. Let them leave their money to charities.

A man has nothing left! Absolutely nothing but good deeds. Good deeds are only in being able to push this world to unite. That is all, just this!

Only this can somehow really be recorded in a person’s soul. When man engages in uniting the world, he engages with his soul, with his inner property. Therefore it remains in him, and death has no power over it.

Question: What kind of action is for the unification of the world?

Answer: It is a mutual desire of people to help each other, even at the earthly level. The most important thing is uniting to reveal the higher mind, the highest property, the highest power, the Creator, the property of love and bestowal.

If they will direct people to this, then it will in fact remain with them and it will be their eternal great contribution to the development of their own souls.
[247922]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/19/19

Question: What is the difference in the system of writing between Baal HaSulam and Ramak?

Answer: There is a huge difference between them. As a matter of fact, Ramak explained everything from the perspective of the spreading of the light, whereas the Ari explained from the perspective of the correction of the Kelim, vessels, and desires. Since we are a vessel and desire, the system of the Ari is closer to us.

As for Baal HaSulam, he is like the continuation of the Ari; therefore, his writings explain the same system of the screens.
[247903]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 03/10/19

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The laws of perfection must operate in the ten, the HaVaYaH: equality, mutual integration, mutual bestowal, annulment before each other. It is very important to build relations of equality in the ten in every possible way. All the differences that we see today between us, distinguishing some as more successful, smarter, faster, in fact, do not mean anything. As it is written: “They have eyes but see not.” I can say this from my own experience.

It is the people who can hardly perceive any word associated with spiritual work, but, at the same time, persistently make efforts to continue at all costs that will achieve the greatest success. They will rise above everybody, not those who were given exceptional abilities from above: a high intellect, intelligence, and sensitivity. These corporeal attributes do not help in entering spirituality, but on the contrary, they stand in the way. There are stories about how disciples cried, begging the Creator to take away their natural talents and lower them to an ordinary level.

Therefore, with understanding, we should relate those friends who have difficulty sitting in the ten, studying, associating one word with another in order to understand the material. In the end, these people will succeed in spirituality more than others; it will just take more time and effort. Therefore, we cannot neglect or give up on any friend because of him not understanding anything. If the Creator brought someone to the group, we must take care to ensure that he or she is treated the same as everyone else.

There can be no neglect or preference toward anybody in the ten—everyone should be absolutely equal, not just externally, formally, but I must really feel inside that I perceive everyone in this way. Difficulties in understanding do not relate to spirituality. It is not an exam.

Building equality in the ten is even more important than developing a deficiency for the revelation of the Creator. If there is no equality, then the deficiency for the Creator will also be distorted because we will be turning to Him from an imperfect Kli.¹

We should not neglect any friend in the ten. The heart should ache for everyone who does not come. We must pray for him and work on this, feeling that everything depends on us.²

Equality between the friends in the ten is built by the fact that I compensate for my attitude. One seems smarter, the other more devoted, the third one quick-witted, the fourth cunning, and I have to complete my perception of everyone so that each would be perfect and flawless.

Each one is perfection itself, there is nothing to add—this is how I should perceive the friends. In this way, I correct myself so as not to see any flaws in them. I bring everyone to one general level and they become a perfect ten for me, elevated and corrected in my eyes. The more I integrate in the ten, the deeper I penetrate into the Creator, who is in the friends. After all, it is the Creator who develops and supports them.

By connecting the friends together on an equal level, I open the path to the Creator for myself, to His revelation. The ten is like a sight of a gun through which I see the Creator, or like binoculars that need to be focused.³

In the ten, it is necessary to invest all our strength in unity and connection so that all become as one to such an extent that it will become clear that this one—the connection between us—is the Creator, not the group, not simply a connection. By penetrating deeper inside, we will begin to feel the essence of our connection, and this will be the Creator. There is no other way.

There are people for whom it is very difficult to hear this, but it is specifically because they have a very high soul and this is still distant from them. It could take another ten years of persistence and effort, but then they will achieve more than anybody else. Therefore, there should be no difference for us in what way one perceives and understands. It is said that “one does not learn with the mind” but through equality. One who can perceive everyone as equal and himself as the smallest of all, as the only one in need of correction, is on the right path.⁴
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/19, “Deficiency For The Greatness of the Creator”
1 Minute 16:00
2 Minute 1:22:30
3 Minute 1:23:00
4 Minute 1:35:00

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See Through The Ten
No Other Reality But The Ten

If you make the correct, true estimation, it will immediately become clear that you cannot ask for yourself. After all, by this I separate myself from the common soul in which the Creator resides, from the Shechina. By asking for myself, I cut myself off from the Shechina. It is necessary to ask for everyone, and to the extent in which I can connect with the Shechina and immerse in this union, I will feel that the Shechina is where the Creator lives, and I can reveal Him, get closer and even adhere to Him. Everything depends only on how I increasingly attach to the general Kli.

Therefore, asking for yourself is equivalent to cutting yourself off from the source of life. We just do not feel it and get confused. But a person who sees the system understands that it is very simple and that the Creator is inside it. We need to ask only for one thing: to belong to this Shechina, to the system in which we are all included but do not realize it because of the concealment. It is stupid to ask for yourself because by this request a person distances himself from the good.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/19, The Ten is One Whole HaVaYaH
1 Minute 1:50

Everything is not so difficult: you need to join the structure called the ten. By entering it correctly, I prepare myself for meeting the Creator. I look into the ten as if through a magnifying glass, focusing it on the Creator, and begin to see and discern Him.

This is a simple system: me – the ten – the Creator. If I want to reveal Him more, then I need a larger device called the ten, that is, including an increasing number of details involved in focusing and directing toward one heart. The Creator will then reveal Himself more.

This goes on and on until all the circles, all the participants gather into one common Kli of the whole of humanity. Accordingly, the Creator will be fully revealed to those who nullified themselves before the ten, before the HaVaYaH, built by Him from all the inhabitants of this world.

Therefore, it is written: “As though you have made Me.” The Creator does not exist by Himself but only as the correct total result of all the participants in His revelation. This device is at our disposal and we are obliged to use it without being distracted by any other work. Everything that happens must be invested in the creation of this instrument, the ten, in order to reveal the Creator through it.¹

By working on our connection, we achieve love for our neighbor as we love ourselves. And through it, one can already attain love for the Creator, focusing all of one’s desires and aspirations through the group on the Creator. This is how we connect all of creation together, which is concentrated in the group and attains adhesion with the Creator. Therefore, first, it is necessary to achieve love for one’s neighbor, and only then will we be able to say: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,” according to the rule: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one,” that is, a person, the group, and the Creator.

We make an instrument for the revelation of the Creator from the group. It is similar to binoculars, where we need to adjust the sharpness in order to see the desired goal. All our lines of sight should focus at one point so that we look directly at the Creator.

If we do not initially aim at the Creator, then we have nothing to focus on. As long as the group is out of focus, then I do not see the Creator called “come and see” (Bo-Re) behind it. In order to “come” and “see” Him, I need to keep everything together: myself, the Creator, and the group focused on Him.

It is impossible to create the focus in the group if I do not imagine the Creator behind it. Otherwise, I have nothing to focus on, that is, the Creator should be first. But how can it be possible to focus on the Creator without a group? Where will I adjust the lens? I am the one who twists the lens, inducing sharpness.²

In order to focus the group, I must imagine the Creator, that is, the ideal properties of bestowal and love. Then, I try to see the group as an instrument, a magnifying glass, binoculars, with which I direct sharpness on these qualities, focusing all our aspirations on them. Although we have different desires, we concentrate them on one goal, uniting them into one desire and essence.

We do not focus on any distant object, but we imagine the Creator being revealed within us: “come and see.” We focus not on the Creator Himself, but on our Kelim where the Creator will be revealed. All this work is aimed at achieving the right connection of our desires (Kelim) in the group.

If it seems to us that there is no success, then it means the opposite. We become closer and move closer to the Creator, and therefore, we reveal our own defocusing within ourselves with ever higher resolution. We must ask the Creator to help us unite, to reveal the ever-growing similarity of our intentions despite the ever-increasing differences in desires.³
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/19, The Ten is One Whole HaVaYaH
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 5:15
3 Minute 21:35