“Secrets of the Eternal Book”

Video program with

Dr. Michael Laitman and

director and screenwriter Semen Vinokur

Part 6, Chapter "Bereshit"

Semion Vinokur: Hello, dear friends. We are continuing our program "Secrets of the Eternal Book."

S.V.: We are talking about the mysteries of the five books of the Torah and discovering them with the scholar and the Kabbalist, Dr. Michael Laitman. Hello.

Michael Laitman: Hello.

S.V.: We are continuing. I think we are finishing the chapter "In the Beginning" today.

M.L.: Do you think so?

S.V.: I think so. Maybe.

M.L.: It depends on how we are advancing.

S.V.: Here, by interpreting each word... you can simply arrange the whole program.

M.L:. Yes, of course!

S.V.: Frankly speaking, it looks amazing to me.

M.L.: Why?

S.V.: Honestly, the further we advance, the more interesting it is to learn.

M.L.: Because every word is based on entering the phenomenon, which the word describes, and on exiting it.

Credit titles: Michael Laitman, PhD, the Kabbalist

M.L.: We have letters, don't we? Meaning Taamim (tastes), Nekudot (points representing vowels), Tagin (the crowns above the letters), and Otiyot (letters).

S.V.: In Hebrew.

M.L.: Four levels of comprehension of the inner meaning of the word. Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, and Otiyot. Only the last level of comprehension is called the letters. Ot (a letter) derives from the word "sign."

S.V.: "A letter" means Ot in Hebrew.

M.L.: Yes, from the word "sign."

S.V.: A sign.

M.L.: Meaning, it is not just a sign. It is a symbol that shows us through the outer form its three internal states: Taamim, Nekudot, and Tagin.

S.V.: Can this be translated into Russian? These three states.

M.L.: Taamim means "tastes." Meaning the Light Itself that...

S.V.: enters.

M.L.: When you attain the meaning of the letter, you sense it. Nekudot means the Light that exits, when you exit. Namely, the Light of Attainment, the Light of entering and exiting the state. This is as if I enter and exit something. These are two opposite directions: as if I meet somebody and I part with somebody. These are different states.

S.V.: I have sensed it. The taste of this sensation stayed with me.

M.L.: Yes. These differences between coming closer and departing, they build in us, from this contact, all sorts of effects. All these effects, taken together with the attaining of this entire property, which I am having a contact with, are called "signs": a symbol or a letter. So, when I gradually enter a new state: entering and then exiting it form a sequence of interconnected letters and therefore, they are called "a word." "In the beginning, was the Word." What does it mean "in the beginning was the Word?" So, initially you cannot comprehend anything without entering and exiting this state. It builds in you a sensation of the full contact, understanding, and connection with a certain spiritual phenomenon.

S.V.: It sounds beautiful! Therefore, I comprehend it more, more, and more and then exit it. So, I have got the sensation that remains with me.

M.L.: Every word in the Bible means entering and exiting these states. In the end, going over all these biblical words by entering and exiting, entering and exiting you are building within yourself the impressions, and changing yourself to match those words. Meaning, you cannot get acquainted with any phenomenon if you haven't developed the properties and understanding, that means the feeling and the mind to comprehend this phenomenon, to connect to it. Thus, by going over all these Biblical words, from the beginning to the end of the Bible, you're going through all the states when you have completely corrected yourself and become equal to the Creator.

S.V.: I sometimes get a feeling that it's impossible to attain it.

M.L.: No, no, no. We cannot avoid it. Every lady cook, even if she doesn't run the country, she will reach the state that is equal to the Creator. Each of us must return to the root from which he descended. We are all destined for it.

S.V.: Nowadays, lady cook tries to run the state.

M.L.: Unfortunately, lady cooks try to run the state. Yes.

S.V.: Here you said, "In the beginning, was the Word." That is also the catch phrase that was used around the world. Can we say (if my assumption correct): the "word" in Hebrew means Mila, Miluy, the "fulfillment." That is ...

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: In the beginning was the fulfillment.

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: People believe that in the beginning was the word, the word itself.

M.L.: What does it mean the "word"? Did it come out of from some kind of a speaker or an amplifier?

S.V.: Suddenly the word was spoken.

M.L.: So?

S.V.: The development began.

M.L.: By His word, everything was created.

S.V.: What is the other way to understand this?

M.L.: That is exactly what it means.

S.V. Mmm... The word, which is "miluy", fulfillment.

M.L.: Yes, fulfillment with and by the Light.

S.V.: So as we talked: the first stage was the one that was fulfilled by the Light, wasn't it?

M.L.: Yes...

S.V.: Then the Light exited it.

M.L.: Then the sensation of fulfillment up to the fourth phase took place. Therefore, they are called Taamim, Nikudot, Tagin, and Otiot, the four phases of attainment. Then the creation starts operating by itself (independently). By comprehending God's word, the creation becomes a man.

S.V.: It is just beautiful. It sounds beautiful. We continue reading the chapter. "Now you are cursed from the ground..."

M.L.: "Now you are cursed from the ground..." This is very good. So, now the person, who is in the process of development, comprehends these two properties of bestowing and receiving.

S.V.: Cain and Abel.

M.L.: Yes. When he started receiving for himself, when he took Abel's bestowing property and used it for his own sake.

S.V.: Meaning he killed Abel.

M.L.: Yes, by this he killed Abel. This usage, this state in relation to the Creator is a curse.

S.V.: The curse.

M.L.: It is opposite to the Creator.

S.V.: What is the curse in general?

M.L.: It is being opposite to the Creator: clarification, realization that you are opposite to the Creator.

S.V.: So, I may say a seditious phrase now: we are practically cursed.

M.L.: Certainly, we all are. We all are actually cursed.

S.V.: All people on Earth, aren't they?

M.L.: Yes. They are in the absolutely opposite state to the Creator.

S.V.: Because we are in the egoistic desires.

M.L.: If it is God's will, we will reach this understanding.

S.V.: That we are opposite.

M.L.: Yes. If it is God's will, we will actually show ourselves as egoists, so we would not be able to hide it even from ourselves. So, we will disclose that... When a person has a small ego, he thinks that everything is fine. A big egoist realizes a little bit more. He says, "Well, everyone is the same." He justifies himself. When he has the excessive ego, he cannot help it. He already acknowledges that, yes, I am like that.

S.V.: It disturbs me with my life.

M.L.: In the next state, he starts feeling from being in this excessive ego that he is opposite to the Creator. Therefore, the greatest scoundrels, they have the opportunity to start rising from their lowest downfall.

S.V.: To jump above all.

M.L.: The one who didn't fall down low, he cannot rise. Therefore, it is said that where the man fell, sinned, proved himself as a total nothing, absolutely NOTHING, meaning he reached the bottom and he felt that he was nothing, then from this state, he would start rising. So, that's why we are developing throughout our evolutionary process. This is the development of the ego towards the greater, and greater, and greater awareness of our being in it.

S.V.: We often hear the phrases when a person says, "He is such a scoundrel. It is impossible to rectify him. Nobody and nothing..."

M.L.: It is not enough yet.

S.V.: “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear!"”

M.L.: "You will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth."

S.V.: It is also a catch phrase.

M.L.: Yes. Meaning, you will search for something in your desire to enjoy: to give away something, to receive something, to give away something and receive something for it; you will use Abel's properties for yourself, for Cain, and never be able to be satisfied with that. To this day, we are in such a state. We have been running after different pleasures all the time. I haven't not finished something yet, I already think about something else: what will happen to me after? And next time? And next time? All my life is in sufferings, in this curse.

S.V.: That is so beautiful! That means to be a wanderer, correct?

M.L.: Correct. These are the wanderings around. Every time, I run for a new delight, and every time, I realize in advance that nothing else I can do. What should I do? Because if I don't feel a micro doze of a certain fulfillment, I feel that I have no life. That's why it is our present condition, our today's generation is in drugs, in depression, in detachment from everything. This is already the comprehension of that level of wandering around. So, it is enough for me to wander all over this earth. The "earth" originates from the word Ratzon (desire), to be in this desire. It is unquenchable. I will never be able to fulfill it. How can I get out, rise above it? So, we already begin to feel in our generation that we need to do something with ourselves.

S.V.: We are the wanderers on this earth.

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: We need to rise. “So, the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.”

So, Cain cannot even die.

M.L.: Who can kill him there? There is nobody there.

S.V.: There is nobody there.

M.L.: So, what does it mean? There is no quality that can help the person. Whatever he was engaged in, he must disclose that Cain within himself to the full extend and want to exit it to another level. So, until we realize the egoistic property in us as absolutely destroying, separating us from something higher, and when we see that it is killing us. As an ancient parable of about the same time says that a person needs a tiny amount of life so much that even the angel of death when it... How does it come to a man? It hands him a sword. The sword has a drop of poison at the tip, but this drop of poison contains a micro doze of pleasure at the same time. A person has no choice because he must feel a little bit of life. So, he opens his mouth swallowing the drop of poison and feeling a micro doze of life, and in this way he dies. There is nothing he can do, knowing that... So, we are the same way in our lives. In principle, we are approaching death all the time, knowing that there will be nothing but disappointment behind our actions in the end. But here it is now, and I will take, steal, do, and enjoy something a little bit. Then... Even though I know it will be bad, but I cannot limit myself, I cannot stop myself. That is the state of true curse.

S.V.: I am again in a kind of dead end after your emotional explanation. It leaves very strong impression. How out of this..?

M.L.: I am just afraid to go into it because we... We will nver finish with the first chapter, the first line. You know that in the beginning here is the word "in the beginning," "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

This word "in the beginning" in The Zohar...there is so-called Tikkunei Zohar.

S.V.: Bereshit. It is in Hebrew.

M.L.: Yes, Bereshit. There is a book called Tikkunnei Zohar (The Zohar Corrections). This is not the correction of The Book of Zohar: it a man's correction. So, the whole book called Tikkunnei Zohar is based on the comments of the word "in the beginning."

S.V.: [Semion is laughing.]

M.L.: The whole book. Only this word is interpreted because in principle there is nothing beside it. "In the beginning", and then everything that is said in the Bible are additions and interpretation of the first word.

S.V.: This is not philosophizing. It is a quite different desire that is expressed there: comprehension and interpretation.

M.L.: This is realization of the forces of creation and how to use them correctly in order to ascend towards the Creator.

Credit titles: Michael Laitman, the Kabbalist, Professor

M.L.: So to speak, a ladder that descends to us. This first word "in the beginning" is the beginning of the first step of the ladder which you start climbing up. So, to comprehend the right mechanism, the nature of the first step, and how you can climb it up. Then the next steps will be absolutely clear to you. The first step is the most important. This is...Imagine this as a rope-ladder.

S.V.: What did they, those great Kabbalists, who wrote The Book of Zohar, and interpreted the word "in the beginning" want? What did they want?

Credit titles: Semion Vinokur, the film director and scriptwriter.

M.L.: To explain the difference to us between our level and the first spiritual one. Because it is the most important thing. It...It is the most basic, cardinal one, it is fundamental. Because a person cannot imagine how he must change. Can you explain to someone who is in the mother's womb that there is another world where people, a lot of people live. They communicate with each other, talk, build, understand, live, suffer, and rejoice. Can you explain to this one (who is in the mother's womb and who has basically everything he needs at his level) that there is something else? We are even more cut off from the spiritual state because we have different, opposite properties. The one who is in the mother's womb is a human being who is just on that still level. He cannot exist independently.

S.V.: He has not been born yet, has he?

M.L.: Yes. He cannot exist independently. He receives everything, so to speak, with the help of a higher organism, the mother. Well, then there is the next step, and the next step. All that, so to speak, happens in the same direction. When we enter the first spiritual level, we have to change ourselves to become absolutely opposite.

S.V.: That means "in the beginning."

M.L.: To change all our pluses to minuses: all our connections, awareness, conclusions from "for my own sake" to "in order to bestow," from "for me" to "for the sake of others," to "Love thy neighbor as thyself." And so on. Meaning, this word Bereshit, "in the beginning", this is the beginning of that degree towards the Creator. It is the most difficult for understanding and mastering. Therefore, it is the most important to teach this to a person, to bring him somehow closer to this. Then the subsequent other steps, they are all alike. There is simply the accumulation of knowledge, awareness, understanding, disclosure of the world there: it is just a wonderful journey so to say. It goes according to the laws when you can somehow see, realize, know, and absorb.

S.V.: Can we say that..even if I have heard many times such words as a spiritual person, a spiritually evolved person... Can we say that all these words and all our understanding about spirituality here, on earth, are absolutely incorrect?

M.L.: The spirituality is all based on the property of bestowal.

S.V.: We can say that we know nothing about it.

M.L.: Right. We are absolutely out of it. It is not that we do not know; we cannot imagine it because spirituality for us is something existing in earthly images, and hovering somewhere in space. There is no space. There is no motion. There is no time. Spirituality is what we perceive in the property of bestowal which we do not possess at all, instead of the property of receiving. When I begin to transform myself towards the quality of bestowal and see through this property, in my striving towards others...

S.V.: Outside of myself.

M.L.: For their sake, outside of myself, cutting off myself, my own well-being and so on from my action, then I start perceiving the world completely different. It manifests not within but outside of me. When I start to perceive outside of myself, then I really start to feel the universe, which is now completely hidden from me. Nowadays, what I perceive is only what I feel that gets registered in my five animalistic senses. If I change direction, I begin to perceive the world as it is, without my interference. This is called the Higher World. There is a condition now that a person must reach his lowest state to start climbing up; yes, before entering this first step of the ladder...

S.V.: The spiritual one.

M.L.: The spiritual one. We must descent to hell.

S.V.: It turns out that then the whole descent begins. People begin to be born so to say, the humanity begins to be born. Cain got to know his wife, and begot Enoch, Herod, and so on and so forth. Here, first, I would like to ask you this...

M.L.: It is all said about properties.

S.V.: Everyone has his own craft. One is a blacksmith, the second one is a grower, the third one is a shepherd. Is it my property which is within myself?

M.L.: It is also said how they use their properties to correct their desires. Because any man's work in this world is not the physical one: meaning the work on yourself, what is called the spiritual work, Avodat HaShem (God's work). It can be divided into many specialties as they exist in our world: a blacksmith, a grower, a shepherd, and so on. So it says here about how to use properly each of these given to you properties.

S.V.: Why does it say here and it is also very interesting: one lived until he was 905 years old, the second one until he was 910?

M.L.: These are levels. These are the spiritual levels.

S.V.: You know that people interpret that a human body can be alive up to 900 years old.

M.L.: Yes, certainly...They only just lived till 20-25 years old.

S.V.: Did they?

M.L.: Of course.

S.V.: Meaning, these are the spiritual levels, aren't they?

M.L.: Do you remember what Pushkin wrote, I think, "An old man entered, he was about 40 years old...?"

S.V.: An old man about 40 years old.

M.L.: Something like that. Meaning that we cannot imagine that... Only intellectuals who had means, so to speak, survived until 60-70 years old and so on: philosophers, writers, and generally wealthy people. And all the rest...

S.V.: That means when it is written about the age of 900, 905, for example, Adam...

M.L.: It is written only about the high, spiritual levels of attainment. That is why it is said that after the Flood, for example, a person's age decreased, and so on; meaning all that is said about the spiritual attainment: how much I can correct myself towards bestowing, in the Reflected Light. That is measured by years.

S.V.: A Kabbalist who reads this, let's say, that Adam was 800 years old at the birth of Seth and 900.... As if he is...

M.L.: Sure. What do I care about his age? That he had the beard like that and the ears like these. I do not understand what it talks about. What is the difference if he was the elder or a man in the prime of his life? The Bible tells us only about the divine qualities that we can develop in order to get closer to the Creator. What else do I need this book for?

S.V.: So, the birth. The birth of mankind. The birth of the births causes... It reads the following, "Noah was five hundred years old." That means we are approaching Noah. It is said about Noah the following...

M.L.: He was righteous. Yes.

S.V.: He was righteous. Before that it reads the following. All in all, the last phrase is very beautiful in the chapter "In the Beginning",

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD".

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: It's beautiful!

M.L.: Yes. The Creator is like that. He can also, you know...

S.V.: He created, and then repented.

M.L.: Yes. He can also repent.

S.V.: He has chosen just Noah from all mankind.

M.L.: Yes. All the rest, including even some kind of birds and sheep are guilty. Why are they, poor things, guilty if they were created that way? Well, maybe a man, I do not know... Why even a man...? Well, we learn and understand that all our qualities were given to us by nature. All nature is the Creator. Everything in us was incorporated by default. There is nothing in me that I chose myself. If I have genes to kill or to steal, they force me to do so. What is my fault then? If I was born to a certain family, or was not properly brought up, what is my fault in principle? It is not my fault. I am becoming a grown-up by the age of 20. I completely consist of what was set up in me originally, what I received from the parents, the daycare, the school, the educators, the environment, and the television. All that was created around me, I didn't do it: I was built that way. Now they are telling me, "That's it. You are a sinner. We will hang you now."

S.V.: Well, according to this it is necessary to change the entire court system.

M.L.: It is not important. Well, generally speaking, everything needs to be changed.

Well, how can they demand anything from a person? They mustn't demand anything from him. He is the result of the system of upbringing so called: the parents, the society, and the environment. Especially, if we are talking about the Creator. What else is there in a person if it is not from the Creator? So, where does a person come in here? How should he repent, pay off for the fact that he possesses some terrible qualities?

S.V.: It is written here that the Creator suddenly saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth.

M.L.: Sure. For example, I want to buy a glass. I see that it is a defective one, meaning it is bad, yes? I check the factory where it was made. I already know that I should not deal with this factory if it produces such glasses.

S.V.: That's right.

M.L.: Hence, if the Creator who has created such a person, has repented about it and everything, He has just shown His own failure. What kind of the higher force is it? He is worse than us. If you had asked me, I would have created this world much better than the Creator.

S.V.: [Semion is laughing.]

M.L.: Would I not?

S.V.: OK. Yes.

M.L.: So, I am better than the Creator. I can be smarter, wiser than Him. Well, who are we talking about after all: the higher force or some of our fantasies? That means, of course, that the Bible does not tell us in plain language that the Creator repents. Well, what should He regret about? Now I will drown all! Meaning He doesn't repent. If you created all bad, you should correct it. Why are you destroying all of them here? Should we take the examples for our laws from that?

S.V.: I agree with every word.

M.L.: That is what happens. We take a man, a child, who was brought up in a terrible condition, in a terrible society, and also started to steal. We grab him, and imprison. Well? This is what the Creator does. We created him like that!

S.V.: Yes.

M.L.: And now we are destroying him further.

S.V.: Yes. How should we get out of this state?

M.L.: This is what He is doing now: the Flood with those miserable ones who he created that way. He also says that I am destroying you, because you are bad. Why bad? Because I created you that way. Well...

S.V.: What is happening here?

M.L.: Well, where is at least any basic justice or directness? Where is it? Such a cynicism! Where is here any remorse?

S.V.: Well...

M.L.: So, there is nothing like that here.

S.V.: So, what is the answer? Give the answer.

M.L.: The answer is very simple. That means, of course, that the Bible does not tell us about it in the direct, human terms. In general, it does not explain to us anything on the human level. It says that these forces that exist in a man developed to the point when it becomes clear that if now, they do not get an addition from the positive force called "water," "the flood," so to speak, and don't disappear in their negative value within us - when both positive and negative don't get cleansing with the help of so to speak water which symbolizes purification - we will not be able to continue moving with these existing forces towards the Creator. Meaning, a human being in the end of his development from Adam and Eve within himself, from Cain and Abel, and after many stages reaches the level of Noah. Noah is the tenth degree from Adam.

There are ten generations which the Bible lists until Noah. The tenth generation so to speak symbolizes the complete degree. When this complete degree is formed, now, one needs to rise to the next one. The next degree should be qualitatively different. This represents the flood: that you purify all your previous states, wrap them up and rise to the next level. This state is called "the flood." That means when all the past is erased, all the selfish usage of your desires and intentions is destroyed, and they rise to the next level. What does the flood itself mean? This is the Highest Light which descends upon a person: The Light of Hassadim (Mercy), so-called the Light of Mercy, which descends upon a person, and the person begins to feel within himself new additional spiritual forces with which help he can already be on the next step - the previous one and all its ten sublevels are completed and he enters the next degree from Noah to Abraham.

S.V.: We will talk about it in the next chapter, which is called "Noah." For now, please explain to me what it means that He choose Noah out of all? As if all the others could be destroyed, so to speak, and...

M.L.: Meaning, that except that one property, which a person has acquired at the very last stage, after realizing all his previous states, transformations, he achieved the state of Noah. This state is the key, with the help of which he enters the next stage. All the previous states are included in Noah, as though they are erased. Therefore, only Noah - if you have reached this tenth stage, which is called Noah, Noah's generation - you can use this property to enter the next stage.

S.V.: That means to find grace in the eyes of God. It is so called as it is written here.

M.L.: It sounds allegorically here. Meaning, you are worthy of your next development in this state.

S.V.: I say again that everyone must achieve this state of Noah.

M.L.: Everybody must go through absolutely everything what is written in the Bible, from the beginning to the end: everyone within himself. It is written for each of us. The Bible in Hebrew Torah from the word Ora'a, the instruction. That means this is the instruction about how to change a man from his primitive, original state when he was born, and to his final state, when he should become like the Creator. It will take several, not one, lives but he should achieve it.

S.V.: Now, we are in that state, in that life, in which we are getting closer and closer...

M.L.: We're still in a state that is not described in the Bible. It is still before that state, before the biblical times, so called: in the state of the ancient, ancient world. That means when we do not even reveal Adam within ourselves, a human, the property, which can be changed and become similar to the Creator.

S.V.: At this point...

M.L.: On this optimistic note...

S.V.: We are finishing the program. Unfortunately, the time is up. To be honest, I am ready to continue to sit and talk with you more and more...

M.L.: Well, we will talk again.

Credit titles: Semion Vinokur, the film director and scriptwriter.

S.V.: Dear friends, we are finishing our today's program. As you can see, everything is not simple. Everything is very interesting on one hand. On the other hand, it is not simple and requires much more from us. Let's think about this. Stay with us. We will continue our program further. Good bye.

Credit Block:

Camera operators:

Eva Tapal
Natasha Ivanova
Alina Abramov
Simon Ryan
Jonathan Hertz
Itamar Hertz
Sound: Sergei Sernov

Sound designers: Jonathan Aiman
Joseph Adam

Irina Derish

Linear Editing: Yuri Podolsky

Film Editing: Joshua Wiener

Music:               Igor Zhigunov
                           David Krupnik
                           David Gru
                           Haim Cotton

Video-company "Gourmet":
                          Dima Graziani
                           Slava Lyustik
                           Vlad Medvedev
                           Richard Bonz

Graphics:           Alexei Kinshevitsky
                          Gleb Tregubov

Artist:                Gia Basilaya

Technical Editor: Natalia Zhidanova

Studio Director:    Svetlana Romanova

Stage director:      Semyon Vinokur

General Producer: Leonid Ilizarov

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