Question: Can the Creator be a person’s direct teacher?
Answer: No. Our egoism would want this because it wants to receive, to capture, to seize, to enslave. The Creator can serve as a teacher only through the group, within it. To the same degree that I merge with the group, enter into it, dissolve within it, I begin to discover the presence of the Creator within it.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17
Question: Each phenomenon has its own spiritual root. What is the spiritual root of ordinary, earthly faith that is below reason without confirmation within reason?
Answer: The spiritual root of ordinary, earthly faith is a fear of death, of extinction.
Question: If there were no death, would there be no different beliefs?
Answer: Of course. Where do they come from? If we build faith only on the basis of feeling good or bad in this life, then beliefs would exist in a different form. The greatest loss is the loss of life. Small losses during life would create slightly different beliefs and religions.
Question: Does it mean that if a person is so afraid of death, he is ready to live forever?
Answer: If you gave a person an opportunity to live forever and followed him, you would see how he would feel in a couple of hundred years. It is a terrible state, worse than death, where every day is the same.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/17/17