Our acquaintance with a cabbalist Mikhael Laitman began with his reciting a verse on world's creation.

"You should know that prior to creation there was only a divine light filling everything leaving no vacant space - only an infinite steady light. And then He decided to create worlds and creatures populating them having revealed his perfection to become the cause of worlds' creation.

And light compression around the central axis was uniform to create round forms out of blank spaces as such was light contraction.

And then, after this compression, a round vacuum space was formed in the center of the filled with light space, only then emerged a place for creations and creatures to exist.

And a straight ray stretched from the infinite light, went from above inside a vacuum space, the infinite light went down along that ray and created inside that space all absolutely worlds.

Prior to these worlds had been the Infinite, so beautiful in his perfection that creatures are unable to comprehend his greatness - for a created mind cannot reach him, since he has no place, border and time.

And the ray brought light to all worlds in the dark vacuum space. And each circle from every world and those close to light are important unless we find our world of matter in the central point, inside all circles in the center of yawning vacuum space.

And so distant it is from the Infinite - the farthest from all worlds, and that's why it is so ultimately low materially - since it is inside all circles, in the very center of yawing vacuum space..."

- What is the subject of Cabbala studies?

- From time immemorial man searches for answers to main questions of being: what am I, what is the point of my existence, what is the world made for, shall we exist after death and so on. Every person tries to obtain answers to these questions from the available to him sources of information. Each of us develops his own world outlook in the way he sees most reliable.

The question of purpose, sense of life adds to everyday human sufferings a global thing - what for do I suffer at all? It is this question of the sense of life that deprives us of the feeling of satisfaction even if any of our daily expectations temporarily comes true.

Even a man, who has reached his goal, very soon starts experiencing dissatisfaction. Looking back he sees how much time he has spent in tormenting efforts to reach the desirable but had almost no time to enjoy the achieved. Absence of answers to the posed questions brings about aspiration to ancient beliefs. Meditations, physical and intellectual exercises allow to feel more comfortable, this is only an attempt to forget oneself since wishes aren't met, sense of life is not found. All these methods bring tranquility not at the expense of getting answers on the purpose of life and sense of sufferings, but at the expense of lowering demands. But very soon a man discovers it is impossible to wave away the truth. Humanity is in constant search for logical grounds of its existence, man learns laws of nature over many millennia.

Modern academics find out the farther they go in their research, the more obscure and intricate the world picture becomes. Contemporary scientific books are more like mystic ones, like science fiction giving no answers to the questions on the sense of life.

Cabbala as a science offers its own way to study the world. It boils down to developing human ability to feel a hidden from us part of the universe. The word "Cabbala" ("receiving" in Hebrew) expresses human aspiration to receive divine knowledge, to sense a true picture of the world.

Cabbalists tell us about a technique based on personal experience. They commit to books and teach methods to study the universe, to receive an answer to the question on the sense of life.

- What is, then, Cabbala?

- Cabbala is the closest to a man science since it tells us what a man exists for, why he is born, lives, where he comes from and goes to when he completes his existence on the earth.

A cabbalist gets these answers still alive, here and now. Studying Cabbala gives knowledge of spiritual worlds and, alongside, develops in a student the additional, 6th organ of perception. With its help a man senses, comprehends a hidden from us part of the universe, which gives answers to absolutely all questions about us. There is nothing nearer and more important since a man cognizes himself, the world, his fate. Everything a man learns about himself and the world he learns by and in himself. His senses and leanings are hidden from other people. That's why Cabbala is called a "secret science".

- Who is a cabbalist?

- Cabbalist does not differ from others in looks. He is not to be either clever or educated. This ordinary person studying Cabbala has acquired an additional "sixth" sense - the sense of a hidden from us part of the world. We call this hidden part "spiritual world". Cabbalist is able of sense the entire universe and our spiritual world as a direct reality like we sense our everyday life, our world.

Cabbalist himself senses a divine world, directly cognizes it. This world is called "divine" as it exists beyond our usual senses. Cabbalist sees everything descend from the divine world and emerge in ours. Cabbalist sees all reasons and consequences since he finds himself simultaneously in both worlds: divine one and ours. An ordinary person perceives only a small fragment of the universe. He calls this fragment "our world". Whereas a cabbalist perceives the whole picture of universe. Cabbalists convey their knowledge through books written in a special language. That's why one can study these books if only guided by cabbalist. In this case these books will help cognize true reality.

- Why is it important to study Cabbala?

- Any person is able to develop the sixth sense. Reading books by cabbalists, who were under the influence of spiritual worlds writing them, a reader, even it be fails to understand them, excites a "surrounding light" upon him.

While learning, a person attracts this light, which gradually unveils a picture of complete reality.

The sixth sense is inherent in every person. It is called a "point in the heart". The surrounding light is to fill this sense. The light is called "surrounding" since it surrounds this sixth sense but is not yet able to fill it.

Gradually this point, an embryo of the 6th sense, "widens" acquiring a "volume" sufficient for the surrounding light to enter it. Light's entering info the "point in the heart" generates the first sense of the spiritual, divine, outer. With the light gathering in the "point" a man improves his sense of an obviously divine world, of his past and future.

The preface of the "Book on10 sphirots" runs, "Why do cabbalist oblige everybody to study Cabbala? Those studying it excite the surrounding their souls light should they even fail to understand it. Every person shall receive what is planned for him in this world. Those who have not received it in this life will get it in one of the next ones. While a person is not able to take this light inside, it shines from without, awaits a favorable moment. When a person deals with Cabbala, the surrounding light immediately starts shining for him but not goes inside, for the sixth sense is not developed yet. But the shining a man receives during his studies purifies him and prepares him for letting the light inside. And the latter gives a man absolute knowledge, peace, sense of immortality.

- What is the history of Cabbala?

- Cabbalists conveyed their knowledge of the high ("divine") world orally and in writings. The first known to us cabbalist was Abraham. Prior to becoming a cabbalist he had been a member of the tribe populating the territory between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. After the Torah, he asked himself a question of the sense of being and was conferred on this knowledge. His knowledge and methods to receive it he took to the "Book of Creation" (Sefer Etsira). He handed all this to his son Yitzhak. The book is on sale in religious bookshops. The Cabbalists of each generation wrote for souls of this generation.

Over centuries Cabbala made use of several languages since a human soul gets developed gradually: it returns to this world, generation after generation, by far ruder with the experience of past lives, additional sufferings, but also spiritually richer. Though this everything is hidden from a person, it exists in the "point of his heart".

That's why every generation needs its own language to correspond to descending souls. Development of the humanity is the descending to our world of 600 thousand souls over 6,000 years. In every generation the same 600 thousand souls, descending to our world, manifest themselves each time in a new body. They get developed, realize the necessity of spiritual development and reach it - the state of overall comprehension and delight.

During the first 2,000 years the descending to this world souls were of meager egoism. They needed no guidance and unconsciously developed a "point in the heart". Only two books of that period reached us - "Secret angel" and "Book of Creation". The following 2,000 years the descending souls needed spiritual laws in physical forms for their development. That's why a cabbalist Moisei (Moses) described his spiritual achievements in Torah.

This is the Pentateuch we know. Moisei described a divine world in the language of our world. This is like a code - only those who see the divine world will understand it.

We have an impression Torah is a collection of historical stories. Torah describes processes in the high world, which subsequently caused developments in this world.

Developments in high worlds later recur in our world. Torah is written to help us comprehend the divine world, not to describe historic events Torah is given to help us govern the events generated in the high world and then descending to ours.

- How much time a man needs to start perceiving the high world?

- The preface to the "Book on 10 sphirots" says those learning true sources attain to an exit to the outer world within three - five years. This means if you study with proper intentions you overcome the barrier between this world and the spiritual one, you reach the light.