Shavuot: The Festival Of Light In The Israeli Chaos

laitman_933Question: The Shavuot holiday is approaching, the festival of the giving of the Torah. But the atmosphere in Israeli society is not at all festive.

Our brothers in the south are afraid that soon they won’t have anything to eat, Dimona is bubbling; there are conflicts in Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs, and great corruption covers the country. Every day there are new scandals among the police, in the prosecutors’ office, and in the underworld.

When I think about the holiday of the giving of the Torah, the question occurs to me: “Maybe we don’t need this Torah? If we were to succeed in achieving only one Mitzva (commandment) in life, ‘thou shalt not steal,’ then life would already become much better.” How is this holiday to be perceived in all the Israeli chaos?

Answer: We do not fit this holiday. We don’t have a connection to the Torah. And even though at some time we received the Torah, we have lost it along the way. The Torah is a force that changes and corrects human nature. We are all egoists, as it is said, “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b). The Creator announces that He created only the evil inclination, the ego, and nothing else. And counter to the ego, He gave the Torah. Apparently the Creator is saying to us: “If you want to get rid of slander, theft, robbery, and all the problems, all the evil that you cause each other, this is possible! But don’t think that you can do this by yourselves. Nothing will help you, not a new government, no one and no thing, only the Torah! But what kind of Torah? The Light that Reforms.”

Question: Does it follow that first of all we must want to be released from the evil inclination that devours us? Does the Israeli society have such a desire today?

Answer: We are approaching this state. At the time we left Egypt, we felt that we could no longer tolerate this state called “Egypt,” which was tearing us to pieces, inserting the evil, our ego into us, and we were not prepared to tolerate each other, so we fled from there.

Question: After the Exodus from Egypt we received the Ten Commandments, including, “thou shalt not steal”?

Answer: We received all of the Ten Commandments because we wanted them. The condition was placed before us: “Do you want to be guarantors for each other? Do you want to become as one person with one heart? Do you want to be Jews (Yehudi from the word “Yichud” [unity]), meaning living in unity with each other? So please, accept the Torah! If not, you will continue on this way, and here will be your burial place.”

Question: Why does God say to a person: “Thou shalt not steal,” if He created him with a nature that wants to steal?

Answer: It is to counterbalance your egoistic nature you exist in; you will understand that all theft, all problems, and all the evil that you cause others and to yourself are derived from this nature and you will no longer be able to continue like this. For this nation cannot exist for long in a state like this. We see that problems are created around us about which we have no choice, and that it is impossible to continue on this way. It has never been revealed to such a degree. So people thought that it was in our power to correct something, and if not the right, then the left, if not the left, then the right or the centrist parties could do something. Every person who achieved power thought that he could change something. But we see that a person on his own doesn’t have the power to change himself. This is possible only on condition that he accepts the Torah as a means of correction.

Question: What is the Torah that it can change a person?

Answer: Only if we want to connect, if we understand that our entire correction is in the unity between us—according to the principle “as one man with one heart,” “don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you” (Shabbat 31a), “you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), and “all of Israel are brothers”—if we want this to be realized among us there is a unique force that is hidden in nature which is called, “The Upper Light” or “The Torah.”

Question: Where is this force hidden? In what place is it?

Answer: There is no place. You simply don’t feel it. But you can derive this force and use it on condition that you begin to connect with others and want to unite with them. So the condition for receiving the Torah is to unite and to be as one man with one heart, to try to become like that, and to want to be responsible for each other. It is when all of us want to be rid of that evil in which we exist.

All of us together, from the representatives of the Supreme Court to the simplest people, all of us must correct ourselves. And we have no possibility of doing this other than by accepting that Light that Reforms with the help of the Torah of truth and the wisdom of Kabbalah. This wisdom was concealed until lately, because it was waiting until we reached a state of complete exhaustion. And now it is revealed and it explains to us how we can use the true Torah whose Light reforms through the wisdom of the Light.

If we begin to connect between us correctly, in groups of ten people (just as Moses once divided the people into tens, hundreds, and thousands), and arrange special workshops to learn how to unite together in which each one nullifies himself before the others, wants to be integrated with the others, and feels that he is wholeheartedly together with the others, then it follows that we leave our ego, our “I” outside of the circle; whereas, within the center of the circle we insert our desire for unity. And suddenly in the center of the circle we begin to feel a unique force that comes to us from nature. This is a real force; it is possible to measure and feel it. You discover it like all the forces of nature. This force is called “Torah” and it begins to correct your evil inclination, the force of rejection, hatred, the force that compels you to steal, to lie, and to do harm to others.

Question: Does it follow that the Torah is a force?

Answer: Yes. The Light that Reforms is called Torah. The five books of the Torah are books that describe these same laws. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how we can use the Torah so that this Light will “come out,” will be revealed, and will connect us. Then we attain love and unity between us according to the principles of “love thy neighbor as thyself” and “all of Israel are brothers.” We don’t have this now, not among the secular, not among the religious, there is no love with anyone. But we must want to acquire it. To do this we are given the revelation of evil from above. And look in what form we are discovering it: Nobody can be “inoculated” from it, the evil is discovered everywhere, throughout the nation, among all types of people!

But if we become conscious of this evil and will want to unite, then from our efforts a force will be revealed among us that will begin to connect us. We will feel that we are in a unique field in which we work together in adhesion with this force that is revealed among us. We will begin to feel it as higher, and this is called the revelation of the Creator to His creatures in this world. We begin to discover Him and to feel Him according to our inner changes. This is specifically what we must do.

So in the wisdom of Kabbalah it is written that we are in a unique generation that will discover the higher power. And so we need to look at our lives differently: Not seeing everything as evil, but understanding that it is good if we discover the evil in us because it leads us toward discovery of the Creator, the higher power, the Light, and raises us to another level of existence, to the next level of human development.
[159750]
From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/17/15

Related Material:
A Joyful Giving Of The Torah Holiday
Giving And Receiving
From The Giving Of Torah To Its Reception

One Comment

  1. how can anybody play a computer game if they try not to do things to others that he doesnt want done to himself? he doesnt wanna lose, assumes neither the others (because he will treat them like he wants to be treated) so..he will both play the game and accepts to lose all the time?

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