Internal and External, Part 3
Important Definitions: “Israel” and “The Nations of the World”
Question: What does “Israel” and “the nations of the world” mean?
Answer: Israel are those who are directed strictly to the Creator (Yashar-El). People that belong to Israel have a point in the heart that shines in them, that is, a point inside the ego that seeks an answer to: what the purpose of life is, why we live, what the goal of creation is? All these questions lead to Kabbalah.
The nations of the world are those in whom the point in the heart has not yet been revealed; this is why their actions are triggered by pure egoism.
Points in the heart opened in some people in ancient Babylon, at the time of Abraham, and the same is happening in our time. This aspiration of one’s heart defines Israel.
Further, the historical people of Israel emerged from the same group and departed ancient Babylon with Abraham. They came together based on a feeling that made them stand out from all the Babylonians: they had the same desire, the point in the heart. So they joined the Abraham, who led them out of Babylon.
The souls of those that once rallied around Abraham underwent numerous reincarnations and currently constitute contemporary Jewish people. Due to the endless afflictions and pain they went through, a corrupt egoistic desire concealed their points in the heart; however, the points are still there inside them, only hidden.
In Shamati #199, Baal HaSulam wrote: Every man of Israel has an internal point in the heart, which is considered simple faith. This is an inheritance from our fathers, who stood at Mount Sinai. However, it is covered by many Klipot (shells), which are all kinds of dresses of Lo Lishma (not for Her Name), and the shells should be removed. Then his basis will be called “faith alone,” without any support and outside help.
So, this is why the first ones who we appeal to are the Jews. Actually, we address the same pool of people. Contemporary Jews represent only two tribes of Israel; the other ten tribes are spread among humanity and are concealed from us.
However, it is not important: Anybody who feels aspiration towards the goal of creation is called “Israel” in accordance with the most accurate definition of this word based on unity of the group that originated in ancient Babylon.
These people do much more for the cause of correction than a regular Jew who has an Israeli passport and lives in Israel, but doesn’t feel any aspiration towards the goal of creation. The more one corresponds to the spiritual definition of “Israel,” the more good one can bring.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/15, Lesson on the Topic: “Selections from the Source on the Topic of Connection Between Internality and Externality in the Torah to Israel’s Redemption”
Related Material:
Internal and External, Part 2
Internal And External, Part 1
Putting Together The Mosaic Of Humanity
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Q: How should we best use data on Jewish population demographics and data on the distribution of anti-Semitism globally to guide our Bnei Baruch dissemination efforts? And, what are the implications for our efforts at achieving unity among dissemination teams across national/cultural/language differences?
Relative to the world’s population, Jews are gradually disappearing from the world (Jewish population growth is increasing at roughly half the rate of the world in general). The number of Jews per million of the world’s population is has continued to fall alarmingly compared to the world’s increase in population. While Israel’s Jewish population increased linearly between 1945 and 2012, among Jews in the Diaspora there is unremitting decline. Worldwide, in 1945 there were 4.75 Jews per 1000 of world’s population, while in 2012 there were just 1.94 per 1000. Is this demographic trend more evidence that if Jews do not fulfill their role and mission with regard to the nations of the world that they will be entirely extinguished?
If we are not willing to see the disappearance of the Jew, what is the best strategy for turning the tide? Consider this key fact: just two countries account for more than 82% of the entire Jewish population of the world—Israel (5,901,100) and the United States (5,425,000). This narrows the focus of our dissemination target a great deal! Although I don’t have data on the distribution of Bnei Baruch friends worldwide, my sense is that our greatest strength in numbers lies in Russia and Israel, with the proportion in the United States much further behind. This incongruity is not encouraging because dissemination across culture and language barriers is difficult. (Russia has only 194,000 Jews, while in terms of BB distribution, great strength of numbers.) This underscores the great necessity for Bnei Baruch to find ways to unite across national/cultural/language distinctions in dissemination efforts to take aim at the most critical targets, rather than working in separate national/cultural/language arenas. Not only must we achieve internal unity of heart, mind, and goal, but we must actualize this unity in our dissemination efforts to most effectively use our given force at this critical time in history. The area of the world suffering most acutely in terms of Jewish demographics is the U.S. It stands to reason that Russians, for example, must learn to unite with Americans and Israelis to fight the battles on the existing front lines—the U.S. (most critically) and Israel.
Where can we get the most dissemination bang for our buck? In Israel there are 743 Jews/total population. In the United States, 17.4 Jews/total population. In Russia, 1.4 Jews/total population. While the U.S. experiences much steeper declines in Jews/population and has few Jews/total population, relative to Israel, there is good news about American Jewish demographics. Just seven metropolitan areas (NY, LA, South Florida, SF, Wash/Baltimore, Boston, Chicago) account for almost 33% of worldwide Jewish population, and NYC alone accounts for 15.3% of total world Jewish population. Luckily, our strongest U.S. BB groups are in the metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of Jews. Obviously, Israel is at the center of our dissemination target, although the U.S. is under greater demographic threat and also almost equally important in terms of total numbers of Jews.
There is much much more that needs to be said about Jewish demographic trends and the implications for Bnei Baruch dissemination efforts. I think that we would be smart to invest some effort into doing a careful demographic study of the situation and use our findings to guide our dissemination tactics.
Another important question that we should study is to determine the places in the world where Jews are under the most threat due to anti-Semitism in all its forms, and particularly in the most violent manifestations. This is more unpredictable than population demographics, and more difficult to measure. Certainly those Jewish populations under the most intense anti-Semitic threat desperately need to feel a great impact from our dissemination efforts.
Bottom line, our dissemination work should be evidence based as much as possible. The emphasis on learning to work as a united dissemination worldwide team must be made more apparent by making the demographics of our dissemination efforts well known among all within our group. We need to find ways to work together effectively to target the areas of the world with the most critical need.
Reference: World Jewish Population, 2012 http://www.jewishdatabank.org/studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=2941