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The Finish Line Is Near

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: On one hand, we should be committed to mutual guarantee, and on the other hand, a person’s heart is evil from his youth and the evil inclination grows every year.

Answer: There should be a system that corrects the evil inclination and turns it into a good inclination. But instead, there is another system that increases and enlarges the evil inclination even more and gives it different forms. It appreciates people who know how to steal and how to take advantage of others in an even more sophisticated manner.

In addition to the evil inclination that pushes me from behind, there is another system of advertising that pulls me ahead by different evil pleasures.

Question: I have no doubt that the idea of mutual guarantee is right and I would really want it to be fulfilled in the society I live and raise my children in. The only doubt is whether there is a chance that it will work out since it is completely opposite from the way our evolution is directed.

Answer: The idea of mutual guarantee can succeed either by great afflictions and problems in the world that will leave a person no choice (and we see that this can happen if the world follows the path of natural evolution, the path of in its time). Or we can still manage to put the world on the right path, to the path of the Light.

There is no doubt, however, that our state has to end in some final way. Everyone understands that the finish line is near and that the world is about to explode. We see that daily events throughout the world are leading towards a bad direction. No one even waits for anything good anymore. When we turn on the radio or the TV we don’t expect any good news.

There are only two options: the path of the Light or the path of suffering. We can sit idly by like a fool who sits with his arms crossed eating his own flesh. But people who have received the urge towards the goal are called Israel, Yashar El (straight to the Creator), and want to discover the Upper Light.  This obliges them to reveal this Light to others (this is important).

Therefore, the method of the correction of human society by connection is revealed to people because connection includes the upper force or the Light that Reforms. People will receive an explanation about the Light that Reforms and they won’t mind as long as you make them feel that it is possible and worthwhile.

There is no other choice because this is already a social trend, the world already understands this subconsciously and is ready to accept it. This is because people see that otherwise we simply destroy one another. It is enough to see what is happening in the Ukraine or in Syria.

Question: Will we be able to tell them about games and about the wisdom of Kabbalah in such a disastrous situation?

Answer: Of course, it is done precisely in this reality. If they don’t use this method today, they will be killed tomorrow. The disasters are already lining up ready to operate on us from Above, like parachutists who jump off a plane one by one.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Freedom In Darkness

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a person begins to study, he needs to go through all of the stages and to rise and fall so that he will feel how they influence him. One must begin to work and to deal with it. It is not possible to shout out all the time: “Why have you forsaken me, why am I helpless again, in despair and in darkness?”

These states come from Above, and it is specifically with them, that I progress, provided I go through them correctly. I must receive a feeling of rising, awakening, strength, and support from the group and must work correctly against the darkness, i.e., to transform the darkness into light.

This darkness is good, since to the extent that there is darkness, I receive freewill. I can be free! And if the Light illuminates me, then I surely am within His bestowal. The Light is higher than me. It comes, influences me, disables me, and I become anything that He wishes.

I am like a puppet on a string that plays and jumps as long as my strings are pulled, which is by the Light. The darkness symbolizes that the master has let go of my strings and I fall without any motion. I can receive awakening from the surroundings and play like that, as if I am being operated by the master.

But I will play that on my own. And of course I will receive strength from the group, but only to the extent that I invest my strength, and then I will begin to live. That is already me who is operating myself, similar to the way the Creator operates me.

One time He is operating me and one time it is me on my own. In the darkness, it is specifically me, and in the Light, it is not me but Him. This is the way I work, until the night becomes day and so that it will be me and not the Creator. I rise only to bestowal and it isn’t important what influences me, the light or the darkness.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14, The Book of Zohar

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One Rule With 612 Commentaries

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe word “Klal” (collective/rule) indicates a sum of details that, when put together, form the above collective. Thus, when he says about the Mitzva, “love thy friend as thyself,” that it is a great Klal in the Torah, we must understand that the rest of the 612 Mitzvot (precepts) in the Torah, with all their interpretations, are no more and no less than the sum of the details inserted and contained in that single Mitzva (singular for Mitzvot), “love thy friend as thyself. (Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” –  “The Giving of the Torah”).

This means that the entire Torah is given in order to attain the general rule of loving our neighbors as ourselves. The rest that is written in the Torah except this one concept “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is just a clarification of this rule.

Everything is included in this one rule. That’s why when we forget this rule, no spiritual path is possible for us, nor are we connected with the spiritual process or continue pursuing the spiritual goals any longer. If we attempt encompassing this principle, we can even stop checking the level we are at or trying to find out where we actually are.

The whole Torah was given to us and is meant to help us to attain connection that is called love in our lives. There are two ways of doing it: One is by following a long road full of affliction that represents the natural developmental way, and the other is a pleasant shortcut that is ensured by the Torah. One way or the other,  the entire humanity, from the very beginning to the very end, is engaged in advancement that leads us to loving our neighbors.

If we understand and acknowledge that we are now just practicing and playing games, we follow a relatively easy and comfortable way of reaching the goal. Still, we’ll have to go through some troubles and problems, resolve and explore them so that we get a better feeling of their essence and origin. We will have to resolve various situations in our minds and sensations because this process lets us to better understand and feel things.

In order to make this path easier and more pleasant for us, there is the Torah with the help of which we reach the state of loving our neighbors. From this phase on, we eventually will come to loving the Creator. However, there is nothing we can achieve by just following the path of suffering. Everything depends on the awakening on our side.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Tick-Tock, Day And Night

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do I have to be beaten and shattered so that I will reach connection if the shattering already happened once?

Answer: When a person is not satisfied and falls, these are small inner shatterings. Every day he feels disappointed and then rises again. It is written: “A righteous will fall and rise a thousand times.” These are inner clarifications that are absolutely necessary.

So this work is not suitable for the public because it is impossible to tell just anyone about it and to offer it to those who don’t have the spiritual goal illuminating before them. It also stops illuminating for us sometimes. Today people look a bit tired and foggy, not burning like they were yesterday. Tomorrow they will feel the inspiration again. This is how we advance.

Your current problems are not called shattering. The shattering of the vessels already happened in the past and its shards fell downward. Above, they were totally connected, but then they fell further down and were shattered more and more until finally they were completely shattered and mixed.

Tick-Tock, Day And Night
When we ascend from the bottom up, we have to go through all the states in the opposite direction, 5-4-3-2-1-0, and each time leap from one level to the next, from one energetic level to another just like electrons inside an atom. It’s like a pendulum in a clock that constantly moves from side to side, tick-tock, tick-tock, forward and backward, right and left, day and night. We have to go through these cycles when we cut the action that we performed and start a new action as if from the start but on a higher level.

We don’t know these upper levels since we are in exile. This is what Pharaoh swallows, as it is written: “He swallowed an army and vomited it,” which means that he doesn’t show us that we advance. We acquire more sensitive feelings and reason, more opportunities, and advance in Lo Lishma (not for her sake), but we are not shown our ascent from one level to another.

Many times we have to leap from one level to the next as we climb this ladder, and each time to shatter our yesterday and start the day anew when we cross the Machsom (barrier) and begin to ascend the real spiritual levels. In the upper worlds it will be the same and even worse.

Question: So why do we dream so much about crossing the Machsom if there are the same levels there until the end of correction?

Answer: We dream about ascending to the upper world because there we can be in vessels of bestowal and actually bestow upon one another and by that unto the Creator. By our bestowal upon one another, we establish the basis for the revelations of the Creator. We don’t bestow directly unto the Creator, but we reach the love of the Creator from the love of the created beings.

We create a platform between us, a place where the Creator will be revealed according to our equivalence of form. The Upper Light will reside in the desire that is full of mutual cooperation and the concern of all its parts for one another.

Question: Will it be easier for me to overcome all the crises beyond the Machsom?

Answer: Beyond the Machsom I will really be able to bestow unto the Creator. I don’t even calculate what is easier and what is more difficult, I only calculate whether I can bestow unto the Creator. To cross the Machsom means to attain the attribute of bestowal and to actually delight the Creator. I don’t need anything more than that! I don’t take my hardships into account, but only the opportunity to bestow unto Him. Our goal is to delight the Creator, if I have such an opportunity, it means beyond the Machsom, and so I want to be there.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Ideology Of The Next Revolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe would like to make a radical change in our lives. Today we live under incessant pressure and the glittering colors in our lives fade rapidly. It doesn’t matter what we succeed in getting; the inner emptiness in all this is impossible to fill with pleasures and the ways of attaining them.

In this pursuit we always wind up losing. Work and various tasks take up just about all of our time, so almost nothing is left for time at home, for ourselves, and for the family. We are thirsty for a new life where we wake up in the morning with a smile on our faces, happiness in our hearts, and with a feeling that everyone is ready to support us and we support all of them.

The next revolution will take place specifically in the relationships between us. It will be internal and will reach to the foundations of the comprehension of our world. Life will go on at different frequencies, saturated with warmth, unity, love, mutual connection and happiness. This is a revolution in the comprehension of the world, in consciousness. It is an inner revolution in each one of us that will change the relationship of the person to himself, to others, to society and  to life in general from start to finish.

We want to learn how to become true revolutionaries and how to make real changes in our lives.

Question: Is this connected to the ideological platform of the Jewish people? Indeed the value of love of others is already rooted in it – all the principles, which are highly relevant for the future of social transformation. Is there a connection between the ideology of the next revolution and the ideas that became the basis of the Jewish people?

Answer: Of course. All the previous revolutions took place on the physical plane. Their ideology was limited to the question of how to satisfy the person and how to build society in such a form that it would better serve the population. For all their ideological cleverness and in all the revolutions, the Jews almost never participated until the Russian revolution. But this was a deceptive revolution, such that even its organizers didn’t understand what they were doing.

In general, it is possible to say that from the time of Marx and onward a “Jewish ideology” began to appear in the world.

In fact, the sages of the Jewish people were also ideologues. The first who took this role upon himself was Abraham, and after him Moses, David, the prophets, and on to Rabbi Akiva, the last of the period of the Temple, when the people still existed according to its ideology. Yes, there were a few currents inside it that sometimes opposed each other, but all of this was in a framework of clarifications between these or other lines.

In the end of the matter, the goal was clearly to realize the principle, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” The Jewish people began from this, Abraham based it on this principle, and the people lived according to this principle, more or less, until the destruction of the Temple that happened two thousand years ago.

In those times the Jews lived in mutual connection, and so they didn’t have kings in the conventional sense, nor dictators and tyrants. Among the Jews, a king did not induce fear in his subjects because “in sum” he was a judge. In other words, he was also subordinate to the laws of nature and did not stand above them.

Everyone felt, understood, and learned this ideology, which was he message of general unity. The entire system of laws was based upon love of others, for which the Jewish people existed. As a result of this, it shaped a unique society characterized by a unique comprehension of reality. All of our origins are from here and the entire wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this.

But after this, in the period of the destruction of the second Temple two thousand years ago, the people shook off its ideology and from then on, became more and more distant from it. In the beginning there were still some threads of connection, but they were weak and were disconnected with the decline of the generations.

If we were to ask people today, what is the ideology of the people of Israel, only isolated people would conduct the conversation in the right direction. Others, namely the religious sector, would just talk about the physical aspect, about the physical performance of some customs and no more than this. Secular people ideologically align themselves according to the western comprehension. In general, they copy it and try to be “like everyone else.” This is essentially what the founding fathers of the nation of Israel, Herzl, Ben-Gurion and so on wanted.

But on the other hand, they are probably not open to the wisdom of Kabbalah today, which is the legislation of the Jewish people that explains its true ideology. This talks about the fundamental principle of “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” The Jewish people must be built upon this, setting an example for the whole world and being a “light to the nations.”

In fact, these laws, with all of their ramifications, already exist and we don’t need to find anything new. The goal of the people is to realize them, to love others, and after that to teach others, to introduce love into the world, and this means to be a “light to the nations.”

The time has come for the Jewish people to return to its roots, to its inner essence and realize it. Without this, all the nations of the world are found in darkness and don’t know how to organize their lives. They lack that ideology, which is the basis and foundation upon which it is possible to be strong and stand against all the winds and all the disturbances.

So the Jewish people must rediscover its origins and understand them correctly, in the spirit of “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” and not in the framework of the formal implementation of the customs that depict them. Specifically ,the spirit and ideology, must be learned from the sources, and accordingly change society, the system of education, and show everyone that this is the true and correct basis of the whole world.

Question: You said that from the time of Marx and on, the “Jewish ideology” began to be revealed in the world. What does this mean?

Answer: Even the Baal Shem Tov began to disseminate among the people its original ideology. He traveled to various places in the world and spoke with people about love of others and about general connection. He did much in this area, and this was specifically the essence of his work. He didn’t record his own material, rather he transmitted it orally to his students who wrote books and later became acclaimed teachers who worked only in the Jewish environment.

The Baal Shem Tov molded this ideology among the people, and now what we provide to people passes to all of humanity. We don’t understand how this network of connection works, but if we thoroughly investigate every revolution, every social change, we find the “seed of Israel” there, acting as a leader. It is possible to discover this in religions and faiths and among all kinds of revolutions everywhere. And if in particular circumstances we don’t see this, we eventually discover this, when threads that are not seen at the moment are discovered.

We will yet discover that people without a spark, without a “part of the divine from above,” without a connection to the spiritual world and the characteristic of bestowal, are simply not ready to advance humanity. It is specifically the characteristic of bestowal that causes development

Question: What is the characteristic of bestowal?

Answer: According to our nature we are “beasts,” we are an egoistic desire that wants to make life as good and comfortable as possible.

It is possible to see this in everyone, since the prehistoric period. If there were no mixture with those who have a “point in the heart,” a unique source, the beginning of this force that motivates development, bestowal and closeness to others, people would continue to be like their ancestors. They would have no push towards personal development.

Ancient Greece, China, India, America before Columbus, Africa, Siberia – billions of people lived according to their traditions because there were no Jews living among them, who were the people that came out of Babylon because of their attraction to development. And development means attainment of the characteristic of bestowal, which is connection with others.

Europe discovered the Indians in their most entrenched condition. Africa, from which the human species began, remained the same Africa for thousands of years. China advanced somewhat, but this was only because Jews were found there for many generations.

This is a law of nature: If people don’t have an inner drive towards development, towards bestowal, towards connection, they don’t need industry, commerce, or connection with other regions. The person remains in his own place and it is good for him. There are people who have lived this way in the past and are still living this way, even in developed countries.

On the other hand, a person with a “point in the heart” wants to rise above this world, without not knowing where, and this impulse prompts him to develop.

Question: What is this “point in the heart?”

Answer: This is an attraction to the power of bestowal, a desire to go outside of oneself, to change oneself and change the world. Every person like this is essentially a revolutionary. It was specifically these people that Abraham gathered in Babylon and led them in a new way.

Question: Abraham began with a perceptual revolution in the consciousness of the person, in his relationship to life, to the higher power, to others. For us Abraham symbolizes kindness and love. Does this say that going outside of myself towards social changes is a revolutionary impulse?

Answer: Yes, this is the revolution. Indeed there can be only one true revolution – when you bring a new force into the world, the power of bestowal that rises above the power of reception.

On the other hand, if you just change and vary the power of reception, this doesn’t give anything. Yes, we are involved with something, but essentially, we are “trading a cow for a donkey.” When slavery was overthrown and there was a little more freedom in the other social structures, there was no true, qualitative change from this.

So Abraham was the first true revolutionary who brought the power of bestowal and kindness into the world. With this he founded the ideology of his group which later became the nation of Israel.

As was said before, at the beginning of all real changes in human history, even if we don’t see this now, there were Jews. Specifically they laid the foundations of Christianity and Islam. During the period of the persecution of Jews in Europe in the Middle Ages, they “stood at the helm.”

Question: Do you mean that this revolutionary attraction to change is built within Jews, and without them no social change will happen?

Answer: Without a doubt. Indeed, changes of this type require the force of a new, unique, and powerful key. This also causes the development of religions.

Moreover, the ideology of the people of Israel is the opposite of all the rest of the ideologies. And therefore the whole world still rises up against the Jews. Antisemitism is a common characteristic of all peoples, and it is impossible to explain it only according to religious reasons. On the contrary, it is derived from broader categories and not anchored in religion at all. This is a unique phenomenon that is caused by all the other ideologies being egoistic and directed towards the earthly plane, while the Jewish ideology is aimed in the opposite direction, apparently against them.

From here is derived a difference that cannot be resolved. Jews are recognized even in the most remote places in the world. And this is not according to external appearance. They are identified according to their fundamental, “supernatural” aspiration, their aspiration to rise above nature.

Question: Come; let’s look now from the past to the future, what is expected for the Jewish people? Will primordial love be at the head of the revolution in education, in relationships between people?

Answer: Absolutely, yes. Only we are ready for this. First of all, we must learn this ourselves and after that give those principles to others.

After all, the others are not ready for anything and so they still blame the Jews for all of their troubles. They accuse because the Jews haven’t begun to correct the world, and with this they cause a deterioration of conditions. And because there is no other method in this world, everyone will decide that it is necessary to kill and to destroy the Jews.

In any case, the correction depends upon us.

Question: Does this mean that the next revolution must begin in Israel?

Answer: Solely and only in Israel. And this must occur as quickly as possible. Otherwise the Jews will cause the world to continue to deteriorate, and this, on one hand, will threaten the Jews themselves, and on the other hand, will endanger all of humanity.

Question: You are talking about correction of the world; but each one understands this according to his perception and gives his own interpretation. What does this mean to you, in the context of the revolution in education and in systems of relationships?

Answer: According to Jewish law this is very simple. Our world is egoistic and demands correction from the Jews, which means to transform egoism into altruism in order to move along the tracks of unity, equality and mutual love. This is the Jewish ideology.

Today we are standing before the necessity for this revolution, for real change. Until now the struggle was only about the place of the master where the slaves served. All of the vicissitudes of this struggle could not be called a “revolution” in consciousness, where instead of the egoistic desire to enjoy we give higher importance to another desire , which is the desire to bestow.  With this we replace the power of Pharaoh with the power of the Creator. This is a real revolution.

On the other hand, the replacement of rulers is not called a revolution, since indeed, the principle of exploitation of the other remains in place.

Question: In truth, throughout all of human history the revolutions proclaimed freedom, equality, and justice. We always wanted this, we toppled the government, changed the rulers, but in the end, even today humanity demands the same ideals, yet without success. How will the next revolution give us freedom?

Answer: Everything depends on what freedom is from our perspective. We are talking about freedom from hatred, rejection and the desire to exploit others. In brief, this is freedom from our present nature, from the Pharaoh that dominates us.

Each one of us must rise above himself and then no desire to dominate others will remain. Indeed we want the power of bestowal be instilled in us.

Question: This means that the eternal paradigm of all revolutions will be changed – the conflict between the exploiters and the exploited, between the rulers and the ruled?

Answer: A society which will instill oneness between us will rule us. Nobody will be above, but will exist only in oneness in which we discover the fundamental power of nature. This is truly the higher power  that is found above us and is the higher characteristic of bestowal and love.

The people of Israel must aspire to this. With this it will realize its true constitution and ideology, and will ultimately reach correction of the self and correction of the whole world.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed in our day and teaches the Jewish people its ideology and its ways of realization in life.

Question: Revolution is a change in consciousness. How do you see the turning point that will cause the next revolution?

Answer: This depends upon the recognition of evil, how much the person can endure the recognition that his ego is what is destroying everything, including himself, his family, his children, society, the nation, the ecology and the world in which he lives. This depends on whether the person will or will not want to hear about this and that he must be involved in self-education.

The ego that dominates us must pass through a complete order of troubles or “blows” which the story of the “Exodus from Egypt” talks about. These blows were required so that we would gather the power to flee. Was the “seven years of famine” enough for us? And how are the ten “plagues” expressed today in the ego such that we won’t want to identify with it, to experience its pain? The “plagues” will divide between us and the ego, and we will ultimately want to depart from this characteristic.

This is the problem. It could be that we still need great suffering, terrible troubles and world wars. Or we will promote a remedy for the blows  and explain to people what is happening so that humanity will begin to understand what is happening to us. So we will go, as it is called, “with the Light of the face” of the Creator, and we will quickly reach recognition of evil. We will discover where it comes from and what the remedy is.

Question: How is the Creator connected to revolution?

Answer: The Creator is the general power that dwells in all of nature, the key power that connects nature into an integral system. This power connects all the parts, but we are like a cancerous tumor within the system that eats itself and the entire system, not allowing it to be integral or correctly connected in harmony with mutual wholeness of all the parts.

And within this cancerous tumor that is humanity, its inner part is the people of Israel. This inner part possesses the knowledge about its role, about the manner to heal itself and the entire collective body and all of nature. Yet it is not doing this. It is found in the center of things, yet doesn’t want to wake up.

So imagine to yourself, who is the first who must be awakened through troubles, and what troubles will fall upon him if he will not realize his mission in time?

We must now begin publicity to the people of Israel that explains their constitution, ideology and the ways of realizing it.

Question: Can you summarize briefly how the people of Israel are connected to the future revolution?

Answer: The future revolution will be implemented by means of the ideology of the Jewish people. It will dominate the whole world, meaning that they will teach it everywhere. A small group that went out from Babylon and learned these laws must now, first and foremost, realize this for itself, and after that teach the “Babylonians” who were scattered throughout the world, which is now all seven billion people. They are already waiting for this, since they are suffering and have no chance of finding a solution by themselves.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/3/2014

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The History Of The Jewish People

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Four Exiles of the Jewish People

The Jewish people passed through four exiles, which formulate the gradual development of the desire to receive, of all of the matter of creation: Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. All natural phenomena develop according to this formula.

The first exile was not felt as an exile, meaning that the people didn’t feel that they were slaves during the period of slavery. Since the desire to receive was very small and if the person were to satisfy it somehow, he would feel good. So everyone agrees with that.

The more that the desire to receive continued to develop, it needed more and more independence, more independent involvement in life, in development and in communication, until nature, according to its formula, transformed the entire world into an absolutely integral connection. And we humans are not yet in an integral connection, we are late with respect to the conditions of nature that wants to develop us to a state of general connection.

An infant who is born does not communicate with its environment and has no group, societal, or human tendencies, but the more that he matures, he begins to feel that he needs a family and a society and cannot live without them. So we also need to reach a state of connection between us. So the beginning of our advancement is the gradual understanding that we are within our original egoistic nature, in exile from our higher state, from a higher level.

In nature there are four stages of development: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. We are now gradually passing from the animate state to the speaking state. This is the next level that we have not yet reached. In the meantime, human development is still on the animate level because it is concerned only with existence, nourishment, raising children, and so forth. And all of this is done in a very unattractive way because the person is not an animal that develops instinctively according to the balanced laws of nature.

The four stages of ascent on the steps of the ladder are compulsory, and the transition from the previous state to the next state is implemented according to ten Sefirot, which we don’t feel or according to the four letters of the name of the Creator, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, that include all of nature. So the passage between the levels and between each level must go through four levels of development (no matter how small they may be).

In nature there exist four states of advancement. The first state is departure from the state of the animate level to the level of man, in which there is already advancement towards solidarity, connection, the characteristic of bestowal and love, but in the meantime in an embryonic state.

This happened in the days of Babylon, when Abraham took 5,000 people out of there and organized a group from them that could be called the first communistic or Kabbalistic group. This was a spiritual brotherhood in which everyone participated according to the principle of equality and concern not for themselves but only for one another. Abraham united all of those who were interested in living according to this principle and took everyone who was ready to go towards this ideal out of Babylon.

Three stages of development of the Kabbalistic society are symbolically called the Forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or the right line, left line, and middle line. Continued progress was contingent upon additional development that was made possible only on condition of the discovery of a greater ego, its correction and rising above it.

So Abraham asked himself how it would be possible to reach the characteristic of absolute bestowal and love. He investigated and discovered that this requires constant development of the ego, upon which his small nation rose.

So the next stage in development required the growth of the ego in the group of Abraham, the discovery of the second level of the ego (the first was discovered in Babylon) and rising above it.

But this is not just rising above it; rather, it is passing through a process of the development of the ego where everyone receives understanding, everyone delves into it and begins to work with it. Then various egoistic impulses begin to awaken and arise in people that push, influence, and dominate them. But people trying to rise above their ego act according to the method of Abraham based upon mutual concern, where possible, and not for themselves.

The Torah talks about the states through which the people of Israel passed in Egypt. In the beginning they fought among themselves and together against their ego, and after that against Pharaoh, who symbolized their new ego that was always discovered in the relationships between them. The Jewish people were in Egypt for 210 years (a symbolic period). Just as there are four phases of the Direct Light, which are the source of the four-letter name of the Creator, the formula that includes four components that develop gradually, so also Egyptians, or the ego that was revealed then in the people, included four levels. So the time of the Egyptian exile is called 400 years. Yet, in fact, it continued for only 210 years, and the remaining 190 years were divided among the rest of the exiles.

The names in the Torah: “Egypt,” “Mount Sinai,” “The Sinai Desert,” and “The Land of Israel” symbolize the inner states in the people. This is not talking about geography but about inner changes that happen within a person. When the ego grew, it was more and more difficult for people to remain on the level of love, brotherhood, “and you shall love your friend as yourself”; they fell and were elevated, fell and rose in the connection between them, until they understood that they had to be disengaged from the ego that grew to immense dimensions. In the Torah this is described as the ten plagues of Egypt.

This means that the ego expanded so much that it was impossible to remain in it and work with it. It was necessary to begin to discover it in us gradually, to go out from it, and so to rise. But it was impossible to rise above this mountain all at once, but only gradually, discovering the ego only to the degree that it was possible to use it, to rise above it, and thus transcend it.

Even though negative characteristics are constantly discovered in a person, he is not afraid of them because he understands that thanks to them he will rise, if he uses them correctly, for this is his spiritual ascent.

This is exactly how the group of Abraham disengaged from its ego, called Egypt, and began to work on itself. When they rose above the ego, they began to organize attitudes of mutual help between them, at the least they tried not to harm each other, for before then they were ready to annihilate each other so great was the hatred that was discovered between them. The symbol of this hatred is Mount Sinai. It is possible to call the states through which the people of Israel passed the Sinai desert because the work for the sake of bestowal doesn’t bring any fulfillment to the ego, for they don’t feel any taste in it. That is how they worked on themselves for forty years until they rose to the level of Bina. Forty years in the desert they searched incessantly for the characteristic of Bina (bestowal) within the ego that was continuously rising.

After the people passed through all the levels, and as a result of this, all of the vessels that they took with them from Egypt (the gold and silver vessels and the jewelry), meaning all of the egoistic characteristics in them, died (the generation of those who left Egypt died), they got the opportunity to reach the next level called the “Land of Israel,” a desire that is directed only towards bestowal and love. Land (Eretz) is desire (Ratzon), and Israel (Yashar-El – straight to the Creator). The Creator is the power of bestowal and love which is the essential power in nature and all the rest are its parts. The program according to which this power acts is intended to transform the person to independence where he wants to be only in a state of bestowal and love.

The group of people who entered the land of Israel fought for it because it was inhabited by “other peoples,” meaning various disturbances that were discovered in their character above which they had to ascend. This is called the “conquest of the land,” the conquest of the land of Israel. So gradually they reached a state in which from all the desires that were discovered among them, they created one shared vessel of mutual bestowal and love in which they discovered the higher power, the Creator, and rose to His level. This is the perfected state. But the moment that they attained this state, an even greater collective ego began to be discovered in them on the next level. This is because after leaving Babylon they took the entire enormous ego with them that didn’t really belong to them (to the characteristic of bestowal and love), but to all of humanity.

As Rambam writes, when the 5000 people who went out of Babylon reached the land of Israel they were already three million people, at the time when there were millions of people in the whole world. This is talking about a situation that existed 2700 years ago.

But this small nation built a so-called Temple, meaning that they built a condition in which the Creator, the power of bestowal and love, was revealed among them, and they existed in this form and were found in spirituality.

After that a new, more internal level was created that hadn’t belonged to them, the stony heart, which at that moment they could not correct. This level belonged to the whole world. The people of Israel didn’t succeed in holding onto the position of the level of bestowal and love, it began to fall apart and fell from its high level of mutual connection, from the level of equivalence of form with the Creator to a condition of separation that is called the second exile, the Exile of Persia and Midian. This is not mentioned in the Torah but in the Prophets, the Book of Esther and additional sources.

The people of Israel were in this exile for 70 years. 7 or 4 and 400 or 70 are symbolic units of ascent or descent that are expressed in differences in time. Everything operates according to the original formula, for the creation of the desire (the ego) was according to the four phases of the Direct Light, under the influence of the Upper Light (the characteristic of bestowal and love). From here this formula spread over everything.

A descent to such a low level was dangerous for the people of Israel in that they were liable to forget completely on what level it had been found previously and what happened to it. There was danger that they would become like the rest of the peoples, but at the same time a spontaneous awakening happened. On the world map appeared the evil leader Haman, who like Pharaoh, awakened in them the awareness of their situation. They did very great work among them, were forced to rise above the level of Haman, to kill him (their ego), and in this way they rose to the next level called the level of the second Temple.

This level was lower than the level of the first Temple because the bestowal and love here was not as on the level of the first Temple. If the first Temple existed on the level of “and you shall love your friend as yourself,” so the second Temple descended to the level of, “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you.” Specifically it is the connection between people that is called the Temple and not the stone walls that were erected in Jerusalem.

The people of Israel continued to work on themselves, they tried to do everything possible to remain on at least that level, but the ego grew because the ego of humanity had not been corrected.

Meanwhile, humanity developed egoistically and this influenced the Jewish people so that they didn’t succeed in holding on to the level of mutual help; they went through internal struggles between them that were materialized in our world as wars against the Romans and the Greeks.

That is how the fall of the people happened under the influence of the inner egoistic desires, the “Greeks” and the “Romans.” The desires of the “Greeks” received ideological expression, and the desires of the “Romans” were realized in action. This is speaking only about the inner states of the group of Abraham.

In the end, the nation fell from the level of the second Temple, “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you,” into absolute disengagement, from the level of cooperation to the level of regular people. This means that the people didn’t fall into the captivity of the Egyptians or the Babylonians but into the captivity of the wider public who were completely disengaged from all spiritual levels.

The difficult times of the third exile of the Jewish people had come, which was characterized by absolute disengagement from the spiritual state. But the disengagement from the spiritual state was gradual, continuing for many years and ending in the 16th century, in the days of the Ari or a little before him. A method for departure from spiritual exile called Kabbalah began to develop then. It also existed before this, for the students of Abraham clarified, completed, and documented it. They were great ideologues. But in spite of the many books that were called the sacred books of the Jews, a precise method for the world was lacking that would teach a person how to depart from the state of the ego, for at that time, the ego had not yet been discovered; it began to be discovered only from the time of the Ari.

The Ari was a great Kabbalist who laid the foundations for the method of correction. After him, Kabbalists appeared like the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezritch, and many other spiritual leaders who described the same method in various styles and worked with people on various theoretical and practical levels.

But the development of this method, that began in the 15th to 16th centuries and continued until our times, stopped in our days. The last of the great spiritual teachers was my teacher, Rabash. He and his father Baal HaSulam founded and developed the actual method of correction. And we follow them with the help of the method that they developed; we hope to leave the last spiritual exile in which all of humanity is found.

This is a unique exile, for the descendants of the group of Abraham were dispersed through all of humanity; they lost all of the experience that they had gathered morally, spiritually, and ideologically.

Part of this group changed the entire method, meaning that they took upon themselves the mechanical practice without thinking that they had to integrate with its interior through their wholehearted desire. This is the essential problem in leaving the last exile.

We are now in a state of clarification of all the conditions in order to rise to the last level of development, because after leaving Babylon, Egypt, and Persia, the time has arrived for going out of the state of the present global crisis into which humanity has been thrown.

Today, modern global plagues are beginning to be discovered in humanity. They have not been completely revealed yet, but we have already begun to gradually recognize them and feel their approach. The threat of a tsunami is approaching, natural disasters, wars, and disruptions of order. People are beginning to understand that through stupid, barbaric, and egoistic actions, they have opened a terrible Pandora’s Box.

So we must activate this method. I am happy that I am part of this activity and can explain, tell, and reveal to people the situation in which we are found, what kind of a world we are living in, what we can expect, what possibilities are available to us, and what we must do.

I am very happy that we are found in a situation in which we can actually discover the method about ourselves, like in a laboratory, and after that to bring it to the whole world and to actively show how we work with it. It is up to us to be an example for all of humanity and to return it to the state of the higher power, meaning the characteristic of bestowal and love, in the best and most rapid way possible.
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.02.14

Preparation for the Lesson

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Workshop

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Shamati #53 “The Matter Of Limitation”

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“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 138

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 58

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee” 

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