Question: In the sources we are told that the Creator manages all the wars for us; He fights for the children of Israel, expels them from their land and returns them to it, provides victory and defeat. Is this correct also in the twenty-first century?

Answer: Actually it is not that simple. Indeed, we don’t know exactly what happened in ancient times so it is difficult to make the comparison today. First of all we must understand the concept of “the wars of Israel.”

In fact, all of the wars of the children of Israel happen within them, against the “evil inclination” that disturbs their connection. Because of their inability to connect and to convey the method of correction to the whole world, external problems are added to their inner disturbances and we must invest effort in them also. That is how many wars were fought.

On our way from Egypt, we passed by way of Mount Sinai and the Sinai desert; there we fought not just once against Amalek and against other enemies. After that the wars of the conquest of the land of Israel began; seven nations dwelled there and we were compelled fight against them to expel them from the land.

But these were internal wars. The seven nations lived both in us and in our world. And in general, what happens within the soul is also copied outside; our world is a copy that is a reflection of our soul.

So the foundation of all of our wars is internal. It is up to us to fight against our ego that separates and distances us. And according to the Torah it is up to us to be as one man with one heart. We always need to fight for connection.

Question: This means that there is a goal that is determined from the start for all of these wars?

Answer: Right, there is one goal: to reach connection according to the present level, the present period. The picture that we see outside is found within us. This means that all our haters, all the anti-Semites, and in general the people, humanity, all of reality, everything is within me. And only so that I will have the possibility of relating to all this correctly do I see this external reflection that makes it possible for me to differentiate and recognize what is happening, and thus fight. But the war is internal: to connect my good characteristics and to advance with their help, to rise above my bad, egoistic characteristics. That is how I am victorious over my enemies, my defects. And then, on the outside, I also defeat the external enemies.

But the victory is only by means of the Light that Reforms. It is written, (Kiddushin 30b) “I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice, for the Light in it reforms.” This refers to the power that separates us and also the power of the Light that helps us connect and win.

Question: How does this mechanism work in a nation in a state of war? More precisely I am referring to the nation of Israel that is engaged in a war with Hamas?

Answer: We are not making the corrections, we have not connected between us, we have not connected with the nations of the world, and we have not helped them to unite with each other. We are to blame for their present situation because only through us does the Light reach the world; we must be a “light to the nations.” And if we don’t do this, then we have a war. Those characteristics that we haven’t corrected through connection seem to us like our enemies and our haters.

Have we succeeded in correcting them? Have we succeeded in winning this war? The true hero is the one who “transforms his haters into his lovers.”

Question: War always inflames passions in the people; there are those who agree and those who don’t agree, each one has his own opinion. Are these signs of separation that we must correct? Is it worthwhile to stimulate debate to try to connect all the extremes together?

Answer: Yes, nevertheless, the war is designed to awaken us. War in itself cannot correct anything. Only through a chain of troubles can it push us to a compulsory understanding of the situation, until we understand that it depends only upon us. But this is not with the armed forces or our military strategy, rather only with connection, with the Arvut that we attain among the people and become an example of the right connection that makes it possible to overcome the crisis and reach general harmony.

Question: So how can we wage war after it has already broken out?

Answer: Without a choice we are fighting an external enemy and yet we clearly understand that, in fact, we are fighting with an internal enemy. Along with the military operations, it is up to us to strengthen, expand, and increase the connection between us because this is the main part of the war. The troops who are in Gaza, the “Iron Dome,” all of these are imperative only to gain time for the internal corrections.

Question: Every moment is precious! Our friends are falling on the battlefield. So how can we become wiser while we are immersed within the endless maelstrom of the news?

Answer: There is no need to disconnect from the flow of news, although most of it is not correct and not accurate. But nevertheless I would suggest being involved with connection. This means coming to workshops that we are doing all over the country, entering our website and learning what connection between people is. Even mental effort, even reading some article, is already a big correction, and through this the Light is extended through us to all of the people of Israel and through it to all the nations of the world. That is how everything will calm down.

Come, let’s do this with all of the people of Israel, and then we will see results throughout the world. Everyone will suddenly support us, including our uncompromising neighbors.

Question: This means that to have a breakthrough it is enough to open the doors and go towards one another?

Answer: Yes, “We open the doors of the heart”.

These are the “wars of Israel” and not battles against external enemies that we still conduct. The true battle is waged within the heart, within the yearnings of Yashar-El, when we fight to connect our hearts into one whole heart, to be as one person with one heart.

Indeed, the people of Israel at Mount Sinai were standing before an immense ego, a mountain of hatred (Sina), under conditions of connection. And the land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), is a desire (Ratzon) directly yearning for the Creator (Yashar-El), the desire to bestow, for “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

To reach the land of Israel we had to accept the conditions of Arvut, connection, to be as one person with one heart, and after this to pass through a correction of forty years. But modern Israel has already existed for 66 years and we have not neared one another by even one millimeter, probably it has been closer to the opposite; apparently there is no people of Israel and the land of Israel doesn’t exist as an internal spiritual concept in which we must live.

And there are no wars of Israel in the true sense, for we are not fighting to become the people of Israel in the land of Israel, rather we are just a bunch of exiles.

Question: If the war is a “battle” to connect the people, so how exactly does the Creator manage the battle?

Answer: If we succeed in breaking through the current orientation and succeed in attracting the Upper Light, the power of connection, then it will fight for us.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write. The Wars of Israel” 7/21/14

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Question: We have heard many times that, initially, the people of Israel should be corrected. Is it worthwhile to concentrate on its correction in order to come closer to our goal and give delight to the Creator?

Answer: The people of Israel are that part of humanity that longs for the Creator through the way of connection and unity between themselves. There is no such concept of “Israel” from nature, as if someone is born Israeli and someone is not. We know that this concept first appeared in ancient Babylon.

In the spiritual world, the concept of Israel is the direction toward the Creator via the unity between us, the creation of the desire in them that is similar to the Creator, which means as one, unique and unified. Therefore, first of all, we constitute those who want to attain the Creator in the unity between us.

The next circle we need to work on are those who, 2000 years ago, were in this state and fell from it. In them, there exists hidden Reshimot (reminiscences) which work negatively, repelling them from spiritual attainment since the broken Kli (vessel) operates in the opposite direction.

In addition, if one of us has even a minimal possibility, we need to try in every way possible to work with these people. In Israel, there is such an opportunity since here they are a majority.

The rest of humanity, the nations of the world, also have these genes, but they were never awakened, not in Babylon, not after, and not now. We will work with them at the end because as we build a stronger inner part, the easier it will be to work with this external part that is far from spiritual longings.

Thus, the correction is made from the inner part to the outer part. This is what Baal HaSulam writes about in “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” (Sections 60-70).

Every person in the world who longs to attain and reveal the Creator constitutes Yashar El (straight to the Creator)—those longing for Him. If there isn’t unity and connection between them and connection with the Light, then it isn’t likely that the Light from them will spread first to the people of Israel and then to the rest of the nations of the world because the most important thing is the mutual connection that is shared by us.
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From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria 7/11/14, Lesson 2

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Leviticus, the section “Tazria”, 13:1-3: And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, or a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes in the skin of his flesh the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests. And the priest shall look upon the plague in the skin of the flesh; and if the hair in the plague be turned white, and the appearance of the plague be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is the plague of leprosy; and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.”

The discovery of the next level requires a rejection of those desires that we cannot correct. And they leave us in the form of slag: plague, leprosy, and all that is spilled out. In general, knowledgeable doctors understand that everything that is shed from the body of a person is for his own good and it must be expelled. But most doctors simply heal people.

Comment: But this is talking about a Cohen (priest) here, not a doctor.

Answer: A Cohen is a doctor at the highest level.

All diseases appear from a violation of the animal systems when we cannot hold onto the right balance. For balance constitutes a guarantee for health, for longevity, for success on all levels: moral, material, physical, traditional, familial, cultural, and social.

Only one force exists in creation, and we must work by regarding it with balance on all of our levels. But if the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate are found in balance with it, because they are guided by it instinctively, the level of man is not. In his departure from balance, man violates the balance of all the rest of the parts of nature.

This happens not only because he interacts with them physically, but simply because he is found with them in one single integral system. Even our thoughts and emotions and our mutual relationships influence the environment that surrounds us.

So it follows, whether we want it or not, each one of us and all of us together are responsible for all of nature. Essentially all are together, because our incompatibility causes incompatibility between humanity and all of that nature that surrounds us like an envelope. The main thing is that this is an incompatibility with that power that manages both nature and us.

But this power manages us with particular patience, giving us some kind of freedom, so that in the framework of this freedom we determine our balance with it, and we find the homeostatic formula in any of our states. Only in this way do we balance nature as well as all of us in relation to it.

To the degree that balance is attained, this external force begins to be felt within us and among us and we rise to the next level of development called Adam, meaning, Domeh (similar) to the only power of nature, which is called Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/18/14

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The Book of Zohar, “Ki Tazria” (When a Woman Delivers), Item 105: “As light excels over darkness.” The benefit of the light comes only out of the darkness. The correction of the white is black, for without the black, the white would be pointless. And because there is black, the white is elevated and respected. It is like sweet and bitter. A person cannot know the taste of sweetness before he has tasted bitterness. Thus, what makes it sweet is the bitter.

In things where there are opposites, the one reveals the other, such as in white and black, light and darkness, sick and healthy.

Darkness is the embodiment of all the negativity that we attain in life: insecurity, fear, stinginess, pride, and contempt. Why did the Creator create darkness as the cruelest, dirtiest form that is opposite from Him? It is actually in order to attain the Light.

We, the created beings can determine everything only by oppositeness. The Creator is only one infinite Light. There are no two opposite attributes in Him in order to feel, to prefer, and to learn about one from the other. We have to understand that there cannot be one attribute without the other.

When we ascend we do so along the right and the left lines, on two legs, by opposite attributes, by opposite feelings, and the more Light there is, the more it is felt in contrast to greater darkness. This happens all the time, everywhere, in everything that we feel, think and in every decision that we make.

A person has to have great patience in advance in order to be able to go through all this. But it isn’t easy to do so because the spiritual path is the path of purification from the ego and is based on an inner struggle.

Only the right support of the environment and its constant strengthening can keep a person above the water while he is actually no one and nothing. When ten zeros come together and understand that none of them are worth anything but together they do their best to help one another, the Upper Light descends upon them and turns them into heroes.

Question: What is the psychology of a person’s inner movement?

Answer: The pleasure one receives is not a masochistic pleasure. It is a result of one’s self-correction.

Imagine ten people who cannot help one another in any way but who are still trying to do so with all their might. This brings a great upper force to descend upon them since each of them is fighting his ego in order to help the others. The result is circular mutual guarantee and the upper force connects, empowers, and raises them to the next level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/14

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Comment: Today there is a war; rockets are falling and Israelis are looking for shelter. This catastrophic situation is forcing many people, even those who are secular, to pray for salvation. This is happening on its own, naturally.

Answer: This is regular animalistic fear. A person wants to escape the threat, to save himself from misery, i.e., the lack of fulfillment, and the negativity that has been revealed. Essentially, if a person does not pray for unity, then he is no different from an animal, to whom it is also natural to strive to keep safe from disaster.

The addition of the human level is the ability to understand the cause of evil, ask for correction and a desire for unity with others. This approach is opposite to the usual egoistic state, and this will allow man to save himself from disaster. It can only be done through unity.

Question: The Creator says that He actually wins our wars, not us. What does this mean?

Answer: We do not have the strength to prevail over the current conditions and use them for the good. We only have enough strength to conquer, defy, and kill those who were assigned from Above to play the part of our enemies. However, this does not solve the problem or correct anything. If we succeed, it can raise our opinion of ourselves, make us more proud, and distance us further from the goal, which is self-correction. In this way, our success in a corporeal war does not lead to goodness.

But if after the combat, we use the lulls to “return to the source,” that is, to form the correct system of relationships between the people of Israel, as well as between them and all the nations of the Diaspora, then we will really use the war as intended.

But if we do not do this, then victory makes us live in a fantasy world and think that we are better than others. This will result in even greater disaster for us in the future, which will promptly follow.

Comment: The nations of the world blatantly criticize Israel for protecting their citizens from terror.

Answer: And this is just the beginning. Everyone in the world, including the Jews of the Diaspora, will eventually be against us. Everyone abroad fiercely despises those who live in Israel. And the people of Israel will divide.

Where does this kind of hatred lead? First of all, they will break all ties with us, and without them, it is impossible to exist in the modern world.

Then, they will demand that we do not touch the Arabs, and they will support them. And what will we do then? The global mass media do not forgive us for defending ourselves and they blame us for the death of innocent people. But when rockets fly at our civilians, terrorists are getting away with it.

Why is this? Because the world does not see us as innocent. They see us as guilty, even without any connection to the war. In essence, this is their message: “Either you correct the world or die. Otherwise, get out of here.” Moreover, I am not sure there will be a country willing to accept us. Who needs the Jews if they only bring misery to the world? Let them drown in the sea.

Comment: This looks like a war for survival.

Answer: This is a natural state, there is nothing new here. These laws were described to us a long time ago and we finally need to acknowledge them. Yes, we are die-hard stubborn and cannot be “broken,” but to what degree?

Question: Is there anything new about the current war? Does it attest to a new stage of development?

Answer: This new degree of development is in people beginning to feel helpless. Even if the current campaign gives us a break, there is no actual solution. The entire world is against us, all our neighbors are against us, and we will not even be allowed to fight them. There is no hope for a way out.

The Arabs, who lived here before our return, demand their land back, they disagree with this land becoming the home for Israel and ask, “What right did you have to kick us out of here 66 years ago? We disagree. This is our land.” Each of them can say this and will be right.

On what basis did we come here and exile them? Only doing it for their good can justify this action. And only the Upper Force gives us the basis to do this, because we must bring the entire world to correction. In this case, the situation is different because we act for the benefit of all the people, including those who lived here.

When we step on this path, we will see that they also see that we are right and will agree with it. And then,as the prophet Joshua said, the nations of the world will lift the sons of Israel onto their shoulders and carry them to Jerusalem. They will help us do everything.
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Excerpt from “The Writings of Kabbalists. The Wars of Israel,” part 2, 07.18.2014

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It is up to Israel to be the first to discover, show the way, and lead all the others. If Israel doesn’t carry out its task, it will feel pressure from all those who are detained behind it. The general system pushes everyone from behind, and then they press the pioneering force that lost its way and forgot about its mission.

This is the picture that we see today in the world. Most of the people of Israel have no idea of its special mission. Even though this is written in our books, the people don’t see this and don’t want to read it; they don’t understand that this is connected to them. Likewise the leaders of the people don’t show this to them.

Consequently, after having moved further and further away from our mission, we deteriorate more and more. We make our situation more severe and feel a growing negative attitude from the nations of the world in regard to us. The nations of the world are that part of humanity that is said to follow us on the way that we have paved.

Without us, humanity will not succeed in paving the way for itself. The order is that Israel is obligated to go first. We hope that we can explain this both to the pioneering force itself and in general to all the rest, not only the people of Israel, but also to all the peoples of the world.

In ancient Babylon Abraham spoke about creation, about the way that it must traverse, about the task of the person on this path, that he must be concerned about all of nature.

When Israel corrects itself, it also corrects the nations of the world, and through them it corrects the still, vegetative, and animate nature. It is up to us to be concerned about everything. The more we delay our correction, the more we cause greater chaos in nature, in the ecology.

It is up to Israel to feel the pioneering force itself and carry out its mission.

King David writes in the Book of Psalms: (Psalms 23:6) “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” The pressure that is activated on us from all directions is called “goodness and mercy,” which follows us throughout life, for without it we would forget about the exalted mission that has been imposed upon us.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/14

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Question: When we organize a workshop in a circle, do we need to talk about the Upper Light, about the wisdom of Kabbalah, or is simple connection and unity enough?

Answer: Today it is possible to speak with people about everything that touches upon correction. There is nothing more to hide! It is possible to speak on the highest level. The problem is only in whether they will understand you. But nobody will be opposed. Don’t be afraid to reveal to people as much as you can of the true Torah, they will not reject you.

Your basis is evidence that is five thousand years old: beginning from Adam HaRishon, Abraham, Moses, all the patriarchs. All of the following generations of Kabbalists spoke about the same thing, about the correction of the world that Israel must carry out.

For thousands of years until today, we have been preparing for this moment, and now finally the time for correction has come! All of the Kabbalists wrote about our time: that at the end of the twentieth century we would be entering into the period of the end of correction.

All of this must be explained to people every time  in words that are understandable, depending on the audience. It is similar to the way science is adapted for children of various ages, accompanied by all kinds of games and exercises. The method of correction is like this, adapting this higher spiritual wisdom for every person to use.

At the time we begin to be involved with people, we are already carrying out a correction. It is specifically we who are realizing this correction and not them. Our organizing them in a circle already constitutes the correction.

We organize a workshop and provide questions for discussion through which people clarify the essence of everything that we are talking about now: What is the uniqueness of the people of Israel, its obligation to correct the whole world?And with this we are carrying out a correction.
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From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/8/14

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Question: How is it possible to explain to people what the Light that Reforms is? Nobody will believe me.

Answer: Involve them in an activity so they will feel this power themselves. Use fewer words, the main thing is that a person will get the sensation that is in the connection, that between us it is possible to create a good state. It is necessary to reach unity and closeness of hearts, and then people will feel that within this connection of the hearts there is a general higher force present for them that can control them and fill them to perfection.

If you give people an experience like this that they feel, then there will be no need to explain anything to them. You think that it is necessary to explain things like in a lecture at a university from the point of view of logic, but there is no logic here. This is something that is completely irrational.

An irrational phenomenon means that it is impossible to see a precise system that is active between the initial state and the result in it.  The system is hidden because we don’t have the senses and mind that would make it possible to see it.

This is an internal system of nature that is not seen by us. But if we near it, we begin to discern it and this world will appear transparent to us. The connections between all of its parts will be revealed and then we will see how we are connected: Israel, every human being, and all the events that are happening with us now.

Then it will be clear to us that we have no other choice in this situation: First and foremost we, as the ones who possess this method, must go out and begin to explain it to people. And we must explain that in this we are turning to the feelings of people, not their intellect, guiding them through specific states and performing exercises with them from which the understanding will come to them.

The people themselves will scrutinize all the answers by discussing our questions in circle. We don’t need to prompt them with the answer; they will find it by themselves, and that is how they will advance time after time.

That is the game! That is the way a small child learns about life. It is possible to explain it to him a thousand times, but this won’t help until he tries himself, trying to do it one way or another, and in the end it succeeds for him. In this manner he learns. It is impossible to get by without effort, without investing energy in something that we don’t know. That is how we learn and grow.

We organize a workshop in a circle and ask questions, and within the circle it is necessary to attain such a connection that within this state of unity there will be a clear answer for everyone. This is natural and true learning, like a child does. In this way we open ourselves; we develop and grow without frivolously repeating the words and opinions of someone like a mantra. Only in this way does a person grow. Despite the state of emergency and the missiles, we must go to every place where they can hear us, even in the shelters, and do everything that is required of us at this time.
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From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/8/14

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Question: What is the difference between the balance in relationships between people and the balance of each one with nature?

Answer: It is one and the same because the system within which we exist is integral. We all are included in one another in all possible variations: with the still, vegetative, and animal natures, and among ourselves. This enormous multi-level system is so interdependent and multilayered that we cannot grasp it on our own.

The only thing we can do is to work with it trying to be integrally interconnected through correct directions that the Torah gives us (Torah is from the word “Ora’a” –  “instructions” or “guide”). By following its guidance, we will begin to feel how this system is correctly influencing us and we influence it, and a mutual correspondence between us and the Creator appears.

In other words, in our relationships, a sense of eternity, perfection, and harmony appears, and we, by balancing our relationships with each other and the nature around us, uncover the possibility for the revelation of unity, which is called the Creator.

The Creator does not exist outside our connection. This is why it is said not to create an image for yourself because the Creator does not have a guise.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of Eternal Book” 2/18/14

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