Question: You say that the Maccabees were fighting for a spiritual, altruistic approach for the sake of the world and for the sake of the place of the person within it. How exactly is the spiritual reality connected to relationships between me and other people?

Answer: It determines the principle of, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The person comes to a perception of the external reality in that he begins to place the other above himself. And this is the difference between the Jewish approach and the Greek approach. That is what the Maccabees were fighting for.

Well today, the egoistic approach is typical of everyone, including the Jews.

Question: How are these two approaches connected to a relationship with the Creator if in principle this is talking about relationships between people?

Answer: I try to go out of my ego, out from my personal interests, towards others. We build relationships like these in a group where the friends become more important in my eyes than I am to myself.

Everyone in our group wants to attain the perception of a higher reality, but for this we must go beyond the limits of our five corporeal senses, rising above them. And we rise when we place a new sense based on bestowal above our egoistic perception, on love of others.

The Kabbalists described this work in a very precise and clear form. And if we act in a form like this, then among us we discover that some kind of altruistic force surrounds and envelops us. Previously it evaded our perception, whereas now we feel that we must discover and feel it.

For this I must become like it, acquiring a similar power of bestowal and love. Only to the degree of inner changes like these can I feel the upper force that dwells outside. Otherwise, I simply cannot absorb it, I am blind to it.

But first we are born as “Greeks,” each one focuses on himself. This is absolutely natural, also it cannot be otherwise. It is said: “…the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21) and further, it is said: “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b). In other words, it is specifically the creature, the ego, the evil inclination, which dominates every person.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that it is necessary to rise above this essence, to transform the ego, and instead of hating the other, loving him.

Question: For whom is this “operating system upgrade” designed? Is it just for Jews or for everyone?

Answer: It is for everyone. Each one is ready for this if he has the appropriate inclination and drive for this. And gradually, with the general development of humanity, we will reach a time when this inclination will be awakened among many. Everyone can, and ultimately each one will be obliged to “upgrade.” Starting from the current stage, over several generations, everyone will come to this.

Question: Suppose that a person, in his work on himself succeeds in creating an inner change like this. What does he get from this?

Answer: He acquires life in another world where only the power of the Light dwells, meaning the power of bestowal and not the power of reception. The person identifies with it and finds himself in a world that is all good. There is no more competition; there is no evil, but only eternity and perfection.

This is what we acquire when we change ourselves, rising above life and death, above evil towards the good.

This “upgrade” is not realized by someone outside, it is not through a “click” on some super-computer; rather, we ourselves carry this out. I do everything by myself, consciously and deliberately, and so I feel and acquire the entire reality of the creation.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

Related Material:
What Did The Maccabees Fight Against?
Changing The Old Program
The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 1

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