Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.09.15
Posted on March 9th, 2015
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Question: Does the Purim holiday speak about the role of the people of Israel?
Answer: It speaks about an obligation of the people of Israel! The task can be different, but the obligation remains one: to unite and take all of humanity to a new spiritual level through unity.
Today, we are in a crisis that is similar to the same crisis that existed in ancient Babylon. The ego attracts us inward to a place that is very narrow, dark, and not understood; a place where we begin to devour each other. Humanity must rise above this state, and this ascent depends upon the people of Israel first and foremost. So, in our time, anti-Semitism has developed again because the nations of the world subconsciously feel that the people of Israel must do something, but are not carrying out their mission, and this causes harm to the world. It is precisely the separation between us that is the reason for anti-Semitism.
The moment that we begin to unite, a stream of Light will pass through us to all of humanity. People will understand what must be done, and anti-Semitism will disappear immediately. Even 2,500 years ago the prophets predicted that the nations of the world would lift the people of Israel on their shoulders and carry them to Jerusalem to build the third Beit Ha Mikdash (Temple). So, it is said that all of humanity will be drawn to the Creator, and all religions, faiths, peoples, nations, and races will unite into a single whole.
Question: What would you hope for the people of Israel and the Jews who live in other nations in the world?
Answer: First of all, I wish all the people of the world would understand the Purim holiday correctly and that with their pressure on the people of Israel they would take part in our general and common goal.
Also, I hope that the people of Israel would understand our universal role and understand and recognize the fact that the good of the world truly depends upon them. Everyone who is interested in knowing more can enter our Internet websites and archives, look at our books, read our Facebook pages, watch our Israeli television channel, and experience the live lessons of our education centers.
We must unite! Only in unity can we find a real solution to all of the problems! There is no problem that would not be solved through unity, and there is no problem that would be resolved through any other method.
Come, let’s transform this holiday into a reality where we truly solve this world’s problems between us, raising us to the next level of nature and redeeming us from all troubles. We will do this ourselves! We are doing this now together! Success for all of us!
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From a Talk about Purim 2/18/15
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Question: Is there a special force that operates on us and affects us? Is there a special illumination that shines upon us?
Answer: A holiday is a special state in the world when the desire becomes similar to the Light in some way and the cooperation between the desire and the Light is called by a special name that matches the Kabbalistic Gematria (numerical value of the Torah). A holiday is typified by the accumulation of the previous levels up to a certain new qualitative level.
In our life, for example, psychology is a very meaningful field: child psychology, the psychology of the masses, social psychology, etc. In these frameworks we tend to picture ourselves in different situations and we feel them only because we want to feel them so much. But these are not spiritual states and have nothing to do with the holidays.
A person who is climbing the spiritual ladder, on the other hand, awakens unto himself and unto the nation a special wave of influence from that level, even if he hasn’t attained the level of the holiday, by the mere fact that he tries to rise to it by performing certain mechanical actions in our world together with the whole nation. This is possible only when they all yearn to attain it together.
During the holiday of Shavuot (Giving of the Torah), for example, we see the location of the planets, the moon, and the sun that match this spiritual action, which means that the upper force is also arranged in a certain way. If in addition to that, the whole nation yearns for it, it will receive a special illumination since the whole hierarchy of the system of creation is synchronized. But an ordinary person who knows nothing about the spiritual work and simply does what he has been taught doesn’t perceive this illumination and only has the psychological feeling of this holiday. However, people who yearn for the inner meaning of the holiday feel a certain illumination and therefore can perform additional corrections during this time.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/11/14
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Question: Why is the Purim holiday considered to be a family holiday all over the world?
Answer: It is not a family holiday. The Purim holiday is more like a children’s holiday, a holiday of happiness and joy, because it symbolizes a rebirth of the people. We are seemingly reborn on this holiday!
When we are separated from each other, we are not a people. Yet, when we begin to gather together, something new is born in us. So, on Purim, there is a custom to give each other gifts, Mishloach Manot (gift packages), especially wine and sweets.
Wine symbolizes Ohr Hochma (Light of Wisdom). Hamantashen, triangular shaped cookies, symbolize Ohr Hassadim (Light of Mercy). Hassadim and Hochma must connect, be clothe one another, and this will give us spiritual elevation.
On the Purim holiday, there is a very interesting custom of drinking wine without any restrictions, Ad De’lo Yada (until one doesn’t know). If on this day a person is as drunk as Lot, this is a sign that he has fulfilled the tradition of the holiday.
That is, if we maintain the Purim holiday spiritually and unite, then with this we lead all of humanity to unity and raise them after us to the level of adhesion with the Creator. All of humanity attains eternity and wholeness, and this state can be materialized in someone about whom it is said, “…until one no longer knows the difference between ‘Blessed be Mordecai’ and ‘Cursed be Haman.’” In other words, a person completely forgets about all his limitations. He goes into a space where there is nothing but eternity and wholeness. This state can be compared only with the state of a person who is drunk with happiness without drinking any alcohol.
On the Purim holiday, all the streets of Israel are full of the sounds of singing, dancing, and carnivals, which are called, Adloyada. We put on costumes and seemingly change our identities, becoming someone else.
Question: Why do we say that a time will come when all of the holidays will disappear and only the Purim holiday will remain?
Answer: This is because all of the holidays symbolize transitional steps on the way toward complete unity and attainment of the Creator, adherence with the higher power. All of the holidays are classified up to this level: Rosh Hashanah (New Year), the exodus from Egypt, receiving the Torah, and so forth. They precisely represent the stages of the work toward unity between us, whereas Purim is the final holiday that symbolizes the completion of correction. After that, we attain wholeness and eternity one hundred percent.
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From a Talk about Purim 2/18/15
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It is written in The Zohar: As long as the Tabernacle was not set up, there was hostility, envy, conflict, contention and controversy in the world…
If two opposite forces act on the same substance sharing the same space, then when they encounter each other they create states of hatred, enmity, rivalry, conflict, and controversy.
So this is speaking about states that exist between two different opinions, actions, directions, and goals. A war is going on between opposites.
…indeed since the Tabernacle was set up and love, sympathy, connection, justice and support were granted to the world.
Above the two opposing forces a third force arises, which become their reconciliation. It uses all of the negative situations that are created between contrasting characteristics in an opposite manner—for connection and the attainment of a new characteristic from this connection.
It is possible to reach love, connection, kindness, and agreement solely and only if this is preceded by the identification the opposing characteristics between the two forces, opposing states like hatred, envy, competitiveness and so forth. Only after that is it possible to correct their connection.
The forces themselves remain. We don’t correct them because they are opposite in their nature, like plus-minus, electron-positron. Not only can we not do anything, but also we don’t even have the right to try to change them. And we can indeed influence their cooperation and create all kinds of things among them.
For example, what is the basis for every weapon? Two opposing characteristics and their mutual destruction; from the rift between them they are brought together.
And conversely, creation is based on the correct use of plus and minus where we put some kind of device between them so that the two forces will complete each other, the completion being love, justice, and agreement.
When two opposite forces don’t bump into each other but work with a common effort, they become a creative force, a constructive force.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/6/13
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Purim is the great holiday of redemption; it is the holiday of the exodus from exile. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the history of the evolution of mankind starting from Adam onward. Before him there were human beings and civilizations but Adam embodies the beginning of a new history, the history of the spiritual development of humanity.
He was the first to discover that living was not just to survive in the plane of this world but to ascend from this world to the next level, to the spiritual world, and to become a totally different entity, to become a human.
The word “Adam” stems from the Hebrew word “Edame” (to resemble), to resemble the Creator who exists on a different dimension. And since he was the first to discover the possibility of ascending from the animal state to the human level, to the level of resembling the Creator, he is called Adam.
But it was only Abraham who succeeded in realizing resembling the upper force, ascending the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature all the way to the human level, by feeling that he was in a new dimension. This happened 20 generations after Adam.
What is the reason that Abraham succeeded in doing so? It was because humanity, who were only a small number of people populating ancient Babylon at the time, suddenly found itself at an egoistic dead end.
The good relations between the Babylonians who lived as one family suddenly became filled with lack of trust, theft, and abuse of each other, such egoistic relationships from which they didn’t know where to go. And they thought: “We must rise to the heavens and discover the reason for what is happening to us.” At this time in ancient Babylon, two leading personalities stood out representing two different viewpoints: the ideologue and scientist of his time Abraham and the king of Babylon Nimrod.
According to Abraham’s ideology, humanity existed in order to unite above the ego that keeps people apart. By uniting they could attain the next level of their development.
The ego intentionally brought them to a dead end so that they wouldn’t succumb to it, otherwise it would bring them to their mutual annihilation. They had no other choice but to simply connect above it. Moreover, there is such a force in nature that can be drawn so that it can help us perform this action.
Nimrod on the other hand, believed that they had to follow a different path: to disperse all over the world like a family that cannot live together and get along with one another. They had to disperse and to go in different directions so that everyone would feel good.
Thousands followed Nimrod and only a few followed Abraham. According to the well known historian Titus Flavius Josephus, the Babylonians dispersed all over the world and began to settle in India, China, Africa, Russia, and Europe. Later they grew into nations that laid the foundations of the present general global civilization. Abraham, on the other hand, gathered his followers who agreed with him and understood his viewpoint, and they followed him to the land of Canaan, the location of the current state of Israel.
The nations that dispersed all over the world began to be called by their places of origin, their families, their tribes, or the place they settled in: Germans, Russians, etc. Abraham’s followers, however, called themselves “Israel,” stemming from the Hebrew words “Yashar –El” meaning straight to the Creator. This means that they were focused directly on the upper force, on the upper plan of nature that unites and assembles everything into one.
Abraham’s group was comprised of representatives of different communities who felt that his idea was right and thus joined him. This is how a nation that assembled on the basis of a common idea was born. This is the difference between the Jews and other nations.
Abraham’s descendents were Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph who were the next levels of development of this group, levels of increasingly greater connection. The group that left Babylon together with Abraham found itself facing great conflicts and disagreements, which is called the exile in Egypt. It should be noted that we speak about historical events in light of spiritual actions; therefore, we call geographic and historical categories according to their spiritual state.
It is said that there was famine in the land of Israel and the Jews went down to Egypt, which means that the nation felt a spiritual hunger resulting from the confusion and weakening of the connection between them. Thomas Mann describes the conflicts and ideological disagreements between the sons of Jacob very nicely in his book Joseph and His Brothers.
The state of Egypt (Mitzraim) symbolizes the concentration of evil in which the Jews felt the strong domination of the ego called Pharaoh (egoism) and tried to break away from it. They decided that they couldn’t remain in the state of mutual hostility, hatred, and the domination of Pharaoh because it didn’t allow them to be close to one another. Thus they realized and understood that they had fallen from the attainment of that little spiritual level they had been on previously. They realized that they had no choice but to escape from the state of Egypt. This happened at night, in the dark, hastily.
But before that, they went through the ten plagues of Egypt, which they felt on their flesh, and were thus freed of the domination of the ego, the domination of Pharaoh.
When they left Egypt, meaning mutual hostility, they gradually united and arrived at the state of Mount Sinai, which stems from the Hebrew word “Sina” (hate). They had to ascend above it in order to attain the Creator.
There is an attribute in the Israeli nation called Moses, stemming from the Hebrew word “Moshech” (draw or pull), which is the embodiment of the slight connection among them that takes them out of Egypt and can pull them above the hatred in order to connect with the Creator and receive the method of the formation of the nation from Him. This method is called the Torah.
The Torah is the Light that corrects the ego of the entire mass of people to create one unique desire that is above separation, hatred, and mutual accusations, and is actually yearning for establishing good relations above all that.
When the connection between people becomes homogeneous, straight, and equal and all the previous desires are integrated, creating one inclusive unique desire in which one person bestows unto others and loves them and everyone does that together mutually, this one desire turns to the upper state, to the Creator, which means to nature, with mutual love. The Creator (Elokim) symbolizes the upper force, the upper attribute, the upper leadership.
When they yearn for bestowal, to the upper force, to love Him and for mutual adhesion with Him, they attain that state. Now they are already called the “Israel,” and they begin to feel the next level of their existence by ascending from the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature to the level of the Creator, the level of the upper force of nature that is concealed from us.
They transcend the Machsom (barrier) of concealment, discover Him, and thus actually begin to feel and to live in Him to such an extent that the existence of the corporeal body becomes unimportant. It is because the body is a corporeal entity and a person doesn’t actually care whether it dies or not since on that level he already exists in a whole and eternal state.
Today anyone can reach this state, just as our forefathers had. They wrote about it in the Torah calling it the “First Temple.” In this state, the whole creation is revealed, the upper force, the limitless existence of humanity beyond time and place.
They lived in that state for several centuries, and then the ego began to undermine their state and began to draw them apart from one another again, controlling them by mutual accusations. They realized that it was necessary so that they could ascend even higher above the ego and reach the next level, but they didn’t succeed in overcoming it and fell into the state of unfounded hate.
This state is called the “exile in Babylon.” A thousand years later they returned to the same Babylon that Abraham had taken them out of, but now it wasn’t the same small country in Mesopotamia anymore but the giant empire of King Nebuchadnezzar who ruled 127 states. Being an intelligent leader, the king dispersed the Jews in all the states and thus kept them apart and disconnected, but it was even better at the time.
Many years went by before Babylon was ruled by King Ahasuerus and the wicked Haman who came up with the idea of annihilating the Jews. He began to denigrate them before the king: There is a certain people scattered and separate among the peoples throughout all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws differ [those of] every people, and they do not keep the king’s laws; it is [therefore] of no use for the king to let them be. (Book of Esther).
A wise Jew named Mordecai, who was a relative of Queen Esther, the beloved wife of Ahasuerus, lived in Babylon in those days. He decided to prevent a conspiracy and make it known to the King. But Esther said that neither she nor the King could do anything since the Jews were separated. If you reunite I will tell the King about the conspiracy. You will begin to pray from above and I will begin to act from below and we will destroy wicked Haman and all those who conspire against us. What is more, it will be the beginning of our return to our homeland, to the land of Israel. (Book of Esther).
Mordecai told the Jews who lived in the city of Shushan, the capital of the Babylonian empire, about that. He called them to fast and to get closer and to be as one man in one heart according to the Jewish law that was accepted at the foot of Mount Sinai. Thus, by rising above the ego and fully connecting, they returned to their root and were rewarded with the return to the land of Israel, which means that they acquired attributes that were equal to that land. Ahasuerus freed them and allowed them to return to their land. Later Esther’s son and Ahasuerus helped them build the Second Temple and the exile in Babylon was over.
Several centuries later the Second Temple was destroyed because of the hatred that once again broke out among the Jews and once again they were exiled from the land of Israel. Today we are coming out of that exile, but every place and every state around the world has its own Haman and especially around the State of Israel.
But the rescue is exactly the same as it was during the time of Queen Esther: If we unite, we will easily get rid of all our enemies. They will free us of their evil presence and will help us just as they did in the past to restore and rebuild the Temple. It is also written in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, that the nations of the world will carry the Jews on their shoulders to their land and will build the Third Temple with them.
Having returned from the corporeal exile and living in the land of Israel, we are in a spiritual exile and have to come out of it, which means to ascend to the level of spiritual redemption from the ego that tears us to pieces, to connect in order to ascend to the level of eternity and wholeness. This is the call of Purim, the holiday of unity. We have all the necessary conditions in order to do it right here and now.
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From a Talk about Purim, 2/18/15
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One may argue whether or not the Bible, the Old Testament, is a genuine historic documentation of events. But the great sages of Israel throughout the ages had no concern for the historic relevance of the Bible. Rather, they viewed it as an allegory that depicts internal, spiritual processes that one experiences along the path of correction. To them, Nimrod, king of Babylon, represents meridah [Hebrew: rebellion], defiance against the quality of bestowal, the Creator; Pharaoh stands for the epitome of the evil inclination, and so does Haman, albeit at a later stage in one’s spiritual development.
This is why RASHI interprets the Babylonian Talmud as follows: “His name was Nimrod for he himrid [incited] the whole world against the Lord.”[i]
Regarding Pharaoh, Maimonides explains affectionately, “You should know, my son, that Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is in fact the evil inclination.”[ii] Similarly, Elimelech of Lizhensk, author of Noam Elimelech (The Pleasantness of Elimelech), simply wrote, “…Pharaoh, who is called ‘the evil inclination.’”[iii]
Rabbi Jacob Joseph Katz added depth to the distinction regarding Pharaoh. He explained that the words, “Pharaoh had let the people go” (Exodus 13:17), designate the stage in one’s spiritual development when a person breaks free from the evil inclination’s heavy shackles. In his words, “‘And when Pharaoh had let the people go’—when one’s organs exit the authority of the evil inclination, as during the exodus from Egypt, they came out of the forty-nine gates of Tuma’a [impurity, egotism] toward sanctity [bestowal].”[iv]
Within the same book, Rabbi Katz adds his insights regarding Haman: “Haman’s instruction to make a gallows fifty cubits high is the counsel of the evil inclination.”[v] Similarly, Rabbi Jonathan Eibshitz writes in his book Yaarot Devash [Honeycombs] of “Haman, who is the evil inclination…”[vi]
More recently, Kabbalists and Jewish scholars began to feel that time was of the essence and that the Age of Correction was nearing. They began to add implicit, and sometimes explicit calls to action to their words. Thus, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, sensing that the application of the correction method was urgently needed, made a direct link between overcoming the evil inclination and the way it must be achieved today—through unity. In an essay titled, “There Is a Certain People,” Baal HaSulam tells us, “‘There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.’ Haman said that in his view, we [Haman’s people] will succeed in destroying the Jews because they are separated from one another, so our strength against them will certainly prevail, because this [separation among them] causes separation between man and God.”[vii] That is, the egoism of the Jews separates them from the quality of bestowal, the Creator, so the strength of the ego, the evil inclination, “will certainly prevail.” “This is why,” continues Baal HaSulam, “Mordecai went to correct that flaw, as it is explained in the verse, ‘The Jews gathered…’ to gather themselves together, and to stand up for their lives. This means that they had saved themselves by uniting.”[viii]
We can therefore conclude that whether or not Nimrod, Pharaoh, Balak, Balaam, or Haman actually existed is of lesser importance. What is important is that the traits portrayed by these characters exist within us, and the Bible only allegorically narrates the stages by which we can overcome them.
When we prevail over these qualities of egotism, we are rewarded with redemption—the quality of bestowal, the equivalence of form with the Creator. And because the Creator desires to do good to us, once we have corrected these traits within us, they will haunt us no more, since we have been redeemed from egotism and acquired His quality of bestowal.
If any of these examples of egotism lived today, we would certainly categorize them as anti-Semites of the worst kind. To that effect, the Rav Kook made a forbidding (and true) prediction while drawing a direct link between modern anti-Semites and biblical ones. In a rather unorthodox statement he writes, “Amalek, Petlura [Ukrainian leader suspected of being anti-Semitic], Hitler, and so forth, awaken for redemption. One who did not hear the voice of the first Shofar [a symbol of a call for redemption], or the voice of the second … for his ears were blocked, will hear the voice of the impure Shofar, the foul [non-kosher] one. He will hear against his will.”[ix]
[i] Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Hulin, p 89a.
[ii] Maimonides, The Writings of Rambam [Maimonides], “The Ethics of the Rambam to His Son, Rabbi Abraham.”
[iii] Elimelech of Lizhensk, Noam Elimelech (The Pleasantness of Elimelech), Parashat Beshalach [Portion, “When Pharaoh Sent”].
[iv] Rabbi Jacob Joseph Katz, Toldot Yaakov Yosef [The Generations of Jacob Joseph], BeShalach [When Pharaoh Sent], item 1.
[v] Rabbi Katz, Toldot Yaakov Yosef [The Generations of Jacob Joseph], Acharei [After the Death], item 1.
[vi] Jonathan ben Natan Netah Eibshitz, Yaarot Devash [Honeycombs], Part 2, Treatise no. 10.
[vii] Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag, Shamati [I Heard], essay no. 144, “There Is a Certain People” (Canada, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2009), 300.
[viii] ibid.
[ix] Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (Raaiah), Essays of the Raaiah, vol. 1, pp 268-269.
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