The Torah, “Leviticus”, 23:26 – 23:28: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: But on the tenth of this seventh month, it is a day of atonement, it shall be a holy occasion for you; you shall afflict yourselves, and you shall offer up a fire offering to the Lord. You shall not perform any work on that very day, for it is a day of atonement, for you to gain atonement before the Lord, your God.

The counting of the months in the spiritual work begins in Pesach (Passover). The seventh month from Pesach correlates to Malchut, to the seventh Sefira that comes after Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. The tenth and last Sefira in Malchut (Malchut of Malchut), which symbolizes the tenth day of the month, is Yom Kippur, when a person comes to the lowest point of his nature and raises his prayer from it. This means that a person reaches a state that isn’t in his power to correct by himself, so he simply detaches himself and does whatever is in his power to raise a request for correction.

Yom Kippur is a holiday. It is a day of joy, when I have something to turn with and someone to turn to (the upper force) with this request. I can actually do that since I have reached the lowest point by my actions. In other words, I have reached the very last state through my clarifications and internal psychological searching for who I am, what I am, towards what my actions are aimed, and what am I living for. I have discovered that it is totally egoistic and that there is no connection with others within this state.

At this point I can only cry out, and this is a point of atonement and forgiveness where I feel my nature as the hateful ego and I wish to detach myself from it with all my might. I don’t want to use the ego when it comes to food, water, or in any actions, and I cannot overcome it. The only thing I can do is raise a prayer to the upper force so that He will correct me. This is the meaning of my request.

We can reach a state of atonement and forgiveness any time, regardless of the calendar date of Yom Kippur. It happens when the upper force can perform corrections on me. Only He can help me; I cannot correct myself, but I can ask Him for this correction.

Comment: Everything that happens in the spiritual world is opposite from whatever there is in the corporeal world, because for us, Yom Kippur is a day of universal grief and not a day of joy.

Answer: In the past, the state of Yom Kippur was understood correctly, but during the 2,000 years of exile, we have attributed it to our own feelings and have matched our feelings with this day. In fact, it is a state of joy because all the holidays are joyful.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/15

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Filed under: Egoism, Holidays, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work, The Creator, Torah - No Comments →

The Torah, “Numbers,” 15:22 – 15:25: And if you should err and not fulfill all these commandments, which the Lord spoke to Moses. All that the Lord commanded you through Moses, from the day on which the Lord commanded and from then on, for all generations. If because of the eyes of the congregation it was committed inadvertently, the entire congregation shall prepare a young bull as a burnt-offering for a pleasing fragrance for the Lord, with its prescribed meal offering and libation, and one young he-goat for a sin-offering. The Cohen shall atone on behalf of the entire congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them, for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, before the Lord because of their error.

There are errors a person makes unknowingly because he doesn’t feel them. He doesn’t feel or doesn’t understand that he is doing something wrong, and thus unintentionally becomes partner to or even the source of a corrupt state.

But these extenuating circumstances do not change the outcomes, and there is no turning back. But there are errors that are actually sins because a person knows that he is breaking a certain rule or prohibition. The fact that a person consciously causes society and the whole system of providence harm doesn’t stop him.

Moreover, in both cases there are different levels of errors and this is the reason that there are many additional items in the laws in our world that take different circumstances into account. The opinion of the jury who examines a specific transgression, and thus decides what legal item to attribute it to, is also taken into account.

These are very delicate matters that are part of a person’s inner world and cannot be decided without people’s intervention. It is impossible to feed these data into a computer and let it decide who is guilty and who is not. Human participation is crucial here.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/13/15

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The Jewish holidays are far beyond just observing traditions. They are interlaced with the present time much closer than we think. Jewish holidays are a trajectory of the nation’s destiny, a cardiogram of our common heartbeat.

Jewish holidays’ symbols convey the information that otherwise would be lost in the impenetrable labyrinths of history or distorted beyond recognition. The importance of the Jewish holidays extends far beyond! Our holidays deliver messages not only about our past but also our future.

5776 Years Ago

The first of the fall Jewish holidays, Rosh HaShanah (the head of the year), is the Jewish New Year. It denotes spiritual awakening. It appeared the moment people sensed an aspiration to things that are beyond their everyday routine.

The name of the first human being is Adam. He was the first one who ever thought about the meaning of life. The day Adam realized his strong desire to know what his purpose in life was is marked in the Jewish calendar as Rosh HaShanah. It is quite possible that it is the only event in ancient history for which the exact date is known. It happened on the 1^st of Tishrei (September-October), 5776 years ago.

Since then, Rosh HaShanah is not just a day on the calendar; rather, it is a developmental milestone. On this day we give an honest report to ourselves about how we lived and what we were supposed to reach during the previous year, and the coming judgment.

Getting to the Essence

Today, when the entire world is overwhelmed with a new wave of anti-Semitism, it is essential to understand what awaits us in the future. As never before, it is crucial to once and for all break this spiral of centuries of exile and unbearable sufferings that accompanied the Jewish people throughout history. The prophet Jonah’s story is always read on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). It helps us better understand the situation we are in now. We’ll get to this story a little later.

At the Festive Table

Rosh HaShanah symbolizes our aspiration to upper values, benevolent existence, sharing with and caring for each other. This is why there is a tradition to eat fish heads. It symbolizes our inclination to stand at the head of all positive changes.

Pomegranate with its many juicy seeds reminds that we are also like “seeds” and that it is high time for us to “ripen.” Our unity should result from our joint efforts. It will give us a qualitatively new boost.

We dip apple slices, an ancient symbol of “transgressions,” meaning detachment among us, in honey to “sweeten” (correct) the lack of unity among us.

How can we achieve this unity not out of fear, troubles, or despair, and sincerely desire to get closer to each other? How can we feel like we all are one family not only during wars that force us to involuntarily keep together, but also in the time of peace? For that, each one of us has to rise above our own self-interest to balance our fragmented nature by aspiring to establish positive, good relations between us. This is exactly what Kabbalists mean when it gets to description of the Jewish holidays.

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur comes after Rosh HaShanah, and for the Jews this is the most sacred day of the year. On this day we fast and pray. And the main part of the prayer is the reading in the book of the prophet Jonah. In fact, the code for the salvation of humanity is concealed in this book, even though the plot of the narrative resembles an adventure novel.

Jonah receives a task from the Creator: he must help the inhabitants of the city of Nineveh overcome mutual hatred and implement the principle “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In his time, the patriarch Abraham realized this idea and established the Jewish people on its basis. How he achieved this is a separate subject in itself. Now something else is important: the Jewish people succeeded in doing something that, in principle, is impossible.

“What would have happened to the human race if Abraham had not had the higher foresight and had remained in Ur, if had kept his ideas to himself and would not have created any unique Jewish people? Without a doubt the world without the Jews would have been radically different from the world of today.” (Paul Jones, English historian.)

Today, more than ever, not only the Jews and Arabs, Russians and Americans, but the entire world requires, if not love, then at least, an elementary mutual understanding. But today, as in the past, similar ideas are unequivocally accepted as completely impractical. So it is not surprising that Jonah decided to escape across the sea. It seemed to him that in this way he could shirk the task that was imposed upon him.

We too, like Jonah, sometimes try to take refuge in the daily routine from the big “impregnable” problems.” Others will deal with them and we will deal with ours. But from time immemorial, a reminder comes that there is a special mission for the Jews, and it is impossible to escape it.

All of Us Are in One Boat

The ship upon which Jonah sailed was caught in a violent storm. The sailors worked hard to survive: They threw everything that was not necessary overboard, prayed to their gods, and understandably they began to search for who was to blame. And Jonah, meanwhile, goes to sleep, as if everything happening didn’t concern him.

Only then, having no choice, he admitted that he had fled from the task that was imposed upon him and asked the sailors to throw him into the sea. This means that Jonah was even ready to die, just so he wouldn’t have to carry out what he was assigned. But even this didn’t help. A gigantic fish swallowed the fugitive, and three days in the belly of the fish forced him to agree to carry out the established task.

Today, when the world has become a “global village,” all of us are apparently sailing in one boat on a stormy sea, and the nations of the world, the “sailors,” blame all the crises, wars, troubles and disasters on the “only Jew” onboard, the Jewish people.

But we are still sleeping, like Jonah. Immersed in daily business, trying not to notice that the nations of the world hate us more and more; we hope that everything will somehow calm down by itself. But every new wave of anti-Semitism shows more clearly that our fate is as unavoidable as was the fate of that fugitive due to whom the storm broke out. And if the crew of the boat first tried to save Jonah, today, “The sailors of the world ship” are just waiting for the right moment to throw us into the sea. We don’t even need to ask this “favor” of them.

The Beginning of the Changes

The Jewish holidays are more than just history. The Kabbalists established them in their time and through the symbols of the holidays they conveyed their message to us, their descendants. The message directly touches upon the fate of the Jewish people.

Rosh HaShanah points to the need for the desire for higher values and the establishment of good human relationships.

Yom Kippur reminds us that escape from carrying out this role cannot continue forever. In any case, we must acquire these values and pass all of this on to the other peoples, even if, like Jonah, we don’t want this.

We see today how hatred between people and between nations, pollutes our planet more and more. Everything we do, from new technology to social revolution, ultimately leads to a new disaster and makes the hostility between people more acute.

This problem can be solved only with the help of the Jewish people. After all, the idea of unity, equality, and mutual guarantee (Arvut) is its foundation. The people who followed Abraham lived according to the law of love, with a feeling of closeness to each other.

The world is not waiting for scientific discoveries or achievements in literature and art from the Jews, the world is waiting for the Jewish people to reach unity, and by providing an example for the rest of the nations, the method of Abraham will be transmitted to them. And this will bring peace and tranquility to all peoples, which will free the Jews from anti-Semitism and will put an end to all their troubles.
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From KabTV’s “Holidays. Rosh Hashanah” 8/6/15

Filed under: Holidays, Israel, Nations of the World - 1 Comment →

All nations of the world celebrate the new year as an ordinary earthy holiday. It is only special for Jews. We celebrate the creation of Adam. This is a very significant date.

The world was created five days prior to the New Year (Rosh HaShanah). Adam was created on the day of the New Year, the fifth hour of the onset of Friday.

All significant dates of the Jewish calendar do not designate material holidays, but rather various spiritual deeds, including the creation of the world and the creation of Adam. They were the ones that gave our people the general direction of advancement to the goal.

Adam is the soul, meaning it is a power structure, a network of forces that supposedly exists somewhere in space and represents the analog of the Creator.

It was created from above by the upper force—the force of goodness, love, and bestowal. Therefore, the structure itself is in the same state of bestowal, love, and mercy toward itself, and it is an internal and self-contained “cocoon” that existed on its own; it did not have a need to develop.

In order to force this structure to develop, there was a need to shake it up somehow, to introduce an element of interference, sharp external influences. This was done with the help of the additional system called Chavah or Eve. It shifted the inner balance of Adam and as a result this structure ruptured from inside.

For example, when there is an imbalance in the atomic bomb as a result of excessive rapprochement between the two halves, the critical mass is increased and it begins to self-destruct, which leads to a nuclear explosion.

The same happened here. It turns out that we celebrate the fall. One would say that we should be mourning, fasting, weeping, and covering our heads with ashes.

Not at all, we celebrate because this breakage allows us to assemble ourselves from the pieces of Adam and Eve and come to the state similar to the upper force that created them, and we can become equal to the upper force in perfection and eternity.

So we correct what the Creator purposefully broke for us, similar to how parents disassemble a puzzle for their child so he would get smarter while putting it together. Throughout this action it is necessary to see the Creator prepared this for us and is treating us with love, wanting us to reach His perfection, become equal to Him.

This is why we celebrate this opportunity given to us as a holiday. This is the New Year.
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From KabTV’s “Holidays. Rosh HaShanah” #1, 8/6/15

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The New Year in Hebrew is called Rosh Hashanah, which means the head of the year, its beginning. The year ahead of us depends on how we start it, what goals we’ll set, what intentions we have, on our plans.

This is why we have to clearly understand why we need this year, why we exist, and what we really need to achieve.

Fortunately, we live in the world that demonstrates to us its uselessness and absolute insignificance. This is why it is much easier for us to navigate in it than it was 100 or even 50 years ago.

What can we wish for ourselves for the new year? We see how throughout all of history, humanity has constantly erred. We have tried to do something and erred; again we tried and again missed, and so it has been every time.

We cannot make one correct step. In the wisdom of Kabbalah this is explained very simply: Humanity doesn’t know its past, from where it came, and towards what it is going.

The idea is that we descended below from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) into our world, and now we must ascend upward again. But we are not conscious of the descent nor of the future ascent, and so we are found in a pitiful state.

Kabbalah tells us that if we want to be different, we need to work on the unity of our people, meaning on what Abraham did in the past in ancient Babylon, when he called to all who were interested in uniting and gathered them into a single unique group called the people of Israel.

Israel, means “Yashar-El” (Straight to the Creator) and is also “Li-Rosh” (I have a head), meaning that I am going head first. Rosh Hashanah means the same thing—head first.

It means that I begin to understand that I will always be mistaken and will receive a blow with every step forward, even with the smallest step, if I don’t know the program of creation and the way that it is leading me.

This way is concealed from the ordinary person, and if I don’t progress towards where nature is leading me but go in the opposite direction, nature will drag me back by the neck and push me in the right direction. This is the way of suffering. A correction like this is very cruel.

So it is up to us to understand the program of creation and to begin to apply it correctly; this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us.

The application is very simple; it is summed up by connection and unity. This was said to the people at the time of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai: “Do you want to be as one people with one heart, to be found in full Arvut (Mutual Guarnatee) for this, not doing to your friend what is hateful to you and loving your friend as yourself?”

All of these Mitzvot (commandments) deal with our people, within which we need to unite correctly. And in the connection between us, we discover the Creator, the upper world, the next stage of our development. The more we unite, the more we ascend above our world and begin to feel the next level of existence, the next dimension.

In principle, this is our role. Kabbalah gives precise instructions about how to do this and teaches us according to the original Kabbalistic sources.

I hope very much that the old year that has ended will teach us how to properly treat the new year, and from this day on we will learn to direct ourselves towards clear and correct development in harmony, in the connection and union between us.

If the Jewish people will do this, then it will influence the entire world positively, will annihilate anti-Semitism, and will bring humanity to prosperity by raising it to the next level of existence. Everything depends on us; only we determine the future of the world.

Let’s do this so that this new year will be good as has been determined for us from above, so that we can bring the entire world to the new state, and as it is written in the Torah, we will become a Light to the nations, we will realize ourselves in the best way. This is our destiny. Let’s ascend in this year to level of eternity and wholeness.
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From KabTV’s “Holidays. Rosh Hashanah” 8/6/15

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 14:26 – 14:31: The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How much longer will this evil congregation who are causing to complain against Me [exist]? The complaints of the children of Israel which they caused them to complain against Me, I have heard. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘if not as you have spoken in My ears, so will I do to you. In this desert, your corpses shall fall; your entire number, all those from the age of twenty and up, who were counted, because you complained against Me.

You shall [not] come into the Land concerning which I raised My hand that you would settle in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. As for your infants, of whom you said that they will be as spoils, I will bring them [there], and they will come to know the Land which You despised.

The Torah tells us about the actual levels a person climbs internally, but one doesn’t understand that it is all done by the Light and not by oneself, and one keeps forgetting that and thus cannot help being wrong.

We will make many mistakes when we try to go back. There is no other way! We must fully recognize our ego and see how big it is. We cannot do anything with this giant cyclops.

We gradually have educated ourselves on every level, on every step during the forty years of wandering in the desert so that when we are about to enter the land of Israel, we will be absolutely sure that we are totally powerless and cannot do anything by ourselves.

Neither our mind not our hearts can help us in any way. We are facing a giant cyclops, a strong army, nations that hate us that are ready to do anything so as not to let us cross their borders. The new generation also recognizes this, and things are becoming even clearer.

However, at the same time, during the forty years we gradually develop the attribute of love and bestowal between us and begin to discover the Creator in it as the source of this attribute. It turns out that we can enter the land of Israel only by faith above reason, which means with the attribute of bestowal that is external to us.

So, what is the problem? We had to be mistaken in order to discover and explain to ourselves and to the nation what is going on in the land of Israel, what great forces are there, why we cannot overcome them, and why we are so distant from each other and from the Creator.

Therefore, the sin of the spies is necessary in order to understand the extent to which we are not part of this. A person cannot leap from one level to the next without the forty- year preparation before entering the land of Israel correctly. All of the problems clarified by the spies and the revelation of the negative attitude of the nation are natural and cannot be otherwise.

There are no mistakes along the spiritual path. The calculation is realistic: what Masach (screen) do you have against your ego, whether one covers the other.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/6/15

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In the News (gazeta.ru): “The collapse of stock indices and the fall of prices of raw materials has led to hysteria and shock. Exports and imports are falling, the stock market bubble is deflating, the next is the real estate sector.

“The era of the consumer economy has ended in Europe and the United States. Demand that has been accelerated by providing loans has ceased to grow. For the world economy there is no need for metals or the current volumes of energy carriers. The Middle Eastern nations are adding problems to the oil market by needlessly inflating the oil market only to crush the competitors from the United States producing shale oil. In the United States there is a reduction in jobs in the petroleum and gas industry, and the threat of non-repayment of loans taken for the shale oil project is only growing.”

My Comment: There is no reason to panic. This is a gradual transition to a new form of existence, from one that is egoistic, beastly, and private, to one that is altruistic, humane, and social. Everything depends on awareness and on our form of participation in this transition, each person and all of us together.

An integral global system unites and forces us, both the person and the society, to be like it. Nature abhors, not just a vacuum, but also the lack of accommodation with it. To the degree of the lack of accommodation, it influences and works on the incompatible object through forces that return it to accommodation, resemblance, and balance with the general system of nature. We call these forces that correct a person and society a crisis.

In Greek: “κρίσις” is from the verb “κρίων” that means “to establish, to define, to choose.” The meaning of the word “crisis” is a solution, a turning point, meaning the point of correction, not destruction.

In Chinese, “Crisis” (危机 wei ji)—“wei” is danger, “ji” is an activating mechanism, an incentive, a creative force (of nature). In Hebrew “Rashi”—The place for the midwife is found on the birthing stones, which are also called a “Mashber” (crisis) instead of “stones.”
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Question: You say that the same soul reincarnates into our world, changing bodies. On the other hand, you say that an ordinary person has no soul and needs to build it within himself through connection with others. How can this contradiction be resolved?

Answer: None of us is born with a ready-made soul. The soul is a force that we acquire through studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. When we realize this method within ourselves, we grow a new quality of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor within which we discover the Upper Light or the feeling of the presence of the Creator, the upper force.

This additional “sixth sense,” a feeling of love and bestowal to one’s neighbor, that is acquired by the person, is called the soul. The Kabbalists write that the soul is a Kli (vessel) designed to be filled by the Upper Light. Every person must attain the root of his soul and was created only for this sake.

It is written that the soul is “the portion of God from above” (Job 31:2) through which one begins to feel the upper force.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15

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In my column in Ynet a new article was published about the month of Elul, the month of mercy and forgiveness and especially about our fate.

“We Sinned, Betrayed, Stole…United!”

We find ourselves in a state of war every other year. When this happens, we are the world champions in connecting and in mutually caring for one another, but when the last missile lands, we quickly pull out the arrows of hate. That’s the way we are, but are we meant to live that way? Is this really our fate?

The month of Elul quietly arrives at the end of every year and we put on a righteous face (after all, this is the month of mercy and forgiveness) and cannot just let it go by. So we rush to call out: We sinned, betrayed, and transgressed. Beautiful. But what?

Even a quick glance around doesn’t promise us a rose garden. Hamas continue to dig tunnels; the Iranians keep fooling everyone and continue to arm themselves; the Europeans are experiencing a first encounter with the Middle East, and the world is losing its balance. Some may say that the Jews can never benefit from a situation like this, and that the waves of anti-Semitism and different anti-Israeli organizations are on their way to us and our families in the Diaspora.

Tracking Our Roots

We have to go 4,000 years back to the days of ancient Babylon in order to understand our fate. It was then that a wise man Abraham discovered that if people’s ego grows sky high, they cease to understand one another and begin to fight each other. Remember the Tower of Babel? This is exactly what it is about.

Abraham developed a method of working with the human ego correctly so that it can help people connect more strongly to one another and rise above the hate and the fighting. Together with his wife Sarah, he established a system of disseminating the method of connection that he developed. Eventually thousands gathered around him, which eventually formed our nation.

Since then, our relations are defined by clear laws: The moment we harm the connection between us, hatred and contempt overcome us. When we grow weaker internally, there are forces that immediately rise to destroy us externally.

Introspection?

The last year should make us all realize that if we don’t start a meaningful process of connection between us, our country could fall apart. The division, the polarization, and the gap between us is growing increasingly greater from day to day. The ego is growing in each of us and no one can give it up in order to connect, and so there is no doubt that we need help. We need a method that will teach us how to channel the ego, that can explain to us what the right connection is and how we should connect.

This is exactly what the wisdom of Kabbalah that Abraham established engages in, and today we need it more than ever before. We need the uniting force that connected us then. Only if we use it will we survive and actually become invincible.

Happy New Year!
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Filed under: Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World, New Publications - 1 Comment →