Question: It is said on the 17^th of Tammuz, Antiochus Epiphanes burned the Torah and brought a statue of an idol into the Temple. If we look at that from a spiritual perspective, what does that mean?

Answer: The Torah doesn’t simply refer to the tablets or to a scroll of paper with something written on it. The Torah is Light, a spiritual force that descends from an upper level that is filled with love and bestowal unto people who aspire for this level.

The Temple refers to a person’s heart. The fact that a person is above his egoism is called holiness. So when the state of love and bestowal disappears, the Upper Light, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) disappears and the holiness also disappears, and instead a statue of an idol (of egoism and self-love) is placed in the Temple, which means in our hearts.

This is the reason that humans bow to idols. Of course, we should thoroughly purify our hearts, our attributes, our intentions, and our feelings of all the egoistic idols until we are able to aim our desires at the full connection between us, so that each of us will think only about the wellbeing of others.

Question: Is the fall from the holy level of connection also an act of destruction?

Answer: Yes, but it is essential because otherwise the Creator will not be able to insert His attributes into the created being. The attributes should be opposite and at the same time include each other inside them, the Creator should include the attributes of the created being, and the created being should include the attributes of the Creator.

Then they will begin to create attributes that come in contact, that can resemble each other, one opposite the other; the Creator descends to the created being thanks to the incorporation of the created being’s attributes inside Him, and the created being can rise at least a bit above his life, which means above his attributes and desires, and reach the level of the Creator.

Thus they mutually cooperate. This sums the whole principle of the correction called Tzimtzum Bet (the second restriction).

It is important to say that the mutual penetration of the opposite attributes doesn’t stem from the 17^th of Tammuz or the 9^th of Av but from Adam’s sin, because it is there that the system of mutual connection and the equivalence of form of the created being to the Creator already exists thanks to the sin and the clash of the polar attributes.

Thus the chain of ascents and descents should regularly take place in every person. So I wish you all successful descents, which should be followed each time by an ascent!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/11/16

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