Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word [about the work of the Creator], and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do.
Then, when the assembly is with this intention, then “More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse,” and the Creator approaches them and He is with them (Maor VaShemesh, “VaYechi”).
Now we are in a gathering of friends. We have to think all the time about how we are getting closer to each other, how we want only one thing: to begin to feel the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us, not in each of us, but in the connection between us. This is very important!
That is, I do not want to reveal the Creator in myself, this is egoism. Watch where the border between our animal world and the spiritual one runs! I want to reveal the Creator in the connection between us, as a quality of bestowal and love, my own toward all my friends.
I do not want the revelation of the Creator in order to see Him, to know, to understand, and to enjoy Him. These are egoistic qualities of a person. They should be avoided. Try to control yourself; try to rise above yourself. [292564] From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1
Question: Neurophysiologists say that a person is just a confused animal, and that feeling love is a result of a cocktail of pheromones, dopamine, and oxytocin.
Psychologists do not agree with this. They say that feeling love is something more than the sum of its components: mental, social, and so on.
Philosophers do not argue with anyone. They say that love confuses a person and is the cause of all the stupidity and all the discoveries humanity has made.
Answer:Kabbalists define love as the highest connection of a person with everything outside of him and makes him similar to the Creator.
Love is a means to become like the Creator. Love is something that exists outside of us. There is no love in an individual. And therefore, no physiologists and no psychologists can know anything about it. They think about everything only on the basis of pheromones and the like.
Love is the exclusive property of the Creator given to us, and with its help we can raise ourselves from the animate to human level. Man is Adam. “Adam” from the word “Edomeh”—similar to the Creator. [291481] From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 12/6/21
We exist in order to achieve a certain goal, and it is not within our life but in what we reveal in all nature, which is called the Creator. In Kabbalah, the concept of nature is equivalent to the concept of the Creator.
Upon reaching connection with all of nature, not only with what we now see and observe in our small world but with its wholeness, we begin to feel that we exist eternally and in perfection. It is this level that a person must reach during this life. This is the only purpose of our existence.
And this is not what our education gives a person. We teach him just like an animal teaches its young to survive, to create a family correctly, and to produce offspring. So, from generation to generation, we take care of our life at the animate level.
It doesn’t matter that our technologies develop because as long as our animate organism, our body, exists, we want to create seemingly the most comfortable environment for it. Therefore, this level is animate and a person does not differ from an animal.
In fact, it is the category of human that we can develop in us so that we feel an eternal, perfect state, when each of us rises above our petty egoism and reaches the general sensation of whole nature. Nobody teaches us this.
If you want to uplift a person, you must show him a different perspective, what it is that is worth living for, what it is that is worth directing your efforts to. And if all this life is only inside the animate body, then I do not care about anything: I can jump from the roof, I can do whatever I want with myself. Nobody cares about me and I do not care about anyone because everyone feels like a little individualist.
All our relations in society are built on this: “I do not touch you, you do not touch me.” And this is completely wrong. From day to day we reveal how universal nature is, how interconnected we are in a small village, how the butterfly effect, mutual responsibility, and mutual influence on each other works.
From the side of nature, we reveal that everything is interconnected and is in such close dependence that there is no escape from it.
Question: Perhaps we are not yet aware that laws of interdependence apply directly to our lives?
Answer: Even if we are aware of them, we still cannot take over. Moreover, we do not yet have the opportunity to approach their realization.
The science of Kabbalah is being revealed in our time, it deals with this, and it can give us such an opportunity. But we are only at the beginning of the path and humanity does not yet understand what it is. [291705] From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Generation” 8/24/09
When acclaimed conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who became known as “The Elephant Whisperer,” passed away in 2012, something amazing happened: After being out in the wild for a long time, the elephants that Anthony had saved years before marched 12 hours back to his house to grieve his passing. According to BBC One, the elephants “stayed there silent for two days.” Even more remarkably, “Exactly one year after his death, to the day, the herd marched to his house again. It is something that science cannot explain.”
The world we live in is connected in ways we do not understand, but we are slowly learning. Our self-absorption wants us to focus only on ourselves, but reality is forcing us to look outside, and teaches us that there is so much more out there to be found.
As Anthony’s elephants demonstrate, all of nature senses its connectedness and lives according to its dictates. Humans, however, are devoid of that feeling and therefore act as if they are alone in the world.
However, civilization is becoming increasingly connected, in accordance with all of reality, and forces us to recognize that we, too, are dependent on each other and connected to each other. Today, we are learning that beyond the physical connection there is the virtual connection. Tomorrow, we will learn that we are emotionally connected, too, that we share and project not only actions or bits of data, but also thoughts and desires, even without verbalizing them.
Eventually, we will discover that our connection is even deeper than emotions: It is spiritual. We are all one being, whose organs and cells are all of us, all of creation. This is why the elephants knew when to come to pay their respects for their savior, and to return there the following year, to the day.
When we all feel one another, it allows us to work harmoniously, in a manner that benefits everyone. If we sensed our true reality, we would never make mistakes, never hurt anyone, and no one would ever hurt us since we would feel as one. Why then are we denied such vital knowledge, which all of nature but us seems to possess?
All of nature acts on instincts. Humans lack most instincts that animals have. Instead, we must learn everything from scratch through our own efforts and the teaching of our parents and teachers. There is a reason for it: When we learn through our own efforts, we acquire a deeper understanding of our world and of reality.
The same goes for the knowledge of our interconnectedness and what it entails. We are devoid of the sense of our interconnection so we may develop it through our own efforts. What elephants sense naturally, we must develop laboriously. However, in doing so, we understand how everything works and gain a profound perception of our existence. In other words, our ignorance allows us to achieve the purpose of our lives, but until we achieve it, we are a menace to the world.
There are two ways we can achieve our life’s purpose: The first is to let nature take its course. We can let it drown us in floods, burn us in fires, crush us under the ruins of earthquakes, or pit us against each other to the death. Another way is to take upon ourselves to learn the ways of nature, how everything operates in connectedness and harmony, and start changing our relationships according to what we learn from nature. As we “practice” kindness, we will become kinder and develop deeper feelings for the people and the world around us.
Practice really does make perfect. We can build social structures, such as small groups, where we will “practice” interconnectedness and mutual concern. As we develop these skills in our psyches, we will begin to feel each other on deeper and deeper levels.
If we do this, we will discover what allows elephants to know so well how others feel, as we, too, will become sensitive and aware. In addition, we will understand the “thinking,” the “logic” behind making creation so complex yet so inexorably connected, and what great knowledge and power it awards those who grasp it. [292732]
“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart,” wrote Anne Frank, the Dutch-Jewish girl who kept a diary while she and her family were in hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
In relation to the Holocaust she questioned, “Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly uptill now?” Anne and seven other family members were discovered by the Nazis on August 4, 1944 in a secret annex above a warehouse in Amsterdam. After all were discovered and deported separately to concentration camps, Anne became ill and died when she was only 15 years old.
The question of who could have alerted the Nazis about the Frank family’s location has puzzled multiple researchers for almost eight decades. Following a six-year investigation, an international team of historians and other experts disclosed the identity of the man who they believe betrayed Anne Frank’s family during World War II.
The main suspect is a Jewish notary and businessman named Arnold van den Bergh, a member of the Judenrat in the Netherlands, who presumably disclosed the Franks’ hiding place to protect his own family from deportation.
The presumption that a Jew betrayed another Jew elicited contrasting reactions; there are those who are outraged by the claim and those who say they are not surprised by this expression of Jewish self-hatred. But I choose to look at the humane side of things: never judge someone until I have walked in their shoes.
Many years ago I watched a documentary film about two Jews—one of them a prisoner put to torturous forced labor at a Nazi concentration camp, and the other, his strict supervisor who did everything he could to oppress him. Today they are good friends. And when the oppressed Jew was asked how he could look his former, cruel boss in the eyes, he answered simply: “I understand him. If I had been in his place I would have done exactly the same.”
My conclusion is simple: even if the results of the new investigation are true and indeed it was a Jew who betrayed Anne Frank and her family, we cannot judge people who are under heavy duress. We can talk about the importance of democracy, express ourselves creatively on an enlightened world, play in life like on a theater stage, but once we experience extreme circumstances in our lives and are in a situation where we are trapped, then we discover that psychology takes on a new form: fear and threat can bring us to a new way of thinking. It may even encourage deeds, which in normal conditions would be considered cruel and unthinkable. So is human nature. [292723]
Question: If I see the friends as above me, then how can I pray for them?
Answer: In that case, you should pray to be with them. If you imagine them above yourself, then you should be in prayer to merge with them. By doing this, you raise the group above yourself and pull yourself up to them with your prayer. You don’t have any other option. And again you imagine them higher and still higher, and again you pull yourself up to their level by praying that you want to be with them. And so you constantly, constantly pull yourself up. Here is the lifting technique for you—absolutely simple, clear, and practical.
Question: When I want to see the virtues of my friends, and this includes prayer, does it also refer to “above reason”?
Question: What should I do when my feelings regarding my friends suffocate me? Why do I feel the need to overcome them, but I cannot?
Answer: It is good that you feel that way. You are being shown who you are, what your nature is. And because you do not want to feel it, it seems to you that you are being suffocated. And that is correct because you do not want to get rid of your egoism yet.
What to do? Keep the thought that you must get rid of it and start with small changes in you in regard to your friends. Every day be aware of what you have managed to annul in relation to them that day—Rabash writes about it in his articles about connection in the group—and how you are progressing in this every day.
The articles of Rabash about the group should be re-read almost daily and gradually executed each time. [292347] From the International Convention “Rise Above Yourself” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1
If I accept the environment I find myself in as given to me by the Creator, to lead me forward and to meet my main goal, desire, and aspiration to reveal the meaning of life, to reveal the Creator, then everything depends on how I make myself dependent on this environment.
Therefore, the most important thing for us is to try to annul ourselves in front of this environment. When I bow before them, agree with them, suppress my egoism, and put the environment above myself, I ascend to the Creator. The Creator is inside this environment, as He said: “I dwell among my people.” [292420] From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4
Question: Should annulment be an internal action or can it have external expression?
Answer: Annulment must be internal. It can be that nobody knows about it. Although I must show also in action in front of my friends how ready I am to serve and help them. It is very important.
Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word [about the work of the Creator], and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do.
