Question: Over four thousand years of the history of the development of the people of Israel, it has been noted in various sources that the root of this nation is its unity. And if there is no unity, then another law is put in action, anti-Semitism.

For example, in the book The Light and the Sun it is written: “When there is love, friendship and unity in Israel, no calamity can happen to them, and all curses and torments are pushed away.”

Why did the sages write about this for thousands of years, but they never managed to unite the people?

Answer: The sages were trying to do it all the time. From generation to generation, they not only tried to bring people closer together, but even succeeded in this, teaching people to be closer to each other.

But in parallel with this, egoism was constantly developing in us. This is the history of humanity, when egoism is growing all the time, dividing people. Therefore, we received an instruction, which is called “Mitzvah” (from the word “Tsivui” – “instruction”) to realize rapprochement with each other, up to the achievement of absolute love, complete unity in thoughts and hearts.

Throughout history we have been trying to do this, but so far egoism continues to develop in us, and in this it overtakes us.

Comment: People really tried to unite, but they did not succeed.

My Response: It should be so. The sages wrote that this should begin only with a spiritual upheaval, with the revelation of Kabbalah to the people of Israel.

And this revelation took place in the 16th century through the Ari, the great Kabbalist, who revealed the Kabbalistic method to us and described it in his books. We study from them. After the Ari, the Kabbalists, mainly the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples, continued his work.

Studying the books of the Ari, we begin to understand how the spiritual system is built, and what our work should be in order to bring this system into a corrected state. This is a system of worlds, a system of souls in which we exist, although we do not feel it.

Comment: Five hundred years have passed since the time of the Ari, but we do not see any significant changes.

My Response: The fact is that all spiritual properties, qualities, laws, and forces gradually descend into our world, and only in our time do we see how they all begin to manifest themselves.

Today we live in a world in which egoism is openly manifested as a destructive force. People are beginning to understand that they are in a huge breakage, in rejection from each other. And this is a manifestation of such egoism and now is the time to correct it.

But humanity does not know how to do this. In front of us is some kind of evil fate, which can do anything with us, and we are absolutely helpless. And here the science of Kabbalah is revealed, which begins to openly say: “I have the opportunity to correct all this if only you listen.”
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From KabTV’s “The Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 12/9/19

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Work With Faith Above Reason” 

Lesson on the Topic of “The Law of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” 

Selected Highlights 

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The Creator, a force of good, has created the force of evil for us to reveal Him at the conjunction of these two forces instead of at their opposition. Herein lies our longstanding error!

The whole universe is one system. With our attitude we calibrate all of nature. We can blow up stars, trigger wars, establish peace. Everything depends solely on our connections. If we want good things for the world, we must establish good relations between us, and the world will be that much better off.

The Creator had purposefully broken the law of absolute mutual guarantee so as to give everyone one’s own “I”—a point of shattering from which one could feel that he exists and attains unity, mutual guarantee. Thus we embody the Creator’s name, reveal Him, and raise Him to reign over all of creation.

If I’m willing to give my efforts to the Creator only when I receive pleasure from Him, then I am like a woman who sells herself for money… But if I rise above the condition to bestow only if I receive pleasure, then I become a man, I can then even bestow to the Creator…
From Twitter, 8/30/20

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Question: Nature has given us a natural love for children, otherwise we would not be able to create families and raise offspring.

Do you think that some organization or state can take on the role of raising children? What would be the result?

Answer: Firstly, we have such examples in history, beginning with the Spartan upbringing in Ancient Greece and upbringing in special institutions in Ancient Rome, which literally spoiled children.

In addition, they practiced early conscription into the army from the age of ten to fifteen, where they did whatever they wanted with the children. They grew up very cruel, tough people, who could not create normal families. They lacked a sense of empathy to others, and without this, society cannot be created.

Question: That is, society cannot replace the skills that the family provides?

Answer: No. Up to the present day, we see that people who were not brought up in normal families are different from others. No matter how much they want to start a family, they cannot. After all, we always create a family in some way similar to the one we came from.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/21/20

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Mutual guarantee is a global law of nature, the most important and defining. There is nothing higher than it. The Creator wants the creatures to know this law. And the creation can only attain something through the contrast of opposites.

And so the Creator created us as opposed to mutual guarantee, that is, separated, unconnected, shattered, and full of all forms of egoism. We must rise above these egoistic forces of separation and begin to connect the creation anew.

There are four degrees in creation that allow you to fully reveal the Creator. In this way they were created by the force of unity, which came out of the Creator and created the four stages of direct light. Then they descended further, breaking apart and separating, creating degrees and worlds until they reached this world and turned into all kinds of substances. The substances broke down further: into molecules, atoms, subatomic and elementary particles.

But the main work of man is not to delve into physical or chemical research, into elementary particles, but to connect all the parts of creation on all levels: both physical matter and its spiritual embodiment, into one whole, and to return to the original state from which it was broken.

Creation, equivalent in form to the Creator, fully follows the law of mutual guarantee. By the same degrees that the worlds descended, shattered, and divided, creation now rises back up, binds, and connects, first transforming itself from physical material into spiritual. Spiritual matter is one where the law of unity, mutual guarantee, is fulfilled more and more.

The separation and descent of the worlds to the very bottom, down to physical matter, was done in order to enable us to bring the entire creation to unity through our own efforts because “One” is the name of the Creator. In other words, we need to recreate the law of mutual guarantee between all parts of creation.

If we do not do this in time, the process of breakage continues, and we experience more and more new problems and diseases in our lives, that is, separation at all levels: inanimate, vegetative, animal, and human. On the animal level, separation manifests as diseases of the body, on the inanimate and vegetative levels, as natural disasters.

The only thing we need is to comply with the law of mutual guarantee. We have only one task: to connect all the parts of creation into a single integrated system, into “One, Unique and Unified,” except for whom, there is nothing. This law binds all parts of nature by a simple formula called Mutual Guarantee, (Arvut) by which everything exists in perfect harmony. The feeling of this harmony is called the attainment of the Creator by the creation.

The Creator has deliberately shattered this law of mutual guarantee in order to give everyone a point of his “I”—the point of shattering from which he can feel himself existing and attaining unity, mutual guarantee. This is how we embody the name of the Creator, reveal Him, and put him as a king over creation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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All the problems and troubles in this world are the result of the revelation of the lack of mutual guarantee (Arvut), which is increasing. Therefore, we need our behavior to be correct, to return to even our ordinary material connection and mutual guarantee.

All diseases are caused by violations of the law of mutual guarantee at the biological, zoological, botanical, or social level.

There are many levels of compliance with the law of mutual guarantee, but the highest is the love of one’s neighbor as oneself. In physical and chemical form, substances bind together, and at higher levels, people’s thoughts and desires bind together. In this perfect system, which is the universe, all the galaxies are connected to each other, that is, everything depends on the mutual guarantee.

The pyramid of mutual guarantee includes at its base the inanimate level, then the vegetative, the animate, and above all, the human level. If we, being above all nature, at the top of the pyramid, fulfill the condition of mutual guarantee (Arvut)  in our desires and thoughts, in our mind and heart, this will affect all the levels below us. This will calm the whole of nature and bring it back to its integral form.

Nature will begin to behave according to the law of mutual guarantee between all its parts in all spheres. And then, of course, we will not have any health problems in the family, in human society, or even in the environment.

It is not possible to fix the environment by burning less oil or taking other protective measures, but only by implementing the law of mutual guarantee at the top of the pyramid where we are. By doing this, we will oblige all of nature below us to return to balance, reciprocity, and harmony.

The action of physical forces or the interaction of chemical substances according to their valences, according to the number of electrons around the atom, which bind together and build new substances—all these are the laws of mutual guarantee, which are revealed in different forms. All the laws of nature are manifestations of one global law.

Even the laws of human relations, psychology, and social life are part of a detailed explanation of the same global law of mutual guarantee, which we must fulfill in its entirety in order to reveal our connection with the Creator within this law. By doing this, we add our part to the Creator, and He adds His to us, and we reach the state of “He and His Name are one.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Aiming High at the High Jewish Holidays”

Images of profound introspection and deeply connected community depict the vivid atmosphere of the Days of Awe (yamim hanoraim), that pack synagogues every fall. This year, for the first time in history, COVID-19 will give a completely different feel to the High Holidays because they will be conducted mainly through virtual platforms instead of in massive physical gatherings. The physical distance being imposed upon us is no coincidence. It is a reflection of our internal state as Jewish people. This year’s High Holidays offer a special opportunity for transformation, to rise from our current division to unity of hearts.

Our new conditions are actually an indication and direction from Above of what our prayers—particularly during the Jewish holidays—should be about. Now is the perfect time to pause and reflect on our presence in the world as a people—so divided, full of unfounded hatred, without connection or reciprocity. A potent and effective prayer should be the united plea for the whole nation, and how is it possible if we hold each other at arm’s length in internal opposition? If this is our state, then we should also feel the distance physically. This is the message inside the unique conditions presented to us by the pandemic this year.

It is good for us to feel how much our self-centered games close each of us within ourselves, how hard it is to open the heart toward someone with different opinions, and how much we are divided into factions and parties and camps. We take natural pride in our community and denomination, but it should never be used to belittle, despise, or mistreat others. While our diversity is wonderful, there should be something that connects us all as one above all the different shapes and colors. Currently, we are missing that overarching capstone of love between us.

So this year, instead of mechanically congregating, we should sit by ourselves and mourn the splintered and wretched state that we have sunken into as a people. As soon as we realize what must be fixed—our fragmentation as a Jewish nation—a true prayer will burst from the depth of our hearts to breathe life into the empty words recited from the prayer book.

Originally, a synagogue, or beit knesset (from the Hebrew kinus, meaning congregating) symbolized a house of connection, a place where everyone gathers together to seek a supreme power of love and giving. If this year the striking circumstances do not even allow us to come together physically, it must be an indication that we have reached a dead end on our current path. But there is a bright side: when the evil is revealed, it provides an invitation to correct the course and chart a new path to a more advanced form of existence.

Moreover, the coronavirus era illuminates something that was hidden until now. If in the past we could be separated in our hearts and still sit next to each other, it is no longer so. There is a law in nature which requires us to adapt ourselves to a world that has evolved into a tightly interconnected state. Therefore, we can no longer relate to “Love thy neighbor as thyself” as a lovely but empty platitude. It is the absolute formula for mutual connection, without which it will be impossible to survive. We are entering a new evolutionary degree where everyone will feel that the other is truly a part of him, and we really will become like one man with one heart.

The pilot project for integral connection between people must take place first between us, the Jews. And when we crack the new code for connection between us, we will light the way for all other peoples. The end result will be joy, health, prosperity—a supreme abundance that will flow through our connected hearts.
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Medium published my new article “Fate’s Punching Bag?”

No one expected Hurricane Laura to become so catastrophic, just as no one expected the California fires to become so devastating, or that Covid-19 would still be spreading and killing come September. No one also thought that the American economy, which was doing so well, would be stopped in its tracks by the virus, that the job market, which was probably the best ever, would drop to the worst ever in a matter of weeks, or that society would be torn apart by outbursts of racial tensions. No one imagined all these, yet they happened, and are happening still. America is being hit left and right, up and down, and the land of unlimited possibilities seems to have become fate’s punching bag.

America became great thanks to brave people who dared the odds. But it will remain great only if it dares to tame its own bravado.

The United States is evidently a unique country. It did not grow out of a certain tribe or a clan but formed over time as immigrants from faraway lands migrated, often from dubious circumstances, and landed in a wild no man’s land where they could make the rules. And make the rules they did. No one was to touch another’s property, or even enter it without permission. If you walked in without permission, you could be shot for trespassing and the law would be on the side of the shooter.

But privacy went far beyond property. The settlers in the newly conquered continent determined that no one may tell anyone what to do, think, or say as long as they do not hurt their fellow person. Religion — a formidable inhibitor in Europe, from which the majority of the first settlers came — was declared as one’s personal business and therefore lost its punitive power. Everyone was free to pursue one’s dream of fame and fortune, and that was indeed the dream for which most Americans lived. In many ways, it still is.

For a long time, that dream succeeded. Pursuing it, America became the world’s single superpower; its military might, economic clout, and cultural influence pervaded every corner of the world. Everyone, from America’s best friends to its worst enemies, wanted, and perhaps still want to realize the American Dream. And that dream is mainly about money and wealth. Bit by bit, America became the leader of the free world, where people were slaves only to the injunctions of their egos.

But that could only last so far. At some point, the ego exceeded its limits and began to collapse from within. The society that was built based on the ego could not withstand its increasingly self-centered demands and started to implode. When people began to give up on realizing their dreams, they sought ways to ease their painful disillusionment. Thus, America became a nation of fugitives escaping their own emptiness. Obesity, substance abuse, homicide, suicide, extremism, and any form escapism became more likely to take root there than anywhere else in the world. Simply, people needed to get away from their hopelessness.

Nature, too, of which America was so proud, and rightly so, seems to have joined the “trend” of bashing America and has been hammering the country on all sides. In its own way, it has said to its settlers, “Enough!”

Times are changing. The ego is losing steam and has lost its chokehold on the planet. Nature is kicking back, and humanity, the ego’s personal thug, is hurting. But America, where the ego wrote the constitution, hurts the most.

In the times to come, mutual consideration will be mandatory, responsibility for one another will be a given, and ego-based cultures will collapse. We are living through a civilizational shift. It is a revolution of a kind we’ve never seen. It is not a revolution in technology, governance, economics, or in all the above combined. It is a revolution in human nature. Humanity has entered a transformational stage from which it will emerge as a whole new creation: caring, considerate, and united as one.

Those who will bury their pride will come out on top. Those who will stand by their egos will fall along with it.

America became great thanks to brave people who dared the odds. But it will remain great only if it dares to tame its own bravado.
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Another Era, Another Goal

Question: Before the Second World War, Germany introduced a lot of restrictions for Jews living there, and still they did not want to leave. Today when I read your posts in which you urge the Jews to unite because otherwise it will be worse for them, I think, if they did not feel anything even then, today it seems ridiculous.

On the other hand, I understand why the Jews did not want to come to Israel because it wasn’t sweet here either: Arabs, pogroms, dry, barren land. And if you were a successful lawyer or industrialist there, why would you come here? To engage in farming?

Answer: We will never be able to understand those times. And for the future it will not help, stop, or teach.

Question: What do you hope for when you talk about unification? Do you have a plan?

Answer: I have a plan to inspire all Jews in the world to unite among themselves, to show this example to the whole world! We are already living in a completely different era, and not in the one when the Jews had to flee Germany.

We don’t have to move anywhere today. We need to strive spiritually toward a common goal, toward common unity, and to bring all of humanity along with us. This is a completely different era, a different goal, a different period.

For more on this topic, read my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/12/19

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