Dear Jewish People:
We are together before the greatest and most important day of the year. Why? Because on this day we can correct our relationships between us, toward reality and the entire world. #YomKippur
From Twitter, 10/7/19
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The Times of Israel published my new article “What Forgiveness Should We Ask for on Yom Kippur?”
We Jews anger the Creator constantly, endlessly, and in every situation, when we agree to division and hatred among each other, and do not want to connect.
The Creator strongly desires for us to be united because from that force of connection, He will become revealed to humanity. By facilitating this action of connection, the Jewish people truly become a “light unto the nations,” and a conduit of peace and tranquility to all.
However, the opposite is currently happening.
Due to our alienation, we prevent all the goodness from spreading through us to the entire world. And because of our estrangement from one another, we need to ask for forgiveness this Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement).
The Role of the Jewish People and Yom Kippur
A key part of the Yom Kippur prayer service is in reading the book of Jonah the Prophet. In the story, God orders Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, who had become very abusive toward one another, to correct their relationships if they wanted to survive. However, Jonah evaded his mission. He took to the sea in an effort to escape God’s command.
Like Jonah, we Jews have been inadvertently avoiding our mission for the past 2,000 years. For this reason, we have suffered terribly. If we want to alleviate more suffering, especially today, in times of rising anti-Semitic tides, we simply cannot afford to keep remaining indifferent to the role we have to fulfill.
“Since we were ruined by unfounded hatred, and the world was ruined with us, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love, and the world will be rebuilt with us.”
– Rav Avraham Itzhak HaCohen Kook, Orot Kodesh (Sacred Lights), Vol. 3
Yom Kippur, traditionally considered the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, is observed on the 10th of Tishrei. It is also known as the Day of Judgement. But who judges? And who is being judged?
It is the individual who judges himself. We are accustomed to examining our actions in the world, but we should also examine our intentions, especially with regard to others, like taking an X-ray of the heart’s intentions, checking to see how well we were able to rise above our egoistic self-interests to care for the needs and desires of others.
Why? It is because through such concern, we reveal the world for what it really is: a unified and interdependent system.
The role of the Jewish people, as explained by our sages, is to pave the way for unity above all differences as the only solution to all the evils in the world-–to serve as an example of unity for the rest of humanity. However, what do we see instead? We see deepening division and rejection of one another. Therefore, the nations of the world complain about our wrongdoing, despising us, punishing us and even desiring to annihilate us.
This hostility toward Jews is manifest in the spike of hate crimes worldwide, targeting Jewish victims for no reason other than religion. In Berlin alone, an average of two anti-Semitic incidents are reported daily, a total of 404 cases in 2019 (until April), as informed by the city’s commission for combating anti-Semitism. In New York City, violent attacks against Jews are spiraling out of control with anti-Semitic crimes up 82% this year, as compared to 2018, (a total of 152 cases so far, while over the same period last year, there were 93 incidents) according to the Police Department’s statistics.
Day by day, the multi-faceted sensation of instability in the world increases people’s need for calm and contentment. This increasingly causes sentiments of anti-Semitism to boil within humanity.
The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that hatred against Jews is triggered by our lack of desire to unite: among each other and with the Creator. When we are divided and reject one another, we block the passage of the force of love and connection through us to humanity. Then, humanity’s insistent demand for a better and more united life surfaces with force, inflicting us with blows.
“In such a generation, all the destructors among the Nations of the World raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the Children of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63), ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.’”
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Book of Zohar.
Transforming a Mournful Day into a Happy One
Yom Kippur is the state where I reveal the egoistic force of separation within as something evil. After I discover it, I can then approach the Creator with this evil and demand correction from Him. This transforms the Day of Atonement into a day of joy because I discover the ailment for the evil within me, my selfish nature. In other words, I find how my ego needs to be corrected in order to fix my relationship with others, and that it is the cause of all division, conflict and crisis in the world.
People often consider Yom Kippur as a sad day because they do not realize that what is perceived as “bad” could be used as a springboard to attain good. What is regarded as good or evil depends entirely on one’s attitude. For example, if, during a routine visit to a doctor, one discovers that he has a disease, then the evil was revealed so that it could be treated and healed. This is an example of how the discovery of something bad in you turns out to be something good.
“There is no happier moment in a person’s life than when he discovers how absolutely powerless he is and loses faith in his own strength since he exerted all possible efforts that he was able to, but reached nothing. This is because precisely at this moment, during this state, he is ready for a complete and clear prayer to the Creator.”
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Pri Hacham: Igrot Kodesh.
This moment is called a personal “Day Of Atonement.” From this moment on, a person can be certain of receiving the light of correction.
Our Entry to the Book of Life
I earnestly hope that we use Yom Kippur as an opportunity for introspection and realize the true reason for our suffering and the suffering of the world so that we will be able to fulfill the role that humanity expects from us:
“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a kind of gateway through which the sparks of purification will flow onto all of mankind throughout the world, until they can perceive the pleasantness and serenity that exist in the kernel of love of others.”
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).
May all the Jewish people lead by example and be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a good year.
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Question: During its development, the soul undergoes various transformations. From a religious point of view, heaven and hell are a certain stage of development of the soul. I would like to know what it means from a Kabbalistic point of view.
Answer: It is not what religions say.
Heaven is a state of joy of bestowal to others. Hell is the state when I literally burn with shame.
Hell is a feeling of shame. Heaven is satisfaction from love. But all of this is on a spiritual level. There is nothing else.
Question: What causes shame?
Answer: Shame occurs when you see how opposite you are to the Creator.
In Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, we study that the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) happened because the Kli (vessel) discovered its oppositeness to the Creator, and feeling shame, it made the restriction on itself.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/23/19
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Perception of reality is impossible to explain in words; you either see reality or you do not. If I take off my glasses, I will not see anything in front of me. I will know that there are people there and I will hear their voices, but I will not see them. In order to see reality through the Creator’s eyes, we need such glasses in which we could see the soul that exists in everyone and in all of us together so that it would be as one whole. This is how it works because perception of reality, as the sum of individuals, a sum of units, requires a different, integral approach.
We want to depict the Kabbalistic groups around the world as one group, and we want to care for all equally, rising above our personal concern for our ten, our country, and our language to the common soul of all humanity, the entire Babylon. This is all in order to correct our perception and see reality through the Creator’s eyes, in an integral and collective form.
Therefore, we should now try to think about the common soul, at least about all our groups in the world, in order to step over all differences between us. Everyone will thus correct their shattering and our perception of reality will become more integral.
How can we do this? It can be done only by working on our feelings with the help of the mind, understanding how important it is to connect the parts of the shattered soul. We must do everything in our power, and we will then arrive at the prayer that will save us. The problem is that it takes a lot of effort to reach such a prayer, when I understand that I cannot realize what I desire, but I want it very much and I know whom to ask and that He can help me.
We correct nothing by ourselves and make no connection to each other. Yet, if despite the rejection, we nevertheless make efforts, then we turn to the Creator who completes the work for us. This is how we should prepare for the congress in Bulgaria: do everything possible and then part of the convention will become a prayer.
This is no longer a relationship in the ten, the understandable human connection that is in my field of vision and sensation, but rather something intangible and unclear: with whom and how do I connect? I do not have the forms within me through which I connect with other groups into one Kli; therefore, all that is left for me is to pray, to ask.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/19, Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”
Minutes 20:50 to 28:06
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New Life 246 – An Integral Education Course, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe
We need to obtain a special desire to receive, the kind that doesn’t disappear as soon as it is filled. We can only truly enjoy from mutual love, from the desire to fulfill others. We can learn how to rise above the desire to receive and attain a desire to love others through connecting workshops in a course in integral education. This course touches on the most important emotional questions for a person. Who am I? What am I? What do I live for? People learn how to be open and overcome the feelings of coolness and rejection that arise when we approach one another. We succeed when we have the right attitude toward others thereby creating a common emotion called the center of the group, which becomes a source of happiness, warmth, freedom, and fulfillment for all.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 246 – An Integral Education Course, Part 2,” 10/29/13
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Rabash, Article “What Is the Measure of Repentance?” (1989)
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 65
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It is impossible to eradicate the will to receive because it is creation itself. You can confuse yourself, get drunk, rush after one desire instead of another, extinguishing the first desire in such a way, but it is impossible to uproot a desire. I can ignore it out of fear or because of other stronger desires, but it is impossible to fight it directly.
Even the reforming light does not change the desire itself; it only raises or lowers its importance. Yet, all desires remain with a person as they were given to him at birth. If a person attributes no importance to the desire, then he can as if erase it from the screen on which he sees the world. There is no other way because the entire creation is a desire.1
Before the convention, I expect that the European tens will establish connections with each other and with all other world groups. There should be one common virtual meeting place where everyone can meet, get information, and recharge.
We need to be included in each other not only on an informative level, but also in feeling. I want to feel the friends as the organs of my body that were separated, and I must bring them closer to me. As much as I bring them closer and increase my sensitivity to them, I enliven them and begin to feel them alive, connected with me, and living within me, to that extent I build a vessel of the soul until the Creator is revealed in it.2
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/19 “Correction of the Shattering – Preparation for the Congress”
1 Minute 3:10
2 Minute 19:35
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The Times of Israel published my new article “Rosh Hashanah: Looking for a Leader of the Jewish People”
Israel’s political mayhem after the elections comes as no surprise. The dead heat between the two main parties in Israel and the fierce deal-making to form a coalition capable of governing the country reveals the great divide within Israel’s society.
Why should a Jew in Manhattan, Paris or Buenos Aires care? Why should this situation be a matter of concern for the Jewish New Year?
As we celebrate Rosh Hashanah—the beginning or “head” of the year—it is time to reflect as Jews on our connection as a people, regardless of the place where we celebrate around the dinner table. We are in the thick of a groundswell of hatred against Jews and Israel that will leave no stone unturned and no time for second-guessing.
Now more than ever, Israel’s leadership must also lead all Jewish people, fostering unity both in the Land of Israel and toward the Diaspora in order to tackle the great divide between the two communities.
In recent years, young Jewish Americans have experienced an increasing loss of Jewish identity, and a growing indifference toward Israel as the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.
The internal and external pressures we face as Jews every day, in every part of the world, enhance the sense of urgency of needing to come to terms with our divisions. What happens in Israel must be relevant to all Jews because even if it is not always evident to us, we share a common destiny, an invisible but indivisible link.
Realizing this indivisibility and working toward unity should be the Jewish people’s highest priority in order to have the strength to face today’s existential threats. Our enemies make no distinction between you and me, between leftist and rightist, between religious and secular, between an Israeli Jew and an American Jew.
Consequently, we need to stand side by side as one.
5,880 Years to Break the Siege
This year, Jews all over the world felt less safe. The deadly shootings at synagogues in Pittsburg and Poway were a major wake-up call to the anti-Semitic terrorism that can unfold at any given moment in the heart of American society.
Large cities in the US have also experienced a sharp spike in violent attacks against Jews. The New York Police Department registered 184 hate crimes by the end of June targeting 110 Jews. The number of incidents almost doubled compared to 2018. In contrast, overall crimes in the city decreased to a record low.
In Europe, 89% of Jews feel anti-Semitism has increased in their country over the past decade, and a similar percentage believe it to be a serious problem. Meanwhile, the economic, academic and cultural boycotts against Israel, known as the BDS, are expanding around the globe.
Therefore, whoever will govern the country must understand that a weaker Israel and a widening gap between Israel and the Diaspora will only increase threats against us and anti-Semitism throughout the world. As reality has proven to us time and again, and as history shows, when we are divided, our enemies rise against us. As we head into the new year, we must finally be ready to reverse that fate for good.
A Change for the Better
Rosh Hashanah, comes from the Hebrew words, “Rosh Hashinui” (“the beginning of change”). It symbolizes our aspiration to acquire higher values, benevolence, sharing, and caring for each other. All of our Jewish festivals symbolize milestones along the path of our transformation of the evil inclination—namely egoism—to altruism, to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Rosh Hashanah tradition to eat a fish’s head symbolizes our decision to be at the forefront, not the tail, leading ourselves and others toward unity.
The pomegranate we serve at this time of the year, with its numerous juicy seeds, reminds us that we, too, are like seeds, that it is time for us to ripen spiritually through unity. The seeds also represent our egoistic desires, which we want to learn how to use in a more balanced way—for the sake of others rather than selfishly—realizing our aspirations through our many contributions to society.
The meaning of the apple we eat at Rosh Hashanah is the primordial “transgression” of self-centeredness. We dip it in honey to symbolize its sweetening (correction) through our reestablished care for others. To achieve this state and rekindle our brotherly love, we have to rise above our egoism, balancing it with its opposite altruistic force by establishing positive connections between us.
The Head, Not the Tail
Let’s consider further the symbolism of the fish’s head in the Jewish New Year customs. Israel and the Diaspora need leadership that will also take care of our younger generation, which is losing grip on its traditions.
What kinds of actions should be taken toward this end? First and foremost, an educational framework needs to be established that explains the following essential questions:
We need to work in close cooperation with representatives of world Jewry, even if their views seem completely opposite, and to take into consideration their perspectives in Israel’s policymaking process. It is important for us to find a common language and to work in mutual guarantee (Arvut) with one another.
The leadership Israel requires is one that will show how crucial it is for all of us, without exception, to connect, to be “as one man with one heart,” and to give the world the key to attaining that unity. The Jewish people require leadership that will let every Jew live safely in the country of his birth and to open its doors to every Jew in times of trouble.
This demand for change must begin within ourselves. It is the choice of each of us to transform our state of separation to one of cohesion, for with that change of state also comes the transformation from insecurity to safety. And there is no more beautiful time to start realizing the power of our unity than now, around the Rosh Hashanah festive table.
We are of many different ages, tastes, backgrounds, ideas and points of view, but we should not try to change or erase any of that. On the contrary, our uniqueness is the treasure that each brings to the world. We should preserve our differences, rise above them, and cover them with mutual love and respect like the white cloth that covers the festive table. This is our special family recipe for a rounded and sweet life, and for a promising future as a nation.
Let’s raise our glasses of wine and make a toast to our unity.
Happy Rosh Hashanah!
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Question: You have been on the path of correction for so many years. Can you say that you are a free person?
Answer: I don’t know if there is a free person in our world in the sense that you are asking the question. In fact, freedom as we understand it doesn’t exist. It is possible only when you know what the truth is and can act for the sake of it.
Question: To the degree that I become like the Creator, do I become free?
Answer: Without a doubt, because the influence of the Creator on us is the characteristic of bestowal. If you acquire it, then you understand the Creator and the Creator understands you. To this degree you become free from both your egoism and the influence of the environment.
Question: Does a degree of freedom exists as a state of freedom against the violence and coercion by the desires of another person or group of people?
Answer: No, we almost always are affected by other people. The whole question is which society I should situate myself in. If I put myself in a society that is advancing toward the right goal, submit to it, and obey it, then this is how I attain that goal. That is how we must realize our freedom.
Question: What is the difference between freedom of choice and freewill?
Answer: Freewill consists of choosing how to behave. Freedom of choice is the choice itself.
Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah, how accurate is Hegel’s postulate that “freedom is a conscious necessity”?
Answer: This is purely a small materialistic misconception.
Question: Are all the thoughts, desires and actions I perform generated by the Creator?
Answer: Right now, yes, but when you begin to acquire a Masach (Screen), then the Creator will not do what He wants within you; instead, you will do what you want with the Creator.
Question: Everyone has his own personality. What is it?
Answer: The personality doesn’t bother us. All the same, you are carrying out your egoistic demands. So it doesn’t matter what your personality is. One person loves to eat, the second one likes to dance, a third wants to sleep. What difference does that make? In every case you are carrying out your desires.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/12/19
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