Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “From Division to Unity: The Book of Zohar’s Vision for Society”
It is written that as the days of the Messiah approach, The Book of Zohar will be revealed to all. This does not mean that the physical text will be found on every bookshelf, dusted off every week. Rather, it means that a clear understanding of its teachings will spread throughout humanity. As Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote in his “Speech for the Conclusion of The Zohar,” its wisdom will illuminate the path of the people of Israel becoming a united people in the Land of Israel—a people shaped by the supreme law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
However, there currently exists a vast disparity between how the people of Israel relate to each other and their ideal relations that the scriptures depict. It seems as if we head in an opposite direction to unification. Even at times of war, we see ourselves drifting apart, distancing ourselves from our role of uniting above our differences in order to become a conduit for such unity to spread worldwide. While this contradiction is disheartening, we need to acknowledge that a turnaround can happen in an instant. The stages of transforming ourselves from a divided to a united people, with threads of mutual love and care in our connections, defy human logic.
Yet our increasing distance from each other signifies our forthcoming closeness. How can that be? The people of Israel’s current state aligns with the Kabbalistic texts’ depiction of the initial pre-Messianic era stage, one that precedes humanity’s transformation from division to unity. It does not mean that we will acquire an immediate revelation of higher wisdom or that we will instantly unite as described in The Zohar. However, we are indeed headed to a critical juncture where we will find that we need to either comply with nature’s laws of mutual love, bestowal and connection, and seek to match our connections with nature’s, or we will face destruction. We thus need to prepare our synchronization with the very natural laws that guide our development to higher states of unity.
Our journey thus far highlights our shortcomings—how poorly we relate to each other and how we resist applying the required inner changes in our attitudes to each other. From this state of resistance to unity above division, we need to recognize that salvation lies solely in our unity.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” is our guiding principle and our failure to uphold it will result in self-destruction. Once we grasp the need to aspire for drawing closer together and correcting our attitudes to each other—from flowing with our divisive drives until they drown us, to rising united above the floods of our division—then we will uncover inner strengths and abilities, as well as a source of constant support, encouragement and confidence.
The Book of Zohar has yet to become revealed in its full glory. We have yet to acquire a complete understanding of what is written in The Zohar, and use it for its intended purpose. But we have to be ready for the revelation of the states it describes, and to long for them to happen.
We have undergone a period of preparation for The Zohar’s revelation, we just lack clarity on why and how we should approach it, and to awaken our hearts to the sublime states of spiritual unity that it leads us to.
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The externality are the nations of the world. The branch that extends from the externality is the rest of the nations. They have not been imparted the qualities that make them worthy of receiving the conducts of development of the purpose one at a time. Rather, they are fit to receive the correction at once and to the fullest, according to their upper root (Baal HaSulam “A Handmaid Who Is Heir to Her Mistress“).
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