Entries in the 'Ancient Babylon' Category

Prepare to Enter the Spiritual Path

749.02Question: You said that until now all your students have not developed as a group. Then how did they develop? What kind of process was it?

Answer: If we take the history of humanity as a basis, then from Adam to Abraham there were twenty generations, so-called “ten plus ten Sefirot,” which constitutes the growth of egoism.

Following, in the state of “Babylon,” in the time of King Nimrod, who is a prototype of Pharaoh, there was an enormous, explosive growth of egoism.

After that, a person “fled” from this egoism with the help of a point within him called “Abraham,” and took along a small portion of desires toward the land of Israel (“Israel” – Yashar El, meaning “straight to the Creator”), with which he supposedly wants and is able to exit his ego.

Then these desires also begin to grow more and more, and within them an entire “Egypt” appears, the foundation of all of egoism.

That is, within desires that had already developed to the egoistic level of “Babylon” and with which a person first approached spirituality, egoism appears again. You purify it to the level of striving toward the Creator, work on it, and then the ego appears again within you. You purify it again and direct it toward the Creator, and then it appears once more, but at a higher “resolution,” and so on.

Thus, from the initial aspiration toward the Creator, called “Adam,” to Abraham, there were twenty generations, that is, twenty degrees, on which you constantly strive toward the Creator and must continuously choose: extract this aspiration and discard everything else as husk.

From Abraham onward begins a new stage of selection, a more refined sorting of the aspiration toward the Creator. A person leaves the entire vast “Babylon” of his desires and escapes with a small portion of desires that he selected from the quality of Adam through those twenty so-called generations, i.e., degrees.

Now, when he is in this state of selection, of subtle sorting, that leads to clarification of what it means to “strive toward the Creator,” he discovers that all of this turns into a huge egoistic desire called “Egypt.” Egypt (Mitzrayim) in Hebrew means “concentration of evil” (Mitz Ra).

A person enters these desires, develops within them, and tries to separate Pharaoh, who represents the foundation of his egoistic desires, from the “Jews” in Egypt: Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and Jacob. He tries to determine which of these desires truly represents a pure aspiration toward the Creator, and realizes that it is not a single desire, but only their combination.

When he selects their correct combination, leaving everything else in Egypt, he sees that he cannot simply separate from them, he must do so through an “escape” (a special inner action), internally detaching and fleeing with these desires. It is with these desires that he strives toward the Creator, toward the quality of bestowal, toward spirituality. This inner state is called the “Egyptian night.”

A person undergoes immense sensations of crossing the Final Sea (Red Sea), symbolizing the final egoism that separates him from the Creator.

Then he comes to the next stage called “Mount Sinai,” where all the qualities with which he fled Egypt undergo numerous processes of purification, like gold that is refined through heating, melting, treatment with acid, and filtering, removing all impurities until pure gold remains and everything else is cast aside.

Each time he approaches the next stage of purification, he sees that everything previous, which had seemed 100% pure, turns out to be almost completely impure and unfit for further use.

That is, each previous degree, although completely pure at its completion, appears entirely impure when viewed from the next higher degree because the resolution of his analysis has increased. This is how he gradually ascends from degree to degree.

Ascending Mount Sinai means that a person reveals within himself absolute hatred toward everything: the Creator, himself, and others. This terrible state leads him to the decision that he must make a radical change: completely nullify himself and accept the upper governance without any calculations, doubts, or personal desires.

In other words, he becomes ready to detach from all his current egoistic desires, thoughts, and abilities, and not use them anymore, and to use only those qualities that he will receive from above, from the Creator.

Why “from above”? Because he considers them higher than himself. In reality, they do not come from anywhere, it is simply how he evaluates them. In his system of values, they are now higher. This readiness is called “standing at Mount Sinai.”

What condition of the next stage does he now feel within himself? It is the condition of unconditional, unquestionable unification between all parts of creation so that they merge within him into one single whole. Indeed, that is how it truly is; the Creator created one unified desire. The moment a person reaches the point where he can first form this unified desire within himself is called his entry into the spiritual path.

Everything before that was only preparation, not to mention the state before Adam when a person existed like an animal. Then comes the preparation for spirituality: from Adam to Abraham (to Babylon), from Abraham to Moses (to Egypt), from Egypt to Mount Sinai, all of this is preparation.

Such preparation takes many years. In the past it took 20 to 30 years. In our time, it is shorter, perhaps 7 to 10 years. But still, these are years. They continue to shorten, because the masses are moving forward, and purification is taking place within the collective soul.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Rise Up the Stairs” 9/27/10

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Abraham’s Revolution

538Question: Can we say that Abraham changed world history?

Answer: Yes, because Abraham was the first to call on the Babylonians to resist their growing egoism that was flourishing in Ancient Babylon. Egoism prevented them from developing and gradually led the state into a huge crisis, what we call the Tower of Babel.

At that time, Ancient Babylon, located between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, was home to 3 million people. By modern standards, this is not a large population, but for the ancient world, it was quite substantial, practically the entire civilization of that time.

People lived peacefully and calmly. They had everything in abundance. They sowed grains—wheat, rye, buckwheat—planted onions and garlic, raised sheep, and caught plenty of fish. Historical evidence of this can be found in preserved frescoes with dedicatory inscriptions: “I present you with a kilogram of garlic,” and so on.

People lived simple, ordinary lives and everything was fine. But suddenly, competition flared up among them, and they began to “measure” one another by egoistic standards: I give him this much and he gives me that much. While previously one person was like a brother, a friend, and a neighbor to another, now completely different criteria for relationships appeared.

Thus the Babylonians entered a wild, terrible crisis from which they could not escape. They began to build the Tower of Babel, a symbol of egoism striving to reach the heavens, because they believed that in this way they could conquer the Creator and make Him work for them.

The belief that the sky had a solid firmament persisted in humanity for thousands of years. I have even read in Russian manuscripts that people thought if they lived near the horizon, they could dry their grain to prevent it from spoiling. That was their way of imagining things, and this notion only began to fade gradually only in the Middle Ages, with the emergence of various sciences in the 17th to 18th centuries.

Our entire civilization began with Ancient Babylon. Abraham carried out huge revolution in the world, one could even say the only one. All other revolutions were carried out “from an armored vehicle,” but he carried out a real revolution. He gave humanity the key to influencing our world, our own destiny, and through our world, other worlds as well. What he did was incredible.

Of course, there were Kabbalists before him; after all, he lived in the 20th generation after Adam. But it was precisely his generation that managed to bring a method for affecting all of humanity to our world, a method urgently needed in times of crisis, and that the world can make use of it.

Question: Noah lived in the 10th generation, yet it was Abraham who became a revolutionary?

Answer: Noah carried out his own revolution. One could say that he saved humanity, but he did it alone. He did not need a group like Abraham did. He fulfilled his mission by taking his loved ones into the ark. They weren’t actually relatives in the usual sense, but simply people who lived together like one large, close-knit family. In those days, everyone lived that way.

Noah raised this entire group of people above earthly egoism; that is, he saved them from the flood of egoism in the ark, which symbolizes the quality of Bina.

Abraham did the same thing 10 generations after Noah, but in a different state, in a different civilization. He revealed that it was possible to act differently, not through the familial but still egoistic ties as in Noah’s time.

The point is that by Abraham’s time, egoism had already corroded all of humanity. And although it consisted of many different large clans (typical of the ancient world), Abraham managed to convince them that drawing closer into a single family in spite of the egoism ruling over them was precisely their salvation.

They were still not far from understanding this because they had recently lived in peace and friendship, when suddenly egoism flared up among them and they began to hate one another. Therefore, they readily believed him, came together, and realized that this was salvation from the problems they had created for themselves.

In order to return to normal life, Abraham united them into a group in which they began to discover the correct relationships between themselves.
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From a Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/29/16

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The Method of Uniting Society

600.02Question: From which point can Abraham’s method be considered a genuine religion?

Answer: From the moment it became a unifying force, a force for building a society that becomes imbued with this idea, adopts it, and accepts it as its way of life.

This occurred when Abraham’s group, which had once left Babylon, began to form itself at Mount Sinai. It is clear that in the Torah, this story is presented purely allegorically. In reality, the people did not physically stand at the mountain; rather, these were inner states that they experienced.

From that point on, one can already say that they had a religion, that is, the implementation among the people of a structure organized in tens, hundreds, and thousands, and the establishment of correct interaction with one another within it in which the Creator is revealed as the quality of love, bestowal, and mutual guarantee.

From here begins the social movement of those who left Babylon, who in this way gradually become a nation.

In other words, the turning point was the moment when the need for an instruction arose in order to rise above mutual hatred. From here, religion begins as a method of uniting people into one whole, in equivalence with the upper force.

We call this method a “religion” because the people, in their structure, are constantly aimed at equivalence with the upper force, striving to do everything so that the upper force will be revealed among them.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 7/3/17

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An Irrational Model That Exists in Our World

934Question: When you speak about people who have received a spiritual “virus” and advanced in the corporeal world in some way, do you mean outstanding people?

Answer: Yes, this is a consequence of Bina. Bina is expansion, bestowal, a quality opposite to Malchut. When two qualities join together, egoism and some small germs of altruism that have fallen from the spiritual level, egoism receives direction and greater strength because it contains a spark of the upper light.

Therefore, such egoism is more fortunate, more successful, and this is expressed in results.

Today the Kabbalistic method is open to everyone. Once, in Ancient Babylon, only a small part of humanity used it. By the way, throughout history many people, the so-called “Gerim” from different nations (converts), joined it.

If we look at ancient history from the exodus from Egypt through the existence of the Kingdom of Israel until the destruction of the Second Temple, this was a period when huge masses of different tribes came and joined the spiritual elevation. Among them there were many great Kabbalists.

Comment: But when they joined, they did not become Jews.

My Response: What does it mean that people “join”? It means they take this method and begin to realize it within themselves, just like in Ancient Babylon. Abraham, the ancient Babylonian priest, gathered a couple of thousand people around himself, created a group from them, and from this group a people was formed, so to speak.

What does “a people” mean? It is a group of individuals united by a single goal of spiritual ascent. Whoever wants it joins. On the level of our world, there is actually no such concept as “the Jewish people.”

Comment: But in Israel it is a nation.

My Response: No, it is not a nation. Even today it is not a nation, but a gathering. When will the Jews become a nation? When they begin to unite among themselves with the force of mutual love. Only this force can unite them into a nation. There is no other force that can bond them together.

In any other nation there is a natural force from below that bonds people together. But above this group, there must be a force from above.

Therefore, today, for example, an Italian can become a Jew.

“But you are Italian!”

“I am no longer Italian, I am a Jew.”

“How is that? What about your father and mother?”

“My father and mother are no longer ‘mine’.”

I am Jewish, and I cannot become an Italian because I was not born to Italian parents. But an Italian can become a Jew of full value if he takes upon himself the method of spiritual ascent. The laws of conversion to Judaism are based only on this. And he can no longer go back and become Italian again.

This is a very irrational model but it exists in our world, although no one really understands it because it is built on spiritual laws that we are trying to squeeze into our world like into a Procrustean bed. But it does not work.

People do not understand this. It all sounds very strange. But gradually we are approaching a time when clarification will begin to take place in humanity regarding the entire historical picture: why it happened this way, what it brings, and why it must be this way.

But for now, people only have questions, and there are no answers.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Children of Israel, Part 2” 10/1/10

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The Boundary of the Kli

232.08Question: What is the reality of the restriction of the light? Why must the created being be limited in order to perceive this light?

Answer: Any spiritual state can be felt only if it is limited. The boundary of the Kli means that the Kli cannot receive more than its measure. It is precisely through its ability to set such a boundary that it gains the possibility to receive the upper light within that limitation.

Question: Does this mean that in the state of complete correction these boundaries disappear?

Answer: In complete correction, everything is entirely different.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/25, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The Gradual Ripening of Souls

284.06The soul of Abraham, like all souls, is a result of the shattering of Adam HaRishon. Within all these souls are various parts, and as they naturally unfold from the beginning of correction to its end, this leads to the emergence of special souls who begin to feel that the world is not as it appears to the rest of the souls.

The feelings of the souls stem from the fact that their discernments have not yet reached a sufficient measure to reveal and feel that although the outer picture of the world seems to contain many separate forces, there exists a deeper picture in which all those forces are governed by a single force.

We are precisely in such a state since in our attitude toward life, we do not perceive it as governed by a single force that influences us with a single intention that wishes to bring us pleasure. We do not understand that the Creator’s attitude toward us is revealed in various forms according to the changes in our own state. Yet He Himself is one, unique, and unified.

The contrast between Terach and Abraham essentially repeats itself among us in the fact that we, like Abraham, want to reveal something different from what the world sees and from what we ourselves were in our previous state, which is called “the previous generation.”

A special readiness in the soul is needed in order to feel the demand to reveal nature, all of reality, as a single system, a single force, a single thought.

This idea can be grasped only by the most “refined” layer of souls that emerge as a result of the shattering of Adam HaRishon. Then, more and more souls can begin to join them. From generation to generation, the desire to receive increases within all souls. The souls of the earlier generations are essentially the same souls that return in later cycles, only with an added desire to receive, with the revelation of “coarser,” more substantial Reshimot.

But since the souls go through suffering in this world precisely because they become coarser, these sufferings prepare them to begin asking questions and to increasingly feel that something is missing, something that would bring order and unify all the forces of reality, to feel that behind all the diversity of visible forces there must be a single program, a single thought.
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From the 1st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Follow in the Footsteps of the Forefathers

282.01Question: You say that in our nation, due to the subtlety of the Aviut (coarseness of the Kli), there is a readiness to perceive the spiritual idea. So how can we actually implement it so that people engage with it not only externally?

Answer: The readiness of the people of Israel (who are supposed to be the first to receive the Torah) stems from the fact that they are the subtlest part in the souls that began to emerge during the time of Abraham. At that time, out of all the souls in the world, this specific part that felt a connection to the upper light manifested itself.

From the collective assembly of souls, a kind of a “tribe” began to take shape, a group, a small handful of souls who, who due to their subtlety, began to correct themselves and managed to unite.

Who then are the “sons of Abraham” and the entire group that descended from him in the corporeal world? They are the consequences of the subtle souls emerging one after another again and again but on increasingly higher levels of Aviut.

In our world, this happens through the natural succession of fathers and sons. In one way or another, the souls that came from Abraham were clothed in the bodies of his descendants in the first, second, third generation, and so on.

And today, due to mutual inclusion, there are subtle souls among the nations of the world who feel the part of Israel that has mingled with them. And who knows the current state of the tribes of Israel at all; where are they all? We do not know this.

Suddenly, we are told: “Did you hear? In Pakistan, there are 25 million people related to the people of Israel.” And indeed, in the coming years, things will be revealed that we cannot even imagine today.

Ultimately, based on what we know today, we must certainly say that the part called “Jews” in this world is obligated to reach mutual guarantee (Arvut) by the root of their soul. This is their duty.

At the same time, there are parts of the nation that apparently do not bear this obligation. Therefore, we do not see them and do not know about them. Suddenly, Ethiopians or others appear among the nation. Many have not yet been revealed because their time has not come yet, even among the people of Israel themselves.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/9/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Understand the Creator’s Plan

235In the generations from Adam to Noah and from Noah onward, both in the people of Israel and among the nations of the world, the Aviut (the thickness of the desire) was still very small.

Abraham is unique in his generation in that a yearning for the Creator was revealed in him despite the fact that his father Terach was an idol-worshipper and engaged in Avoda Zara (foreign work), meaning he believed that there are many forces in the world besides the Creator that each act independently.

If a person “sees” that all these forces govern him for better or worse, he turns to each of them. He does not consider that behind them stands another force, one that unites them all, possesses thought, has a program and a goal for humanity, and uses all these forces merely as its messengers, messengers that have no program of their own, no free will, and no particular relation to a person. He does not believe that everything is governed by a single force.

This in essence is the qualitative difference between Abraham and his father. The approach that one must believe there is a single force and seek it replaces the former view of nature as a collection of many forces. This refers to a qualitative effort and distinction that requires a special purification of the “body,” that is, the desire to receive.

Abraham taught this to his followers; he taught that behind all the forces stands a single thought, a single desire. None of the individual forces contains good or evil; behind them is one thought that is good and benevolent to both the wicked and the righteous, which leads a person to the goal.

Good and evil, though perceived differently by us, serve one purpose. We must understand the plan of the Creator and accept it, relate to it rationally, correctly, and develop ourselves accordingly.

The Creator demands that we participate in our development from our own independent desire. This is the only way we can be truly independent; it is by strengthening ourselves on the path of development, that is, by accepting His program and realizing it.

In essence, no one in the generation of Abraham, except Abraham himself, grasped this idea. People did not yet have a prepared foundation within their souls to reveal the true picture of reality. Abraham, however, came to this through purification, that is, a special quality in the soul.
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From the 1st part from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Abraham—The First Jew

740.03Question: Kabbalah is a system of correction. What does the correction of Abraham’s low Aviut (coarseness) have to do with us?

Answer: The system of correcting the desire to receive was not brought to us by Abraham but by Moses.

Abraham brought us only the connection of man with the Creator. That is why he is called the first Jew (Yehudi), because he was the first to achieve unity (Yehud) with the Creator, from concealment to revelation.

Before him there were people who were in sensation without concealment. We call them the “generations of sinners:” from Adam to Noah and from Noah to Abraham. Abraham is their consequence.

But in those days, no Aviut was manifested that would give a person concealment and craving to start searching from within themselves. Abraham was the first.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/2025, Writings of Baal HaSulamThe Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)

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Egyptian Slavery Today?

944Question: On the first evening of the Passover holiday, it is customary to hold a special meal at which the Passover Haggadah is read, which is the telling of the Jews’ escape from Egyptian slavery. Is this story a simple historical narrative or does it have a deeper meaning that applies to today?

Answer: The Egyptian exile dates back to the age of the forefathers, followed by the age of the sons. The patriarch Abraham began to gather disciples from all over Ancient Babylon. He taught that it is impossible to advance and come closer while everyone is in such internecine strife and selfishness, as it happened then in Babylon.

The construction of the Tower of Babel symbolized the ultimate form of selfishness that had grown to the heavens. The whole of Babylon was torn apart by mutual hatred and misunderstanding, which is called “the confusion of languages.”

Abraham told his students that there is a single method for all mankind, but it is impossible to force it on people because it requires maturity from a person. The essence of this method is “love covers all crimes.”

Each of us is inside our egoism, but we must build a connection between us on top of it. Egoism is unfounded hatred of one’s neighbor. If I see my neighbor’s lawn is greener or he has bought a better car than mine, then I start to hate him.

This is hatred for no reason. If my son bought a nice car, I would only be happy. The more successful my children are, the happier I am, but every success of my neighbor spoils my mood.

This happened on a small scale within the neighborhood, yard, and house. But today, the whole world has turned into a Babylon: rich people and poor people are all arguing, defending their opinions, and disagreeing with each other.

We do not know what a good, peaceful life means when you do not feel any pressure. It is like living in paradise. There is no time and space and everything goes smoothly and easily. Everyone helps each other, lets them go ahead. If you need something, everyone rushes to your aid. You can be sure that you will always be supported at the right moment.

We are not used to such a life and cannot imagine it. Abraham explained to the Babylonians that it is impossible to continue living in our growing egoism and quarreling with each other. 99% of all our forces are spent on survival in the conditions of this internecine struggle.

But what if selfishness is so huge? It dominates us; it forces everyone to fight for their opinion, and compels everyone to consider themselves the smartest. It is impossible to fight your nature, and it is not necessary—you just need to rise above it.

Everyone has their own opinion, as it happens between relatives, but we are all united by a family that we all have to take care of together. We need to take this example from life. Let’s say my children do not share my political views: one has more conservative, right–wing views, the other has left-wing views, the third has become Orthodox religious, etc., everyone votes for their own party.

But if we are one family, then despite this, we love everyone and help everyone. It is important to us that this is a person close to us, a member of our family. That is how we have to take care of all the people—as if they were one family.

Then we will not pay attention to the difference of views. If someone wants to live differently, let them live. Everyone can stay with their ego if they consider themselves obligated to love others above it. Others think differently from me, but I do not put pressure on them or try to convince them by force. Everyone is free to remain as they are, which means that all crimes will be covered by love, just like in a good family.

I cancel myself in front of others and do not dictate my opinion to them, but on the contrary, I am ready to join in their desires and help them. And so everyone does relative to the others, thanks to which we create a special, warm common field, which is called the feeling of a family or one people.

We are enveloped in a cloud of love, mutual participation, unification, warmth, reciprocity. It is something completely new. It did not exist before, it is built precisely on this principle of “love that covers all sins.”
Everyone stays with their egoism, but we know how to deal with it. After all, egoism is given to us by nature, and it is obvious to us today that we cannot do anything about it. But from Abraham, we got a technique that allows us to overcome this egoism and unite.

Those who know how to connect above egoism are called Jews (Yehudim), from the word “Yehud” (unity), or the people of Israel, Yashar-El, that is, straight to the Creator. The nation of Israel was created on this basis.

After leaving Babylon, from petty strife, Israel finds itself in a period called the Egyptian exile, which is slavery to its egoism. Egoism dominates us and does not allow us to connect. No matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we work, nothing works.

It is called slavery, which is exhausting work on our material. We try to build something out of it between us, but nothing comes of it until we realize that we need to rise above our ego. It happens after many blows and hard work.

As a result, we decide that it is impossible to continue to exist like this. This is the situation we find ourselves in today. Otherwise we will just destroy each other in an internecine war.

We need to really realize that our life is slavery. The power of evil that lives in us eats us and destroys us. Then we will agree to rise above egoism as we did once before. We do not know how to do this, but at least we are fleeing from mutual hatred, we want to get out from under the power of the Pharaoh.

This means that we are leaving Egypt, running in the dark to no one knows where. We only understand that we can no longer exist in it. And then we come to Mount Sinai, seeing what kind of hatred (sin) exists between us.

We agree to rise above this hatred and unite into one person with one heart, to achieve mutual guarantee, to accept the Torah, that is, the method of unification. The main rule of the Torah is to love one’s neighbor as oneself. That is when we are born as the people of Israel, as it says, “Today you have become My people.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life 537” 3/25/15

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