Ancient Babylon receded into the depths of history, but it is still reflected in our time. Its entire course is a single process, linked from beginning to end and from end to beginning.

That is why when we see how history repeats itself, but on another level, we need to draw the right conclusions from what happened and is happening.

So, in Babylon, which was ruled by King Nimrod, Abraham’s group was formed, which challenged the “official” program of development with its own program. Nimrod said that the hatred and separation that flared up between the people must be overcome in a natural egoistic way: to settle in different places in order to have less contact with each other, in modern terms, to move out from shared to individual accommodations.

Abraham’s opinion was different: We cannot do that; we must connect. And now we have to pursue not division, but unity.

As a result, three million followed Nimrod, and only five thousand followed Abraham. This small group of distressed people, who were not satisfied with the people’s general concept, called itself “Israel” and left Babylon. “Accumulating” years, centuries, and millennia of suffering, it moved its own way up to the present day.

Question: Was the group “pushed out” of Babylon and forced to start its own movement?

Answer: I would not say that it was “pushed out.” Pressure began later, but not at the beginning.

In those days, Abraham was a great Babylonian priest and sage. The people who gathered around him realized that his method of correction, or the method of a new life, attracted them by its inner meaning, that it is not just egoistic “divorce,” separation, scattering to different places, but the movement inside. The corresponding message, the request of the soul, was awakened in them, and they were ready for it.

After all, humanity evolves not just technically; it changes form throughout history: slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, etc. In other words, it changes its shape, it changes its content. The quantitative growth of egoism also acquires a new quality.

So, the followers of Abraham felt that they could not develop just egoistically; they needed to reach a completely different level, to “jump” to the next level. Thus they adhered to Abraham, who fulfilled their internal demand.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14

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Question: How should we relate to our current state?

Answer: Today, having “departed” from Babylon 3,500 years ago, we again feel that we are back in the same place, in ancient Babylon. That’s why our time is the time of the Babylonian correction; we tried to escape from Babylon, but did not succeed because Babylon (i.e., our egoistic society) has to be corrected!

So, we must look at history as a whole, and it is irrelevant that it has been 3,500 years since Abraham attempted to create a unified society. These events reflect on the destiny of humanity. These events are being transformed, conveyed, and concentrated in one aspiration: attaining unity. So far, we continue revealing our oppositeness to it.

We have to be connected with the Creator in our studies and activities. The Creator, the force of the Light, the property of bestowal, that corrects us and without whom we are unable to cope with the task, has to be implied in everything we do.
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Question: Did Israel convey abundance and Light to the worlds in the past?

Answer: Israel have never conveyed abundance to the worlds because it wasn’t our role. We are in an evolutionary process that started with Adam HaRishon, a time that was merely a preparation.

Then Abraham began to organize the pioneer force of all of humanity. He made an appeal and began to teach the people of Babylon and wrote books, as Rambam wrote.

He didn’t simply take them out from Babylon to the land of Canaan, but did great spiritual work. It seems that he didn’t do it by himself, but he had many helpers assisting him, although it doesn’t say so anywhere. Abraham is the symbol of a whole generation, the house of Abraham. He did great work in Babylon. There wasn’t one person in Babylon who didn’t know about it.

Rambam wrote: “Abraham was forty years old when he came to know his Maker. He began to speak to all the people and to let them know that there is one God in the world and that they should worship Him. He used to go from one city to the next and from one kingdom to another and call and gather hundreds of thousands. These are the people of the house of Abraham. He implanted this great principle in their hearts and wrote books, and this process intensified in the sons in Jacob and in those who accompanied them, and a whole nation was created that knows the Lord.”

This means that it was a long whole process, and Abraham needed time in order to go through Babylon and organize his group and gather thousands of disciples. This means that the people, the souls, that were connected to the level Abraham operated on, received his message and began to act too.

Babylon corrected itself. One adhered to Abraham and followed him and another according to his desire, decided to draw away from Abraham. It is the same today when each one fulfills his own desire and chooses his own way.

Then they dispersed in every direction, according to their desires, and gathered in different groups, tribes. This is the way the world exists until this very day, but Abraham’s group had to fulfill itself and so they built the First Temple, the first step in their spiritual correction.

Immediately afterward they began to fall, since the moment you attain a certain level and fulfill it in the spiritual world, a new state immediately begins. So they began to descend: they were exiled and then returned to the land of Israel in order to stabilize the vessel on the level of Hassadim, which was the Second Temple.

The Second Temple was also destroyed. Rabbi Akiva knew this was destined to happen. He laughed at the destruction of the Second Temple since he was glad that the time of the end of correction was coming.

On the one hand, he cried out and said that people should keep the rule of love thy friend as thyself. They had to hold on to this love and unity. This means that he cried for his disciples and for the great efforts he had invested in them, but they fell to unfounded hatred. On the other hand, he knew that that was the way it had to be and was glad that the time of the next phase had come, the phase of correction.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/14

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee): Thus, because of the above necessity, the Torah was given specifically to the Israeli nation, solely to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This refers to the souls that can be awakened by the Light that was in the state called Babylon.

First, the force called Abraham awakens inside Malchut, and then the evolution and the development of that soul is called Isaac and Jacob. This is only about spiritual systems and parts of the desire to receive, not about historical figures that are the external expressions of phenomena that take place inside the general Malchut.

In order to understand these phenomena, we must look a bit more deeply into how Malchut is awakening to correction. The system of first man was shattered, then it was stabilized in a certain state, and now it should begin to correct itself from a state called Babylon.

The ego develops as a result of a special Light called the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). There are parts of the desire that descend as a result of a greater Light, and that means that the ego grows, building of the tower of Babel. There are other parts of the desire that yearn upward as a result of the same Light.

The part that ascended to the top is called Abraham, and, in contrast to it, the part that descended more than all the others is called Terach. The upper Light influences the desire and develops it, and so the movement is both upward and downward, as it is written, “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” One is greater than his friend since, like Abraham, he yearns upward, and his desire is even greater like Terach who descended downward. Later, the vessels (desires) that relate to Abraham become clearer. Anyone who is attracted to Abraham as a result of the influence of the Light that Reforms is called Yashar El, Israel (straight to the Creator). Their correction is to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

…For it was inconceivable that any stranger would take part in it. Because of that, the Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.

The same people, the same souls, the same parts of the desire, have become GE (Galgalta ve Enyaim) with regard to the lower part of Malchut that did not manage to wake up, and are called AHP. This is how the passage of the Light through GE to the vessels of AHP was created.

Now there remains to complete what we have said above (Item 16) about the reason why the Torah was not given to our fathers, because the Mitzva, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” the axis of the whole Torah and around which all the Mitzvot revolve, so as to clarify and interpret it, cannot be observed by an individual, but only through the consent of an entire nation. And this is why it took until they came out of Egypt, when they became worthy of observing it.”

This means that it isn’t enough that only the souls of Israel that came out of Babylon and ascended upward should correct themselves and observe the Mitzva (commandment) of love thy friend. They must be connected with at least part of the other souls, which means that they went down to Egypt. It is from Egypt that they take out the vessels of AHP of GE.

The desires of GE, called the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, came out of Babylon, and then they received AHP from Egypt and came out with them, are mixed with them, and are shattered. That is, there is the destruction of the first Temple, the shattering of GE together with AHP.

Then, they are ready to be mixed with the rest of the desires of Babylon and reach correction. At the end of correction, we also correct the vessels of GE first, and then AHP. However, here, the stages are different. When the vessels of GE correct themselves, the Light is poured through them unto the nations of the world and begins to bring them closer to GE. So, the more that the vessels of GE correct themselves, the more AHP is corrected.

We are in the phase of the end of correction now. We already have been through the destruction of the temple, have been mixed with the vessels of Babylon, and the only thing left now is to correct the desires of GE, and, through that, AHP will be corrected. We will feel that the Light is spreading through us and the entire world begins to behave differently. It will be a real miracle when all this happens.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The book, Shem MeShmuel, Parshat “Ha’azinu”: “Adam HaRishon said to all of the creatures, ‘Come, let’s bow down and kneel before the Creator’; but due to the error the concept had become corrupted until even the good of that generation didn’t have the possibility of uniting together to serve the Creator. Rather they were isolated individuals. And the correction of this began in the generation of the dispersion which made a division in the human species. This means that the correction began with the gathering and association of people for service to the Creator, beginning from Abraham, peace be upon him.”

The desire to receive must reach correction and resemblance to the characteristic of bestowal, meaning the Creator, whose desire is to benefit the creatures.

The desire to receive will be like the Creator through intention. It cannot change itself and remains a desire for pleasure. But as a result of the process, all of its pleasure is in bestowal. It advances in this direction.

The correction begins from the developed state, from the advanced stage of the extension of the four phases of the Ohr Yashar (Direct Light), when the desire already feels itself, its reception. It is aware of who is receiving, understands that it is the opposite of the giver, and the feeling of this difference awakens shame in it.

And so the correction doesn’t begin immediately. Adam, the first Kabbalist, was the one in whom it awakened. Like us, he asked questions about the meaning of life: “What is all this for? Why? How?”, and he reached discovery of the Upper Light.

The desires were weak and small then, what is called refined. And the corrections were also different than our corrections. Indeed, the desire to receive didn’t just grow, but also divided into many parts. It was not just that the population of Babylon was not large. The number of humans in the world tells us how much the desire for pleasure has grown and requires division so that everyone will have the power to correct his part.

There were ten generations between Adam and Noah, and between Noah and Abraham who led the correction differently, and he wanted to add to this process all of the people in the world who were still concentrated in one area.

As we know, Abraham gathered around him all of the people who wanted to join with him and took them out of Babylon.

For the most part, there are no meaningful differences from ancient days until our day: not in essence, and not in the stages of the process. Of course, each one feels his unique way through his individual Reshimo. But by and large, all of these corrections are called the “service of the Creator,” or work “for the sake of the Creator,” which is incumbent upon us.

And so in the time of Abraham, part of the Babylonians began to separate from the others and called themselves, Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), Israel, according to their inclination, their goal. When they united, they passed through various states of connection on more or less strong levels, stages of analysis, the levels of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

After that they found themselves in the low state of the Egyptian exile, and felt how their ego had again grown and dominated them, just about as it had been in Babylon. But they already related to its dominance differently. They wanted to leave its dominance, and at that time they had almost disappeared, melting into it so much had it swallowed them into itself.

This was a real danger, the “49 Gates of Impurity,” a state almost without a solution. And in spite of it all, from their last energy, with the help of the force among them called “Moses,” they succeeded in darkness, under a succession of blows, to awaken both “in good” and “in bad,” and flee from the dominance of the ego, rising above it.

This was called the “exodus from Egypt”—they rose above the ego and were drawn towards development. However, the ego didn’t disappear, but they controlled it themselves.

This control of the ego and even the ability to use it correctly for the sake of bestowal is called “Torah.” The Egyptian exile, the descent into the abyss of narcissism that was discovered, ultimately provided them with this ability.

And after this, the period of the wilderness began, where they adjusted the ego and corrected it with bestowal for the sake of bestowal, filling it with Hafetz Hesed (delighting in mercy). Even though they didn’t have anything, since they were in a wasteland, they passed from desire to desire and each time discovered the evil and corrected it.

The Torah tells us about this period and explains to us how it is necessary to correct the ego, to rise above it, and to control it. But this is control only on the first level: bestowal for the sake of bestowal.

And so, with the ascent of Malchut to Bina, after “forty years in the wilderness,” we were finally ready to correct Malchut. This was already the level called the “entrance into the land of Israel.” We continued on with corrections and wars, conquering the land, until the people of Israel dominated the land of Israel.

But with this the correction wasn’t finished. Only its first stage was finished, which had continued from Abraham until the building of the First Temple (Beit HaMikdash). This was the correction of only those people who had gone out from Babylon, a small part of humanity. But the general correction that Adam HaRishon had begun had not been realized.

So in order to continue the process, the group of Abraham that had become the people of Israel, had to be broken up and enter into contact, into connection, with all of the rest of these desires, these parts of humanity, which are called the “seventy nations of the world.” Meanwhile, they had been scattered to all places on Earth; in other words, from being controlled by the ego, they passed to all kinds of control, they created religions and faiths, and awakened various forces that acted upon them.

And so the nation of Israel not only had to fall from its level, but also had to be scattered among all the peoples, among all the forces, the controls and the methods, to be integrated with them and integrated in them.

The destruction of the Second Temple symbolizes the final fall of the people of Israel into unfounded hatred that was worse than among all the nations of the world, because they just about lost the connection between them, the characteristic of the people of Israel and belonging to the land of Israel. Indeed, only their general orientation, only their need to make the correction for the sake of the future, is what held them together in some form.

After that, the integration with the world was finished, and now the awakening again began. First of all, the people of Israel entered the land of Israel. After this they corrected themselves from being a small group to all of the people dwelling in Zion, after that to the people of Israel scattered throughout the Diaspora, and after that gradually the whole world.

Everything happens gradually, according to the refinement of the vessels, desires, and with the integration of the Reshimot that remained from the time of the shattering. In fact, there is nobody who is greater and nobody who is less here. We see this within the material only according to the intensity of the desire to receive and the Reshimot that are awakened within it.

They are under the influence of the Light that awakens them accordingly. And all of the corrections are sustained from the lightest correction to the heaviest correction. That is how development happens.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: We in Israel want peace so much and it doesn’t come. What is peace in general?  And how do we bring peace to Israel?

Answer: First of all, peace (Shalom – שלום) is wholeness (Shlemut – שלמות). And wholeness for Israel has always been inner completion (Hashlama  – השלמה).

The forefather Abraham took his supporters out of Babylon and called for them to be a “people,” meaning a group of people who live according to the laws of the property of mercy in mutual love and unity. And around 5,000 people followed him, according to Maimonides. A small group of Babylonians were attracted to bestowal around 3,500 years ago.

Abraham taught them how they needed to connect between them. After that, Isaac and Jacob continued on this mission, and ultimately our ancestors truly became a nation. This happened because they truly took upon themselves the requirements: “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you,” “You shall love your friend as yourself,” and “All of Israel are guarantors for each other.”

“And you shall love your friend as yourself” is called the “great general rule in the Torah.” This is the basis of the nation, its constitution, and the fundamental law according to which it exists. The group of Abraham separated from the whole world specifically to unite and live according to this general rule.

How many pursued this small number people and why didn’t they try to? The ten tribes disappeared and those who remained were scattered all over the world. They went through countless troubles and were persecuted again and again, until we returned to the land of Israel.

So what was wrong with this return?

During the period of the exile, the hatred of the nations of the world somehow connected us externally. Because of it, we were connected together, supported each other, and helped one another.

But in the land of Israel, we don’t feel the dominance of the nations of the world upon us, and now it is as if we lack this animosity and our own inner hatred took its place.

In principle, after we are released from the constant pressure, we will need to live here as a true people of Israel in the land of Israel and according to the law of love and oneness. But nothing is happening and nobody is even thinking about this, no sector is calling for this. Once unfounded hatred led to the destruction of the temple and scattered us all over the world,. Now there are the same troubles and the same hatred accompanying us on our return to the land.

Because of the gap in the connection between us, we are not a people. We become a people only if we are united by the power of mutual love. This is the condition, and as long as there is no love between us, the nation of Israel don’t exist.

Other nations arose in different places in the world according to local conditions, on the basis of local tribes, villagers, etc. The creation of every nation is based upon a common history and geography, i.e., earthly foundations.

We were not born this way. We were created on an ideological basis and were separated from the whole world according to an idea that is the opposite to the others, to the whole world. This is the fundamental difference, our original characteristic.

As a result of this, we developed and lived differently. All of our history is different from the usual template. All those around us always related to us as a foreign body, as a strange addition that was “not of this world.” There were even theories that we came from another planet.

How did this happen that today we have “gone crazy” to such an extent that we dream about peace without uniting as the people of Israel on their own soil?

Indeed, separation and division dwell among us, and always in circumstances like these, we are surrounded by “wolves” who want to prey upon the “sheep” that quarrell among themselves. That is how it always has been. So why do we hope? If we look at the present state among the people in the nation of Israel and at what happened two thousand years ago, we see the same picture.

The history is known, the causes are defined, and everything is laid out before us. But we are waiting for something from the Palestinians, maneuvering between political interests of nations near and far, and for what? All of this is most certainly not in our interests.

The moment we unite among us, we will reach wholeness in the relationships between us and will educate the people on the basis of those fundamental principles. As a result of this, we will reach peace.

Indeed, we are a people of the idea, and we must implement it. When we fell from the level of the temple, meaning from love and unity between us, everything was destroyed and we were thrown into exile. This means that only love will make it possible for us to rise again to the level of the temple, the level of peace and well-being.

In fact, these are the foundations of our history that are well known to us. Therefore, calls for peace and attempts to come to terms with the Palestinians are pointless. When we act like this, we are taking the usual approach of the nations of the world, using external means to solve problems of an internal nature. This has never worked and it never will work. After all, the nations of the world are always trying to annihilate us.  

But we can become many times stronger than they are and win over all of our haters only if we unite and are truly united. We must not be like nuts packed in a sack by our neighbors who press upon us from all directions and remind us about unity, even if it is artificial. Otherwise they will simply tear us apart.

So there is nothing more important than educating the people. We must explain to people that their good future depends upon them. The only requirement for peace for the people of Israel is unity within itself.

If we focus upon relationships between us and learn how to cultivate and improve them, everyone around us will relax. The riots will stop because everyone will be waiting for the time when we will finally come to peace among us. Subconsciously, this is what the nations of the world are waiting for.

Moreover, they are waiting for us to show them how to do this and how it is possible to reach wholeness of the self. What they want from us is an example of national unity resulting from mutual love, an example of an economic and national structure based upon this principle. They want us to build the country on the basis of love and bestowal, not based on competition, strife, and hatred.

After we show all of this to the world, we will become a “light to the nations.” Then they will want to receive this and copy this from us.

This is what the world is expecting during the global and integral crisis affecting everyone. There is simply no other choice for the world, as it is hoping for a means and an example that will show what must be done. We specifically can provide the world with this example.

Question: What must the nation of Israel do when the world is constantly chastising it? “Your neighbors also want to live,” they say. “Give them the opportunity to proclaim a state of their own and then sign a peace treaty with them.”

Answer: The subtext is different: “You have ships in the ports. Get on them and float away far from our land. We will bring you to someplace in the middle of the ocean, if you don’t sink on the way, of course. We will let you off on some nice island and you will live there in peace.”

In fact, something similar has already happened. This is specifically what they want and this is what they mean. We will yet see how things progress rapidly in this direction if we don’t begin the process of connection from our side.The people of Israel must initiate the correction of the world and give everyone the example of how the human society of tomorrow must look.

Question: And what if they isolate us in the international arena? In the modern era, a boycott is a serious weapon.

Answer: This will not help them if we act according to a new nature, the quality of bestowal. In this case no egoistic boycott will succeed. It will only make it possible for us to be quietly concerned about essential things and we will not feel a lack of anything.

Don’t be concerned about the economy, especially since up until today nobody knows according to what laws it operates. I am not afraid of anyone. I am only afraid about the people of Israel returning to the land of Israel: When will it finally want to be a nation in the full sense of the word?

Question: So everyone is against us. There is no reason to look at the others; come, let’s take care of our internal problems.

Answer: Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should defiantly run away from everyone, deny what they say and sever all connections. First of all, it is up to us to be concerned about our people. It is necessary to take care of the politics, but above all, 99% of our efforts must be focused upon educating people. Indeed the truth is not power, not money, and not an army that dominates the world.

Question: We always thought that in order to live in peace we had to make peace with our neighbors. And we say that peace begins from us, from what is latent in us.

Answer: This is understood. In fact, we don’t need to search for ways of making peace with our neighbors at all. It is enough for us to make peace among ourselves . All of humanity will look at us with amazement: “Wow! We also want this!” People will suddenly feel a yearning for this.

Indeed, the nations of the world will want to learn from us; but in the meantime, there is nothing to learn. On the contrary, we are trying to take an example from them instead of serving as an example for them. This is the reason that they hate us.

Our mission is to show what the Light is, which is a life of true serenity, mutual bestowal, and love, that is said to be the necessary basis for our existence.

If the world is perfection, then the Light is the power of bestowal and love that brings us this perfection.

Question: How do we nurture love among a people that is divided into thousands of factions?

Answer: Begin to teach them until they understand that separation and fragmentation harms them all along any axis. People will connect among themselves above all the differences. That is how parents love their children. It makes no difference how different they are from each other. All of them are different and all are equal, as one person with one heart.
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From the program “A New Life” 4/10/2014

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Baal HaSulam newspaper, “The Nation”: In that sense, we are like a pile of nuts, united into a single body from the outside by the sack that envelops and unites them. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body, and each movement applied to the sack produces in them tumult and separation. Thus, they consistently arrive at new unions and partial aggregations. The fault is that they lack the inner unity, and their whole force of unity comes through an outside incident. To us, this is very painful to the heart.

Someone who supposes that we can unite the people and build a nation according to the usual pattern is greatly mistaken. Without understanding our nature, he thinks that we can act like other peoples who go back home after a forced expulsion, such as in the days of Stalin. The people who were expelled returned and re-organized their lives. But we have not succeeded in doing this because we have lost our original roots. We were once united and were brothers to each other, not brothers in misfortune like today, but brothers in mutual bestowal. Abraham initially gathered people from all corners of Babylon who were ready to go toward connection with him, unlike the rest of humanity.

This unity that Abraham gave was reinforced at Mount Sinai when the people who fled from Egypt became as one man with one heart and received the Torah. But later the connection was broken and the love became unfounded hatred; as a result of this, we went into exile. This hatred passed in part to the nations of the world as well.

As of today, we are not ready to be reborn as a people and a nation without reaching a correction of each one separately and a collective correction between us. If we don’t reach this, then only an artificial “collection” of people who do not correspond to the higher laws of nature or the laws of the lower nature that operate here.

We are not ready to build something according to the laws of this world because we originally didn’t belong to this world, and we cannot be built according to the higher laws because we have not as yet connected to the higher level. Aa a result, we are not here nor there, not this way nor that way.

What is amazing is that we were always strangers and foreigners in this world. And the 66 years of the existence of the nation of Israel are not proof of anything. I am not asserting this for anti-Zionistic reasons but from the spiritual standpoint: We undoubtedly have lost the natural power of unity, which is inherent to all the rest of the peoples on a physical level.

For us it was a spiritual force that united us. So now we are not a people, and our current consolidation is not a nation until we understand and agree that we only have one simple constitution, which is, “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” Arvut (mutual guarantee), “as one man with one heart.” We have no other constitution. And if we maintain this condition, we can restore the people and the nation.

We must build our lives according to this constitution, for it isn’t just plucked out of the air. Rather it was received from above, and this is the difference between it and the beautiful words that can be found in the fundamental laws of every nation. Clearly this will not be immediate, but we must realize this law gradually, and bring a spiritual life on earth. And it is also up to us to be a “light to the nations” in its full meaning.

Yes, it’s hard work, but without it we will not succeed in anything. Otherwise we can be fellow sufferers at best, like nuts in a sack, and nothing better will happen with us.

This is the current situation, and it may continue for another number of years until one of two things will happen:. Either we will carry out the correction or we will not be able tolerate the situation any longer.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: In what way is Israel different from other nations? Why do they have a special role?

Answer: The desires of GE (bestowal) are called Israel and AHP (reception) is called the nations of the world. The matter of creation is a desire to receive, but it is so small that it can only yearn for bestowal called Israel. Therefore it is written: “You are the fewest of all the nations.”

There was a man who lived in ancient Babylon called Abraham who wanted to reach a good life, to be free of the ego in which all the people of Babylon were immersed. The people decided to build the Tower of Babel, but their languages were mixed and they ceased to understand one another, so they lost contact with one another.

Abraham understood that the goal is actually to be connected and that by connection can we establish a system in which we will discover the upper force that operates and manages us. How many people followed Abraham? There were 5,000 men out of 3 million.After all, a person needed to have a special kind of purity.

The pure people who joined Abraham, according to their intention, their yearning to resemble the upper force that is absolute bestowal, are called Yashar- El (straight to the Creator). All the others who yearned in the opposite direction, in the direction of the ego, are called the nations of the world.

The goal of creation is, of course, to bring everyone to the level of Yashar-El, to a different level of existence. But in the meantime, it is only that small part of the population that agrees to such an ascent. Abraham led these people out of Babylon and guided them to Israel. They differed from others thanks to their vessels, which were the root phase, and phases one and two. These are vessels of GE that were ready to understand this idea and were attracted to connection.

We exist in a field that doesn’t operate on a certain individual but only through our connection. The moment there is a connection between several people, they summon the Creator’s influence upon them, the influence of the field, according to the connection between them above the ego. Then they feel that the upper force and the Light is revealed in them.

We are all in the field of the constant Light that is in a state of absolute rest. If we don’t connect, we don’t see it and don’t’ feel anything. But if we begin to connect with others, then even in a connection between two, and all the more so between ten people, we begin to perceive this field like “a radio receiver.”

This perception inside us is felt as the revelation of the Light and the Creator, of the upper force, as if we perceive a radio wave. This is what Abraham explained to the people of Babylon. There were those who understood him and followed him since it was clear to them that this was the only way to overcome the crisis that was developing in Babylon.

All the others didn’t understand Abraham and remained in Babylon to flow in the current with their ego. Since then, the whole world is divided into two parts: Israel and the nations of the world. It may seem strange that Israel is so important while it is only a nation of several million people, but it determines the essence of the process. We see that this division has been maintained throughout human history until these days.

It isn’t about a geographic location on the surface of the earth, but about a spiritual idea. There are people who follow Abraham’s idea, like Israel, and others who follow their own nature, like the people of Babylon.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

In our time, other than the Kabbalists, nobody remembers the principle that once proclaimed the essential rule of the Torah, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” Among the people of Israel, this principle disappeared in the days of the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (temple), which is in fact the destruction of this principle.

Going into exile means departing from the general rule of, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” to indifference and even unfounded hatred. But in our day, when we come to the period of correction, all those who belong to the descendants of Israel must return to it again along with all the others who feel within them an inclination towards correction of the world. This is a sign that spiritual Reshimot (genes) have already been clarified in them.

In ancient Babylon they appeared in only a small portion of the Babylonians, five thousand people out of three million. But today these Reshimot are awakened and clarified more and more.

For both these and the others, both Israel and the nations of the world, have become mixed together since then. They have developed and become perfected, and by passing through many different states, they have reached the recognition of evil and also some of the recognition of good. So today they are ready for correction.

Now in our state, that inclination, that Shevirah (breaking), that once was only in Babylon is appearing. Only toda.has Babylon spread over all of humanity. We need to pass through correction, and it is specifically Israel that must begin it.

So in the Book of Zohar it is written, “Happy are Israel among all the nations of the world.” This is because someone who receives an awakening has a wonderful opportunity to give contentment to the Creator. While for others who are not with this inclination, it will eventually come to them also.

The uniqueness of the people of Israel is that first they must begin the correction. They accept upon themselves the most difficult work, but they are happy about it and thank the Creator for having chosen them for the difficult task of being pioneers and going forward with correction of the world.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/14

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The Great Commentary is a book that was written close to 3,600 years ago. Much later it was amended again and again, but the beginning of its creation coincided with Abraham leaving Babylon and the subsequent destruction of the kingdom of Babylon. The Great Commentary is a book of chronicles that accompanied the history of the people throughout the many years before they went into the Egyptian exile.

There it is said that when the sacrificial animals were ready, it was Aaron’s turn to begin the sacred service. But he stood and didn’t move. “Aaron, go out!” shouted Moses. “Why are you stalling? Indeed you were chosen to be the high priest. Find the courage to begin the sacred service!” But Aaron continued to stand hesitantly, because every time he looked at the altar, the altar took on the outline of a bull.

Question: How does a person feel inside himself when the altar takes on the outline of a bull?

Answer: For me these words don’t evoke any associations with bulls. First of all, this is all about one person. But because it is difficult for us to describe the actions that are considered as happening within one person, let’s describe them as people who identify and feel everything as one person, how their feelings are mutual and their sensations acute.

As one person, they begin to elevate themselves, dividing themselves into the people (Israel), Levites serving the people, and the Cohens, the highest level of service in a person. For in a person, meaning in the general image of an Adam (human), in the general Partzuf there are three levels, NHY ( Neshama. Haya, Yechida), HGT (Hesed, Gvurah, Tifferet), HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat).

In principle, they are always gathering and assembling the image of the whole person, of Adam. So they begin to feel whether they rise to the level of Aaron, coming into contact with the Creator. Their mission is to reach adherence between them, for only in connection do they rise sequentially to the level of the “people,” to the level of the Levites, and after that to the level of the Cohens, and from the level of Cohens to the level of Aaron, and after that they attain the level of Moses.

That is how they solve the problem of connection for themselves, and in their common unity, which is called Mishkan, the dweller (Shochen) is discovered. The dweller is the Creator who is felt in a person as having descended to this place and filling it, like a fog that fills a valley.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/15/13

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Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Ancient Babylon, Group Work, History, Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →