The Four Exiles of the Jewish People

The Jewish people passed through four exiles, which formulate the gradual development of the desire to receive, of all of the matter of creation: Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. All natural phenomena develop according to this formula.

The first exile was not felt as an exile, meaning that the people didn’t feel that they were slaves during the period of slavery. Since the desire to receive was very small and if the person were to satisfy it somehow, he would feel good. So everyone agrees with that.

The more that the desire to receive continued to develop, it needed more and more independence, more independent involvement in life, in development and in communication, until nature, according to its formula, transformed the entire world into an absolutely integral connection. And we humans are not yet in an integral connection, we are late with respect to the conditions of nature that wants to develop us to a state of general connection.

An infant who is born does not communicate with its environment and has no group, societal, or human tendencies, but the more that he matures, he begins to feel that he needs a family and a society and cannot live without them. So we also need to reach a state of connection between us. So the beginning of our advancement is the gradual understanding that we are within our original egoistic nature, in exile from our higher state, from a higher level.

In nature there are four stages of development: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. We are now gradually passing from the animate state to the speaking state. This is the next level that we have not yet reached. In the meantime, human development is still on the animate level because it is concerned only with existence, nourishment, raising children, and so forth. And all of this is done in a very unattractive way because the person is not an animal that develops instinctively according to the balanced laws of nature.

The four stages of ascent on the steps of the ladder are compulsory, and the transition from the previous state to the next state is implemented according to ten Sefirot, which we don’t feel or according to the four letters of the name of the Creator, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, that include all of nature. So the passage between the levels and between each level must go through four levels of development (no matter how small they may be).

In nature there exist four states of advancement. The first state is departure from the state of the animate level to the level of man, in which there is already advancement towards solidarity, connection, the characteristic of bestowal and love, but in the meantime in an embryonic state.

This happened in the days of Babylon, when Abraham took 5,000 people out of there and organized a group from them that could be called the first communistic or Kabbalistic group. This was a spiritual brotherhood in which everyone participated according to the principle of equality and concern not for themselves but only for one another. Abraham united all of those who were interested in living according to this principle and took everyone who was ready to go towards this ideal out of Babylon.

Three stages of development of the Kabbalistic society are symbolically called the Forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or the right line, left line, and middle line. Continued progress was contingent upon additional development that was made possible only on condition of the discovery of a greater ego, its correction and rising above it.

So Abraham asked himself how it would be possible to reach the characteristic of absolute bestowal and love. He investigated and discovered that this requires constant development of the ego, upon which his small nation rose.

So the next stage in development required the growth of the ego in the group of Abraham, the discovery of the second level of the ego (the first was discovered in Babylon) and rising above it.

But this is not just rising above it; rather, it is passing through a process of the development of the ego where everyone receives understanding, everyone delves into it and begins to work with it. Then various egoistic impulses begin to awaken and arise in people that push, influence, and dominate them. But people trying to rise above their ego act according to the method of Abraham based upon mutual concern, where possible, and not for themselves.

The Torah talks about the states through which the people of Israel passed in Egypt. In the beginning they fought among themselves and together against their ego, and after that against Pharaoh, who symbolized their new ego that was always discovered in the relationships between them. The Jewish people were in Egypt for 210 years (a symbolic period). Just as there are four phases of the Direct Light, which are the source of the four-letter name of the Creator, the formula that includes four components that develop gradually, so also Egyptians, or the ego that was revealed then in the people, included four levels. So the time of the Egyptian exile is called 400 years. Yet, in fact, it continued for only 210 years, and the remaining 190 years were divided among the rest of the exiles.

The names in the Torah: “Egypt,” “Mount Sinai,” “The Sinai Desert,” and “The Land of Israel” symbolize the inner states in the people. This is not talking about geography but about inner changes that happen within a person. When the ego grew, it was more and more difficult for people to remain on the level of love, brotherhood, “and you shall love your friend as yourself”; they fell and were elevated, fell and rose in the connection between them, until they understood that they had to be disengaged from the ego that grew to immense dimensions. In the Torah this is described as the ten plagues of Egypt.

This means that the ego expanded so much that it was impossible to remain in it and work with it. It was necessary to begin to discover it in us gradually, to go out from it, and so to rise. But it was impossible to rise above this mountain all at once, but only gradually, discovering the ego only to the degree that it was possible to use it, to rise above it, and thus transcend it.

Even though negative characteristics are constantly discovered in a person, he is not afraid of them because he understands that thanks to them he will rise, if he uses them correctly, for this is his spiritual ascent.

This is exactly how the group of Abraham disengaged from its ego, called Egypt, and began to work on itself. When they rose above the ego, they began to organize attitudes of mutual help between them, at the least they tried not to harm each other, for before then they were ready to annihilate each other so great was the hatred that was discovered between them. The symbol of this hatred is Mount Sinai. It is possible to call the states through which the people of Israel passed the Sinai desert because the work for the sake of bestowal doesn’t bring any fulfillment to the ego, for they don’t feel any taste in it. That is how they worked on themselves for forty years until they rose to the level of Bina. Forty years in the desert they searched incessantly for the characteristic of Bina (bestowal) within the ego that was continuously rising.

After the people passed through all the levels, and as a result of this, all of the vessels that they took with them from Egypt (the gold and silver vessels and the jewelry), meaning all of the egoistic characteristics in them, died (the generation of those who left Egypt died), they got the opportunity to reach the next level called the “Land of Israel,” a desire that is directed only towards bestowal and love. Land (Eretz) is desire (Ratzon), and Israel (Yashar-El – straight to the Creator). The Creator is the power of bestowal and love which is the essential power in nature and all the rest are its parts. The program according to which this power acts is intended to transform the person to independence where he wants to be only in a state of bestowal and love.

The group of people who entered the land of Israel fought for it because it was inhabited by “other peoples,” meaning various disturbances that were discovered in their character above which they had to ascend. This is called the “conquest of the land,” the conquest of the land of Israel. So gradually they reached a state in which from all the desires that were discovered among them, they created one shared vessel of mutual bestowal and love in which they discovered the higher power, the Creator, and rose to His level. This is the perfected state. But the moment that they attained this state, an even greater collective ego began to be discovered in them on the next level. This is because after leaving Babylon they took the entire enormous ego with them that didn’t really belong to them (to the characteristic of bestowal and love), but to all of humanity.

As Rambam writes, when the 5000 people who went out of Babylon reached the land of Israel they were already three million people, at the time when there were millions of people in the whole world. This is talking about a situation that existed 2700 years ago.

But this small nation built a so-called Temple, meaning that they built a condition in which the Creator, the power of bestowal and love, was revealed among them, and they existed in this form and were found in spirituality.

After that a new, more internal level was created that hadn’t belonged to them, the stony heart, which at that moment they could not correct. This level belonged to the whole world. The people of Israel didn’t succeed in holding onto the position of the level of bestowal and love, it began to fall apart and fell from its high level of mutual connection, from the level of equivalence of form with the Creator to a condition of separation that is called the second exile, the Exile of Persia and Midian. This is not mentioned in the Torah but in the Prophets, the Book of Esther and additional sources.

The people of Israel were in this exile for 70 years. 7 or 4 and 400 or 70 are symbolic units of ascent or descent that are expressed in differences in time. Everything operates according to the original formula, for the creation of the desire (the ego) was according to the four phases of the Direct Light, under the influence of the Upper Light (the characteristic of bestowal and love). From here this formula spread over everything.

A descent to such a low level was dangerous for the people of Israel in that they were liable to forget completely on what level it had been found previously and what happened to it. There was danger that they would become like the rest of the peoples, but at the same time a spontaneous awakening happened. On the world map appeared the evil leader Haman, who like Pharaoh, awakened in them the awareness of their situation. They did very great work among them, were forced to rise above the level of Haman, to kill him (their ego), and in this way they rose to the next level called the level of the second Temple.

This level was lower than the level of the first Temple because the bestowal and love here was not as on the level of the first Temple. If the first Temple existed on the level of “and you shall love your friend as yourself,” so the second Temple descended to the level of, “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you.” Specifically it is the connection between people that is called the Temple and not the stone walls that were erected in Jerusalem.

The people of Israel continued to work on themselves, they tried to do everything possible to remain on at least that level, but the ego grew because the ego of humanity had not been corrected.

Meanwhile, humanity developed egoistically and this influenced the Jewish people so that they didn’t succeed in holding on to the level of mutual help; they went through internal struggles between them that were materialized in our world as wars against the Romans and the Greeks.

That is how the fall of the people happened under the influence of the inner egoistic desires, the “Greeks” and the “Romans.” The desires of the “Greeks” received ideological expression, and the desires of the “Romans” were realized in action. This is speaking only about the inner states of the group of Abraham.

In the end, the nation fell from the level of the second Temple, “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you,” into absolute disengagement, from the level of cooperation to the level of regular people. This means that the people didn’t fall into the captivity of the Egyptians or the Babylonians but into the captivity of the wider public who were completely disengaged from all spiritual levels.

The difficult times of the third exile of the Jewish people had come, which was characterized by absolute disengagement from the spiritual state. But the disengagement from the spiritual state was gradual, continuing for many years and ending in the 16^th century, in the days of the Ari or a little before him. A method for departure from spiritual exile called Kabbalah began to develop then. It also existed before this, for the students of Abraham clarified, completed, and documented it. They were great ideologues. But in spite of the many books that were called the sacred books of the Jews, a precise method for the world was lacking that would teach a person how to depart from the state of the ego, for at that time, the ego had not yet been discovered; it began to be discovered only from the time of the Ari.

The Ari was a great Kabbalist who laid the foundations for the method of correction. After him, Kabbalists appeared like the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezritch, and many other spiritual leaders who described the same method in various styles and worked with people on various theoretical and practical levels.

But the development of this method, that began in the 15^th to 16^th centuries and continued until our times, stopped in our days. The last of the great spiritual teachers was my teacher, Rabash. He and his father Baal HaSulam founded and developed the actual method of correction. And we follow them with the help of the method that they developed; we hope to leave the last spiritual exile in which all of humanity is found.

This is a unique exile, for the descendants of the group of Abraham were dispersed through all of humanity; they lost all of the experience that they had gathered morally, spiritually, and ideologically.

Part of this group changed the entire method, meaning that they took upon themselves the mechanical practice without thinking that they had to integrate with its interior through their wholehearted desire. This is the essential problem in leaving the last exile.

We are now in a state of clarification of all the conditions in order to rise to the last level of development, because after leaving Babylon, Egypt, and Persia, the time has arrived for going out of the state of the present global crisis into which humanity has been thrown.

Today, modern global plagues are beginning to be discovered in humanity. They have not been completely revealed yet, but we have already begun to gradually recognize them and feel their approach. The threat of a tsunami is approaching, natural disasters, wars, and disruptions of order. People are beginning to understand that through stupid, barbaric, and egoistic actions, they have opened a terrible Pandora’s Box.

So we must activate this method. I am happy that I am part of this activity and can explain, tell, and reveal to people the situation in which we are found, what kind of a world we are living in, what we can expect, what possibilities are available to us, and what we must do.

I am very happy that we are found in a situation in which we can actually discover the method about ourselves, like in a laboratory, and after that to bring it to the whole world and to actively show how we work with it. It is up to us to be an example for all of humanity and to return it to the state of the higher power, meaning the characteristic of bestowal and love, in the best and most rapid way possible.
[132580]

Related Material:
The Destruction Of The Temple: Do Not Despise The Fallen
Under The Rule Of The Nations
At The Threshold Of The Last Redemption

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: We keep talking about the love of the Creator and of the group. Where does the general public come in?

Answer: The entire humanity joins the group. Inside the shattered vessel, there is the part called Israel, and the part called the nations of the world. It all exists within the same vessel, in Babel.

The pure part of the desire came out of Babel, and out of this part, during the Egyptian exile and the First and Second Temples, the nation of Israel was established in a shattered form. The second part that came out of Babel wasn’t shattered, but was totally egoistic.

Israel ascended to the spiritual level from which it fell and was shattered, while the nations of the world are not shattered in the process, but already go through the shattering in their roots. We have no choice but to collect and to connect all the shattered vessels which is all of humanity, as it is written: “For they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.”

The Creator connects to all of humanity as one whole, and Israel is the connection between the parts. Israel actually does not exist. Do you think that you are the main element to which everyone connects, the Creator from above and the general public below? You are simply a pipe that the Light that connects the two goes through.

The Creator actually wants to be dressed in the nations of the world, in the created beings that are external to Israel. This is His goal. They have a real desire to receive, while Israel is the connection between Bina and Malchut, and can only be a connector.

Israel feels the greatness of the goal in their attributes, but this action is in order to serve the Creator and humanity. This action is very important since without it, the Creator and the created beings will not be able to connect to one another for it is Israel that connects them, and only that. The Creator’s desire is directed toward the nations of the world. He looks at them since they have the real raw desire to receive.

The Creator is revealed in the great desires found in all of humanity. Israel is only the connector between them, which is a very respectable role since it is the mediator between the Creator and the nations of the world. Therefore, we should know that if Israel thinks that the nations of the world hate them, then the Creator “hates” them to the extent since they don’t fulfill their obligation.
[135862]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Chosen To Serve The Creator And The Creatures
A Special Account With The People Of Israel
The Conductor With The Superconductivity Of Love

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Israel, Kabbalah Dissemination - No Comments →

The entire great Kli of the soul was shattered into fragments, and among the fragments are pure Kelim (vessels) that are close to the characteristics of the upper Light. It is very easy for them to be awakened, so when Abraham called to them, they were immediately awakened, got up, and followed him, leaving Babylon.

This is Israel, which only seems to be the most egoistic part in the world because it has already gone through the path of spiritual development. But essentially, this is a very refined Kli (vessel) and belongs to the Kelim of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE).

Every remaining part of the collective Kli belongs to the nations of the world, and specifically through their correction, we attain Ohr Hochma (Light of Wisdom). They are the goal of creation, whereas Israel acts only as a help in this realization, in the role of an adaptor, a conduit.

Question: It follows that the Creator chose these refined Kelim as sacrifices?

Answer: On the one hand, we are sacrifices, but on the other hand, Israel is a unique nation that serves all the others. Everything depends on how you accept this honored mission: Do you think and receive your service to the Creator and to the world as a respectable merit or as a punishment?

You came into this world to serve all the nations of the world and through this to serve the Creator. These are the refined Kelim that are awakened first and have the readiness to connect. They have an initial preparation for correction because they have the “merit of the forefathers,” meaning that they have already passed through spiritual states that were latent in them in a concealed form and they can be awakened again.

All this is done to be a light to the nations, so that in them the thought of creation will be realized. The goal is to reach all the heaviest Kelim. They are called “the chosen people” because they have a unique role.

Israel is in the service of the Creator and the creatures, and we are in the middle as a conduit, as a pipe. And it is essential to accept this mission when it is necessary, otherwise you will always be obligated from Above. There is no reason to argue with the program of creation; the more rapidly that Israel understands what must be done, it will be to our benefit and the benefit of others and there will be less suffering.
[135410]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Heart Of The World
Two Desires Engaged With The Thought Of Creation
The Connecting Link

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

Question: Why did the Creator choose one nation for a special mission, and is this choice related to religion?

Answer: The true religion is to love your friend as thyself. This is the rule that Abraham publicized in ancient Babylon, and he gathered the people around him according to this rule into a group called Israel, which means Yashar El (straight to the Creator).

Only some of the people of Babylon followed Abraham; those who had greater vessels of bestowal. All the others had vessels of receiving. This was intentional so that they would have a chance to help one another.

First the vessels of bestowal are corrected so that they can ascend to a spiritual level. When Abraham collected them, they had nothing. So first they had to go through the hardening of the heart called Egypt, that is, they don’t ascend but rather descend.

After the exodus from Babylon, they go down to Egypt, then come out of Egypt and ascend to the receiving of the Torah. They then cross the desert, build the first Temple, and fall. They ascend again to the height of the second Temple and go through another descent to the corporeal level. This is in order to be mutually incorporated with the nations of the world and get ready for the end of the correction of the world.

The whole process, starting with the exodus from Babylon and everything that follows, is in order to reach greater connection. This is what Abraham taught. The moment they started to connect, they felt that they were in a greater and greater descent.

The Light that shone on them made it possible for them to descend more and more deeply into their ego and to see that they were far from bestowal, from the Light. Therefore, they felt the gap, the delta between the state of the exile in Egypt and the level they were on when they left Babylon, and they would have remained on that level if it weren’t for the Light. This is the gap between the Light and our ego.
[135413]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Special Account With The People Of Israel
At The Threshold Of The Last Redemption
A Nation United By Sparks

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Israel, Nations of the World, Religion, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Throughout its entire history, humanity has advanced due to its egoism. It started 14 billion years ago at the time of the Big Bang after which inanimate matter began developing. Later, plants and animals appeared on the face of Earth. However, now in the 21^st century, we are approaching the speaking level.

 

This is why we find ourselves in a major, integral crisis that involves all spheres of our life. We cannot live in peace with our spouses, children, bosses at work, friends, or neighbors, nobody! Even with ourselves!

Hence, we feel absolutely miserable. All the smart and super-complex systems that have been built won’t help us because human society is not balanced with the rest of nature.

There is a gap between humans and nature because the latter is integral, whereas we remain individualists. In other words, there is a “plus” on behalf of nature, and our part, on the contrary, is a “minus.” This difference is so huge that we cannot enjoy our lives. No matter how hard we try, we won’t be able to escape dramatic problems that eventually will unfold.

That’s why in the course of history, the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed from the people, waiting for the time when humanity developed its egoism to a certain level. Starting with ancient Babylon and up to our time (for approximately 3,500 years), Kabbalah was a hidden science.

Humanity progressed without having a clue about the wisdom of Kabbalah. Because humanity failed to implement Kabbalistic knowledge in ancient Babylon, we had to continue advancing our egoism up until this time. Currently, the wisdom is revealed. At this time, we are in the second point of the revelation of Kabbalah . We are the first ones who study it, thus we are receiving a chance to correct ourselves.

If we don’t succeed, our egoistic advancement will proceed for a little longer. Then, the wisdom of Kabbalah will again be concealed for a certain period of time during which terrible catastrophes will take place, such as a third world war, numerous disasters, etc. Afflictions will continue, unfolding until awful tragedies trigger a new revelation of Kabbalah. Complete desperation will eventually force humanity to implement this knowledge.

This is our current state. That’s why we have built a system that allows us to study, implement, and disseminate the methodology. Today, the entire humanity represents a new Babylon. It means that we have to work on our correction because it is the only way to change ourselves.
[134607]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day One 5/09/14, Lesson 1

Related Material:
How Did the Dispute Between Abraham And Nimrod End?
Eternal Life Within The Integral Connection
Without Brakes

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Conventions, Dissemination, Egoism, Evolution, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The people of Israel are a group of people who severed a connection with Babylon because they received and experienced a unique desire directed towards attaining the Creator. As a result of that, they received this method of attainment from Abraham based upon the “mercy of Abraham,” on the principle, “and you shall love your friend as yourself.”

It is written about this, “There is none else besides Him.” The Creator is the only force that works in reality. In order to discover this, it is necessary to connect and reach equivalence of form with this force. And this is discovered in us specifically through love of others just as one loves oneself. We gradually acquire love, and so the higher power is also gradually discovered.

The means that makes it possible for us to discover the higher force through connection is called Kabbalah. By definition, the wisdom of Kabbalah is a method for revealing the Creator to the creature in this world. He is discovered to the degree that one takes on equivalence with His characteristics: bestowal and love. What characterizes Him must also characterize the creature.

So people who feel an inner drive towards this, who have awakened Reshimot (spiritual genes) like these within them, hear the message of Abraham in Babylon. Maimonides writes about this in his book, Mishna Torah – The Laws of Idol Worship: When he was forty years old Abraham recognized his Creator and began to stand and loudly proclaim to all of the people to let them know that there is one God for the whole world and it is fitting to serve Him. And he went and proclaimed and gathered people from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom, in that Babylon, until thousands and myriads were gathered to him, and they were the people of the House of Abraham. And this great principle was planted in their hearts and books were written about it, and this went and grew in the children of Jacob and in those who accompanied them and a nation was made in the world which knows the Creator.

This is talking about a unique people that has maintained its uniqueness to this day. Indeed, their ancestors received spiritual awakening even during the time of Babylon and with the help of Abraham molded the concept of the “people of Israel.” In fact, this was a group of people who were connected in order to attain the Creator through special unique relationships between them.

Of course, of all of humanity, of all modern Babylon, there is a special account particularly with the people of Israel. So this group is found in such bad, unpleasant, stressful circumstances. Unconsciously, everyone demands for it to maintain its obligation. Along with this, the Jews don’t understand what is wanted from them, and the nations of the world themselves don’t understand what they want from this group.

This is expressed in anti-semitism, the well-known phenomenon throughout our entire history. And to the degree that we can bring ourselves and the world closer to correction and to adherence to the goal of creation, then the waves of hatred, meaning the forces that want to awaken us to our role, lessen.

And with the opposite, meaning to the degree that we cannot recognize it, are not ready, are stubborn, and don’t want to carry out our role, then these forces are strengthened and influence us in a particular way. And so someone who looks at the world in the right way can understand that this attitude towards the Jewish people, and in general towards the entire condition of the world, including the environment, the economy, health and so on, and the general state of the Kli (vessel) that must reach adherence with the Creator depends solely and only on that group that must show the world how to reach adherence with the Creator.
[134156]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, Chosen Topics on: Mission of the People of Israel

Related Material:
A Nation United By Sparks
The New Israel
Correction From An Inner Need

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How am I helping in the correction of a person if I explain Abraham’s idea to him?

Answer: Three thousand five hundred years ago all of humanity lived in Babylon. Some of the people understood that it was impossible to continue living as they had been. The crisis that developed obligated them to look for an answer to why and for what purpose they were living.

Their entire lives were destroyed and they became greatly confused. The Babylon of those times was a great empire with around three million inhabitants. Some of them, close to five thousand people, understood that some kind of process exists in nature, a particular formula for the development of matter.

Within matter there is a developmental force that drives and passes it through all of the levels of development and ultimately brings it to the level of the next existence.

Our entire world is a way station. We arrive here, carry out our work, and go on. Some of the Babylonians discovered this and understood that it is possible to make a transition from here to another level of human existence along with the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, which combine together into the level of Adam (Human).

We are talking about desires. We only see desires and only act within them. All of the matter in creation is a desire to receive, including the still, vegetative, animate, and even the essence of Adam. They understood that they must change the method of working with matter, bringing it in line with the higher power that manages it, meaning with the nature within which we are found.

We can be controlled directly by nature, and we can avoid this and want to be like the source of nature. This is the entire difference.

I can be activated egoistically by some source, which is the Creator. If I exist in this form, then I feel the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate existence, and I lack the level of Adam.

The level of Adam is when I erase everything that I receive from the Creator and become like Him. This is an absolutely different level of existence. This is not the still, vegetative, and animate, but the fourth level, the level of Adam.

The important principle is that I can constantly receive from the Creator, being activated by Him, and this is the first form of existence. But there can also be a second form of existence where I don’t just want to exist according to the commands of the Creator that activate my ego. In this case, I don’t call Him the “Creator” instead I call Him, “Pharaoh,” the Achoraim (posterior) of the Creator. I want to resemble the Creator and be like Him. To do this I cancel His control, I don’t agree to His activation. This is a true revolution in people’s minds. Some of the Babylonians came to this discovery and accepted this approach. They saw that life was pushing them towards this. The Creator gradually obligated them, sending them problems, a crisis, and bad feelings.

Today, we are again as if in Babylon; life is very bad. And the problem is that we are like the ancient Babylonians who did not know the Creator. Even then, only a small group learned that apparently this action of nature was deliberate and its origin was in the higher power. Today we must learn to understand this in ourselves and then teach the whole world.
[132560]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/14, Talk About Dissemination: Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

Related Material:
The Power Of Ascent Through The Method Of Abraham
The Creator’s Passion – To Do Good To His Created Beings
A Nation United By Sparks

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What is the meaning of the vessels that we pick up from the Egyptians?

Answer: Without them, we are unable to reveal the Light (the Creator) because all we are able to do is modify the intention. Egypt is the intention for one’s own sake.

The land of Israel (Eretz Israel) is a desire (ratzon) directly to the Creator (Yashar-El). The same desire that exists in Egypt transforms to Israel after changing the intention.

We have only one desire. When we first reveal it, it seems like ancient Babylon because everything seems so confused. It is a huge egoism that mixes all states together. The first time we exit our ego due to Abraham’s method we strive to rise above our will to receive and detach from our prior states as much as we can.

This phenomenon is called “Abraham.” Abraham leads us out of Babylon and separates us from our usual, corporeal egoism.

In the beginning, when one comes to a group, one is taught how to work beyond one’s egoism and to connect with friends. While making attempts to achieve unity, one suddenly experiences a tremendous downfall.

This is an entrance to Egypt: a more egoistic and harsh intention. One wants to receive all the worlds. It is a more egoistic and focused intention. One even wants to use the wisdom of Kabbalah for the sake of one’s personal wellbeing. This is called the power of Pharaoh.

If we continue working, the group and the Surrounding Light influence us. We don’t sense the Light, but notice the consequences of its impact on us. We feel that we are obligated to exit our egoism, to get rid of it. We apply efforts and experience troubles and numerous problems that help us detach from our ego.

Sometimes we fall very deep into our egoism. Sometimes we detach from our ego and rise over it. We go through ups and downs. Our egoism (the Pharaoh) keeps receiving blows until we rid ourselves of it.

The first detachment from the egoistic intention is called exodus from Egypt. This is what we hope to go through all together when we unite. I anticipate that this coming Pesach won’t be just a holiday on the calendar for us and that we will experience a spiritual leap.

What will change in us if the leap happens? First, Babylon will turn into a sensation that we are in Egypt, in slavery, still inside the will to receive. Everything depends on our perception. In Babylon, everybody acted within their egoism and it was considered normal because this is human nature.

But we do not agree with this state and want to rise above the ego. When we tried to elevate, we transitioned from Babylon to the land of Canaan, the future land of Israel. There, we suddenly sensed that we simply cannot do it the way we tried and that we have to stay inside the will to receive, otherwise we won’t advance at all. This means that we have entered Egypt.

When we acknowledge the necessity of changing intentions from egoistic to bestowing, we start working on exiting Egypt and continue our work until we manage to disconnect from our egoistic intention. Detachment from the latter is the exodus from Egypt.

Then, we are uncertain of what should be done next: We have detached ourselves from the egoism, but what now? At this point, we start acquiring the intention to bestow that we add on top of the same desire that we had when we were in Egypt. That’s why each commandment that we observe, each bestowing action, is just a recollection of our exodus from Egypt.

I use the desire that previously was called Babylon, then was Egypt, and then transformed into the Sinai Desert, and in the end it finally became the land of Israel. The desire remains the same, but the intention improves each time.
[131706]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/14, Q&A with Rav Laitman

Related Material:
Pesach, Matzah, And Bitter Herb
The Land Of Israel On The Map And In The Soul
The Seeds Of Light Are Sown Now

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How do our efforts to achieve the connection of the people, unity, and from them creating a whole army of trainers and educators go along with the whole process of correction?

Answer: We are in this world and first we have to be connected to the Creator. Therefore we connect and form a group between us. But now it is impossible to ascend to spirituality if we don’t do it for the liberation of all the souls that are in the ego.

 

We have reached a state called the final redemption. We already achieved this revolution in the past with leaving Babylon 1500 years BC until the year 2014.

Question: Where in this world today is Abraham who left Babylon with his students?

Answer: Abraham is us, our whole group that wants to advance to bestowal and to the revelation of the Creator by itself and which pulls the whole world behind it. The mission of this group is called Abraham.

Do you think that Abraham that the Torah tells us about is a name of a person or of an idea, a mission, a school, or a movement? Do you imagine Abraham as an old man with a cane, a revolutionist who wanted to change the world?

Abraham is a name of an inclination, a movement, an idea, a philosophy, a perspective, and so he is called the father of the nation. Due to this knowledge, approach, philosophy, people can arrange life differently—not according to the desires of our corporeal bodies but according to their spirit that yearns to come out to a wider space. We are in it, but we have to discover it and live in it.

Question: Why should we turn to the people and teach them this ideology?

Answer: It is impossible to complete the correction otherwise. We need to go through the state we are all in now in our world, from anti-love and anti-bestowal to love and bestowal. We acquire vessels, deficiencies, desires, with which we can later discover a different reality.

Question: Who demanded this correction? Was it Abraham’s compulsion?

Answer: It was the Creator’s passion, He wants our correction! His desire is to do good to His created beings.
[132396]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/14, Talk About  Dissemination: Questions & Answers with Dr. Laitman

Related Material:
Who Is Responsible For Correction?
“Aliens” From Ancient Babel
A Nation United By Sparks

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: At the time of Mordecai and Esther was the highest Zivug, which corresponds to the end of correction. What needs to be done in order to achieve this same state again?

Answer: We must live through all the material actions that have spiritual roots.

There were the all these events:ancient Babylon, Egyptian slavery, wandering in the desert, entering the land of Israel, erecting of the First Temple and its further destruction, Babylonian exile, constructing of the Second Temple, its devastation and exile—all these events took place for a reason. Now, we are approaching the very end.

The Purim events took place during the Babylonian exile. Since the destruction of the First Temple, we lost the Light of Mochin de Haya that was included in our Reshimo. This light was dormant and it was impossible to awaken it. It awakens only as a result of the action called Purim, only under its influence.

Due to the fact that the Jews won the Purim war, they were able to reveal the Upper Root. Now, we have to repeat this action on a worldwide scale. If not for the necessity to correct the entire world, we would build a Temple in the land of Israel out of our desire called Isra-el (Yashar-Kel – directly to the Creator.) We are talking only about spirituality, not materiality. At the time of final correction, the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels will be included in one spiritual degree.

Besides the people of Israel, there are nations of the world, and they are unable to directly connect with spirituality. That’s why the people of Israel were exiled and had to spread among them. During the last exile we mixed with the most distanced nations of the world. As to close nations, we mingled with them during prior exiles. The major connection happened between Persians and our people during the Babylonian exile.

Queen Esther is a real historical personage. Her son, Koresh, helped to build the Second Temple. He gave money to the Jews and brought them back to the land of Israel. He also helped to rebuild the entire country and invested a lot into its resurrection.

All these events should be revealed to the world as branches that originate from spiritual roots. Today, we reached the epoch of complete deliverance. That’s why there never will be a new Queen Esther, Ahasuerus, Haman—all these were material characters who participated in a theatrical performance. At this time, only spiritual forces that are yet to be discerned are acting.

These spiritual forces are detached from materiality, that’s why it is incorrect to state that modern Iranians are the same ancient Babylonians that were our enemies at some point. Not at all! We have to take a broader view. Anywhere in the world is the land of Israel, Babylon, Egypt, etc. We must not look at the map but at human nature. Today, we are in the state of the last exile that deals only with spirituality because at this time the world has become global, as one family.

Everything is just about one desire. We should split this overall desire into inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. We have to filter these levels so that each time we regard things according to our current step, without connecting it to corporeality. There is no materiality. Everything is determined by the desire.

That’s why Purim, Mordecai, Esther, and Ahasuerus are only about spiritual paths. Spiritual forces are the only thing we should consider in this corporeal world.
[130126]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The History Of Purim: Revelation Of The Concealed
Feeling Purim
Haman And Esther: The Two Desires To Receive

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →