How does the whole and an individual part relate to one another? How could a small group gathered by Abraham in ancient Babylon influence the development of all of humanity? Why does everything revolve around this group? Why does this group continue its “rotation”?

The problem of this world is that we “count” humanity as if it’s livestock. We evaluate humans by millions and billions; this kind of calculation seems sufficient to us. We just are unable to make qualitative calculations.

It results in a constant conflict between quality and quantity in this world. We proclaim that we are equal. However, how can it be true if one’s possessions are comparable with the assets of a billion others or if one’s health is worth the wellbeing of thousands of others? Are we really equal just because each of us has a body? Is it a criterion that should be used when evaluating human beings?

We are unable to “appraise” others because we lack true measurement tools. What are we comparing: feelings, intellect? How can we equate one person to another?

There is no equality whatsoever! Everybody is born with a specific set of qualities, thus each of us is unique. Even though we would like to be equal, we still are not. Baal HaSulam explains this issue in his article “Peace in the World”: “…we need to work very hard in order to attain true equality among us.”

It also is applicable on the spiritual path. Our spiritual goals are also quite different. Each of us has personal qualities, individual “destiny,” way of advancement, and a unique purpose in the whole system that serves as a common body where each cell is important but all cells and organs are still extremely different.

This explains why the role of Abraham’s group is so important: This entity of people attained a new purpose that was totally opposite to other nations’. Babylon was driven by an egoistic desire that increasingly expanded and enhanced, whereas Abraham’s group, on the contrary, focused on the will to bestow. Egoism can continue growing under the condition and to the extent of advancement of the altruistic desire, by faith above reason.

Abraham students’ advancement dramatically differs from the progression of other nations: The latter have developed intelligence, whereas the first group concentrated on faith. This explains why at the time when Abraham’s group faithfully followed its predestination, they were not developing sciences or culture such as music or dancing. They paid almost no attention to these things; rather, their major exertions were made towards spirituality. It was their only focus.

Later, other nations took advantage of the “fruits” of their work and on this basis they developed sciences, culture, and arts. For example, ancient Greeks borrowed the first “sprouts” of their philosophy from the wisdom of Kabbalah. Later, they admitted this fact.

As we see, the specifics of the relationships between the whole and a part, between small nations and the entire humanity, stayed intact throughout all of history and will be preserved in the future. As Abraham did, we collect friends from all over the world and entreat them to choose a common path to the Creator. Still, we remain a tiny minority. It’s supposed to be like that because there has to be a balance between the quantitative powers of all of humanity and our qualitative energy.

Both parts have to be harmonized. For example, if a small child receives a huge power, he might gravely hurt others, but if he acquires deep understanding of what he is doing without being given extra powers, then he won’t be able to implement his understanding in life. That’s why everything has to be balanced so that our body, intellect, and feelings are correctly proportioned while they grow.

It means that we can even become smaller to the extent of the development of the rest of the world. It is said: “They shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” They will know Him through us, but they won’t join us by the millions. It will happen only at the very last stage of correction.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The first time there was a truly egoistic alienation between people—the desire to separate—was in ancient Babylon. Egoism grew, and this was the reason why people began to distance themselves from others. As they say, they no longer understood each other. It was then that the wisdom of Kabbalah appeared.

It was revealed to one of the priests in ancient Babylon, Abraham, who discovered our dependence on egoism and understood that this egoism started developing on purpose. That was when it abruptly appeared, causing all the nations from ancient Mesopotamia to disperse around the world.

Then the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed which basically said that people must unite in spite of egoism. This is very difficult and beyond human abilities, but we need to understand that this is the challenge of nature, and we need to act in this way. “If we unite and keep the same unity that we had before the outbreak of egoism,” Abraham preached, “then, all the time, we will rise above egoism. As it grows, we will maintain unity and rise higher.”

So, it is said in the primary sources that in the past all people were like one family. Everyone spoke the same language, everyone understood each other, and everyone was close to each other. They lived a simple life and ate the same food. Even if someone was richer and the other poorer, this was not reflected much in their way of life. Everyone ate dried fish (it was in abundance in Mesopotamia), bread, onions, garlic, and some dairy products. That is all in general. That was all they had, but everyone had it. That is, people had little concern about how to feed themselves. The land was fertile, everything was good, and everyone lived in the same way until the outbreak of egoism.

That is why the wisdom of Kabbalah, revealed by Abraham, is based on the fact that people practically have to live the same way, satisfying their natural needs in the form that the body demands, that is, normally, rationally, and everything else, all the other forces, they should apply to ascend above their egoism.

Abraham spoke about the egoism that began to rise and grow rapidly. It drew someone into business and another one into something else. Everyone wanted to be more than the others, better than others, stronger, more important, and so on. “We must, on the contrary, remain at the same level,” Abraham said, “or, quite possibly, rise, but at the same time in order to improve our life, but equally in order to be a community, as a family.” People in a family care about everyone equally so that everyone has what he needs relative to his requirements, and, for all the rest, forces are to be applied only to rise above egoism. This attitude toward our development is the basis of Kabbalah.

However, the majority did not listen to Abraham and they followed the egoistic path of development with the exception of the group of people that he had gathered. It was ruled by the laws of bestowal. People provided each other with the necessary things, and at the same time, everyone ascended according to his abilities, and all the other forces were invested in being interconnected with others. If people act in this way, then the upper force of nature (we can call it the Creator) begins to be revealed in the relationships between them, and then they sense the next level of existence—not the still, vegetative, and animate nature that we feel today, constantly caring about the well-being of the body, its pleasures, satisfaction, comfort—but the next level.

This level is called the “human” or “Adam,” from the word “similar” (Domeh), similar to the Creator, to the upper force, the force of bestowal and love, which is actually inside nature that manages, drives, and develops it. This is what was discovered then and what was hidden for thousands of years and is beginning to be revealed again today.

The last Kabbalists of our time are Baal HaSulam, Rabash, you and me. Moreover, we are not just revealing it as they did. We are beginning to realize it, and, of course, the realization is carried out not from the level of ancient Babylon where people were like one family on the same level. Then, perhaps everything was simple but obviously further history was to be different.

Humanity needs to develop its egoism and develop it well up to the realization that it really is ruining us. Instead of all the goods that it had promised us, we find ourselves lost, defective, having achieved nothing. We try to live better and in the end spend all those years on this, all those opportunities that we have in this state, in our lives.

So today, we start with a completely different level, an egoistic, complete, final level of the world’s development. Actually, egoism will grow much more, but on the next level, people already will begin to be engaged in unity and proceed to the next stage of development.
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From the Talk before the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/12/13

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Question: The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is known around the world. Then, how is its original interpretation different from the conventional one?

Answer: It’s all about the difference between Abraham and Babylon. In Babylon, it was accepted to keep the uncorrected egoism and, at the same time, shout about love. On the other hand, the method of Abraham, that is, the property of mercy (Hassadim), is self-correction on the path to bestowal where the other becomes more important than yourself.

This can be achieved only through group work based on and constructed by Abraham. At the time, having gathered people, he began to teach them self-denial, self-nullification, and unity to the point of love for the other as for oneself. One must carry out this work precisely in the group where we build our environment on practice.

So, I do not see people engaged in this anywhere else. In recent generations, no one except Baal HaSulam, and Rabash in particular, wrote about the decisive need for unity and mutual guarantee.

Do various religions and beliefs, circles and organizations that preach love for the other facilitate the correction of egoism or do they just implant these or those collective attributes? For example, Nazi Germany also united people.

So, the question is the kind of unity we are talking about.

We have a methodology that enables a person to become united with others, to give himself to the environment in order to reveal mutual bestowal and love for the sake of all of humanity—not just some part of it that shields itself by fascist or protectionist methods—and ultimately, to achieve an absolute, abstract form of bestowal and love, in other words, to bring contentment to the Creator.

You can find a huge amount of material online about love for the other. Everyone talks about it, without mentioning Israel and Abraham, as if it is his personal invention or the property of his religion. When egoism covers the eyes, people do not understand the depth of the question, do not know the history, and claim that they know the ultimate truth. There is nothing you can do about it.

On our side, we already are based on the method of Abraham. He discovered love for the other as for oneself and, having exited Babylon, adopted this methodology. Then, Moses developed it by means of unity at Mount Sinai and so on. In general, we are talking about the task of the people of Israel, about its foundation. It was originally formed on this base. If there were no foundation, there would have been no nation.

All other nations came into being naturally, but Israel is “not a people” in this sense. It is not among other nations because its foundation is bestowal, love for the other as for oneself, separated from the reality of our world. Israel is the people connected to each other by the desire to find between themselves bestowal and love, and to rise in this love above their egoistic desire. There is no nation of Israel without this foundation. In other words, it cannot be called “a people” while it is in exile from the spiritual world.

The Jews in Egypt were not a nation until they came out of slavery and accepted the means that allowed them to live as one man with one heart, in common mutual guarantee. Only then did they become a people. Today, they are again not a people but a gathering of exiles.

It is no coincidence that throughout history Jews were so concerned about education. We also want to establish the method of integral education in our midst and then pass it to the entire nation and the entire world. There is only one reason: It does not exist without the nation.

The very concepts of “people,” “country,” and “society” among the Jews followed education. Before Abraham educated—taught those who escaped with him from Babylon—they were not a people. After all, it is necessary to have “glue” that will connect people into one; otherwise they are strangers to each other. It is the education on the principle of love for the other as for oneself that brings them together into a unified group or a unified nation. Of course, it is a unique people, different from all the others. They are united according to the conditions of our world, and in order to unite, Israel must accept the terms of the spiritual world.

This is the origin of its complete oppositeness to the rest of the world in terms of education and the essence of love for the other. If others are willing to distribute this principle to their nations, Israel cannot be limited to itself because this is not love as it should be. We must initially be aware of the goal of creation and carry it to the world. Otherwise, instead of love, there will be “people’s ego,” “national ego,” or, as it is called today, “national pride,” which is nonsense. Israel can have nothing like this. It must limit its ego and connect spiritual, higher values to it instead of boasting its differences in the matters of this world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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