After Abraham’s group worked on unity, they began to discover a new level of the ego and began to draw apart again, just like they did in Babylon.

They were dominated by the power of Pharaoh, a giant ego that pressured them, the relations between them, became “the slavery in Egypt.”

It was at that time that the next leader of the nation Moses appeared. Moses was brought up at Pharaoh’s home from a very young age, but nonetheless, a great desire to ascend above his upbringing awoke in him. He escaped from Pharaoh and turned to the people, calling them to leave Egypt.

The people, however, were very weak. On one hand, they understood that they had to leave the egoistic slavery, otherwise there was not a chance that they would connect and unite to reproduce Abraham’s idea that helps them advance in the connection between them, to reveal the Creator.

On the other hand, the Creator is concealed from their feelings. So the slavery in Egypt is like nighttime for them since they don’t feel the spiritual life at all. But they have already tasted and felt what a spiritual state means: life without any limitations, a feeling of the outer space, a different dimension.

Therefore, they were rather passive at first and Moses had to aggravate Pharaoh (the ego) to such an extent that the people would feel his rigid domination. Only then did they see the afflictions that the ego caused them and were then ready to leave Egypt because they didn’t want to identify with their ego anymore. They had no power to break away from it but they suddenly felt the desire to do so.

By showing them the ego’s cruelty and slyness, Moses raises the people and takes them out of the egoistic state. Now they are ready to overcome all the fights, disputes and conflicts and to ascend above them according to the condition of “love covers all transgressions.” Then they break away from the slavery in Egypt, rise above it, and leave Egypt.

Every whole spiritual level is made of ten sub-levels. Every sub-level should be seen as a source of loss, pain, sufferings, and terrible diseases. Sufferings that gradually accumulate in the recognition of the egoistic slavery and convince people to break away from the ego (even at night, in the dark, when nothing is understood and nothing can be seen); the main thing is to keep the connection between them.

The situation before the exodus from Egypt and afterward is similar to crossing a border. In Egypt we depend on one another, hating one another, but the moment we take upon ourselves the law of mercy, of altruistic bestowal, of mutual incorporation, we can cross the border and break away from Egypt.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

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Question: We would like to pass our baton, our love, our heartfelt attitude to our friends from Latin America and North America and ask those friends that have the possibility of being there definitely to come to meet with you and their friends.

Answer: I very much look forward to that; I am flying to the nations of Latin America and North America with the great hope of meeting with my students. I want to see that they are advancing in the same direction as our joint “Russian team” advanced in Sochi. I would want similar groups to be there.

We see with what speed the world is evolving. Just think, the Brazilians no longer want to watch soccer! This says something! Here we are still locked into football, whereas, there this is not so anymore, even though for South Americans the carnival and soccer have been the most important things in life.

This is a very interesting phenomenon. Together with tiredness, isolation, and distance, some kind of awareness appears, and not just something vague and passive. They don’t want it! And especially now, when they have lost, this gives an even greater push towards continued awareness.

See how they are being guided from Above! After all, for them soccer had been their whole life: salvation from revolution, from poverty, from everything! People are beginning to understand that a radical decision is required; daydreams at games are not allowed.

It amazes me that this is coming precisely from there. When people like these seem to know naturally how to break away from all the hardships and be satisfied with little, already feeling that they cannot fulfill themselves through this, it is wonderful!
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day One” 7/13/14, Lesson 1

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The correct restriction of the ego that leads to the mean between Abraham’s attribute of Hesed (mercy) and Isaac’s attribute of Gvura (power) is necessary in order to advance spiritually and to take what they have in common.

What they have in common is the next phase in the development of Abraham’s group called Jacob, since the connection between the right line (Abraham) and the left line (Isaac) gradually depicts the middle line (Jacob).

It is actually at this point that we can talk about the beginning of the real fulfillment of the method of Kabbalah because now it includes the two lines, right and left, the attribute of Hesed (bestowal) and the attribute of Din (receiving), which create a third force that connects them correctly. The third force is called Jacob.

The formation of the middle line (the attribute of Jacob) in the Kabbalistic group that came out of Babylon is the basis for the development of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Every movement in spiritual development is gradually fulfilled and it is possible to ascend to the next level only when we add the left line to the right line.

If I am on a certain level, I have to add the left line and different kinds of egoistic desires and problems and rise above them in order to ascend to the next level. This is the only way I can understand the next level. In other words, the flat areas on the steps of the ladder are the attributes of goodness and the ascent from one level to the next are the attributes of domination, respect and power, above which I ascend.

This is how the ladder of the spiritual ascent called Jacob’s ladder is built. Jacob includes both good and evil forces and correctly connects them by internally fulfilling the method of the gradual ascent up the ladder. Jacob is actually the beginning of the spiritual development that is purposeful and correct.

This explains the existence of the left line in our world. It stems from the Creator who gives it to us so that we will ascend higher above ourselves until we attain His level.

The right combination between the right and left lines, the attribute of Abraham and Isaac, are included in the attribute of Jacob that is also called Israel. If we take these two forces of nature and connect them correctly and ascend Jacob’s ladder, we thus become Israel (Yashar- El), which means straight to the Creator. When we use these two forces, we can accurately focus on the goal and constantly aim, place, and manage ourselves exactly on the middle line.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #1 “There Is None Else Besides Him” …There are things in the world, which, to begin with, aim to divert a person from the right way, and by which he is rejected from Sanctity.

And the benefit from the rejections is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for the Creator to help him, since he sees that otherwise he is lost.

Therefore a person needs the right society, a society that corrects and adjusts him, reminding him what the goal is and putting him back on the right track. Thanks to the society, he does not divert from the path because of the different obstacles but initially regards them with the right intention.

The moment a person establishes the right intention in order to reveal the good upper providence, that “There is none else besides Him,” he totally changes his attitude toward life. He understands that everything around him is a theater that is meant only to reveal that, and so he sees God’s hand in everything.

If he focuses himself correctly, he advances and grows stronger, and sees how the Creator gives him an opportunity to get closer to correction at any given moment.

And he, who always feels that the shattered is greater than the whole, meaning that there are many more descents than ascents, and he does not see an end to these states, and he will forever remain outside of holiness, for he sees that it is difficult for him to observe even as little as a jot, unless by overcoming above reason.

“Faith above reason” means that I see many reasons that keep on growing both in quantity and in quality, and it disturbs me and doesn’t allow me to concentrate. It tears me to pieces that I cannot say that they stem from the “good that does good,” and that “there is none else besides Him.”

I must oppose the sources of evil, but, at the same time, remember that it is only an external expression of the Creator’s attitude toward me. In my corporeal life, I must relate to these hardships as is customary in our world. It is said that the world keeps on turning, but in the internal, spiritual dimension, I must treat it on a different level, on the human level, Adam (man), one resembling the Creator (Domeh). I must use all the states for connection and for getting closer to the Creator.

Here, too, a person feels split and finds it hard to be on two dimensions simultaneously since one annuls the other. However, this is all our work.

In this world, we engage in matter according to certain laws. We work, take care of our family, our children, our job, and on making a living just like everyone else. However, at the same time, we also engage in high spiritual matters.

Although we suffer because of the different problems in this world, when we ascend to the second level, to the spiritual dimension, we are constantly in adhesion with the upper force, with the good that does good. Our efforts on these two levels gradually bring us to revelation.

It is because the gap between corporeality and spirituality, which we keep without getting confused and without blurring, brings us to demand the revelation of the Creator. The corporeal and the spiritual states in which I operate correctly by separating them become increasingly more extreme, scary, unpleasant, and painful. They actually tear me to pieces, and I cannot justify the Creator. I must do something since otherwise the Creator, “There is none else besides Him” and the good and benevolent, disappears from me. So, I struggle in order to reveal Him. It isn’t because I feel bad in my corporeal life, rather, because I understand that the unpleasantness that is given to me is so I will decide that there is none else besides Him and that He is good and benevolent.

However, I cannot do that, so I cry out, ask for help and weep, but not for myself, not in order to ease my corporeal life with the support of “There is none else besides Him” and the good that does good.

Thanks to the right work on the two dimensions, I come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter whether I feel good or not. What’s important is that I don’t want to lose the Creator, the good and the benevolent, since otherwise I convict His providence. For the first time, a person begins to build his vessels correctly, and in order to do that, he needs the revelation of the Creator. He doesn’t want to ease his work that way, but he asks for power that he doesn’t have naturally, the Creator’s attribute. He doesn’t ask for it for his own benefit, but so that he wouldn’t curse the upper providence, the Creator’s uniqueness.

A person’s work, called God’s work, is to discover that “there is none else besides Him” and that “He is good that does good.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

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Question: Our sick friend became the reason for connecting and consolidating the world group. Can we initiate and create points like these in ourselves, not derived from someone’s illness, but from our goal, from something good?

Answer: Certainly, we must gather all our problems on the way toward the goal, everything that disturbs our connection, or vice versa, everything that can be used as a push, drive, and incentive toward our unity.

However, on the other hand, the Creator gives us new conditions for every one of our steps toward the Light. So, what will be, will be. We must take all this into account.

However, for now, the Creator specifically chose a sick friend so that we would carry out a mass action of connection for him. For this, we must respect, love, appreciate, and take care of him, for he now has become a means for our advancement.

However, even without this incident, in any case, we should search for other methods of advancement. Generally, we find them in dissemination because within the group itself there is no particularly sharp push or incentive for connection and unity. However, when we are engaged in dissemination, as a general rule we begin to get all kinds of problems that help us unite together to solve them.

Question: When the activity in Sochi was arranged, we all were involved in dissemination there. Now, we aren’t doing activities like these, so, apparently as a counterweight, our friend became ill.

If we plan an activity like this again and begin to be involved with it, then all attention will be directed there. Could it be that the Creator will stimulate us to advance only in a good way then, through dissemination?

Answer: First, I don’t put any conditions on the Creator, and I don’t determine my actions according to what will be or won’t be. None of this is my problem. I am not responsible for this mechanism. It is necessary to do everything to move the system toward correction maximally and most efficiently. This is possible only through dissemination of the method of integral education and knowledge.

Give a general shout into the entire space of Russian speakers that you first are going out for one dissemination activity, then another, and so on. To the degree possible, make a general program that will be accepted in all regions because all of the groups are on different levels of development. However, you can do this and be in constant communication and connection among yourselves.

In fact, the action in Sochi united a circle that was not large. It was a good idea, but how many people were there in comparison to all of the groups? They sat in one place and cooked by themselves as in a big pot, and now it is necessary for something else to appear from all of this cooking and from the Saint Petersburg convention.

You must begin to act in wider circles and not continue with actions on ourselves. I think no one would prohibit actions like these. It is possible to try to arrange them under a pleasant slogan about the unity of all of humanity, a call for mutual understanding and the like.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “There is None Else Besides Him:” Then he comes to the decision that no one can help him but the Creator Himself. 

A person makes this decision after he has tried all ways to somehow connect the two planes of the material and spiritual.

On the material plane, he fights for survival and earnings, and he experiences all the hardships of life, as does every person in this world. At the same time, he is in the upper world where he does not yet feel the upper force, its nature and uniqueness, but only tries to form within himself sense organs for the revelation of the next dimension.

After all attempts to bring these two worlds closer and, beyond all the material problems, not to allow himself to forget that everything comes from the sole and absolutely good upper management, he sees that he is not capable of this.

This is arranged on purpose so that a person needs the Creator, so that this upper force comes and creates within him the correct desires for its revelation.

This causes him to make a heartfelt demand that the Creator will open his eyes and heart, and truly bring him nearer to eternal adhesion with God. It thus follows, that all the rejections he had experienced had come from the Creator.

To understand this, one needs a supporting environment. Otherwise, he will forget about it every moment. A new informational record, a Reshimo, new external conditions, are revealed in every moment of our lives. Therefore, a person must provide himself with the guarantees for the future so that in the next moment he does not leave the spiritual path by suddenly finding himself a few meters or even kilometers away from his chosen path leading to the king’s palace.

Therefore, he needs to organize an environment that will support him and make him stay under its influence. In other words, he bows himself before the correct environment that in general is going by the path of the revelation of the Creator, the only force in the world.

Then during each descent a person will get help back from the environment to the extent of his contribution into it, as much as he surrendered himself to the environment. Indeed, a little one can receive from great ones by being influenced by them and inspired by their values, and, due to this, he continues his internal clarifications.

After a certain number of such actions, having gone through the vicissitudes of life, a person comes to the true cry. He already has the correct vessel of the right size and quality ready to accept the revelation of the Creator. He cries that in the conditions of concealment he is not able, to remain in the feeling that there is nothing except His good governance.

He appeals for help because he does not want to blame the Creator, and the Creator gives the person this opportunity. He cannot just be revealed because revelation is possible only in the correct desires. That is why when the person completes the required measure of efforts, the Upper Light rewards him with the property of bestowal.

Then, a person finally understands what was said in all the Kabbalistic books. As he obtains the property of bestowal, he reveals the Creator inside of this vessel.

This happens every time. A person does not ask for the revelation of the Creator in his egoistic desires like we are asking now. The Creator is revealed as the property of bestowal in the desires in which a person is able and ready to accept Him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

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Thanks to their energy and ingenuity, the Jewish people are always found in the first ranks of social and technological development, seemingly showing the world in which direction to go. But in the meantime, the task and mission of the people of Israel is completely different. And if we knew exactly what it was, we would attain peace and happiness for everyone and bring the world to an optimal state.

One way or another we are a people of an idea, people who are teachers. Everything revolves around this, and this pushes us to move things. In the Torah it is said that we will be a nation of priests, in other words, we will serve as a transitional link such that through us the knowledge of the general system of creation will be transmitted to the world.

To this day, we feel this hidden irrationality from which there is no escape. The latent problem in this is that we are not teaching humanity the correct way to live. Within our nature, there are the buds of that inner structure required to transform humanity into one and make it a harmonious society.

Nobody else has this, only the Jews. This is because they have already gone through this once and so can return to this again. Moreover, they must return to this in view of all humanity.

This previous experience has been stamped into them forever, and as a result of this, all of humanity feels that they are strangers, aliens, and they feel that the Jews: “Have something that isn’t in us and cannot be.”

Even if they went through another 2,000 years, it would all be the same. The Jews are separate and everyone else is separate from them. No matter how much they try, they will not mix with others. This is like a suspension (a solution containing substances that cannot be mixed with each other).You can dissolve them, scatter them, shake them, do whatever you want, but this essential characteristic will not be mixed. Through the generations, in spite of it all, they will still grow in the original state in which they were created.

This is because what is latent in them is irrelevant to mundane factors. Integrate them with whomever you want on the material level, replace them all with others, this point will pop up in them again. It is illogical. It doesn’t belong to the nature of our world, to physical bodies. In every case, it will sprout in their descendants in the same form as today. Everything will come out as if nothing had happened.

Let’s make a gross calculation, solely and only for a general illustration. Before 700–800 BC, with the destruction of the First Temple, the Jewish people lost ten tribes, five times more than the remaining two tribes. Throughout all the time that passed since then and up until today, these two tribes grew, let’s say, to 15 million people.

Considering the mass extermination of Jews throughout history brings this theoretical number to 20 million. From here it follows that the descendants of the rest of the tribes, who were five times more, they would need to total 100 million. This is quite a considerable sum, right?

And so, in a particular amount of time, we will see that these 100 million will suddenly be discovered as if out of nowhere. It will be discovered that they are Jews in different nations with completely different customs and different characteristics, no matter what and where. Suddenly it will be discovered that they are here, there, and everywhere. Moreover, when they are discovered with their Jewish traits, in them that same illogical something will be found. And again, the familiar picture will be repeated: The nations will look at the Jews and see that there is something in them, but what it is, is unclear. Even though they have the form and character of local residents, it doesn’t matter.

He could be an American, an Australian, a European, but you see that this is a Jew. It is as if he arrived from outer space, settled here among the inhabitants of the earth and lives in their clothes, whereas his interior is different. Living in him is a spark that connects him with the upper world. This spark remains; it is impossible to be released from it.

Hitler tried to exterminate all the Jews, but it is impossible to exterminate this spiritual point through physical annihilation. In any case it will grow in other people without any connection to genetics or the generations who were annihilated.

I repeat: The illogical foundation that exists in these people cannot be annihilated. History itself testifies to this.

And so the stock that is composed of the ten tribes that exists somewhere among other peoples has yet be revealed.
[146467]
From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/24/14

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The Babylonian civilization developed in a very comfortable location in the central part of Mesopotamia on the fertile soil between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia fished, grew onions, garlic, buckwheat, barley, and wheat. They lived a modest but comfortable life, enjoying nature’s abundance in that region.

Gardening and farming on the land was highly developed in Babylon due to the development of the first irrigation systems.

Although the country was ruled by a king, the people were relatively free, supplied all their needs themselves, and managed their own society and country. They had no enemies and lived a happy, friendly life as one family. This was all thanks to Noah’s group of Kabbalists, who brought the attribute of bestowal, mutual closeness, and kindness to the region.

But in order to continue their development. there was need for a shake up. If we want to explain the mechanism of a certain system so that another person will be able to use it, we usually build a model and use it to illustrate different malfunctions that may encounter within the system. The same thing happened in ancient Babylon.

In order to raise a group of Kabbalists and a whole society along with them to the next level, it was necessary to insert flaws into their mutual relations and demonstrate them. This is what happened.

The general managing force of nature created different obstacles that people encountered in the form of disputes, conflicts, and fights only in order to raise them to the next level.

This state, which the ancient Babylonians suddenly encountered puzzled Abraham, who was one of their spiritual leaders.
[146179]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

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Question: How can a person feel that “there is none else beside Him” if he hasn’t attain bestowal yet?

Answer: Before I reach bestowal, I try to arrange in my mind and heart the opinion that “there is none else beside Him.” It is easier to do this in the mind; in the heart this is relatively more difficult.

It depends on my relationship with the group and how I build the new Kli together with them in which I am ready to decide that “there is none else beside Him.”

To the degree of the connection between us, we build our collective we, the raspberry ball, the sum total of us all. Yet in this point of we, I am not found; rather, I nullify myself. This means that in the center of this circle, I am found above my ego.

It is possible to multiply one by one all of the nullifications of ourselves: 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times; more and more as we unite. It follows that I acquire new spiritual feelings and thoughts through which I will discover the Creator.

And to be precise, I will discover the Creator not within the group of ten, but in the connection between the groups of ten. The group of ten is said to reveal the ego within it and to rise above it to connect with the others. Indeed, the group of ten is not yet the outer circle.

When we connect with the other groups of ten, we create among us all kinds of forms of connection that are able to reveal to us particular images of the Creator and make it somewhat possible for us to see Him.

This means that there is no other place to look for “there is none else beside Him” besides the general point of connection. This is a simple job in the consolidation of all people, and so it is written: “And all nations shall flow unto it”. (Isaiah 2:2)

The feeling that “there is none else beside Him” depends solely and only on the degree of our self-nullification, because we build this above the ego, like the roof of a Sukkah. From me, I create we, and from we, we create the Creator.

The ability to nullify yourself is determined by the environment and how much you bow your head towards it. At every moment, the Creator gives a person opportunities; the Upper Light works incessantly, but everything depends upon your agreement to be nullified, and whether or not you will use the opportunities given to you.

If you have not prepared yourself, you will receive the Light from the opposite side, meaning that instead of His approach, you will feel distance. That is how it happens in regular life. You are given some kind of unique opportunity to advance, and you accept it as a disturbance and an obstacle. You have not prepared for a leap like this, and so instead of a springboard, you see a high and impassable barrier.

There is freedom of choice in only one thing: nullifying before the environment, being included within it, and being like the friends in everything. Try to realize this potential. You are ready to do this! Your freedom of choice is only in this and you don’t need anything more. The Creator brings you to the good fortune,  and from this point, there is no way back, only forward.

Begin to enter the group, be included within it, and build a common Kli with the others in which you will discover the higher power. Our world is a world of action. We are found within in because it is possible to carry out actions within it without the agreement of the heart. In this is the entire foundation for our imaginary world, but this game makes it possible for us to advance and build our spiritual independence, and this is specifically thanks to our being deceivers.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the role of Israel today and of the Jewish people in particular?

Answer: The role of Israel was first discovered in ancient Babylon when one of the great sages of that generation, the Babylonian priest Abraham, provided an answer for what was happening there.

At that time, Babylon was undergoing the same processes that the world is undergoing today: a small society of three million people, which was almost the world civilization at the time, suddenly began to sink into mutual hatred because of the sudden eruption of the ego.

Until then, the Babylonians lived as a small society between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and everything was fine. But when the great ego erupted, it turned out that, on the one hand, they were integrally connected to one another, and on the other hand, they couldn’t exist together egoistically. Therefore the term the Tower of Babel symbolizes the ego that literally grew up to the sky.

This is what is happening today. On one hand, we discover that people are mutually connected to one another and on the other hand, they hate each other. The two forces that mutually operate inside us require a solution, since otherwise we will reach a dead end.

One of these two forces, the force of nature, ties us together and shows us the globalization and mutual connection between everyone to everyone. This force closes us integrally and shows us that we are one whole body. The second force is the egoistic human force that tears us apart from the inside, separates us, and doesn’t allow us to be one whole.

These two forces were first studied in ancient Babylon and there were two answers to the question of “what should we do?”

The first answer was given by Nimrod, the king of Babylon, who decided that the Babylonians had no choice but to break up and move away from one another. He disintegrated his kingdom fearing that his subjects would begin to destroy each other. This is where the concept of building the Tower of Babel comes from and its outcome was the dispersion of the people and the mixing of tongues, which was a sign that people ceased to understand one another.

That was one way of solving the problem, but today we, the modern Babylonians, have nowhere to go since we have no other planet. Therefore, we cope with the question that we have to answer.

The second solution was given by Abraham, one of the leading priests in ancient Babylon. Abraham understood that the ego separates us from the inside, while the external forces of nature, which bring us closer, were given to us on purpose so that we will ascend above them and resemble nature. This means that we will work against our ego on the connection between us.

How can this be done? How can person oppose his own nature? Abraham suggested organizing small groups of people that would begin to connect, and in their attempts to connect, they would draw the external force of nature that would be revealed internally among them and correct and raise them above themselves.

The main goal of nature is to bring humanity to a state of “love thy friend as thyself,” whether we like it or not. The problem of our separation should be solved immediately, and only in this manner.

About five thousand followers joined Abraham. The great 12^th century philosopher, Rambam, writes about this and it is also contained in earlier writings like in Midrash Raba and other sources.

The Sefer Yetzira (Book of Creation) is the only remaining book written by Abraham, and it tells us about the whole system of nature that affects all of human society.

Led by Abrahan, 5,000 people left Babylon and came to the land of Canaan, the modern land of Israel. Abraham taught them how to ascend above the ego in the connection between them according to the ancient Jewish commandments of “love thy friend as thyself,” “don’t do unto others what is hateful to you” and “be as one man in one heart,” etc. This group is known by the name Israel, which means Yashar-El, straight to the Creator, resembling nature. After all, the Creator is not a picture on the wall or a grandfather sitting on a cloud. The Creator is nature! All of nature is called the Creator.

The 5,000 people who left Babylon with Abraham were called the nation of Israel, stemming from the word “Yashar -El,” straight to the Creator. It is a nation that did not grow out of biological roots like all the other nations but according to an ideology, a purpose that defines where it is headed and how it is going to establish society.

Although we are the biological descendants of those people, unfortunately, we don’t resemble them at all because we have lost that ideology. Therefore our current state is called exile from the spiritual level they had achieved.

When the Jewish nation left Egypt and wandered in the desert, it constantly worked on its connection. Their ego kept on growing, just as the ego of humanity grows from one generation to the next (which is what makes us different from animals), and the people worked on it.

This continued until the ego suddenly erupted as it developed. It happened on the eve of the destruction of the Second Temple in the last year BC. People could not ascend above it in the good connection between them and they fell to the egoistic level.

A Temple refers to holiness, bestowal, love of others, and to the incorporation of everyone into one whole. When the Jewish nation fell from that level, it determined the rest of its history of 2,000 years of exile.
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From the interview with V. Kanevsky in Toronto, 8/5/14

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