All that a person needs to do is to connect with others, and for this, one needs to annul one’s egoism and forget about oneself, reducing one’s control and giving room for the others. This is all the work and general correction in one general soul. Therefore, all the sins and commandments, repentance, rewards and punishments, relate only to connection. The broader this connection is, the harder it is for us to annul ourselves, to make room for others, to give importance to them. In the connection, both quality and quantity are important.

During Selichot (Repentance) we ask forgiveness for our egoism, for the inability to annul it for the sake of our unity. Gradually, quantity turns into quality, expansion of the connection and the inclusion of new circles into it leads to new degrees of attainment and attracts new light. Giving birth to the new Partzuf Nefesh, we ourselves receive the degree of Ruach, and so on.

Therefore, there is no question which is more important for correction: quality or quantity. Qualitative correction is impossible without a quantitative one. All of our actions are very simple and discrete, but due to their large number, constant efforts to annul ourselves and connect with each other, we achieve all the spiritual attainments and rise.

It is written that “it is not the wise who learn,” but the one who constantly adds efforts so that penny by penny they accumulate into a large sum. Many discrete actions accumulate into a major result.

Therefore, we cannot complain that we are incapable of doing a great deed. A great feat is not required from us. At any place and in any state, there is always an opportunity to make a little effort. If we can perform our small actions and assemble them together, then through them, we will reach correction and a high ascent.¹

One should repent only for not asking the Creator for correction. All the corrections go beyond knowledge, beyond the wishes of our egoism. Our work is to always come back to “There is none else besides Him.” In a place where the Creator is lacking, I must add Him. If I fail to do this, then I ask for forgiveness. I demand from the Creator to give me more strength, understanding, and sensitivity in order to see the possibility of correction and ask the Creator for it.²

I ask forgiveness for the fact that I had an opportunity to demand correction from the Creator and I did not do so, I did not reach the full recognition of evil. I repent that I did not work hard enough and could not be affected enough by my egoism so that I would begin to act. The evil that was revealed did not touch my heart. I could have been more sensitive and uncompromising to evil.

It all depends on our connection, but we have not reached it, we cannot feel the common trouble as our own. For that, we are now asking forgiveness.

We are now working on expanding our global connection (Kli). Thanks to this expansion, everyone will become much more sensitive to the people who are near him. Connection in every individual ten will grow because we expand our connections outside of it.³

In order to correctly connect with your ten, with greater precision and inner strength, discerning additional details in this connection and eventually revealing the Creator in it, we must take care of a wider circle. It is known that in order to deepen the study of some phenomenon, we should, on the contrary, expand it and step aside a little. Through this, we will understand the phenomenon itself.

By going beyond our Earth into space, we reach greater understanding of the planet on which we live. It is like this in everything. A person leaves his native country and sets off to conquer new continents because it helps him understand himself. It is the same with the ten; we cannot study it and discover the Creator in it until we take care of all these other similar tens.

We need to establish connecting threads between us, lines of connection; otherwise, we will not understand how the system works. It is impossible to study the functions of the entire body from one cell. It is even impossible to understand this one cell in and of itself, its purpose and functions because it is a part of the general body and its systems mainly work to communicate with other cells. It is impossible to pull out one resistor or transistor from a computer and think that we understand the construction of the entire system.

Therefore, if we feel the need to expand and start thinking about all the world groups, it is a sign that we are ready to achieve connection in the ten on a higher degree. One cannot be without the other.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/19 “What Is Preparation for Selichot [Forgiveness]”

¹ Minute 18:20
² Minute 26:25
³ Minute 39:10
⁴ Minute 1:10:45

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#RoshHashanah
If we unite, covering all transgressions with love, this year will be good for us. Such a connection must be achieved daily, every day becoming warmer, genuinely closer to each other!
Good year to all, good entry in the Book of Life!

If one lives in the past, for he knows nothing about the future, then the period from the beginning of the year, Rosh Hashanah, to the Judgement Day, Yom Kippur, is fearsome. The science of Kabbalah is facing the future and talks about these days as the most beautiful and kind. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of a good change.
#YomKipur #RoshHashanah #judgementday #Jews

My new article on @medium “How to Rise Above Time, Space, and Motion and Communicate With the Dead“:

#predictions #success #wisdomofkabbalah

We are entering a new year—new Malchut, the system that controls us and receives feedback. When we are connected, we can affect this system and the future becomes an exciting ascent to the level of infinite attainment, the feeling of immortality and the common system of nature!

Friends!
We’ve had uneasy years. We tried to understand how to change our fate. Let’s make the new year a year of new attainments when we control ourselves and our destiny, and we shall see a beautiful future before us and how we can advance toward it. Everything is in our hands!

🇮🇱 The government of unity should include opposing parties that, with wisdom and understanding, realize how to achieve connection and unity. Like a family where everyone has their own opinions, but for the sake of a common goal we need to discuss each issue and come to a mutually acceptable solution.
#Israel #israelelections2019

There is no other way to succeed except for creating a government of national unity made of parties that really want to unite and are capable of sacrificing their interests on every issue for it. Then it will result in concessions and in completion of each other.
#israelelections

#IsraElex19v2
“Just as their faces are different, so are their thoughts and desires.”
We are all completely different, initially unity cannot be achieved directly through our similarities. We need something that connects us with each other, so that we have a “cause” for which to cancel our differences.
#israel #elections

A few days ago I spoke to Prof. Ichak Adizes, a top world expert in the field of management. Adizes says that love is the solution to all of life’s problems, hatred divides us and elicits rejection, while love is the key to success in #business and organizations.

From Twitter, 10/1/19

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Rosh Hashanah symbolizes our aspiration to higher values, benevolence, sharing, and caring for each other. The essence of Judaism is unity and brotherly love, expressed in the sayings, “That which you hate, do not do to your friend,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The tradition to eat a fish’s head symbolizes our decision to be at the forefront, leading ourselves and others toward unity.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/29/19

We have been celebrating Rosh HaShanah, the beginning of the Hebrew year, for 5,779 years already. What could truly be renewed this year, and how can we change our perception of reality so that the coming year will be significantly better? Here are 15 mind-changing insights.

1. The World at a Turning Point
In the twenty-first century we have achieved everything. And yet, we can’t shake away the troubles and ailments that plague us both as individuals and as a society. Political instability, social division, terrorism and security threats, climate destabilization, mass immigration, and more – are just some of the symptoms pointing to the global entanglement the world is facing.
For thousands of years we’ve been trying to fix the world around us in countless ways. But the facts on the ground prove that we haven’t cracked the formula to a peaceful and happy life. The silver lining is that people are beginning to question the current paradigm, and look for a new approach to life.

2. The World Is a Mirror of Our Inner World
The Ari, the Kabbalist who described the entire structure of the spiritual reality in great detail, summarized it as follows: “Man is a small world; the world is a great man.” In other words, the entire world is a reflection of man’s inner world, it reflects the consequences of man’s inner qualities. If we learn how to perceive reality correctly, we will find the connection between what happens in the world and what happens within us. Thus, by changing man, we can change the world.

3. Human Beings Are Motivated by Desire
The power that drives the development of humanity is the desire to receive pleasure. This desire grows in both quantity and quality. The ladder of development of human desire begins with basic-physical desires for food, sex, family and shelter, continues with human-social desires for money, honor, power and knowledge, and climaxes at the desire for spiritual fulfillment. At every step of the ladder, the desire shapes our perception of reality.

4. The Egoistic Desire Shapes Human Perception
At a certain stage in the development of human desire, people want to take pleasure at each other’s expense. Kabbalah calls this natural phase of development “egoism.” The increasing egoistic desire in man shapes his perception of reality. As a result, man sees the outside world in an increasing crisis, a world in which man is wolf to man.

5. The Human Ego at a Dead End
The egoistic desire sees numerous possibilities to draw pleasure from the world. It is in constant pursuit for greater pleasure. But time and again, man becomes disillusioned, as the desire is met with dissatisfaction that causes disappointment and frustration. Over time, the bitter experience accumulates in humanity and every generation grows discouraged from the chase faster than the previous one. This is the reason for the meteoric rise in the demand for drugs and the phenomenon of depression becoming the leading cause of disability in the 21st century.

6. To Change the World – Change Man
Instinctively, we want to correct the world around us, as that is where our problems appear. But this is an illusion. The source of our problems is the growing ego in our inner world. Just as a vehicle’s dashboard shows the driver data such as speed, fuel, and so forth, the world presents man with various data to inform him about his inner qualities. Therefore, if we correct our egoism, our negative attitude to others, the “dashboard” will present us with a perfect world – a replica of our inner world.

7. Man Changes in His Relation to Others
Man’s attitude to reality changes when he treats others as he treats himself. Treating one’s fellowmen positively drives a positive attitude to the other levels of nature as well: the inanimate, flora and fauna. That is why the sages of Kabbalah coined the famous maxim “love thy neighbor as thyself.” It’s not about manners or morality, but rather a means for a fundamental change in our perception of reality. In the effort to perceive all parts of reality around us as one whole, we evoke the natural force that builds a new perception within us. In other words, a person who improves himself directly improves the world around him.

8. Every Crisis Calibrates Our Perception
The purpose behind all the troubles that plague us, both as individuals and as a society, is that we will pay attention to the correction of our ego, that we will improve our attitude to each other. As long as we neglect this, reality will press us more and more so as to calibrate our perception of reality.

9. The Positive Path to a Change in Perception
A pleasant, efficient and fast way to change our perception of reality is an educational process of raising awareness. In this process, one learns how to see and feel the world as a replica of his inner qualities. Step by step, one can upgrade his perception of reality consciously and independently – not through crises.

10. The Virtual World Prepares Us for a New Perception of Reality
The transformation of the world into a small global village helps us understand that we are all connected and interdependent. What happens in an individual affects the entire world. Alongside growing interdependence, virtual networks and technologies are developing exponentially. They release us from the chains of the physical world and get us used to the idea that humanity is an inner essence within us. For example, when people communicate virtually, they form an inner character of the person or group with whom they communicate.

11. A Tiny Change of Desire—a Huge Change in the World
It may seem that changing our perception of reality requires intellectual scrutiny or deep self-analysis, but this is not the case. Since the desire is what shapes our perception, all that is needed is a genuine shift of desire, that is, a heartfelt-emotional shift. This means that simple actions that increase our sensitivity to unity among people can focus our perception, and thus project a brighter picture of the world.

12. Connecting the Pieces of Reality Leads to Revelation of the Creator
Regular work on “love thy neighbor as thyself,” that is, the effort to grasp all parts of reality as one whole, reveals to us the single force that operates reality. The force that is the foundation of reality, that binds together the still, vegetative, animate and human to one harmonious system. This is how we gradually begin to feel how the same force operates everything in reality.

13. The World Is Within Us: The Next Revolution After Einstein
Humanity is facing a tremendous and profound change in the approach to life and to the whole of reality. Just as humanity believed that the sun revolved around the earth and Copernicus proved otherwise, and just as Einstein redefined reality as a relative picture that depends on the observer – the next revolutionary stage of development will show us that reality is a projection of man’s inner self.

14. The Pioneers in Changing the Concept of Reality
The people who have achieved a new perception of reality are called “Kabbalists.” The first group of Kabbalists who led a social life based on a complete perception of reality, has become “the people of Israel” over the years. Since then, the Jewish people’s role has been to serve as an example for humanity, an example for a society that lives in a unified perception of reality. This is the true teaching of the people of Israel, and this is the reason for the unexplainable feeling of the world towards the Jewish people.

15. Rosh HaShana Is an Opportunity for Change
Rosh Hashanah means the beginning of a change in man, a change in his perception of reality. Therefore, the coming holiday symbolizes the perfect opportunity for us to decide that this year we are changing our minds and hearts to perceive a new reality.

Happy Rosh HaShanah!

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It is impossible to pull out one resistor or transistor from the computer and understand the construction of the entire system from it. If we feel the need to expand and start thinking about all the world groups —this is a sign that we are ready to achieve a connection in the ten on a higher level.

We are working to expand our global connection (Kli). In order to correctly unite with your ten with greater precision and inner strength, scrutinizing additional details and eventually revealing the Creator in it, we must care about a wider circle.

Corrections go beyond knowledge and wishes of egoism. Our work is to come back to “There is none else besides Him.” In a place where the Creator is lacking, I must add Him. When I don’t do this, I ask forgiveness and demand strength, understanding, and sensitivity in order to see the possibility to correct.

During Slichot (repentance), we ask forgiveness for the inability to annul our egoism for the sake of our unity.
All our actions are simple, but due to their large number, constant efforts to annul ourselves and connect with each other, we achieve spiritual attainment and advancement.
#Slichot #repentance #RoshHashanah
From Twitter, 9/25/19

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Bina is an abstract property of faith, but this faith is realized in Malchut because faith can work practically only where there is a property of receiving. The desire to enjoy appears first at the level of Hochma, but it has not yet been realized by the created being. And the desire to bestow appears in Bina but still without its practical realization. From the combination of both appears the fourth stage, Dalet, where there should be faith, and to the extent of faith, reception. The desire to receive in Malchut is a consequence of the desire to bestow in Bina and the desire to receive in Hochma, which Zeir Anpin completely connects together.¹

The 15th of Av (Tu B’Av) is considered one of the best days for Israel. A good day is the day when you can bestow to the Creator the most. Tu B’Av symbolizes receiving for the sake of bestowal, but for the benefit of the future, when Malchut will already be corrected. In the meantime, although the ascent of the worlds takes place, it is due to the awakening from above, not to the work of the lower.

The end of correction takes place on Purim. Tu B’Av is a combination of the receptive desires of Malchut in the presence of all the right conditions that have come out of the four stages, represented as four groups of girls looking for suitors: Hochma, Bina, ZA, and Malchut.

The beauties said: “Turn your eyes to beauty, for a woman is for beauty.” The noblemen said: “Cast your eyes on family, for a woman is for sons.” The wealthy said: “Cast your eyes on the wealthy.” And the unsightly said: “Take us in the name of Heaven and crown us with gold ornaments.” In this way, all the stages passed by: Hochma, Bina, ZA, until the turn of Malchut came, and it turned out that Malchut Shamayim (the Kingdom of Heaven) must be poor and meager, not wealthy, beautiful, and noble. Only through our work can we become loyal to it.

This holiday represents our searches and disappointment in our own strength, our readiness to separate ourselves by any means from the desire to enjoy and our becoming devoted to bestowal, that is, to not demand anything for ourselves. I ask the Creator to provide me with protection against my desire to enjoy, my major enemy. I must hate my egoism to such an extent that I do not succumb to any temptation.

Let my egoism die—it will not get anything! Let me disappear—it does not matter because I have to go through the point of complete restriction and be born on the other side of the barrier, which means the death of my desire to enjoy for my own sake. This will be life and light for me: life is only on the other side of this barrier (Machsom).

To do this, one must reach the fourth stage, Malchut, an ugly, poor, lowborn bride called faith. If I am able to remain faithful to her despite her being poor and meager, then I have gained faith. This is the condition for gaining Malchut: consent to cleave only to her, despite other seductive images.

Faith is accepted without any conditions, otherwise it will not be faith but a calculation or a deal. Faith cannot have any selfish basis. I want to get rid of the egoistic calculation. Otherwise, I will not enter the spiritual world. This is a condition for entry: to cleanse myself of egoistic desires and remain only in bestowal. The property of bestowal is the absence of any calculation of self-benefit.

If I try to achieve faith, I go through all these stages, one after the other, getting acquainted with the “brides” preceding Malchut: beautiful, wealthy, and noble. But in the end, I reach the state when I want nothing but to get rid of all this “nobility.” I want only the Creator to exist and not me. This is how spiritual life begins.

I am ready to give up on all my calculations and cling to the Creator without any reasoning. This is how I become a spiritual seed. I want the Creator’s program to govern me, defining all my behavior, thoughts, and desires. Let a different engine work in me.

An egoistic engine is currently spinning in me, looking for how to gain more, to succeed, and to enjoy itself. I want a new engine to constantly turn me toward the Creator and not to seek anything for itself so that a new program of bestowal will work within me. This means that the upper light is being revealed in me, giving me a new perception of life, and with these new eyes, I see the upper world.²

Of all the “brides,” of all the desires, after a long clarification, we choose the one that requires nothing but adhesion and wants to base all of its reception only on faith. This is the condition for gaining Malchut, receiving for the sake of bestowal.

This bride seems ugly to our desire to enjoy, lowborn, poor, and meager. But precisely when I get nothing for my ego, I can be faithful to the Creator with all my soul. I am ready to die in order to remain faithful to Him. This is the condition for crossing the Machsom.³

Tu B’Av means choosing Malchut Shamayim. After the 9th of Av, I had nothing left for myself; everything collapsed: both the First and the Second Temple. Then the 15th of Av comes when I can base my attitude toward the Creator only on the property of bestowal. Therefore, the 15th of Av is considered the greatest holiday.

Thanks to the revelation of the shattering on the 9th of Av, on the 15th of Av I gain the ability to hold onto the Malchut Shamayim, to choose the right bride, Malchut.

The four brides from whom we choose is our attitude toward the group, the expectation to receive wealth, knowledge, and nobility from it. But in the end, I see that I will get only one thing—through my devotion to them, the achievement of devotion to the Creator. For me, this is the greatest asset.

All this seems ugly to my desire to enjoy. I see nothing good in this group and I would be happy to do away with everyone, but this is exactly the form through which, if I accept it, I can reach the Creator.

The whole world shows me how it hates me because I am engaged in bestowal and how it would support me if I were as egoistic as everyone else. The world is becoming very harsh in this regard. No one blames me for egoistic reception, but everyone attacks me for the aspiration to bestow. If I change, then I am immediately promised a good life and the return of the three profitable brides: the stages Aleph, Bet, and Gimel.

Here, one has to be very straightforward and must not make any compromises. The Creator will confuse me in every possible way. But the condition for crossing the Machsom is to say: “I am better off dead than living such a life.” Then, I will see how all these mirages dissipate and disappear.

A real bride is the one who will be with me provided that I agree to accept her anyway, may she be the ugliest woman in the world. She has neither beauty, nor wealth, nor nobility—nothing attractive. Why do I love her and get close to her? It is because only in this image she brings me to the Creator.

I see that the Creator plays with me through all these mirages, seducing me with wealth, intelligence, knowledge, nobility, bribing my ambition. But in the end, I understand that the greatness of the Creator is in His modesty. Therefore, I need to reduce my pride and my requirements and look not for beauty and nobility, intelligence and wealth, but only for the desire to adhere with all my heart, and then I can get married.⁴

The period of the 9th of Av is the time of death and destruction. But starting from the 15th of Av and further on, from the joyful day of Tu B’Av on which we chose the correct Malchut Shamayim, we begin preparations for the congress: for the connection between us and merging with the Creator already with the correct desire.⁵
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/19, Writings of Rabash “The Fifteenth of Av,” Article 35 (1986)
¹ Minute 25:30
² Minute 29:30
³ Minute 45:55
⁴ Minute 48:40
⁵ Minute 1:16:45

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It is not necessary to grieve about a ruined building hoping that if we build it in Jerusalem, we will change something for the better. The Temple is in our heart, where mutual bestowal and love should exist. This will be the holy structure, which means above our egoism.

This is what we should aspire for and this is the destruction we should regret—the one that is happening right now, not the one that happened sometime in the past. The Temple is being ruined day after day, that is, the connection between us is destroyed more and more. New informational genes (Reshimot) are revealed, but we are unable to correct them and that is why the destruction is happening. The possibility for connection is revealed again and is destroyed again, and so it goes moment after moment. This is what we should regret.

But instead of dealing with our inner correction, we cling to matter. We do not understand that the Torah is sanctity, that it is detached from matter and relates only to our spirit. The stones and geographic places where historical events took place are more important to us. It is very difficult for a person of this world to give up material symbols; he feels as if he is in space. The earthly symbols confuse us and we begin to sanctify material objects instead of thinking about the intention.

At the same time, Kabbalists did not call for the abolition of material symbols because a person lives by them. It is important that one has a daily routine, holidays, and special days, reminding one that there are spiritual forces and qualities behind them. Otherwise, a person will not remember spirituality. If one is not connected to spirituality, then at least the material symbols will remind the person of it. Therefore, symbols cannot be canceled; we only need to add intention to them. Both have to exist as long as our world exists.¹

The only thing that we are lacking in our state is to reveal the Creator, the force of bestowal, love, and connection. If we aspire specifically to this, then this is the correct work and direction. Exile (Gola) is a broken will to receive unable to connect in order to feel the true reality. We just need to add the letter “Aleph – א” to it, the Creator (Geula—redemption), and then the desire to connect will reveal to us the entire true reality.

It is written: “And they will teach no more… for they will all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” That is, all the crumbs of the will to receive. With the help of the reforming light, they will build a common vessel inside of which they will attain the upper force. Everyone must come to this; not even one part of the desire should be missed. If even one of them does not connect to the common will to bestow, it will be missed in the great Malchut of the world of infinity.²

The evil is revealed in the world more and more, day by day, and there are signs of recognition of this evil in humanity. People are beginning to understand where evil comes from. But this is only the recognition of evil, not of the way of correction. There is still no recognition of the mission of the people of Israel; on the contrary, the opposite, negative attitude is growing. It must be revealed that the method of correction is within the people of Israel.

Everyone agrees that the situation is bad and deteriorating day by day. But the main thing is to convey to people that the correction will come only through unity, and that the people of Israel have the method of unification. Until that happens, anti-Semitism in the world and the negative attitude toward Israel will continue to grow. This is a sign that the knowledge of the source and the method of correction are insufficiently disseminated.³
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/19, Tishaa BeAv (Ninth of Av)
1 Minute 3:20
2 Minute 12:25
3 Minute 16:20

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Starting from the ruin of the Second Temple, the wisdom of Kabbalah was hidden until Isaac Luria Ashkenazi (The Ari) opened it to all humanity in the 16th century and let the world move toward correction.

The Ari belongs to the chain of the greatest Kabbalists throughout the generations. He is considered to be the father of the contemporary wisdom of Kabbalah. In his book The Tree of Life, the Ari, unlike the Kabbalists before him, reveals the structure and development of the universe and gives clear instructions on how we can ascend from our world, the lowest point in reality, to the highest, complete and eternal attainment of reality.

Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,

The Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does Tisha B’Av commemorate?“

Tisha B’Av is a very important and prominent state in the development of creation. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Tisha B’Av commemorates the ruin of the Holy Temple, i.e., the shattering of the vessels, the state when we lost consciousness (i.e. the shattering or ruin) of our connection as a single entity (i.e. the Holy Temple). In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn extensively about this state of shattering and how important it is, because there cannot be correction and connection without corruption and shattering. Therefore, on one hand, there is great joy in the opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us, and on the other hand, there is sorrow and crying from foreseeing the oncoming shattering, knowing that we needed to resist it, i.e. to maintain our connection as a single entity despite the forces emerging to shatter this connection. This coincides with the spiritual principle that, in spirituality, we always encounter two opposites in the same place.

Therefore, together with the joy at the opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us, we need to simultaneously be sorry about all the ruins that have taken place, out of necessity, due to their spiritual root. However, what is the destruction that we need to be sorry about today? It is that today, after the 16th Century, the time of the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria), which marked the beginning of the opening of the process of correction to humanity as a whole, then all we need to be sorry about is our negligence to willfully engage in this process of correction. That is, we shouldn’t be sorry about ruined Holy Temples from 1,000s of years ago, but that each day we fail to actively engage in the process of correction, we fail to build the new Holy Temple—a correction of the shattering in our connections. That is what is truly considered the ruin of the Temples.

Therefore, what do we need to take into consideration during Tisha B’Av? It’s why we cause the ruin and shattering of the Temple today. We shouldn’t cry about what happened 2,000 years ago. We don’t really know what happened back then. By crying about it, it’s as if we position ourselves as great righteous people and think poorly of the people back then, and that they lost the rule of the Temples. What we need to understand is that this ruin played out according to a necessity for a certain order to unfold. However, since the time of the Ari, the 16th Century, when we position ourselves against the process and the method of correction—the wisdom of Kabbalah—then the ruin is the shattering of human relations, the division that is spreading worldwide among humanity. We thus don’t relate to Tisha B’Av as a historical occasion, but as a state that is playing out in our daily lives.
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Jewish Boston published my article: “Tisha B’Av, Rising Above the Straits“

We Jews, the bearers of the tenet “love your neighbor as yourself,” must rise to the challenge, put down our internal disputes and unite above them.

We have just entered the period of time called “Bein ha-Metzarim” (“Between the Straits”), which begins on the 17th of Tammuz and ends on the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av), during which we commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples. This special time could never be more pertinent than now. The ruin of the temples, in fact, symbolize the shattering of our human relations—a true reason for mourning—but we can also find joy in the situation if we recognize it as an opportunity to rebuild ties of unity between us.

Repairing the current political divide in America, especially during the already exacerbating campaign climate of the 2020 election, has nothing to do with Trump, specific members of Congress, or either side of the political spectrum. The problem is much wider and deeper. The divisions are between American Jewry and the Israeli nation, between Muslims and Jews, and within U.S. society as a whole. The myriad aggravations signal an urgent imperative for change in human relations that Jews must initiate and lead by rising above all the divisions that separate us.

Why must Jews lead the charge? It is because the Jewish people possess precisely what America and the world desperately needs: the key for a cohesive and harmonious existence. Jewish unity must now be our first priority. It is the historical purpose of Jews to demonstrate unity within their ranks as a model of corrected social relations for others to follow.

We became a nation at the foot of Mount Sinai only when each person present accepted the condition of being “as one man with one heart.” In the centuries that followed, Jews practiced principles of connection enabling them to rise above their differences for the creation of ideal social cohesion and unprecedented human development. It was only during the long exile that followed the ruin of the Second Temple that this unity was forgotten.

Therefore, why should we mourn the destructions of Tisha B’Av at this particular time?It is because, since the 16th century when the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria), declared the opening of the process of correction for all humanity, our negligence in repairing the shattering perpetuates the destruction. By delaying this process we block the building of the Third Temple, meaning the correction of the shattering in our connections. Our state of shattered connection is what’s truly considered the ruin of the Temples, a state in which we have lost consciousness of ourselves as a single entity.

Thus, there is both great joy in our opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us while, on the other hand, there is sorrow over our fragmentation under the forces constantly emerging to damage our connection. Our state is a manifestation of the principle that, in spirituality, we always encounter two opposites in the same place in order to advance.

Now is the time to be proactive. We Jews, the bearers of the tenet “love your neighbor as yourself,” must rise to the challenge, put down our internal disputes, and unite above them. As King Solomon stated: “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes” (Proverbs, 10:12). This is the true and positive call to action that we should take from this special period of reflection. It is the one act that will guarantee our safety and happiness in America and wherever we live.
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