Question: You claim that the solution for all problems is in our unity. I am an historian and have studied the history of the destruction of the First and the Second Temples. The First Temple was built by King Solomon, and I am not sure that there was any unity between the people of Israel at that time.

It also doesn’t look like people knew what unity was during the construction of the Second Temple and afterward during the time of Herod. Anyway, if by “Temple” we mean internal connection and not a material concept, then why do we mourn the destruction of the Temple on the ninth of Av?

Answer: There is a difference between the way historians and Kabbalists study history. Historians study events in the form in which they are seen by us based on the visible facts. The cause for all of the events also derive from the analysis of what they have seen. Therefore, they concluded that there were quarrels and feuds between the people of Israel and that clans were fighting with each other.

Humanity works with the means that are available to it and tries to understand the processes we undergo with their help. Therefore, historians ascribe what has happened to different reasons: economic, personal, and random events.

But the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins from a completely different root. Kabbalah says that the root cause of everything in our world is the force of nature, which has a program. Under this program, the force of nature, which can be called the upper force or the Creator, our reality unfolds.

Kabbalists study the actions of this upper force, try to understand it and ascertain the event which has occurred from its actions, instead of studying events relative to the subjective perception of a person, which depends on his development and his ability to comprehend events and their causes, the way historians do.

A person sees a spectacle unfolding in our world: Herod, Pharaoh, Moses, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. But they all are just puppets on a stage. Can we see the hand of nature that is acting inside the dolls and moving these puppets on the stage?

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with. It explains that creation has a beginning and a final goal. The upper force of nature leads all of the creatures from the beginning of creation to its end so that eventually they will achieve the same level of development and the same abilities as the force of nature itself.

Our desire to enjoy, which is opposite to the force of nature, to the desire to bestow, must develop and reach its worst form, opposite to the Creator and standing against Him. Then, a special creature should appear, which will have a desire to enjoy and a desire to bestow in itself simultaneously. It will be called Adam, a man, because it will be able to become like (Edome) the Creator.

A person is given conditions in which he can grow. He must include within himself qualities that are 100% opposite to the Creator and qualities that are 100% similar to the Creator at the same time. In this way, a person can become a perfect creature, independent due to his opposition to the Creator and equivalent to Him at the same time. This is the development that the Creator planned for creation.
[191959]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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New Life 435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What soul searching do we do during the month of Elul? What do we discover when we engage in such thoughts, and how do we get on a new path toward a balanced and harmonious life?

The Jewish holidays describe the phases on the way to the perfect connection between people and between humanity and nature. The goal is to attain the force of love among people and to become equivalent to nature, to God. There is one law in nature that ties together all its parts, except for mankind, into one system. We are pushed forward by blows until we cry “enough.”

The question is why do we suffer. This kind of soul searching during the month of Elul comes from a special illumination that that Light of the mind shines on us. “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.” “Beloved” refers to the great system of nature which develops us, the Creator.

Our soul searching is about why we quarrel with each other endlessly; why we were created with such an evil nature; how lowly and contemptible human nature is compared to the great pure and beautiful nature.

All the species in nature operate according to their instincts and so they are never wrong, while we go wrong over and over again. Why is that so? Because we try to use our emotions and our mind in order to harm others, and it returns to us.

In the additional mind and emotions we were given compared to the animals, we have freedom of choice.

The conclusion of the month of Elul is that I want to reach a state of balance, the state of “love thy friend as thyself.”
[144313]
From KabTV’s “New Life 435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching,” 9/14/14

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Question: Chronic shortage of electricity has led to the damage of the water purification system in the Gaza strip. As a result of this, the Palestinians are streaming sewage into the sea, and wastewater has reached the reservoir that provides water to the settlements on the border region of the Ashkelon coast. Some ecologists are calling the situation a near ecological disaster. We cannot isolate ourselves from Gaza, not from missiles and not ecologically. What must we do?

Answer: The Turks wanted to build an electrical power station in this area, after all this is a big area with magnificent buildings, swimming pools, and beaches and one and a half million people live there. They certainly should get everything necessary.

They cannot get along on their own because they are completely directed toward war due to their hatred of Israel. Besides, by providing them with free products and resources for many years, we have gotten them used to this. On paper, everything was apparently entered under their “debt,” but they have no intention of paying so they are not doing anything.

During the time that we were involved in building water purification plants and the purification of waste water so that we provided water everywhere in the land for all the situations that can happen in life (a situation that doesn’t exist in even one of the nations in the area), they were not really concerned about their future. It is our fault because we accustomed them to this. We passed the water wells to them and everything that was used by us in the beginning of our way in the area and they neglected everything. Seawater reached all of these systems and they became filled with salt. Now it is impossible to clean them.

What will they do now? They will suffer.

What will we do? We will also suffer because it is up to us to behave differently. But instead, we are supplying them with millions of liters of bottled water.

We must conduct aggressive policies as much as possible and do everything according to different principles, at least submitting documents through international organizations, submitting lawsuits, turning to a court to seriously transfer the matter to a legal track. It is necessary to put pressure on them to examine the manner in which they manage their economy and the fact that international organizations are giving them money to arm themselves and not for humanitarian supplies.

Question: How do you see the solution of this problem?

Answer: Our salvation is in union between us.

We are continuing with our work on unity and this will yield its fruit, because it brings the Upper Light into our world. The Upper Light brings a person to an awareness and understanding of why the world exists, in what manner it develops, and what the role and mission of the Jews is.

And the world is beginning to understand more and more that we have a particular mission and a task and that it affects not only us but the whole world, so it is necessary to make it possible to be realized. Lately I have even heard reactions like these and have seen some sobering here and there.

Let’s hope that we will hold out. We need to be particularly concerned about the connection between us, about unity within the nation, and then all of our adversaries will gradually disappear.
[192269]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/15/16

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Question: How do you see the generation that is growing up that toward the year 2030 will become adults and build the new Israel?

Answer: I only know one thing: we need to educate the nation so that they won’t become just a mixed collection of people from all corners of the world, that they truly will become a nation.

For this to happen, we need to educate them in the spirit of unity that goes above the problems, something that is possible to attain only with the help of the system of integral unity, which comes from the wisdom of Kabbalah. I don’t see any other possibility! Otherwise, all of the nations and the countries will crush us! Just as the world decided and determined to re-establish the state of Israel, so it also will decide to cancel it, and nothing will save us!

The only thing that we can do is to become involved with the education of the nation, and thus provide an example to the whole of humanity, to show what education should include on a national scale and to continue to pass on the system of unity to all of humanity since in the integral world where everything is connected in one network, only humanity is in a state of separation. Therefore, we are experiencing two conflicting systems that are leading us to a global world war.

The wisdom of Kabbalah also warns about this. The time has come to understand what the Jewish State is accountable for in its education, in the usage of its historical mission. It is this with which we specifically need to become involved, not in building a prosperous society because that won’t help us to survive.

Question: Many are convinced that the nation of Israel survived all through history thanks to its culture and customs, including its religion.

Answer: All of that was prior to the Holocaust and the expulsion to exile! Therefore, it’s not worthwhile to reassure ourselves that it will help.

Question: What does it mean that Judaism won’t be maintained?

Answer: If we don’t carry out our mission, don’t come to connection and unity, then from above this opportunity will be taken from us and we will be forced to scatter around the world. Some of us will be destroyed, and some will be assimilated among other nations.
[183193]
From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Independence Day” 4/30/16

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The spiritual knowledge lost by the people of Israel after destruction of the Temple gave a special impetus to the development of the European civilization. It gave Europeans an exceptional strength of spirit, the desire to conquer, explore new lands, and to develop.

Pilgrims travelled the roads and spread the Christian religion everywhere and taught people to pray. It brought science, knowledge, and faith to the residents of Europe that were complete barbarians at that time. This religion supports people until today.

Ancient Greeks received all their wisdom from the Jews. Initially, there were quite primitive beliefs in many gods in ancient Greece. The legends of ancient Greece are so naive that can attract only young children. Science and conception of the human soul that, allegedly, develops from a deep breathing, were also primitive.

Ancient Greece rose due to borrowing ideas from the wisdom of Kabbalah that was alive in the people of Israel. Although the Greeks learned from it only external ideas in a distorted form, that is exactly what developed European civilization and gave Europe the form it is in today.

Thanks to this influence, Europe received a special spirit that it was striving to pass to the whole world. Therefore, Europeans went to discover new lands and continents, but their main motive was religious and missionary.

From religion science developed, alchemy and geography that were necessary in order to prove to everyone that the Christian religion was the truest  that conquers the world. It was very important for the Europeans. The colonial wars and conquests initially had exclusively religious purposes. It was only later that they realized that they could receive economic benefit from them.

Closer to our time, ships began to bring goods from China and India to England and a need for the Suez Canal arose.

There was a transition from the Christian religion to science. Europe shifted the focus from God to man, the human spirit, and the human values. It is possible to say that this change began with the French Revolution that was followed by revolutions in other countries. Science began to develop rapidly in addition to religion.

There was no other continent where so many different nations lived in close proximity and had a common religion and philosophy received from Rome and Greece. Besides, the people of Israel, who came out into exile, were living among the European nations. They moved from one country to another and were contacting other nations, passing to them the spirit that lived inside them. Therefore, Europe has developed as no other country.

It is possible to say that the place where the people of Israel came from began to flourish. And as soon as they were expelled from there, these countries fell immediately. It means that we can see two ways of development in Europe. The first one is the development of the Christian religion, and the second is the development of the Jewish spirit. These two directions, influencing each other, have built the European civilization.
[192547]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/18/16

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Question: Europe is going through difficult times: an economic crisis, refugees problem, the spread of Islam, and resurgence of fascism and Nazism; all these problems are snowballing very rapidly.

Yet Europe made a great contribution to the development of humanity, probably greater than all other continents. What is the reason that such a high civilization developed in Europe?

Answer: Ancient civilization emerged in the Middle East, in ancient Babylon, Persia. But then it all moved to Europe, to ancient Greece and Rome, which built European civilization.

From Greece to Europe came science and philosophy that Greek scientists received from the Jews during the period from the First Temple until the destruction of the Second Temple, a thousand years before our era. European scientists and philosophers write about it themselves.

The Romans gave the social system that developed Europe. After all, when the Roman Empire was at the height of its prosperity and power, Europe was totally barbaric. If the Romans didn’t conquer Europe, crossing it all up to the northern borders and down, it’s hard to say what would have happened to the European civilization.

The Romans gave Europe a state system; they laid and paved the roads. The Talmud writes that when Judea fell, the Roman Empire took over its power and wisdom and rose upon them. Eventually everything came out of Israel, from the destruction experienced by the Jewish people. The spiritual knowledge of the people of Israel, their spiritual attainment and strength, were exhausted, and only pitiful crumbs were left from them.

The people of Israel didn’t know how to use them because they were not created to build something in this material world, but only for the spiritual work. The Romans adopted this knowledge and used it to build the material life in European countries.

The campaigns of Alexander the Great really contributed to it who stated that he sought to convey this modern, scientific, developed public method of existence to the entire world. This was the purpose of his conquests.

In addition, Christianity was a great help in spreading the Roman influence over Europe. It was adopted from the Jews and grew on the basis of those remains that were left after destruction of the Second Temple. The first Christians were Jews that turned Christianity into a new religion, after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Christianity obliged its followers to develop this religion, to spread it further and to add new souls to it. This is what inspired ancient Rome to conquer Europe, bringing science, philosophy, and religion there.

Prior to it, barbarians that worshiped spirits inhabited Europe. Christianity gave them a system and books. Art began to develop since people were illiterate and drawings were required in order to explain this idea to them.

Religions and philosophies blossomed on the ruins of the Jewish Temple due to the impossibility of continuing the spiritual idea that fell and shattered. The entire European civilization grew from the few crumbs that were left from the hidden wisdom that the Jews had.
[192531]
From KabTV’s “New Life #762 8/18/16

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The Torah tells us how people who keep spiritual laws rise to the level of connection between them that is called the “land of Israel” (Eretz Israel). “Eretz” is from the word “Ratzon” (desire), “Israel”—“Yashar Kel” (straight to the Creator, to the upper force, love, and bestowal). They enter this state and live in it. However, they won’t be able to enter the land of Israel if they don’t keep the spiritual laws.

Therefore they send spies forward who check what these laws are, what this land is. and what fruits it has. This means they clarify what conditions we need to accept upon ourselves and what kind of special fruits the Creator promises us if these conditions are met, and what will happen to us if we don’t enter this land.

A person must reveal all this before he rises to the spiritual degree. He has to understand that by doing so he acquires freedom from his egoism, but he has to pay for it with his huge efforts to unite the so-called troops—the nation of Israel.

However, in the desert it isn’t a nation yet, but just a tribe that must gather and become one united nation in order to enter the land of Israel, which is the state of full equivalence with the Creator,09 in mutual bestowal and love between all members of society.
[192131]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/4/16

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How the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) Was Destroyed

Our history proves that the people of Israel cannot exist in exile. They will not find rest like the other peoples who assimilated and dissolved among other peoples until no memory of them was left. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the goal of the existence of the people of Israel is to attain unity and bring the whole world to unity. The means for attaining this goal is the wisdom of Kabbalah. When we cast doubt upon the truth of the precept, which is the goal of our existence, we invite disasters upon ourselves that convince us to maintain the inexorable program of nature.

In the past, from the time of Abraham to the destruction of the First Temple, the more we united together, the more rapidly we developed; our growth was faster than the rest of the people. But when we wanted to insert our egoism into our development, this led to the destruction of the First Temple. This was because we wanted to use unity to become wealthy and establish control by power instead of justice, just like the other peoples.

Since the wisdom of Kabbalah prohibits its use for attaining wealth and control, some of the people rejected it and adopted the habits and customs of other peoples, enjoying life as the ego demands. As a result, the people were divided in two. Some of the people followed the egoistic kings and some of the people followed the Kabbalists. This fragmentation and division led to the destruction of the First Temple.

In the times of the Second Temple, this division became more pronounced and was also based on opposition to the Kabbalists by those people who didn’t want to unite. That part didn’t want to be freed from egoism and so the Sadducee sect was created. They were the rich, privileged, and the nobles. Their goal was satisfying their egoistic desires and they fought against the other part of the people whom they called the Pharisees. This led to the establishment of Roman rule over the people of Israel. And this resulted in the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of the people from the land of Israel.

The Difference Between Egoism and the Principles of the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Everyday ideals are based upon human relations and therefore it is not possible to transcend human characteristics. The principle of the wisdom of Kabbalah, derived from the Creator, makes it possible to rise above human characteristics.

The basis of the human ideal is glory. Therefore all of the actions of a person are directed toward becoming famous among people. The ideal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is the unity of all peoples to attain the essential law of nature. So as long as we developed toward greater unity, we were protected by nature itself. But the moment we began to disregard development toward unity and began competing based on wealth and power, we began to feel the blows of nature.

The cause of all of our suffering is our lack of implementing the conditions the wisdom of Kabbalah indicates and teaches. If we were to implement its demands, nothing bad would happen to us.

History teaches us that we must put an end to our troubles and begin to live according to the laws we received from Abraham, according to “and you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), because the pressure of nature to bring humanity to resemble it will not weaken. We don’t have any chance or hope of remaining in the land of Israel if we don’t seriously begin to engage with our unity. If we become involved with unity between us, we will merit becoming stronger in our land.
[191745]
Based upon the article by Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”

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Comment: The 15^th of Av, the day of love occurs a week after the tragic day of the 9^th of Av…

Answer: According to our sources, this is the day that the young women of Jerusalem go out dressed in white to the orchards and the vineyards and sing. The young men join them and choose their bride. This is what characterizes this holiday.

Comment: Many believe that the 15^th of Av is similar to Valentine’s Day and that it is not deeply rooted in Jewish tradition.

Answer: This holiday is mentioned in writings that are 3,000 years old, and so I believe that it is a tradition. Our holidays and special days should be divided into those that have already been fulfilled in our calendar and those that have not yet been fulfilled. We should understand that there are holidays and special dates that only Israel have undergone and those that the whole world, all of humanity, has to undergo.

We celebrate certain dates since they will appear only in the future, like Purim, for example. In fact, they were revealed to some extent and there was such an event in the our history, such a problem did come up, and as usual they wanted to destroy our whole nation in ancient Babylon, and we managed to avoid it successfully; we came out of exile, etc…But this holiday is basically the embodiment of a future state and not of a historical event.

It is the same with the day of love. The day of love is basically the greatest day, the greatest holiday! Love! However, it isn’t the love that young men and young women look for in the vineyards, but a totally different kind of love that is built on top of the correction of the ego that brought about the destruction of the First and Second Temples and which the period between the 17^th of Tammuz and the 9^th of Av symbolizes. It is about the time of the destruction of the two Temples and other problems and afflictions that the Jewish people have undergone. And just a week later, when all that is gone and corrected, a new period begins.

It is a time in which we build the Temple, but this Temple is in our hearts, the connection between us. We look for a spiritual partner, and the spiritual partner for both men and women is the upper force, the Creator. We connect with Him and together receive the absolute filling, pleasure, and enlightenment, the revelation of the real world. We exist in it and not only in a small fragment of this world. The whole process symbolizes the correction, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the transition from hatred to love.

Question: Is this what the 15^th of Av, the day of love, symbolizes?

Answer: Basically yes, but it is a holiday for which we have no special date, because it is seemingly celebrated on Purim. Purim is the holiday of freedom, the holiday of correction only for the Jewish people, while now we are nearing a state in which we will celebrate it with the whole world. It says in the Book of Psalms that the Third Temple will be called “a house of prayer for all the nations.” This is the reason that the 15^th of Av seems similar to Valentine’s Day. Symbolically it indicates that this will be a holiday of love for the whole world.

Question: Can we compare it with the holidays of all the religions?

Answer: Yes, it seems to be external to religion, like the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Comment: You have said that it will be a holiday that can be celebrated any time…

Answer: That’s true, since what else do we mean by rebuilding the Third Temple? It is a state in which we connect into one single system called man, Adam, stemming from the Hebrew root “Domeh – to resemble,” to resemble the Creator. When this system is connected by the positive forces, when all of humanity is connected together, it will be called the Third Temple. The Creator will be revealed in the system of the positive connection, the upper force of the world, and thus we will live in what we call the Third Temple, in a totally different world, in a feeling of eternity and wholeness. It will be like a real day of love as it is written: love will cover all our transgressions, and love thy friend as thyself, etc., which means that this is the ultimate state of all mankind. We will reach it whether by force, by the stick, or in a clever rational way, as the wisdom of Kabbalah advises us to do, quickly and easily.

Comment: The 15^th of Av is a clue of the sublime state that we call the third Temple.

Answer: Yes, at the same time, a young woman symbolizes all of humanity and a young man symbolizes the Creator. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah describes and explains. It is impossible to imagine that King Solomon, a great Kabbalist who left us such a masterpiece, simply wrote about love! The 15^th of Av, the day of love is the greatest holiday because all the other holidays represent how we reach it, and it comes at the end, at the end of our development.

Question: What do we find behind the absolute love we attain?

Answer: It is only a condition, the connection of two opposite forces, of two attributes, into one; the new energy that develops on top of this connection, the consciousness, the understanding, the feeling, raises us to the next level, which is not described anywhere. The wisdom of Kabbalah only tells us about how we should reach this state. What is beyond that? We are not told because we cannot understand it. We don’t have the feelings or the mind to understand the next level.
[191955]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/11/16

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Opinion (7kanal): “Presented below is a video, posted on the worldwide web, that is gaining hundreds, if not thousands of views, not only in Israel but also in the Arab sector, and even in the far left.

“View it by clicking on this link.

“In the video, wearing a cowboy hat, is a man who calls himself ‘Wild Bill,’ who expresses his support of Israel.

“By far the most creative invention of Islam is ‘the Palestinian,’ a person who has never been seen before in the modern world, who supposedly lived in a nation that never existed. The Palestinian was invented shortly after the nation of Israel sprang into existence as the new name for the traditional home of the Jewish people.

“Now prior to the invention of the Palestinian, the Arab nations had been lusting for the land of the Jews … So in the traditional Muslim style, they sent in massive armies to massacre the Jews and steal their land. But the Israelis … sent the Arabs fleeing back across the border …

“But prior to the invasion, the Arab’s warned all the Jordanians, Syrians, and Lebanese living in Israel to get out. They confidently told them that within a few days they could waltz right back in and take over the homes of the exterminated Jews.

“But when the Arab armies failed to capture even one Jewish home, the Arabs who had left had no place to go, and that is when the Muslims invented ‘the Palestinian.’ They told the Jordanians, Syrians, and Lebanese that they are now Palestinians and that they were to spread the story that the Jews had stolen their homeland from them leaving them as poor refugees …

“And the Palestinian came into existence for the express purpose of causing trouble for Israel. …

“The next time you talk to one of these supporters of the ‘poor Palestinians’ ask them a few questions like: What year did the nation of Palestine come into existence? What were its national borders? And in what year did it cease to exist? Well since it never existed in the first place, they won’t be able to answer you. … What currency did the nation of Palestine use and why is their no history of it? And ask them if they can name one leader of the nation of Palestine prior to Yasser Arafat?”

My Comment: There is no need for proof. Basically we have transformed our “incorrect” existence on our land to “not ours.” We were expelled from it 2,000 years ago as a result of discovering mutual hatred between us. As long as we don’t replace it with a good connection between us, we will not convince anyone that this is our place! We are not fighting with the Arabs but with ourselves and the Creator!
[189366]

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