The 9^th of Av is a state in which egoism dominates us, separating and destroying everything good that can be between us. It is a state that is called the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple).

Today we are found precisely in this situation. Nobody has good feelings about others, so it is up to us to begin rebuilding our temple, building The Third Temple—the state of unity and complementing of each other, rising above hatred, arrogance and pride.

We need to create a connection between us in which the good force called the Creator  will be revealed. For the meantime, it is still concealed in our world. The moment we establish proper and good connections, the goodness of the world will be revealed in us and we will show the whole world how to build the Third Temple for all peoples, as it is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7).

I wish all the tragic events that are happening to our people would stop, that we would recognize and understand what is causing them and uproot it, rising above it with a connection of love. May we do this successfully!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/10/16

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Tisha B’Av [the 9^th of Av] is the direct and closest expression of the clear connection between the unfounded hatred among the nation of Israel and the destruction, but it is not the only thing. As long as hatred exists, destruction will continue to haunt us. On the eve of the 9^th of Av let’s take a minute and stop our daily chase and convene in a joint stock-taking. Using Kabbalah books and the guidance provided by our spiritual teachers—the Kabbalists, we can learn to love again.

“Five things happened on the 9^th of Av: our forefathers first heard that they will not enter the Land of Israel; the first and the second Temples were destroyed and the city of Beitar was conquered and plowed. When Av arrives we diminish joy.” (Talmud Bavli, Masechet Ta’anit).

The eve of the 9^thof Av is the end of the three weeks of the days of Bein Hameitzarim (the days between the 17^th of Tamuz and the 9^th of Av). It is a symbol of the destruction of the second Temple for many, but a brief look at our history books reveals the startling truth that the Temple and its destruction does not matter as much as the immense unfounded hatred among the Jews in Jerusalem at the time. The hatred was so profound that it is the root of all the destructions and the suffering of the nation of Israel throughout history.

Not only did the destruction of the first and the second Temples occur on the 9^th of Av, many other disasters did as well: the tables of the Ten Commandments were broken on this date, Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Romans, and Bar-Kochba and tens of thousands of his followers were killed in the city. In later times, the Jews England were expelled from England in 1290, the Jews of France in 1306, the Jews Spain were expelled in 1492, and during the Holocaust massive deportation of Jews to the death camps took place on this date.

What is the root of unfounded hatred?

Unfounded hatred is a natural part of the development of mankind. According to Kabbalah, “man’s heart is evil from his youth,” and the negative egoistic force continuously grows and separates us. To prevent additional destructive events and to build brotherly love, we have to add the positive force to this process that will balance the negative force of the ego. The positive force is the force of connection, a force that exists in nature, although it is hidden. However different from the force of the ego that develops naturally, the positive force is created only by our efforts. Once we begin to make efforts in order to bridge the gap between us and get closer to each other, to tighten the connections between us by rising above all our differences, not by trying to blur them, we will spur the positive force that is hidden in nature.

As long as we neglect to treat our ego, it will only keep growing until it erupts in the form of mutual rejection and bitter hatred that will bring another disaster upon us, so that we will wake up and get back on track. This is what happened to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. The egoism grew to new dimensions and swept them to unfounded hate, to futile internal conflicts, and to endless personal accounts. Under the attack of thoughts of hatred stemming from the root of Mount Sinai, the children of Israel were required to unite as one man in one heart. The condition they were faced with at the foot of the mountain was clear: You either unite or this will be your burial place. The great tension between the mutual rejections they felt and the need for mutual guarantee generated the need for the right method of connection.

It was Moses, the leader of the nation, who was faced with the people’s demand to connect. He climbed to the top of the mountain and received the Torah: the means by which to spur the force of connection between people. But the nation of Israel chose separation and hatred instead of preparing for the sublime moment of the receiving of the Torah.

“While Moses was with them, he united and connected them while the assembly of Israel below were as one man in one heart. They were as a strong wall against the external forces, which could not penetrate into the whole of Israel, but only when there is a crack in the wall of Israel (“Shem Shmuel“).

The children of Israel used the small crack in the relations between them and preferred to build the golden calf, a symbol of the worship of the ego, which cultivates competition and the brutal chase of achievements at the expense of others. When Moses came down and returned to the people, he was surprised to discover how far the people drew away from the goal for which they were made, and broke the tables, the values of unity and mutual guarantee, as an expression of his feelings.

“After the event with the calf, the children of Israel lost the level of connection they were on and needed to reconnect (“Shem Shmuel“). Only when they agreed to make a covenant and to accept unity as the uppermost value were they worthy of receiving the Torah.

“The main idea the Torah is based on is unity and so when they received the Torah they immediately felt responsible for each other, of course (Likutei Halachot). Thanks to that, the second tablets of the Ten Commandments were not broken. Having the method of connection, we continued to conquer the land of Israel with greater connection and love and then built the two Temples. “It is by the Temple that we became one nation and when we were divided, the place of the unity of Israel was destroyed, and so it was because of unfounded hatred that the city and the Temple were destroyed.” (The Maharal from Prague).

The Destruction Has Never Ended

The 9^th of Av as a reminder of our mistaken preference to develop along the narrow egoistic path instead of love of others is becoming increasingly more relevant. As long as the ego continues to grow and swell, it nourishes unfounded hatred and destroys the relations between us, and so “we were commanded to reinforce the unity between us in each and every generation (Sefer Hatoda’a).

The world today is in a deep crisis in every aspect of life and the uncertainty regarding the future is so great that a third world war may break out, and so we have to carry on from the point from which we have stopped. The golden calf is now revealed to all and the disappointment it brings with it leads us to the verge of an abyss. “All the troubles and their purpose is to provide a person with mental reasons so that he will feel sorry about the destruction of the spiritual Temple in his heart, which is the path to redemption” (Michtav Me’Eliyahu). Despite the moments of success we had throughout the two thousand years of exile, we are still facing a mountain of hatred and are required to make a decision and choose the good.

We have to recognize egoism as a disease that is gnawing us from inside and prepare ourselves for receiving the Light of the Torah. “Just as the sages said (Masechet Kiddushin): ‘I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice,’ which refers to the Light in the Torah that Reforms” as Baal HaSulam says. The force of connection in the Torah can illuminate all the dark and hidden places in our relationships, patch up the connections that were broken, and give us a good feeling of wholeness and eternity. Only then will “a great Light come out of the darkness, the curse itself will turn into a blessing and the destruction of the Temple will turn into its construction” (The Holy SHEL”A).

Thus, it is specifically in our times that the best remedy is revealed, the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah. It explains why our egoistic nature and helplessness dominates us, and at the same time enables us to evoke the positive force hidden in the right connection between us and can thus help us avoid the troubles lurking around the corner. “The depth of evil is a good depth, the depth of hatred is the depth of love and if we were destroyed by unfounded hate, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love (“Orot HaKodesh“).
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From Ynet article 8/11/16

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Question: The 9^th of Av is a tragic day in Jewish history when the Temple was destroyed, when the Temple Mount was destroyed, and when the Jews were expelled from England, France, and Spain. The first ghetto was founded on the 9^th of Av. And it was on the 9^th of Av that the Jews were taken from the  Warsaw Ghetto to be killed.

Answer: This is a critical date. Today, the greatest egoism is being revealed–meaning the negative attribute in human beings that is opposite to the natural, positive force, which we call nature or the Creator. It is the positive attribute that we must expose and reveal.

A person armed with knowledge sees in advance what is allowed and what is forbidden, where he can step and where he shouldn’t. And so he goes through the same situations with ease that a person who has no information is immersed in.

Although he must spend a lot of time studying and developing himself in learning how to sense danger, it is worthwhile because eventually he advances in a normal way. He understands that he must resist his ego, and he knows how to fight it. He knows that it is necessary to study systematically about himself in a group with others what we learn from the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Thus, we overcome all of the problems that must be revealed within us in a predetermined order because if they are not revealed, they are in concealment and it is impossible to correct them.

If we prepare ourselves properly for these problems in advance, they are revealed to us to the degree that we want and at a pace that we are able to correct them. However, if we are not prepared for them, they occur in the form of disasters like the Holocaust, expulsion, pogroms, and other problems.

This is how it always happens, so the wisdom of Kabbalah warns us and tells us that we must advance consciously, increasingly more strongly connected to each other. In fact, we are not connected at all, and we are growing further apart and increasingly more divided every day.

There are big circles in Israel that are dividing the nation and setting an example of opposing others. They operate only for their own sake, not for the sake of the state or the people. Unfortunately, all of this is leading us to another disaster, and we are approaching unpleasant events, while according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we in spite of our separation, the immense egoism that always resides in us and constantly grows, we must unite, in spite of everything and above it all, as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions.” It will not correct them but cover them.

We don’t need to pay attention to the fact that we have this negative motives toward each other. It is only natural as the most developed nation, but in spite of all that, we must get closer to each other.

There is a method to get closer, which the wisdom of Kabbalah precisely explains, and we must implement it.

Question: Is the preparation for a possible fall on the 9^th of Av is that the moment the fall comes it can be immediately covered by love?

Answer: Yes, a week after the 9^th of Av is the day of love because according to the plan of the creation, after all of the problems, we reach unity and love.

It is basically in our hands, and I hope that people who are far from the wisdom of Kabbalah, including those who oppose it, still will understand that the method of unity is in this wisdom. We must take it upon ourselves to realize it and show it to the entire world. This is the only way that the world will reach peace and tranquility.

Let’s hope that we will build in our hearts, between us, in our good unity, what we call the Third Temple and reveal the Creator in it, the force of love between us.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/10/16

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Comment: The social network Facebook has been accused of bias toward Israel following its placement—not in alphabetical order but after Zimbawe and with the country’s flag missing—on a special page dedicated to the opening of the Olympic Games in Rio Dei Janeiro. The flag was added after the Olympic Committee of Israel complained to Facebook. It seems that Israel is getting a negative attitude from all sides.

Answer: This is not a negative attitude but hatred and it will continue until we recognize our obligation to the world, “to be a Light unto the nations” (Isaiah 49:6). It means that we must be an example for the world of the ability to unite.

The people of Israel are the most egoistic and therefore the most separated and scattered. But the method of unification exists only with us and the world is subconsciously waiting for it. For the meantime, the United States supports us, but the Jews in the United States are becoming more and more distant from Israel and soon the American government will be able to put pressure on us according to what it wants.

When that happens, we will not be able to remain here anymore, as Baal HaSulam writes, if there will be anywhere for us to go at all. So let’s not go back to the times of the “destruction of the Temple.”
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In the News (Jpost): “French Jews contemplating aliya should take the initiative, and the Israeli government should provide them with the benefits once afforded Soviet immigrants, according to Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky.

“’I believe many French Jews are planning to leave,’ Sharansky told The Jerusalem Post ahead of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors gathering in Paris from Sunday to Tuesday. …

“Sharansky noted that according to a survey conducted last year by Étude IFOP, more than 40 percent of France’s estimated half a million Jews are considering immigration to Israel.”

At present the immigration of the French Jews to Israel is continuing to grow. In the not too distant future we can expect a wave of immigrants from the Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. The two hundred French immigrants who came not long ago, met Minister Sharansky who said that during these recent summer months around another two hundred thousand will come to us.

Question:  Do you think that all of the Jews will leave France?

Answer: If half a million Jews leave France, nothing will remain of the nation. I heard from senior French officials that they believe that the departure of the Jews will be a real disaster for France. In their opinion, even if a thousand Jews were to leave the nation selectively, among them would be scientists, diplomats, politicians, and managers upon whom the French economy is based. And then the nation would cease to exist in its current form.

The Muslims will replace the Jews.

Now there is a big boom, even the French are beginning to seriously study the Arabic language, to get a job. It takes a lot of workers with knowledge of the Arabic language because it is necessary to serve these populations.

Question: Does this mean that you tend to think that the Jews will leave?

Answer: They will have no choice. But in Israel they will have no choice either, because if they arrive in a very large numbers, it will not be possible to employ everyone. We just shout: “Come to us! We love getting immigrants so much,” but where?

Comment: Mr. Sharansky’s view is different. When addressing 200 recent arrivals from France in Israel, said, “‘There is a great future for French Jews in Israel. Every one of you has made a huge step forward. This is a step for you, for the sake of the future of your children, for the sake of the future.. the state of Israel.’  According to Army Radio, about 9,000 new immigrants from around the world are due to arrive in Israel this summer.” (MIGNews)

Answer: As a politician, it is very good to say this, but what will happen when an immigrant tries to find work in his profession? I hear from many French immigrants that they don’t know where to find work, and this in addition to problems that they are having with integrating into life in Israel, we are very different from France.

In France the situation is completely different; Israel is not Italy, Spain, or Germany. It is very difficult for immigrants to live here; they don’t feel the atmosphere here. So for them it is not a very simple transition, in particular when looking for work.

It is not easy just to absorb 9,000 people in one summer, arranging initial conditions for them so that the future will be bright for them. Receiving them with flowers at the airport is very nice, but the question is, what’s next?

Question: Will Israel potentially be able to absorb all the Jews?

Answer: This could be done without a problem. If there were a friendly atmosphere here, if everyone understood that this is a national, popular, and worldwide task that is derived from the goal of creation and that we must organize people as one, united whole, if we wanted to do this, then this would certainly be something great!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/24/16

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New Life #594 – Tisha B’Av – From Destruction To Happiness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The younger generation doesn’t find a connection between itself and events that happened thousands of years ago, but they should understand that the significance of the holidays is not connected to history, but to what happens as nature evolves.

Summary

A very special person lived 5,775 years ago, the first to discover the guidance system that manages everything. His students followed him and this continued for generations after him. Everyone searched for and discovered God. Around 3,500 years ago in ancient Babylon something unique happened. People tried to build the Tower of Babel, which symbolized the intensification of the ego.

Abram ben Terah, who became our father Abraham, began to explore the situation and taught his disciples how to transcend that intensifying ego, the egoism that separates us, so that we could build a connection above it, because in the gap between hatred and love, the upper force is discovered.

Abraham tried to explain this to everyone, but most didn’t listen. Whoever did listen to him became the people of Israel. The group of Abraham went to the land of Canaan. The rest of the Babylonians were scattered all over the face of the Earth. The group of Abraham went down to Egypt, came back up and received the Torah of Moses, which is the method of connection.

The connection they built above all the hatred that they discovered between them, was called the Beit HaMikdash” (The First Temple)—the Kli of love. A moment after they reached the summit of this connection, they began to descend, and the relationships between them deteriorated again. The separation led them into exile. But at the end of the process, it is said that all people will reach a perfected connection. The system of management operates according to permanent laws, and the calendar indicates the forces acting at any time and date.

There is a period that is not good, this is the period of the “Three Weeks,” from the seventeenth of Tammuz to Tisha B’Av. At this time, the power of egoism dominates the world. Bad times and good are defined by nature, but humanity has the ability to transcend and dominate them. During the years of exile we were scattered among the nations; we caused the development of religions, commerce, culture, and more. We absorbed forms of egoism from the nations of the world that were not in us. Today our task is to become connected and connect everyone.

Building a connection of love is building the third Beit HaMikdash, and then the days of mourning will transform into days of happiness. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains specifically how we, having the greatest egoism in the world, can build connection. And then by way of the small nation of Israel, as if through a pinhole, abundance will pass to all the inhabitants of the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #594 – Tisha B’Av – From Destruction To Happiness,” 7/5/15

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From my column in Ynet: “School for Emotions: Hatred Becomes Love”

The religious and secular in Israel can’t stand each other. Secular Jews in Israel would rather their child marry a Christian spouse than an Orthodox partner. That is what came up according to the latest survey published by the Pew Foundation, and it reveals what all of us already know. Is there a way to bridge the separation and hatred?  Rav Laitman teaches how love will cover all crimes.

Israel has an impressive list of achievements: a strong military, economic stability, advanced agriculture, first place in Nobel Prizes, and we are thriving in almost every aspect, except for one thing which is precisely the most important: the relationships between us. In all the years of our existence, we have not succeeded in building ourselves as one connected nation, and if we don’t learn to do this, we may soon be erased from the map.

Last week, the results of a comprehensive survey conducted by the American Pew Foundation were published. The survey conducted over six months involved in-depth interviews of 5,600 Israelis, and presented a disturbing picture about the crisis in our society. According to the study, relationships of alienation and separation exist among the four main groups in Israel: secular, traditional, religious and ultra-Orthodox. Members of the groups rarely connect, almost never marry each other, and are divided in their positions on a wide range of subjects from religious and national issues to their political positions.

The survey results are hardly surprising. The extreme tensions and disunity, the implicit and explicit hatred, the trampling of anyone who thinks differently, and the exploitation of others are egoistic expressions that are leading to the destruction of our society, and respectively, also to the denial of our right to the land and the destruction of the nation of Israel (1).

The Ego and its Punishment

The main factor dividing us and destroying every good relationship is our egoistic nature. The negative force burns in all of us and makes us reject and even hate anything that is different and foreign to us. The ego dominates us so strongly that it hides from our eyes the tight link that exists between us in spite of all the differences.

We can create countless agreements and compromises that apparently will assure us of social order, but the experience of many years proves, and is also expressed well in the latest survey, that we only are going and dividing into many factions and sectors.

We could dismiss all of this by saying, “This is sad, but not really that bad. There are more serious problems than these,” but according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, all of nature has a plan that differs from ours which causes all of its various organs, meaning us, to act as a perfectly harmonious body. In contrast to the still, vegetative, and animate levels that function in a perfectly coordinated manner with the laws of nature, the human species is the only one that is motivated by pure egoism, pushing every person to provide himself with the most pleasure at any price, even at the expense of others (2), and this, as was said, is against the laws of nature. We can wait for nature to urge us and push us toward the desired unity, but it would be better for us to march forward on our own initiative and flow with it according to the same lawfulness and in the same direction (3).

Unity, not Uniformity

The first time we worked together with nature was about 3,500 years ago in the days of ancient Babylon. We shared a common destiny then. When the negative power of the ego suddenly broke out, it divided the Babylonian empire into a collection of tribes who were strangers to each other (4). Those divided groups rarely intermarried and were divided in their opinions, as is happening with us today. However, some of them were smart enough to gather around the Babylonian priest Abraham. That is how we managed even then to receive from the mouth of the father of the nation the method that eventually connected us as one people, the wisdom of connection between people—the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Abraham did not try to hide or blur the differences or the gaps. By virtue of his attainment of the depths of the laws of nature, it was clear to him that the matter was impossible. Every sector, community, or group in a unified and rich society is significant and must be protected and nurtured. What must be done is to bridge all of the gaps that hurl society into the abyss (5).

The unique position in nature that makes it possible for two opposites to coexist and live in peace with each other is called “Love covers all transgressions” (6) in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It means that it is up to us to maintain two floors simultaneously. On the first floor are the gaps between us that divide us with severe hatred, whereas on the second floor, we cover them with love. No feelings disappear. Rather, specifically within the gap that intensifies between the plane of hatred and the plane of love, a new space is discovered, a place in which the Higher Power connects and includes both of them as one (7).

The Wisdom of Kabbalah – The Way from Hatred to Love

Today, we are “separate people united against their will by a ‘common enemy’” as Achad Ha’Am said in his time (8). Since then, we immigrated to the land, remained a group of exiles, and have not succeeded in becoming a people (9). The only thing that does succeed in uniting us is that blazing hatred from the side of our enemies, whether it is the Intifada that is raging in the streets or the winds of anti-Semitism that are blowing through the enlightened world in our direction. However, the script just keeps getting worse. The moment that the hatred of our enemies weakens, the contempt among us increases, and it will not be long until the fires of hatred will reignite and spread to depths we have never known. It is even liable to develop to extreme points and lead to civil war (10).

This is precisely the reason for the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah in our time (11). Kabbalah doesn’t come to preach to us to be good to each other. Rather, it is a special method of connection for the people of Israel, and it is the only thing that can unite us to rise above the gaping rifts between us.

The goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to stabilize human society so that it will be able to continue to maintain unique and separate parts and simultaneously be connected like organs in a single body. The power of the wisdom of Kabbalah is in strengthening the unity between us until we feel the general power of connection, the Higher Power (12). When we connect among us, we gradually will be able to radiate this power to all of the nations of the world, serving as an example and model for them and becoming “a light of nations” (13).
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From Ynet article 3/14/16

References:

(1) “Most of the people have lost their ancient spiritual form, and a few have even sunken into a pursuit of all the vanities of life, fake factions and false Kabbalists, brawls and squabbles and unfounded hatreds, and their spiritual form is even worn externally without any internal Light” (Hillel Zeitlin, Safran shel Yechidim).

“And here is the main sign of the illness of the hour—the terrible internal disintegration, the disputes between factions, the hatred of brothers that are consuming all of us here, destructive acts and the internal destruction and ruin of the extremist parties” (Hayim Nachman Bialik).

(2) “But the equal side in all the people of the world is that each of us stands ready to abuse and exploit all the people for his own private benefit with every means possible, without taking into any consideration that he is going to build himself on the ruin of his friend” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Peace in the World”).

(3) “…nature, like a skillful judge, punishes us according to our development. For we can see that to the extent that humankind develops, the pains and torments surrounding our sustenance and existence also multiply.

“Thus you have a scientific, empirical basis that His Providence has commanded us to keep with all our might the Mitzva of bestowal upon others in utter precision, in such a way that no member from among us would work any less than the measure required to secure the happiness of society and its success. And as long as we are idle performing it to the fullest, nature will not stop punishing us and take its revenge.

“And besides the blows we suffer today, we must also consider the drawn sword for the future. The right conclusion must be drawn—that nature will ultimately defeat us and we will all be compelled to join hands in following its Mitzvot with all the measure required of us.”(Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Peace”).

(4) And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth.” And the Lord descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. And the Lord said, “Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion.” And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth (Genesis 11:4-9).

(5) “There has never been any kindness as there was with Abraham…and he brought peace between one person and his fellow, for after all he was the father of many nations, because of this he unified and made peace among all the created beings” (Gevurot HaShem, Chapter 6).

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” That charge implies that whatever you would like other people to do for you, you should do for your comrade in the Torah and mitzvot.

“The reward one receives for accompanying guests is greater than all of the others. This is a statute which Abraham our Patriarch instituted and the path of kindness which he would follow. He would feed wayfarers, provide them with drink, and accompany them.” (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon [Rambam], Mishnah Torah, Sefer Shoftim, Hilchot Avel, Chapter 14:1-2).

“Now Abraham was forty years old when he comprehended his Creator.
“…and [he] began to stand up and to proclaim with a loud voice to the whole world, and to reveal to them, that there was but One God of the whole Universe, and that Him only it was right to serve; and so he continued preaching and assembling the people from city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom…

“…and so thousands and myriads assembled around him, who constituted the men of the house of Abraham; and (Abraham) planted this great and radical principle in their hearts, and also composed books…

“And thus the thing was continually gaining strength among the children of Jacob, and among those that joined them, so that there grew up in this world a nation who knew the Lord…” (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon [Rambam], Mishneh Torah, Sefer HaMeda, Hilchot Avodah Zarah, Chapter 1).

(6) “Hatred arouses quarrels, but love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12).

“…the heart of the vitality, persistence, and correction of the whole of creation, by people of differing views being included together in love, unity and peace” (Rabbi Nathan Sternhertz, Likutey Halachot [Assorted Rules], “Rules of Tefilat Arvit [Evening Prayer],” Rule no. 4).

(7) “The essence of peace is connecting two opposites, so don’t be afraid of your ideas if you see a person who has opinions that are the complete opposite of yours, and it seems to you that it is impossible in any way to maintain peace with him; and also when you see two people who are really opposites, don’t say that it is impossible to make peace between them, for on the contrary, this is essentially the whole of peace, to try to have peace between two opposites” (Likutei Etzot, The Value of Peace).

“We are not neutral when we claim that for consolidation, there must be consolidation of common responsibility, of mutual responsibility, of mutual influence. We claim that we must not blur the boundaries between the unions, circles and parties, rather a shared recognition of the common reality and a common position in a test of common responsibility. Separation between hearts is a disease that afflicts the peoples in our time and following its cure by way of coerced union is nothing but a mistake. Unity is lacking in the organizational structure. At the moment there is no remedy for this except that there will be people from different circles of opinion who need one another with a pure heart and take the trouble together to discover the common foundation” (Martin Buber, “Education and Examining the World”).

(8) “This Zionism sees where the Jews are – separated people who are united against their will by the ‘common enemy’, but it does not see Judaism – a single unit that aspires to exist in its unity even without all of the external compulsion. This is its main deficiency, revealed in all of its ways and deeds” (Ahad Ha’Am, “The Congress and its Creator”).

“Historically we are a group of people who belong to each other with clearly recognized relevance and whose consolidation is firmly maintained by the existence of a common enemy” (Theodor [Binyamin Ze’ev] Herzl, The Jewish State).

(9) “In the end, all we have here is a gathering of strangers, descendents of cultures of seventy nations, each building a stage for oneself, one’s spirit, and one’s leanings. There is no elemental thing here that unites us all from within into a single mass.” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Nation”).

(10) “It is a shame to admit that one of the most precious merits we have lost during the exile, and the most important of them, is the loss of the awareness of the nationality, meaning that natural feeling that connects and sustains each and every nation. The threads of love that connect the nation, which are so natural and primitive in all the nations, have become degenerated and detached from our hearts, and they are gone.

“And worst of all, even the little we have left of the national love…exists within us on a negative basis: It is the common suffering that each of us suffers being a member of the nation. This has imprinted within us a national awareness and proximity, as with fellow-sufferers.

“This is an external cause…

“And most important, it is completely unfit for its task. Its measure of warmth suffices only to an ephemeral excitement, but without the power and strength with which we can be rebuilt as a nation that carries itself. This is because a union that exists due to an outside cause is not at all a national union.

“In that sense, we are like a pile of nuts, united into a single body from the outside by a sack that envelops and unites them. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body… The fault is that they lack the inner unity…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Nation”).

(11) “I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth. And should you ask, ‘How do I know that it is permitted?’ I will reply that I have been given permission to disclose…

“…and this is what the Creator has given me to the fullest extent. We deem it as dependent not on the greatness of the sage, but on the state of the generation…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam]), “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

“Turning the hearts and occupying the minds with noble thoughts, whose origin is the secrets of the Torah, has become an utter necessity in the last generation” (Rav Raiah Kook, Mist of Purity, p. 65).

(12) “The wisdom of the truth teaches us about the global unity, the side of equality to be found in the whole of existence through the very top, at the parity of the form with this Maker, and how to walk without obstacles by the path of this Light” (Rav Raiah Kook, Orot HaKodesh [The Lights of Sanctity],” 2 p. 393).

(13) “Israel brings Light to the world as it is said, (Isaiah 60:3) ‘And nations shall walk at thy light’” (Midrash Rabbah, Shir HaShirim, Section 4, Verse 2).

“…the Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.

“And these sparks multiply daily, like one who gives to the treasurer, until they are filled sufficiently, that is, until they develop to such an extent that they can understand the pleasantness and tranquility that are found in the kernel of love of others. For then they will know how to shift the balance to the right, and will place themselves under His burden, and the scale of sin will be eradicated from the world” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee],” Item 24).

“When the Children of Israel are complemented with the complete knowledge, the fountains of intelligence and knowledge shall flow beyond the boundaries of Israel and water all the nations of the world…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 4).

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An article from my column in Ynet: “Forever Following the Book”

Through sentences, words, and letters encoded in Kabbalah books, Kabbalists have opened the passage to a new dimension for us through which we can enter the story of our life and positively affect the events. The Hebrew Book Week held recently is a good opportunity to go on a magical journey following the books that have shaped our nation.

It is not without reason that the nation of Israel is called “The Nation of the Book.” Forever —books have been an integral part of our way of life, a key means accompanying our lives throughout the years of our development as a nation, as  a society,  and a country.

There does not refer to literature that burst on the scene just hundreds of years, and is dying out as technological developments penetrated our lives, but to different kind of books – books of Kabbalah, Holy books, also called “the language of the distinct, different, special.”

Holy books such as the Bible, the Talmud, The Book of Zohar, and the Midrash do not deal with rules of ethics and are not folk tales. They tell us about a special spiritual world. In addition to the great wisdom that flows from them these books, they also contain a special force, a real treasure, which can fulfill everything we desire, answer every question we have, and especially give meaning to our lives. But very few know how to discover this treasure. Those who do are the Kabbalists.

Kabbalists are ordinary people who have a great desire to discover the reasons for what is happening in our life and what our fate has in store for us, and they were the first to penetrate behind the scenes of our world. They discovered that there is a force of love and giving in reality whose only goal is to bring us to this sublime state, to be united in love and bestowal like this force itself.

They described the way to attain this in their books, the detailed guidance and the wonderful feelings they had, so that we can use it. Thus we too can read about this sublime force, about the “author” who writes the story of our lives, and learn how to change our lives for the better.

The Book of Human History

The first to feel the two worlds together, the nature of the world around us and the nature of the upper world, was Adam HaRishon (the first man), who described it in the first Kabbalah book he wrote called The Angel Raziel, “Raz” the secret language, that is, the revelation of the secrets of creation.

The book includes interesting drawings, and a person who reads it in depth immediately perceives that it isn’t a primitive man who hunted mammoths that wrote this book, but a great Kabbalist who tells us about the united soul called Adam, about its shattering into thousands of individual souls of all of humanity, and about its future connection in which they will reunite into one soul.

Dozens of books have been written by hundreds of Kabbalists, but the most outstanding book since Adam’s book is attributed to Abraham. Abraham did not intend to write a textbook but the Book of Yetzirah (Book of Creation) was basically a list of the major laws of how the spiritual world operates. Although the Book of Yetzirah is very special, it is still very hard to understand and light years away from us. It is thanks to the Book of Yetzirah and the method of connection between people, which he developed, that the nation of Israel grew and began to aspire for spirituality. Several generations later, Moses, the great Kabbalist, continued to lead the nation.

The Book of Books

Moses’ spiritual revelation gave him the power to take the children of Israel out of Egypt, and to lead them in the desert for forty years until they reached the borders of the Promised Land of Israel.

He describes the updated method for his generation in his book called the Torah, as in Light [Ohr]. In other words,  it teaches how to enter the spiritual world with the Light, the divine force. By using this book, every person can reveal the image of creation and build his life toward the ultimate goal.

Although the Torah is written as a historical narrative about the exodus of the nation of Israel from Egypt, it is in fact is a description of a person’s exit from his lowly corporeal state called Egypt, and his ascent to a spiritual state called the “Land of Israel.” Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said, “Woe to the man who says that the Torah was meant to tell a simple story and a folk tale. If the Torah was meant to tell a historical story, even the leaders of the world are better at that. Everything that is in the Torah is actually upper events and upper secrets” (The Book of Zohar). Moses used the language called the “language of the branches”—the names of objects, feelings, and actions of our world, but by that he referred to the roots of the upper world, to the concealed upper forces, to the entrances and exits of the forces of nature and even to their destructive effects.

If we look at the Torah not through it’s external shell, we will see a totally different picture, detached from the reality of this world. Instead of human figures like Moses and Pharaoh, animals, and different people, we will see the spiritual forces that operate on us, and will gradually be able to use them in order to ascend spiritually. The key to deciphering the Torah is actually in the books of Kabbalah, in The Book of Zohar.

The Book

The Book of Zohar or as Kabbalists call it “The Book” explains the five books of the Torah and tells us exactly what Moses meant. It is the basic and most important book in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Rashbi, the author of the Zohar, was the first Kabbalist who described how our thoughts and our reactions to the force that operates on us from Above rise back to the upper world, operate in it, and thus affect all the future events that will descend unto us.

Before writing The Book, Rashbi gathered a group of ten students around him, “a ten” since “the Torah can only be acquired in a group,” (Babylonian Talmud). The soul of every student matched a certain spiritual attribute in the upper world. When they connected into one soul, they were fully compatible with the Ten Sefirot, the whole structure that exists in the spiritual world. The true connection between these attributes has led to the revelation of the Light of the upper Zohar among the ten students.

“And Rabbi Shimon used to reveal the secrets of the Torah and the friends listened to his voice and responded to him in a connection each replying his share,” (Ramchal, “Adir Ba Meromim“). Because each of the friends represents an attribute of the spiritual world, their story which the whole Book of Zohar tells, is actually the description of the way these spiritual attributes descend into our world; how these ten forces lead this world; how every person can use these forces for his own sake and for the sake of others.

The Tree of Life

1,300 years later, the ARI received The Book of Zohar. He was given permission to renew the method that existed since the days of Adam. He absorbed all the Kabbalistic information since the time of Adam, processed it, and rewrote it so that the method for individuals became a method suitable for the masses. All the sources he absorbed and taught in Safed were later published as The Tree of Life, a book that teaches the way to the spiritual world and explains how we can ascend and attain eternity and wholeness. It also talks about what many are fascinated by, reincarnations. Reading and studying the ARI’s books immediately raises a person above the level of our world.

In addition to the Tree of Life, the ARI wrote twenty other books in which he presents all the laws of the creation using a clear innovative scientific method. In the introduction to his book he says that since the method was established, anyone can study Kabbalah, that the desire itself is the only criterion of whether a person can enter the spiritual world, and so with the science of Kabbalah, which he developed for his generation, anyone who has the desire to attain the goal of creation, regardless of age, gender, or nationality, can do so. Indeed after the ARI’s time many began to open up to Kabbalah and to climb the spiritual ladder to the upper world.

The Ladder

Eventually both The Book of Zohar and the ARI’s books were not intended for the systematic study of Kabbalah for the masses. Although Kabbalah is a science, there was no suitable textbook to study it until our century. The greatest Kabbalist of the 20^th century, called Baal HaSulam after the Sulam Commentary he wrote to The Book of Zohar, emerged in order to fill the gap in Kabbalistic literature. He also explained all of the ARI’s books and compiled them in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, which is the major Kabbalah textbook of our time.

The Study of the Ten Sefirot includes everything all the Kabbalists who preceded him wrote throughout thousands of generations: Adam, Abraham, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and the ARI. He included many Hasidic writings and writings of contemporary Kabbalists and even referred to the views of the great philosophers of the world like Marx, Nietzsche, Locke, Darwin, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and many others.

All we need to learn about how to create the future we desire is in the writings of Rav Yehuda Ashlag. “I am happy that I was born in a generation in which it is allowed to publicize the wisdom of truth,” says Baal HaSulam. “If you ask me how I know that it is allowed, I will reply that I was given permission to reveal and to explain every single word. This has nothing to do with the ingenuity of the sage himself but with the situation of the generation, and therefore I have said that I was awarded with the revelation of the wisdom because of my generation.”

A Call for a Change

At the end of the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Baal HaSulam rightly asks whether the language of Kabbalah books is not quite understood, “Therefore we must ask, why then, did the Kabbalists obligate each person to study the wisdom of Kabbalah? Indeed, there is a great thing in it, worthy of being publicized: “There is a wonderful, invaluable remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls…Hence, even when he does not have the vessels, when he engages in this wisdom, mentioning the names of the Lights and the vessels related to his soul, they immediately shine upon him to a certain extent.”

However, they shine for him without clothing the interior of his soul, for lack of able vessels to receive them.
“Yet, the illumination one receives time after time during the engagement draws upon him grace from Above, imparting him with abundance of sanctity and purity, which bring him much closer to achieving perfection” (The Letters of Baal HaSulam).
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From Ynet article 6/16/16

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Hidden Gene

Question: Is there something in the genes of human DNA that is known to the wisdom of Kabbalah, but not to geneticists?

Answer: There is an additional spiritual charge that remains a mystery to a regular person.

For example, in the people of Israel in different generations were people who weren’t born Jewish but joined the nation and became very significant individuals in it, although initially they seemingly had no Jewish genes. There were many such cases, especially in the times of the Temple.

Consequently, this information is not necessarily transmitted through the physical body, through parents. There is a part of spiritual information in it that leads to inner spiritual development and obliges a person to fulfill his destiny without any connection to the parental home.

For example, the parents of Rabbi Akiva weren’t Jewish by birth and converted to Judaism later. But it didn’t prevent their son from becoming a great Jewish sage, one of the greatest in the history of Israel. And where did it come from? It turns out that we can’t judge the spiritual DNA, the root of the soul, according to the material DNA.

The root of the soul is part of the system of Adam HaRishon. Adam is not a person, but a spiritual system in which we all are included through our corrected desires. And then we all unite into one spiritual body. Such a spiritual body, where all parts are in harmony with each other is called Adam, the first man.

If every person corrects his desires and is ready to unite with the same corrected desires of other people, seeking to unite like brothers into one body, one desire, then we all are connected.

And then inside this connection we feel the first man, Adam HaRishon, the joint desire assembled from many private desires. Each one annulled his egoism and connected with others above it in order to be with them in one desire, like in one body.

There are such souls, separate parts of Adam, who very much aspire for this unity, and they are considered to be high souls. And there are those who are not very eager for it, and even those that are completely indifferent to it.

Such a spiritual gene, called, Reshimo, is present in every human being in the world, the desire for unity: positive, negative, or zero.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/12/16

Related Material:
The Genetic Map Of Humanity, Part 1
Be Born Into The System Of Adam HaRishon
A Common Ancestor

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Question: Karl Marx wrote in, “On the Jewish Question,” “Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of man – and turns them into commodities. Money is the universal self-established value of all things. It has, therefore, robbed the whole world – both the world of men and nature – of its specific value. Money is the estranged essence of man’s work and man’s existence, and this alien essence dominates him, and he worships it.

“The god of the Jews has become secularized and has become the god of the world. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange. …

“Judaism could not create a new world; it could only draw the new creations and conditions of the world into the sphere of its activity, because practical need, the rationale of which is self-interest, is passive and does not expand at will, but finds itself enlarged as a result of the continuous development of social conditions. …

“Only then could Judaism achieve universal dominance and make alienated man and alienated nature into alienable, vendible objects subjected to the slavery of egoistic need and to trading.

“Selling [verausserung] is the practical aspect of alienation [Entausserung]. Just as man, as long as he is in the grip of religion, is able to objectify his essential nature only by turning it into something alien, something fantastic, so under the domination of egoistic need he can be active practically, and produce objects in practice, only by putting his products, and his activity, under the domination of an alien being, and bestowing the significance of an alien entity – money – on them.

“The social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism.”

Question:  How is it possible to blame an entire people and compare it to the rest of the people?

Answer: As a scholar, Karl Marx was working completely logically and correctly maintained that specifically for Jews there are characteristic traits and the most egoistic behavior.

And it cannot even be otherwise because specifically this group of people was on a high spiritual level in the past from which it fell below everyone through their damaged egoism. That is also what is said in the Torah, if the Jews ascend, they rise higher than anyone. But if they fall, they fall below everyone. In absolute, (absolute value), their ego is the greatest!
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Related Material:
Why Do Jews Live Well?
How Can We Become The Nation Of Israel?
Anti-Semitism: A Strange Contradiction

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