The Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust is a special, very sorrowful day in the history of the Jewish people and of all humanity, since we are all connected with one another. On such a day we must speak about the causes of this tragedy and its lessons, so that “the deeds of the fathers may serve as a sign for the sons.”

There is nothing but the upper force, good and doing good, which governs us all the time. There is not a single action that goes beyond this good governance.

Therefore, if in our scrutiny we do not rise above our egoistic nature and begin to judge the Creator, doubting His good guidance, then we will deceive ourselves. Then all our investigation will bring no benefit and will lead us into the same bitter reality we are forced to speak about today.

The Creator feels our sensations. If we are united and rejoice in this, then the Creator rejoices. He has no sensations of His own; He resides within us, much like a mother who lives through her beloved infant. Through our connection with one another, we create a place for the Creator, a place where He can exist.

And if we are not connected, then there is no place for the Creator; consequently, we feel His actions in a distorted, inverted form, as if they do not come from Him. Every action is experienced in us in direct proportion to the degree of our unity or disunity.

The Creator resides within our connection with one another. This connection must be in a constant state of development, beginning from the initial shattering performed by the Creator up to the final correction, complete adhesion. As long as we do not lag behind in our advancement from the stages of correction we are destined to traverse, all is well with us. But if we fall behind, then we find ourselves in a dire state, one that we ourselves have brought about.

If at every moment we do not correct the connection between us, then we feel the difference between the desired state and the actual one. Suppose that today I must be corrected by 20% in my connection with all humanity and I have reached only 15% connection.

Consequently the missing 5% are revealed to me as pressure, problems. In essence, these are the forces that are meant to speed up my advancement, to make up for the delay, to extinguish the gap between the desired and the actual.

These forces do not testify to the goodness or evil of the Creator, but are simply a natural consequence of the work of the system, as it is said: “A law has been given and cannot be transgressed.” That is, one must evaluate not by how painful or pleasant it is for us, but by how much these forces, which are revealed to us as good or evil, help us to advance correctly.

The Creator does not wish us evil, but there is a law of nature, and in fulfilling it we feel our connection, whereas in violating it we feel pain, to such an extent that today we are forced to recall the Holocaust, the most sorrowful event in the history of the Jewish people.

And of course, it was not caused by the Creator, but by people who were obliged to correct the connection between them and did not correct it. The delay in correction was so enormous that it poured out into terrible suffering.

What lessons can we draw from this? Throughout the journey from ancient Babylon until today many tragic events have occurred, and all for a single reason. Since the Creator represents the general law of nature, the system shows us the necessity of connection. But we do not listen to it and do not hasten to rectify the delay, we consequently receive the corresponding consequences. In fact, we ourselves have caused them and cannot blame the Creator.

We are aware of the requisite conditions, but we do not fulfill them; in doing so, we summon forces that push us toward our ultimate goal with greater severity and resolve.  Throughout history tension and troubles have pursued us: exiles, enslavement in Egypt, wandering in the desert, and the destruction of the Temple. But the Holocaust is a state of an entirely unique nature.

In the course of its historical development, the people of Israel had already reached the point where the fourth degree of connection within the soul of Adam HaRishon became a necessity, but failed to realize it. Even today we are not fulfilling this goal, so what can we expect? Only states even worse than those that we have already endured. We must learn from history in order not to repeat the same states.

After Babylon and Egypt, blows pursue us one after another at every moment when we do not create the connection between us in the required measure. The punishment will be collective for the entire people of Israel. And today we are responsible not only for ourselves, but for the whole world.

At one time it was possible to carry out the correction in a limited group, within the European Jewry. The Nazis themselves wanted to help the Jews revive the State of Israel. At first, they acted as forces helping the correction. But if we do not use the chance given to us, these forces turn into negative ones.

And today, if we do not use the forces serving to awaken us, forces that are already manifesting as negative, they will turn into something far more terrible ones than anything we witnessed before. Today’s Holocaust would be on a different scale entirely, not confined to Europe, but would encompass the whole world. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand this reality and hasten to undertake the necessary corrections before it is too late.

If we unite, then the upper force flows through us to all the nations of the world, to all of reality, and gradually the whole world attains a state of unity. At that point, all turmoil subsides, the Creator begins to reveal Himself to the created beings, and the world attains its destined correction.

If, however, we, the people of Israel, do not unite among ourselves, at least within Israel, where there are the best conditions for connection, if we do not become as one man with one heart, do not love our neighbor as ourselves, do not become a light for the nations of the world by demonstrating an example of unity to the world, then we will pass through such terrible states that the horrors of the Holocaust will pale in comparison.

Merits can turn into faults and faults into merits. Therefore, we must believe that we currently have the opportunity, the time, the place, and all the necessary means to avoid repeating the mistake made by the Jewish people almost a hundred years ago.

We must not squander the opportunity to unite among ourselves in order to connect with the upper force that is inherently good and the source of all goodness. Through us this force, which wants to be revealed to all the inhabitants of this world, will be able to manifest. We must help it in this and become a conduit between it and humanity.

Let us not repeat past mistakes. The wisdom of Kabbalah describes the laws of nature, laws that operate independently of whether we find them pleasant or unpleasant, laws that do not take into account anyone’s partisan or economic interests. There is no doubt that had the Jewish people behaved differently back then, the world today would look completely different.

Everything lies in our hands; we determine our fate and the fate of the whole world. The law of nature is an immutable law that must be fulfilled. The Creator does not pity us and does not punish us, He simply carries out this universal law. The Creator is nature, and according to nature’s program we are obliged to unite in one desire, in one intention, according to a single formula of mutual bestowal. We must bring this unity to the world—this is our mission.

Let us not repeat the bitter mistakes of the past; instead, on this solemn day, let us resolve to take upon ourselves the sacred duty of leading the world toward true unity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/9/19 on the topic “Holocaust Remembrance Day”

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Question: What is “leaven” (Chametz) that we so carefully remove before the holiday of Passover?

Answer: The leaven before Passover is the evil inclination that we had in Egypt that we used in order to fight with one another.

But the leaven we return to after Passover is used differently. We use it in order to bestow upon one another. After all, without the bad relationships we had before, we would not know how to establish good ones. That is, we use the opposite—where there was hatred, there will now be love.

Yet this new leaven is not the same as the previous leaven because I use it for the sake of bestowal, for the sake of love.

For example, before I would constantly take your toys when playing with you, and I would enjoy the fact that you cried, screamed, and ran to complain to your mother. Now I decide that I will no longer do this. So what do I live on? “The bread of affliction,” Matzah. What do I gain from this? What pleasures are there in life? None! For seven days I remain in such a state.

Then I pass as though through a tiny opening, from exile to redemption. This is called the crossing of the final sea (Red Sea). That is, I exit the state in which I used my ego and enjoyed my own power, like Pharaoh.

And afterward when I have made the decision to become different, that same leaven, that is, those same toys that I took from you and enjoyed your crying about it, I return to you, and now I enjoy the fact that you receive pleasure.

This is bread after the exodus from Egypt, not the “bread of affliction,” not even ordinary bread, but a luxurious cake that is 620 times richer, that we call “bread of love.”

We take all the evil that we had in Egypt and turn it into good. This is what the people of Israel wept about during the forty years of wandering in the desert. They cry, “Where is our Egypt?!” because they include it within themselves, and then they correct it, again and again.
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From KabTV’s conversation “New Life 539 – Jewish Culture: Between Chametz (Leavened Food) And Matzah,” 3/24/15

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Question: You once said that a Jew and a Roman are simply two forces trying to clarify the third force. That is, they develop not without purpose. Is the third force born independently or from these two?

Answer: The third force is intermediary between them, which we must now restore and bring into existence.

Everything that has happened up to this moment has only been preparation for what we must do now: correct the world. Not the Jews and not the other nations, but specifically us, which we do by taking Kabbalah as the source of correction.

Question: Does this third force already exist or do we simply not perceive it?

Answer: We must create this third force together because it does not exist; it does not descend from above. Only two forces come from above: the force of the Creator and the force of creation, the property of bestowal and the property of reception.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Truth About Reality” 10/8/10

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Question: Israeli children are very noisy and energetic, one could say hyperactive. Is this related to a particular Jewish mentality?

Answer: Jews originate from Ancient Babylon, from a single civilization of earth’s inhabitants who once rose to a spiritual level and then fell from it. Therefore, that ascent and descent have been preserved in their genes. There’s nothing to be done; they are the most active part of humanity in everything: science, culture, everywhere.

They make up literally about 0.01% of humanity, and suddenly 50% of Nobel laureates, 20 to 30% of musicians, 30% of artists, and so on. And all because they were once on a spiritual level, fell from it, and are now engaged in earthly affairs. They should have given this up altogether and devoted themselves exclusively to spiritual work. I hope that eventually this is how it will be. We don’t need “Einsteins” or revolutionaries. We need to engage in spiritual revolutions, not earthly ones.

I think everything is moving in that direction now. The general crisis and everything happening in the world will lead humanity to spiritual elevation, and then this hyperactivity will be realized in spiritual actions.

It manifests in Jews because they fell from a spiritual level to an earthly one, lost the spiritual component, and it turned into something earthly. What remained in them from the spiritual charge at the fall is precisely this hyperactive part.

Therefore, if you see a revolutionary or a transformer in our world, in science, art, or anything at all, then by digging into their lineage you will find that their roots come from a tribe that once stood on a spiritual level. This is the quality of Bina, the quality of bestowal, which alone can enliven humanity.

I am not a nationalist, and I advocate for the correction of the entire world. Therefore, the method of Kabbalah, which emerged from Ancient Babylon, must be realized everywhere. The fact is that the whole world is Malchut. And part of it, which once was on the level of Bina, fell back into Malchut. But only from that part, which is the former people of Israel, once on a spiritual level, does progress in our world originate.

Thus, if you see truly serious activists, it cannot be that they lack a spark originating from the attainment of the upper world that fell to our level. The people who come to Kabbalah today, no matter from where, somehow, somewhere, have received this spiritual virus.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Children of Israel, Part 2” 10/1/10

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Question: When you speak about people who have received a spiritual “virus” and advanced in the corporeal world in some way, do you mean outstanding people?

Answer: Yes, this is a consequence of Bina. Bina is expansion, bestowal, a quality opposite to Malchut. When two qualities join together, egoism and some small germs of altruism that have fallen from the spiritual level, egoism receives direction and greater strength because it contains a spark of the upper light.

Therefore, such egoism is more fortunate, more successful, and this is expressed in results.

Today the Kabbalistic method is open to everyone. Once, in Ancient Babylon, only a small part of humanity used it. By the way, throughout history many people, the so-called “Gerim” from different nations (converts), joined it.

If we look at ancient history from the exodus from Egypt through the existence of the Kingdom of Israel until the destruction of the Second Temple, this was a period when huge masses of different tribes came and joined the spiritual elevation. Among them there were many great Kabbalists.

Comment: But when they joined, they did not become Jews.

My Response: What does it mean that people “join”? It means they take this method and begin to realize it within themselves, just like in Ancient Babylon. Abraham, the ancient Babylonian priest, gathered a couple of thousand people around himself, created a group from them, and from this group a people was formed, so to speak.

What does “a people” mean? It is a group of individuals united by a single goal of spiritual ascent. Whoever wants it joins. On the level of our world, there is actually no such concept as “the Jewish people.”

Comment: But in Israel it is a nation.

My Response: No, it is not a nation. Even today it is not a nation, but a gathering. When will the Jews become a nation? When they begin to unite among themselves with the force of mutual love. Only this force can unite them into a nation. There is no other force that can bond them together.

In any other nation there is a natural force from below that bonds people together. But above this group, there must be a force from above.

Therefore, today, for example, an Italian can become a Jew.

“But you are Italian!”

“I am no longer Italian, I am a Jew.”

“How is that? What about your father and mother?”

“My father and mother are no longer ‘mine’.”

I am Jewish, and I cannot become an Italian because I was not born to Italian parents. But an Italian can become a Jew of full value if he takes upon himself the method of spiritual ascent. The laws of conversion to Judaism are based only on this. And he can no longer go back and become Italian again.

This is a very irrational model but it exists in our world, although no one really understands it because it is built on spiritual laws that we are trying to squeeze into our world like into a Procrustean bed. But it does not work.

People do not understand this. It all sounds very strange. But gradually we are approaching a time when clarification will begin to take place in humanity regarding the entire historical picture: why it happened this way, what it brings, and why it must be this way.

But for now, people only have questions, and there are no answers.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Children of Israel, Part 2” 10/1/10

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Question: I grew up in Israel, and for me Hanukkah is a very childlike holiday with doughnuts and the dreidel. And suddenly I hear from you that Hanukkah has a spiritual meaning. How should I relate to the lighting of the candles so that this action is not merely external?

Answer: This is a spiritual action. There is nothing in the Israeli holidays that is not connected to the spiritual. After all, we exist only in order to attain our soul,  what is called the future world, the upper world, the higher dimension, that we must reach.

At present we see the picture of this world: houses, sky, sea, people, everything around me. Behind this picture we need to find a crack into the upper world, widen it, open up the horizons, and see that we are located only in a very small sphere, in a tiny part of a much greater, more spacious, infinite world.

Our entire universe is also within our current world. But we must reveal the world beyond it as well. This is what we human beings are meant for. For we do not belong to the still, vegetative, and animate levels that are bound to nature, but to the human level.

A “human being” in Hebrew is “Adam,” from the word “domeh,” similar to the Creator. We are not only capable of reaching such a state, but are simply obliged to attain it, to reveal the entire true reality that lies beyond what now appears to us as this world.

Then we will reveal not only infinite spaces, but also ourselves as existing in an infinite, perfect form, within this vast, expansive, light-filled reality that is revealed to us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is intended for this. All the holidays speak to us about this, including Hanukkah, about how we begin to open the upper world for ourselves, expand our organs of perception and reality, and then emerge from all these narrow, bitter limitations.

All this lies before us. But everything depends on the unity between us, because unity is precisely the action that begins to open the boundaries of the present reality. And the pressures we feel today are meant to push us to accelerate and reveal the true world.

Therefore when lighting the Hanukkah candles—together with Hanukkah songs, games with children using the dreidel, and tasty doughnuts—let us think that the true Hanukkah is like a housewarming, for we are opening a new world for ourselves through uniting with one another.
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From Radio Station 103FM 12/6/15

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Comment: Kabbalah says that one should not be afraid of external factors and that what is happening around us does not really influence us, but merely creates a kind of picture of pressure or tension around us.

My Response: What does “does not influence” mean? We see how much influence Hitler had, or Bohdan Khmelnytsky, or the persecutions in western Europe when Jews were gathered from cities or small towns into synagogues and burned alive.

We see what serious reasons there were that affected the people’s attitude toward life, toward the world, and toward themselves.

Question: And why did everyone have the desire to take it out on the Jews?

Answer: Who else could they take it out on? And all those pogroms? That was the only way they “vented” it. The population was deliberately educated and directed so that they would take it out on them.

Question: But why weren’t there some other nation toward which the hatred of the others would have been directed?

Answer: In general, there is only one reason for hatred: the Jews’ failure to fulfill their mission.
Within the Jewish people there exists an inner point of light, and it cannot be explained. It is of a mystical nature and cannot be correctly understood or perceived by anyone else.

A person feels that there is something in them that is different from me. Moreover, something that I subconsciously feel is not just about oppressed people; no, they are special. They have something.

On the one hand, they gave me religion. All of their ancestors are my gods. I worship all of their ancestors. For example, in the center of St. Petersburg there stands St. Isaac’s Cathedral. I call all my priests by their ancient names. I took their entire religion from them.

And yet they still cling to it and do not want to accept what I made from it. By their very existence, they prove that they are the ones who are right, not me.

And I cannot destroy it if they do not accept me as their successor. They must accept it, not just agree out of hopelessness or simply stay away.

If they do not accept this, then my religion is worth nothing, my world is worth nothing, and the future world that I have drawn for myself is also worth nothing. That is, their mere existence confirms that everything that I have invented for myself about the future world is incorrect.

Question: The nations of the world say: “We hate the Jews.” But Jesus Christ, was he not a Jew?

Answer: It does not matter. All of this has to be justified somehow. I do not think that anyone really understands it at all. In all religions it is so convoluted. What can you do? We are already at the end of all this; there will still be surges. All of this will lead to another huge war, perhaps not only a spiritual one, but also a physical one. There is nothing that can be done about it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. External Factors, or Why Does Everyone Hate Jews?” 9/14/10

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that as long as the nation of Israel does not come to the fulfillment of the Torah and commandments Lishma, the troubles in the world will not cease.

Over these years, we have had different appeals to the public, both to Jews and to the nations of the world. How do you see who this nation of Israel is, and to whom we must address ourselves?

Answer: It is those who are now attending our lessons and who wish, with our help, to attain the goal of creation.

Question: You said that we do not have the strength to influence all of humanity. Should we ask for this strength, or is it better for now to focus on the work in the ten?

Answer: We need to focus on the ten so that all your forces are inside it and you are ready to invest yourselves completely in its strengthening.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Back to the Way Things Were

Question: There was a time when an ordinary Israeli cultivated the land and dedicated him or herself entirely to the revival of the country. Today, such terminology is simply irrelevant. The land is worked by a Filipino worker or agricultural machinery.

We have plenty of clothing and food; in high-tech we are ahead of the entire world, and particularly successful Israelis secure themselves financially for life by the age of thirty.

Of course, any generalization is conditional, yet, in our days, self-sacrifice for the sake of the homeland and society is, to put it mildly, barely relevant. We remember it during military operations and on holidays, but it has no connection to our daily motivations.

The image of Israel as the fulfillment of the eternal dream of the Jewish people has faded. The older generation still remembers the times when people would sit in a circle and sing songs in the evening. But now, when the good old Sabra is a thing of the past, what lies ahead? What will Israelis become in the future?

Answer: They will once again sit in a circle. At home, on lawns, in courtyards, and in parks. People will need connection, even if through the Internet. They will feel that through unity they receive strength, the spirit of life, and this feeling will fill them.

Today they joke around while gathering at a barbecue on Independence Day, but tomorrow they will need precisely that spirit, and that is what they will search for.

To tell the truth, the whole world is searching for it. And the futility of this search leads to drug addiction, depression, emotional explosions, violence, and terror. They are all from inner dissatisfaction and emptiness.

The current generation of Israelis is already shedding its protective shell of untouchability; it no longer hides behind the armor of indifference. It is searching for fulfillment. Although people are still captured by the newer, constantly changing corporeal temptations, nonetheless, in their hearts the seed of a true inner ideal is already beginning to sprout.

A New Hero

Question: What will be the new hero of our time? Describe the features of the Israeli of tomorrow.

Answer: The Israeli of tomorrow is a person who understands that through unity with others he will achieve the highest prosperity and perfection. This is more than lifelong financial security by the age of 30; more than a high position that allows one to twist the world around their finger, more than fame, success in the eyes of the public, and so on.

He strives for unity because only through it can he succeed in anything. He feels that this is the most important thing in life, because through the point of unity he can attain everything: health, money, well-being, love, a strong family…

In good mutual connection with others, worries vanish; the whole world becomes yours. It is as if you live in paradise. This is exactly how we feel life when we unite with one another. Because in this, a symbiosis of two forces is created: the positive and the negative. On one side is egoism, and on the other is the positive force that comes from unity, which balances the negativity of our nature.

Then we feel goodness and peace, and we become capable of everything. Like plus and minus in an electrical circuit, the two opposite forces within us connect to the “engine,” to society, to the people of Israel, or even to a small group of people, and the “engine” begins to operate correctly, giving us unprecedented possibilities.

A Universal Specialization

Question: So is the key to future success, not a university degree in a trending field, but specialization in unity?

Answer: Yes, above all. And afterward, through this unity, a person will succeed as a high-tech specialist, an engineer, an accountant, whatever they become. The main point is that inner fulfillment and satisfaction will come from kind interaction with others.

This is how we will build a new society, a new industry, a new world. A person in it is sensitive to unity with others and immediately sees how this unity elevates his life to a new level, a level of freedom, independence, warmth, safety—everything that cannot be found anywhere else.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 554 – Holidays And Festivals: The New Israeli,” 4/14/15

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Question: Do you believe that the Jews of Israel will eventually bring about the correction of all of humanity?

Answer: It is precisely the circumstances in which they find themselves that will compel them to do so. Why does the world around them bristle against them?

This is eternal antisemitism; the perpetual feeling that you are hated and that you must defend yourself and justify your existence in the world. When all this passes over a person from generation to generation, it is transmitted through the genes; it leaves behavioral layers in one’s character, in one’s perception of the world, in one’s attitude toward everything. There is nothing like this in any other nation.

The Jews are not like the Gypsies, who are simply despised, nor like people who impose their culture, manners, way of life, or religion on other nations. In those cases, it all stems from a sense of superiority. But here, on the contrary, it comes from a sense of inferiority, smallness, and worthlessness.

This complex has developed very strongly over the last 2,000 years. It has already produced secondary and tertiary consequences, which gradually evolve and merge with all other philosophies of life.

All this has left a deep imprint on their attitude toward everything and has generated enormous internal stress within the people, especially among the European branch of the Jews who were forced to develop in order to elevate themselves above the surrounding nations in some way, to protect themselves.

We see, in the Middle Ages, how they suddenly experienced a leap in special character traits and intellectual abilities; it is not even clear why. Previously, nothing like this existed anywhere, not even among other branches of Jews in other countries where they lived more or less peacefully.

There is a great deal of research on this topic. And indeed, we see how many scientists, artists, and thinkers they produce. All this is the result of their defensive reaction.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call, The Jews of Israel,” 9/13/10

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