Entries in the 'Israel' Category

The Foundation of a Nation Is Internal Unity

281.02

These loose ties—language, religion, and history—are important values, and no one denies their national merit. However, they are still completely insufficient to rely on as a basis for the independent sustenance of a nation. In the end, all we have here is a gathering of strangers, descendants 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.

I know that there is one thing that is common to all of us: the escape from the bitter exile. However, this is only a superficial union, like the sack that holds the nuts together, as was said above. This is why I said that we must establish for ourselves special education through widespread circulation, to instill in each of us a sense of national love, both from one person to another, and from the individuals to the whole, to rediscover the national love that was instilled within us since the time we were on our land as a nation among the nations (Baal HaSulam, The Nation).

Question: Must a person be influenced by some supernatural forces?

Answer: On the contrary, they are the natural forces.

Question: Is it possible to give an example from history when the Jewish people were united?

Answer: No, even at the time of the receiving of the Torah and the existence of the Temples, the Jews still had wars among themselves. When such an example appears, then that will be the correction of the world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

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The Third Temple Is Not a Building

292Question: Anya asks: “When will the Third Temple be built? I sincerely believe that then silence will come, and we will understand that it is forbidden to kill each other, hate each other. I so want peace to come. Tell me, your nation built the First and Second Temples; it was a happy time, wasn’t it? Who will build the Third Temple? How will this happen? Is it possible to speed up the construction? And will our world come to peace and happiness then? Do I understand correctly?”

Answer: I do not know what exactly you understand based on what you have written. I understand that if we are going to build the Third Temple, then we now need to recruit Chinese, Taiwanese, or Arabs at our side.

Gather them, collect building materials, hire a huge office that would do the design and everything else. Recruit experts who would think about what it should look like and so on. And start building slowly. Collect money from all over the world.

But, let’s agree on this: The Third Temple will not be a building. It will be built from the hearts of people, from the desires of people who will wish for it to exist. And there will be nothing material, tangible, from vegetative or animate in it, but only human desire.

Question: So we are the builders of the Temple?

Answer: Our desires! Those who wish to unite together and complement each other to such a state that they can assemble a place that will contain the Creator. The Creator does not need stones. The Creator needs desire! Our yearning to unite between each other, which will at the same time become this house, this will be the place for the revelation of the Creator to all mankind.

Question: So the Creator can only enter such a house? In one desire, directed toward unity, toward connection of all. Is this the house built from hearts?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does it have windows, doors?

Answer: They are desires! Nothing is needed. Only desires, collective desires, united only in the fact that together, in connection, in love for each other, we will achieve such a state which will be equal to the quality of the Creator. And this is called the Third Temple.

Question: Anya says that Jewish people built the First and the Second Temple, and they were destroyed. Who is building the Third Temple?

Answer: All the nations of the world. The whole world.

Question: What will push the whole world to this, to build the Third Temple?

Answer: Humanity will be prompted to build the Third Temple by realizing the necessity of good intentions, thoughts, or, God forbid, from states of bitterness, weakness, war, and great suffering.

Comment: Which seems to be closer, unfortunately.

My Response: No, it should be somewhere at their intersection.

Question: Meaning, maybe something will lead forward and something will loom ahead, and something will push from behind?

Answer: It is like getting out of Egypt. The Egyptians were chasing from behind, and Moses was walking in front and going straight to the Red Sea. Neither one is good, but this is the state that you need to move to.

Question: And so we will move to the construction of the Third Temple?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But it definitely will be built?

Answer: It is inevitable! It is already inevitable; there is nothing that can be done. Proceeding exactly from this end, the beginning of creation and the beginning of everything that exists comes.

Question: So you can say that the Creator looks at humanity from this state and invites us?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/25/22

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What the World Expects from Jews

400Question: How are Jews connected with the development of humanity and with the current period when the question of the meaning of life is particularly acute?

While nature more or less stroked humanity on the head, it forgot about the Jews. Today, when we have nowhere else to run, again all attention is directed at them. Why?

Answer: Because the Jews have the solution to the essence of our life. The key to the answer to the question of where to go next, how to achieve true happiness, boundless, eternal existence, perfection, harmony—in general, everything that we involuntarily strive for from within, what our natural inner development pushes us to—is with them.

Therefore, subconsciously, all people in the world pay attention to them, count them guilty for their problems, and they are right.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Around the World” 5/12/11

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United Culture—Mutual Love

509There is no redemption of the body without redemption of the soul. As long as the majority of the people are captive in the foreign cultures of the nations and are incapable of Israel’s religion and culture, the bodies, too, will be captive under the alien forces (Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“).

Question: What does in captivity of foreign cultures mean? After all, it is good that everyone came to Israel with their own culture; it enriches the people.

Answer: But we must rise above all cultures into our culture, which is called mutual love, mutual connection. If we rise to this, then we can really move forward to the likeness of the Creator. This is the task of our development.

Question: Do you think that until now the people who live here are each in their own culture?

Answer: Even without any culture, but not in one.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

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“Waving the Flag of Jewish Unity” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “Waving the Flag of Jewish Unity”

Jerusalem is a city like no other, there is a constant source of tension about its sovereignty. So, an event such as the Flag March, which celebrates the city’s 1967 reunification, drew requests from both the U.S. Administration and the European Union to re-examine the route of the march in order to prevent escalation after weeks of heightened tensions between Arabs and Jews.

Allegedly, Israel decided to stand on its own, to stay firm on the route it had set and to not show weakness. But is this really a test and indication of Israel’s strength? Definitely not. If Israel had stood its ground, it would have marched through Jerusalem as planned without blinking, without looking at anyone in advance, and without considering world public opinion. A strong Israel would not consider changing its course and would not take into account every bit of chatter that stood in its way.

A great and strong person who is confident in his or her values, manners, and lifestyle does not need to demonstrate anything to anyone. That person does not have to raise a flag to prove his or her righteousness to others. For what purpose? If we are firm in our own minds, we do not hesitate back and forth, do not consult or base our decisions on external actors overseas; we simply perform, period.

Israel is not firm enough. It allows haters of Israel to sit on committees that make decisions against the interests of the Jewish people. It allows territories to bargain from north to south. It satisfies every sector of the political spectrum that pulls hard enough for the benefit of its supporters.

Instead of standing up for itself, strengthening the people and the state in a consistent and correct way, Israel deals with symbols while compromising on fundamental and internal values.

I have no objection to going out dancing with the flags in the alleys of the Old City, but in order to truly celebrate the unification of the capital of Israel, we must first establish for ourselves the conditions that we celebrate as a supreme value for us. The heritage that we would never consider selling or replacing it for a pot of lentil stew. And right now, the opposite is happening. Since this is the case, what good is it for us to march and wave the Israeli flag for a few hours?

A flag is an external symbol and nothing more. The Book of Zohar has a long and famous article called, “The Flags,” which describes in depth the inner concept called the flag. This deep understanding is exactly what we are missing—how to raise a flag in our hearts, how to stabilize within ourselves a common inner feeling, how to be enveloped in one flag which expresses a feeling of one people, and to radiate this unity to the world.

My mentor Rav Baruch Ashlag, Rabash, wrote that the word flag derives from the Hebrew word dilug, meaning “skipping,” that is, skipping from our egoistic nature to a second altruistic nature that takes others into consideration. To reach such a spiritual level we first need to soften the heart. In order to soften the heart, we need education and information to help us clarify for ourselves the necessity nowadays of reaching a mutual connection. And to teach us how to reveal the secret of our strength—that when we unite, we grow stronger and draw the Supreme Force, our root, and receive supreme inspiration.

Only out of solidarity will we gain the ability to see the future correctly, will we understand what we live for, and will we know who we are and what our role is in humanity. From such a place as this, we will be able to make the correct decisions about our life together in the Land of Israel. The Supreme Force will raise us to levels we have never before dreamed possible, will give us strength and confidence—strengthening and embracing between us—and will open within us, most important of all, a new mind by which to manage our good future.

Our national goal is not merely concerned with the borders of the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, but with the correction of the Jewish heart that must expand and reach a world correction, that must bring all the nations of the world into a situation where all of us are connected as one man in one heart, just as our sages wrote. That is to say, on this upcoming day all the world will be bound in love and wonderful wholeness. About this reunification we must certainly wave our flags!
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Potential for Convergence

963.6Question: Why can’t Jews outside of Israel unite? What is so special here? There are seven to eight million Jews living in America today. Who’s preventing them from uniting there? After all, the country does not prevent them.

Answer: The country does not interfere with them and yet they do not unite.

Comment: But in Israel also people do not unite.

My Response: There is an equivalence of root and branch. Therefore, those who strive for the spiritual root also strive for its earthly branch, meaning, the land of Israel. But we cannot understand this, we cannot imagine what it is and why it is so important to be in the earthly representation at the same time, in the land of Israel, in Jerusalem. We do not understand and do not feel it. But, in principle, I have met people who feel it very clearly.

Question: If nature should unite a certain number of people, and then it spreads to the whole of humanity, then those who are in Israel have a greater potential for this connection, right?

Answer: There are actions that must occur at the material level and then gradually rise to their spiritual identity.

Comment: If you look through the eyes of an ordinary person, then abroad, for example, in America, people there are more united than here. It is a nightmare what is going on here.

My Response: Yes, but that is why the nightmare happens, so that it must be overcome. By overcoming it, you will see how suddenly you find yourself in a state of spiritual forces.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

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How Not to Drown in a Raging Sea

229Mutual guarantee means that we completely depend on each other, as if we are sitting in a boat in the middle of the sea at risk of drowning in our egoism and finishing our lives in this way. If we want to reach the shore, we must stick together so that everyone helps the other.

No one will come to our aid from the outside until we help each other ourselves. Therefore, we must feel that we are in the same boat under the threat of dying. Only if we help each other get out of the ocean of common egoism surrounding us from all sides, can we be saved.

Imagine yourself in a boat in the middle of a raging egoistic sea. If we support each other, then the sea, with its inner force (the force of the Creator), will take our boat ashore.

The people of Israel were assembled from representatives of all seventy nations of the world to serve as an example of mutual guarantee for everyone else. This group has become a small kernel of connection within the entire vast humanity. The whole history of humanity forces the people of Israel to disperse around the globe in order to convey this message to humanity through philosophy, science, and most importantly, religion.

We are yet to reveal that only this force operates in the world and controls it from the center of reality. Now we are approaching the final stage of this development; it depends only on us whether we will reach it the easy way or through great suffering, problems, and wars.

The entirety of humanity has reached a state when it is ready to listen to the issue of mutual guarantee. Every day we feel more and more how connected we are with each other, so much so that it is impossible to separate us. All nations, countries, and governments are trying to somehow single out and isolate themselves, but nothing will work. We only plunge ourselves into suffering, through which we will understand more clearly that we are tightly connected and can achieve success only through mutual guarantee.

Otherwise, the world will not calm down. It will experience wars and difficult scrutiny. Someday, however, after many years of suffering and problems, we will realize that everyone depends on everyone, and there is no other force capable of governing us except the force of mutual guarantee.

All of humanity is in one small boat in the middle of a big raging sea. If we do not recognize our mutual responsibility, we will plunge ourselves into great troubles. Of course, in the end, we will decide that we are obliged to be in mutual guarantee.

Today, no country in the world can exist without connection with other countries. And it would be desirable for these connections to be positive. After all, bad connection causes troubles to others, and boomerangs back to you. Only through some human, normal agreements is it possible to come to peace.

Thus, we will learn that only mutual care and mutual guarantee can lead us to a good life. Then we will discover that there is another goal—to acknowledge the global force that operates in the world. It is impossible to govern the world without knowing this basic law of loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

This is no longer a simple caring for each other, but complete rejection of the egoistic approach. Instead of foreign ministers helping each country take care of itself, there will be other ministers taking care of the connection between everyone and its mutuality. After all, we will not be able to exist otherwise.

This will lead us to the need to study the laws of mutual guarantee, that is, the laws of the true reality. We live at a time when for the first time the world feels its integral dependence, interconnectedness, and therefore, responsibility to each other. No one has the right to do what he wants, regardless of others. After all, we see what this leads to. Everyone has to take the entire world into account.

This is how we come closer to the truth, which is not found in any country, in any government, or in any person. The truth is above us, and it lies in the good connection from each person to all people.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/22, Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut,” (Mutual Guarantee)

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Thanks to Spiritual Impact

560It is possible to make the life of property owners miserable by contracts and strikes, so they assume the religion since they do not touch their properties, only the profits. Since the religion will be international, it will be possible to win the hearts of the Arab Sheiks with money and religious influence —so they assume the religion together with us as one unit, and promote it among the Arab workers and property owners.

That, in turn, will benefit Zionism. Because they will assume the religion that necessitates love and bestowal upon all humankind equally, they will not be envious of the robbing of the land, since they will understand that the land is the Lord’s. The standard of living of the Arabs will be equal to the standard of living of the Jews. This will be a great incentive for winning their hearts (Baal HaSulam, “The Last Generation”).

It may seem a little naive to us, but in general it is based on the laws of nature and is therefore true. If we actually acted in this way and brought ourselves closer to fulfilling these conditions, we would see the result.

Moreover, we must work not with the Arabs, but among ourselves. And as a result, they will have to change their attitude toward us. It depends not on them, but on us.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

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Unfounded Hatred

290Before the people of Israel begin any kind of rapprochement among themselves, they need to realize the reason and explore what forces are dividing them.

Baal HaSulam writes about narrow egoism based on hatred and the shameless use of one’s neighbor. It is narrow egoism that does not consider anything and wants to use everyone only for its own sake, which is our national quality and prevents us from uniting.

Question: Why is such hatred called unfounded?

Answer: Because it has no justification. The fact that nature encourages you to use your neighbor is understandable. But why does it act the way it does? Of course, you are not acting without a reason. You can always say: “I felt like that.”

Question: So unfounded hatred exists only among the Jews or among all nations as well?

Answer: Only among Jews.

Comment: But we see how people of other nations destroy each other with such hatred.

My Response: It does not matter. Let them eat each other if they want to, but there is still a reason for that. And with us it comes from above. The reason for our mutual rejection of each other is above the level of inanimate, vegetative, animate, and egoistic human nature. The Creator Himself, nature itself, arouses hatred in us so that we rise above it.

When we do not see any possibility of existing with our huge egoism, mutual hatred, and rejection, then we will rise above them.

Question: Is it like a game?

Answer: Of course, this is a game, to rise above yourself.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual states” 4/26/22

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Obtain the Land of Israel

933The fact of the matter is that the Creator delivered our holy land from the foreigners and has given it back to us, yet we have not received the land into our own authority, since the time of reception has not yet come, as we explained concerning the complete attainment (Baal HaSulam,“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”).

We must keep trying to correct ourselves. The time and opportunity will come when we will be able to do this and will treat each other as the people of Israel should—with love and mutual support for each other, completely unselfishly.

Then we will feel ourselves truly in a country that is called straight to the Creator (Yashar El)— Israel.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

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