Turning Kabbalah into Philosophy

Comment: German humanist Johann Reuchlin, in his book On the Art of Kabbalah writes: “Nevertheless, the superiority of Pythagoras did not come from the Greeks, but again from the Jews. After long wanderings, he brought home something worthy of admiration, and was the first to rename ‘Kabbalah’ into ‘Philosophy’—a Greek word previously unknown.”

There are many facts that confirm that the ancient Greeks learned from the sages of the First and Second Temples. You can tell that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle are permeated with their ideas.

My Response: Greek scholars did not hide it. Communication was quite easy in those days. Today, there are many civilizational barriers.

Although there seems to be a connection between modern universities; nevertheless, internal egoism repels one scientist from another. In ancient times, learning from each other was generally accepted. Therefore, many philosophers and scientists learned from the Jews during the time of the prophets, meaning in the time of the First Temple.

Comment: The Rabbi of Sochaczew wrote: “The Greek science of philosophy, derived from the writings of King Solomon, emerged after the destruction of the First Temple. However, these writings were corrupted with additions, omissions and replacements to such an extent that false knowledge got mixed into it. But, one way or another, the basis of the science is good although parts of evil got mixed in with it.”

The modern day Kabbalist of the 20th century Baal HaSulam similarly writes: “Sages of Kabbalah observe philosophical theology and complain that they have stolen the upper shell from their wisdom, which Plato and his Greek predecessors had acquired while studying with the disciples of the prophets in Israel. They have stolen basic elements from the wisdom of Israel and wore a cloak that is not their own.”

My Response: The truth is that the ancient Greeks acquired the general approach to cosmology from Kabbalah and proceeded to derive their own conclusions from it.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel, Part 6,” 7/8/19

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The Torah was then given specifically to qualify the Israeli nation, to qualify itself.

However, by this the Israeli nation was to be a “passage.” This means that to the extent that Israel cleanse themselves by observing the Torah, so they pass their power on to the rest of the nations. (Baal HaSulam, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”)

Question: Does it mean that the Torah was intended for all the nations?

Answer: Yes, and we are a passage for them. Our mission is to bring the Torah to this world.

Altruistic Communism is a rare thing for the human spirit. Hence, the nobler nation, namely the nation of Israel, must take upon itself to set an example to the world. It is so not because we are better qualified than all other nations, and not because we are more idealists than them, but because we have suffered from tyranny more than all other nations. (Baal HaSulam, “Building the Future Society”)

Question: So, does it mean that the Jews have a spiritual gene and that they are the first to implement this connection among themselves?

Answer: Yes. If they connect between themselves, then the upper force of unity, mutuality, and love will manifest among them. Then they will also be able to pass it to the nations of the world.

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. (Baal HaSulam, The Nation)

The Jewish people can exist only to the extent of their state of existing above egoism. Otherwise, they fall apart. The connection that binds them together is only manifested above egoism.

If this is not the case, then either other nations hold them together with their hatred so that they do not scatter like nuts in a bag, or they dissolve within other nations as the ten tribes once did.

Question: So, does the connection between Jews exist only because of external pressure?

Answer: Yes. Therefore, many thanks to the anti-Semites because of whom the Jewish people exist.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/22/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are some of the most mind-blowing facts about Israel?“

1. The word “Israel” stems from two words, “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God.”

2. The people of Israel first received their name as a group of people who gathered around Abraham around 3,800 years ago. Abraham taught them the method of how to love one another above the fierce social division running rampant in ancient Babylon, and by using the method of attaining the ability to love, they acquired the name “Israel” (“Yashar Kel” or “straight to the force of love, bestowal and connection,” which is synonymous to God).

3. The people of Israel had no biological connection to each other. They were originally a gathering of people from around ancient Babylon who felt that society was becoming increasingly divided. They wanted to understand why people were suffering so much, what is the meaning of life, and how people could unite above the social conflicts. After applying Abraham’s method, they received the name “the people of Israel.”

4. During the periods of the First and Second Temples, the people of Israel rose, fell, and then rose again in the attainment of love and unity above division. They prospered most when they experienced this spiritual form of unity. However, since the ruin of the Second Temple, they lost their attainment of the love and unity that glued them together above their divisiveness, and entered a period of exile and dispersion.

5. While in exile, the people of Israel have experienced many different forms of anti-Semitism. They have been blamed for murdering Jesus Christ, killing children and drinking their blood in the Middle Ages, causing the Black Death pandemic of the 14th century, killing Tsar Alexander II that ignited the pogroms of the Russian Empire against them, acting as internal traitors that led to Germany’s First World War defeat, and have been considered as money-and-power hungry conspirators who aim to rule the world.

6. As a Jewish state, despite the many contributions Israel brings to the world, including the Microsoft Windows operating system, the Pentium microprocessor, voice mail, biological pacemakers, cancer treatments using DNA nana-computation, stem-cell technology to regenerate heart tissue, pill-sized cameras for examining the small intestine, the first computerized diagnostic instrument for breast cancer detection, a heart pump synchronization device, as well as treatments for Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease, aircraft security systems, and ecologically, it was the only country in the world at the turn of the century that had more trees than in the previous century…

Israel endures heavy constant criticism.

Israel is treated as the world’s Jew.

In a modern context of globalized anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, Israel finds itself in a losing battle for a positive identity against multiple efforts aimed at its delegitimization and isolation: the application of international pressure in order to restrict its range of diplomatic and military response in the short term, and ultimately, to cripple it by delegitimizing its right to exist in the long term, stunting its ability to conduct diplomatic negotiations and act militarily.

The next three facts, however, are even more mindblowing…

7. The people of Israel experience increasing anti-Semitism, and many people feel the people of Israel as the root of their problems, due to their having once attained love and unity above division, and then having lost that sensation. Since the people of Israel were established not on biological connections, like other nations, but on an idea of love and unity above all differences, then their own division rippled throughout the world, and the many problems people feel stemming from their division, they instinctively blame on the people of Israel.

8. Since the people of Israel’s disunity and division are felt as a cause for myriad problems in the world, they also hold a method to attain unity. If they implement the method of connection, like how they once did in the days of ancient Babylon, where Abraham guided them to unite above division, then anti-Semitism will not only become eliminated—it would invert to a positive form of support and encouragement for a people who spread a positive sensation of love and unity throughout the world.

9. The people of Israel’s role in the world is thus to unite (“love your neighbor as yourself”) above division (“love will cover all transgressions”) in order to spread love and unity to the world (to be “a light unto the nations”).

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/29/20

Israel’s Independence Day often invokes reflections on the meaning of independence and whether we are truly independent. Evidently, we are not independent economically. In a globalized world, no country is independent, much less a country whose economy relies so heavily on export and import. Israel is also not independent in the military sense or in the diplomatic sense, since we are dependent on America’s support in both these aspects.

Yet, these three facets of our nationhood have never been the decisive factor in our being. Our strength was never in our economic, military, or diplomatic fortitude, but in our unity! The Jewish people formed when Abraham united people from all over the Fertile Crescent around the principle of love above all differences. The ancient Hebrews achieved independence from their innate hatred of each other and formed a nation that was based on love of others regardless of background, ethnicity, or faith. Only when Israel achieved this level of union and pledged to be “as one man with one heart” they were declared a nation. When Israel abandoned unity, they were exiled from the land of Israel.

Now that we are beginning our 73rd year of renewed sovereignty, I hope that this will be the year when we finally achieve true independence—from hating one another. Today, our very lives depend on this.

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Restoring the Spiritual Information Base

Remark: Russian Journalist Vasyli Shulgin in the book What We Don’t Like about Them wrote: “These people possessed a wide variety of abilities, great will, amazing endurance; their nature is characterized by great ability to work, an insatiable love of activity … But nevertheless, the Good Shepherds … in a word – into Spiritual Teachers, I would not take modern Jews. ”

My Comment: Naturally. After all, they completely fell from their spiritual level. In them, of course, the rudiments remained of the so-called Reshimo, informational genetic data, but they are not yet ready to be spiritual teachers.

Remark: So like all peoples, there are good and bad Jews, but the special thing that once was in them is missing today.

My Comment: This must be developed! The last exile almost completely erased the entire information base. It must be raised, developed, pulled out of them. It is very difficult to work with modern Jews.

Remark: As I understand, people with a special predisposition to rapprochement and proper communication between them were selected from all of humanity in order to then transfer the method of unification to all of humanity. And if they do not, then a law called anti-Semitism is included, which drives them to this action.

My Comment: This is a law of nature.

For more on this topic, read The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/15/19

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Ezra and Nehemiah: Restoring the Nation

Question: Upon returning to Judea, discord continued to surface among the people. At this time, two spiritual leaders appeared: Ezra and Nehemiah.

They took various measures to restore Jewish society, which had already begun to disintegrate, assimilate, and adopt the ethics of their neighbors. Therefore, mixed marriages were banned, instructions were given to abstain from work on the Sabbath (Saturday), and general education of the Torah was introduced, etc.

What is this about? Are these external laws somehow connected to the unity of the people? Surely we are talking about more internal things?

Answer: It speaks about preserving the people. It was necessary to create a society that would be guided by its principles, not the principles of the surrounding nations.

At that time, Jews were surrounded by fairly powerful nations: the Romans, Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians. In our time, these nations and regions fell into relative decline, but then, they were great civilizations that clashed, invaded each other, and competed among themselves. Therefore, the Jews were faced with a problem of how to create a framework for preserving the nation.

The institution of Cohens and Levites (priests) was re-established to train the teachers. This was prior to the construction of the Temple. This is how the education of the whole nation began. Children learned the laws by which their ancestors existed back in the time of Abraham and even Adam.

Question: Were these laws not observed before that?

Answer: They were observed, but gradually everything was forgotten, swept away by the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian captivity, etc. It was necessary to restore them again.

But the most important thing was the rebirth of closeness between the Jews. If any nation lived on their own were left without any authority, they would still know how to exist. But the Jewish people do not because the 70 roots of the ancient Babylonian nations that they come from began speaking through them. Therefore, a method of connection between the people had to be introduced. This is what Ezra and Nehemiah were doing.

Naturally, everything was no longer in the form that it was during Abraham or Moses, when he led the people through the desert from Egypt to Israel, or Joshua, when entering the Land of Israel. Everything was on a different, lower, more simplified level.

But still, they taught the people these very laws, literally from the very beginning, since the transmission of spiritual knowledge from generation to generation was disrupted due to Babylonian and Egyptian exiles.

Also, the nation that went into exile was no longer holy. There was discourse and fighting among them, they did not want to observe any social rules, even somewhat “loving your neighbor.” Thus, the exile occurred.

Therefore, they had to be educated all over again, which is what Ezra and Nehemiah did. This was a practical resurrection of the nation.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/8/19

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A Special Place on Earth

Comment: After Haman’s execution and unification of the Jewish people, the King of Persia Kir came to power. He gave the Jews of Persia an opportunity to move to the land of Israel and he supplied them with the means to build the Temple.

The land of Israel (Eretz Israel) seems to be a special place on Earth.

My Response: Indeed. But living in Israel is not easy. If people who live there, in any historical period, do not obey the laws of this land, meaning the laws of unity, “loving the neighbor,” helping each other out, then this land has a detrimental effect on them. They cannot live here in peace and continue to develop, and they feel a certain antagonism toward this place, and thus it seems to spew them out.

A long time ago this land was very fertile. If there is water and a correct attitude toward this land, it bears fruit. But everything depends on the people.

This is a special land, it senses the relationships between the people. And if they are not kind toward each other, the land is not kind toward them.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/8/19

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Fasting—Restriction Of The Egoism

Question: During the second Babylonian exile, the Persians conquered Babylon and created a vast Persian Empire. It is interesting to know what happened to the Jewish people there.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, #144, “There Is a Certain People”: “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.” Haman said that in his view, we will succeed in destroying the Jews because they are separated from one another; hence, our force against them will certainly prevail, as it causes separation between man and God. And the Creator will not help them anyway, since they are separated from Him.

Haman, the embodiment of the egoistic force, put everyone on their knees except Mordechai. Mordechai declared that he was Yehudi [Jewish], from the word Yichud [unity/union], meaning striving to unite with the Creator, and thus refused to obey Haman. Enraged, Haman decided to destroy all the Jews.

Then Queen Esther asks everyone to fast, and the Creator helps them and they win.

What is fasting? And how is it related to connection or separation?

Answer: Fasting is a certain rejection of all the values that people are used to in their lives. This is not the same as on the corporeal level: I am fasting today, so I am refusing to eat or drink.

Fasting means that everything that represents my life becomes absolutely prohibited for me. I see it as completely unnecessary, non-existent; I refuse everything I used to live by, all the values that I held high; I completely distance myself from my previous ideals. I re-evaluate my whole life.

During this time, I must transition to a completely new level of existence. If I were used to enjoying life and all it has to offer, now it is to the contrary, I immerse myself into internal scrutiny: Who am I, what is all this for, etc.? Meaning, I restrict my egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/8/19

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Assimilation Will Not Help

Question: After the Jews went into exile for 2,000 years, they repeatedly experienced four acts of the same play in a foreign land. At first, they caused prosperity in the country they settled in, then they faced hatred toward them from other peoples, then their physical destruction began, and as a result they were exiled.

Can it be said that this is a law?

Answer: Yes, it is a law. Even if they were not physically exiled, such as in Russia, they were still placed in such conditions that they had to leave. Even in our time.

Now it is brewing in America. Jews by no means want to leave there. They believe that this is their homeland and everything is fine there. But in the end, after the prime, which passed very quickly, hatred gradually manifests itself, and it will squeeze them out of the country.

It will not be exile, as it was in the Middle Ages in Portugal and Spain, and later in England, Germany, and France when the Jews had to free the whole territory within a week, but simply hatred.

Remark: Moreover, no matter how much Jews try to assimilate, there is still some kind of law that prevents them from doing this.

My Response: Even mixed marriages will not help. We will see it.
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From Kab TV’s “Systematic analysis of the development of the people of Israel,” 7/15/19

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Why are there 10 tribes of the people of Israel dispersed around the world?

Question: What can you say, as a Kabbalist, about the ten lost tribes that still cannot be found? What was the point of this? This is still a large part of the nation that has to reach unity.

Answer: Yes, of course. Only two and a half tribes remained, and the rest disappeared.

The fact is that this is a huge number of people who do not live somewhere in one or another place, but have settled around the globe. We see in the stories of the two remaining tribes how they went through all the paths of exile, mixing with other nations and all that. This is a very interesting historical process.

Question: There are three main areas where Jews settled during exile: North Africa, Spain, and Germany.

Why has nature done this in such a harsh method? If nature has a goal for all peoples to unite, and all of humanity to become one organism, then this could be done in a softer way.

Answer: Nature has its own logic: to choose some group from all of humanity.

Firstly, this group consists of representatives of all nations. This is not a biological people, like all the others, but simply people connected by one common goal: the desire to connect in order to reveal the upper force, a higher existence, to live in harmony with all of the integral nature. So, it was quite reasonable and quite justified.

Comment: Nature led the Jews to some kind of unity. Then the unity was lost, and nature (the Creator) dispersed them all over the world.

My Response: Everything was the way it should be. This was known even in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Torah hints at the fact that Jacob was supposed to tell his children about this, but hid it from them, meaning from the 12 tribes, their future.

And today, when we are almost at the end of the path, unity must be revealed. Why are ten tribes still hiding in other nations? We do not know. We cannot imagine what could happen to the world if this group, called the Jews, despite their small numbers, did not disperse around the world. We do not realize how much it is precisely the trigger and source of all problems, all actions, all of world history.

We see how much impact it has had on all of humanity. After the destruction of the First Temple in the 6th and 7th century BC, Confucianism and all Eastern methods appeared. And after the destruction of the Second Temple, Christianity and Islam arose.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel, Part 6,” 7/15/19

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