Entries in the 'Israel Today' Category

Mandatory Disclosure Of The Wisdom

From “Who Are You, People of Israel”

As the world groans under the pressure of two conflicting forces—the global force of connection and the separating power of the ego, we are falling into the state that existed in ancient Babylon prior to the dispersion. Alas, today we cannot draw apart and sedate our egos. Our only option is to work on our positive force that balances the negative power of our ego.

The people of Israel, descendants of the ancient Babylonians who followed Abraham, must implement the wisdom of connection, namely the wisdom of Kabbalah. They are required to set an example to the whole of humanity, and thus become a “Light for the nations.”

The Key to Happiness

The laws of Nature dictate that we will all achieve a state of unity. However, there are two ways we can come to that happy end: 1) a path of world suffering, wars, catastrophes, plagues, and natural disasters, or 2) a path of gradual balancing of the ego, the path that Abraham planted in his disciples. The latter is the one we suggest.

The complete text of the brochure is here
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Fate Has Brought Us Together And It Is Irreversible


Question: The military operation, “Protective Edge,” and all the events related to it evoked a special feeling of connection in the Israeli nation. The Israeli nation unites every time we encounter an emergency, but this time the connection that was felt was extraordinary and especially strong and unprecedented.

It affected everyone, including small children and the elderly. There is a picture of a tank covered with children’s drawings that were sent to the soldiers. Strangers visited the wounded soldiers, helped their families, and sent packages to the front. There has never been an expression of mutual help on such a scale. What is the special feeling that awakened in the Israeli nation during this war?

Answer: There is a special concealed force in the Israeli nation, and I have even seen references to it in books and movies by directors who are not Israeli. There is a certain preparation for self-sacrifice in the Jewish people. It can be expressed in their attitude to science, to a particular profession, or to a certain matter. A person feels that he must devote himself totally to a certain idea. Although this phenomenon exists in every nation, it is still expressed more uniquely among the Jews. They express their loyalty, their connection, to the extent of self-sacrifice whenever they have an opportunity to do so.

A person doesn’t look for any reward and doesn’t care whether others know about his actions, talks about him, or remembers him as a hero. The readiness for self-sacrifice that stems from the history of the Jewish people suddenly awakens in a person.

We were connected in the past in the days of the First and Second Temples (which symbolize a whole vessel, one soul). This connection created a very deep, eternal connection that nourishes and fills us to this day. It invokes in us the special feeling between the individual and the nation of Israel, even if he were to do everything in his power to detach himself from the entire nation and escape to a remote place at the ends of the earth so that no one would know that he is a Jew, so that he would forget it and be like everyone else. However, he cannot do that since the connections between us are above this world and are on the level of the upper world. Thus, a person cannot cease to be Jewish, even if he may want to.

This connection is expressed even after several generations when the person, himself, doesn’t know that he is Jewish. I have met many such people. Especially in Spain and Portugal, I often meet people who claim they are not Jewish by birth, but that they feel they belong to the Jewish nation. They are the descendants of the converts who were forced to give up the Jewish religion under the threat of the expulsion from Spain, but the connection to the Jewish people still lives inside them.

It is a natural phenomenon that stems from the system of reality. The connection was gradually created on a very high spiritual level when everyone was connected in the state of one man in one heart, in one soul. The connection imprinted within us a special spiritual gene on a higher level than we are today, on the human level.

Therefore, we cannot break this connection because it is unchangeable, but only can be reconstructed. Thus, we wake up today as a result of different problems and troubles and return to the state of the internal connection.

There is no choice. We are connected, and fate, the Creator, awakens us. We have had enough pressures on the corporeal level—where we live on the animate level—and the feeling of the presence of the human level immediately awakens in us on a different, higher level. This is the level we were during the connection and  to which we can now return.

This internal connection exists among all the Jews and even in all the lost tribes of the time of the First Temple. There are many people in the world who belong to those lost tribes. The bodies are not reincarnated, but the soul remains the same soul. There is the same connection between us that is concealed, most internal, eternal, spiritual, and most sublime.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/12/14

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A New Pharaoh With The Name “Hamas” Is Unnecessary

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There is a sensation of the existence of a deep inner connection within the people of Israel that is awakened every time there is an external threat.

Answer: When they press on us from a physical level, we begin to feel an inner connection on a higher level. It could be said that this connection is awakened, yet more precisely, we become more sensitive to it.

I live my life: home, family, work, and suddenly tension is created in this life— troubles, problems, or war. As a result of this I want to be less connected to this stratum of life, less involved with physicality. I want to rise above it and become further away from the problems.

This helps me to feel the regular physical level less and become more sensitive to a higher level of life where we were once connected together as one soul. In the past we already used this principle, being like one person with one heart, we lived as one people, as one soul, with one desire, with one intention and goal, mutual Arvut.

Each one understood what he was living for, according to the principle, “don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you,” and “you shall love your friend as yourself,” “all of Israel are friends.” Unity and Arvut permeated the people. This state existed and was recorded in our genes, even though it did not continue for a long time. So in our root we belong to this level. The moment that things are bad for us on a physical level, we become more sensitive to the spiritual level.

The spiritual level is always found in us, and in difficult moments its sensation is awakened immediately. So we are ready to help the soldiers and also one another. We do this not only because we feel as brothers in times of trouble and connect on a physical level like animals that are saved from a forest fire, but also for higher reasons.

Our mutual cooperation is derived from spiritual roots, meaning that we belong to a single root. A connection like this doesn’t exist in this world. It makes it possible to feel one another so much so that it is not given to find differences in this mutual connection, in the collective heart. This is what is called being “like one person with one heart.”

We have to return to this state “like one person with one heart.” And don’t allow this process to advance by way of the plagues of Egypt, as it did in the past. These plagues brought the children of Israel closer to unification; as it is said, Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator. However now it is up to us to advance towards unity with our own powers— there is no need for war, for a new Pharaoh with the name “Hamas” and additional enemies who attack us from all directions.

Instead, it is up to us to develop within us a sensation of the importance of that state when we were together, and to want to attain it in the best way and not through blows. Come, let’s begin to talk about it, nurture it, publicize it, so that unification will become something desirable to us; then we won’t need any negative external influence and we will advance in the best way.

Spiritual connection is always found among us only it is concealed behind daily concerns. However we can awaken this connection not only during times of war, but in ordinary life also. Then our daily lives will become more spiritual and directed towards a loftier goal. It is possible to use daily life to constantly renew and revive the inner connection more and more.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/12/14

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The Unity Gene That Has Awakened

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Israeli nation has been through many wars and always had a difficult time lifting the spirit, but why is there a special feeling of connection revealed in this war that cannot be compared to anything else?

Answer: We are advancing together with all of humanity to a state called a global system. It obliges all of us to connect in harmony into one closed system since all of nature exists according to this principle.

The upper force of nature is one and unique, and there is nothing other than that. Humanity must exist in a system that is similar to the upper system and that is compatible to it. The further we are from the limits of connection and unity, from cooperation and mutual connection, the more blows we receive.

We must realize that the blows we have received are intentional and that there is a reason for them. They are meant to teach us that connection is a good thing, while separation and detachment are bad, and that it is worthwhile to connect to one another mentally in order to connect to this one system consciously and of our own free will. We will reach it not under pressure and blows, but because we want to be connected since we appreciate bestowal and mutual connection.

Love of others is not a formal law that we must follow, and it is not some foreign domination that pressures us and forces us to obey it. We have to reach a state in which we will begin to appreciate and understand by ourselves that it is much more sublime than our current nature, how good and wonderful it is when there is mutual cooperation, connection, support and mutual help between us.

Although our egoist nature detests it, this oppositeness actually helps us clarify exactly which attribute is more important and sublime, and more humane, and to prefer bestowal over receiving, love over hate, and connection and unity over separation.

The faster we discover this inclination of nature to bestowal, the better off we will be. Therefore, we find ourselves now in a global crisis that is meant to show us how far away we are from mutual harmony and to what extent we are responsible for it as human beings in facing all of nature.

Today, even astrophysicists say that human thought causes explosions in distant stars in the depth of the universe. They feel it as a result of their research which makes them sensitive to what happens in space.

Man is the crown of creation, and it is in his power to bring all the parts of nature—including still, vegetative, animate, and human nature—either to connection or to separation. If nature aspires to connect all its separated parts, we humans must think about that and aspire in the same direction.

If we aspired even a little in the direction of unity, we could awaken the concealed spiritual genes that are in us from the time we existed as one man. Then, we could annul all the obstacles and the blows. There would be no need for them in our advancement to connection since they come only for one reason: to awaken the root of the comprehensive unity in us and to force us to fulfill it.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/12/14

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Kabbalah For All

Only through love can we succeed, or as The Book of Zohar puts it, “Everything stands on love” (Portion, VaEtchanan), since “love your neighbor as yourself” is the great rule of the Torah, as Rabbi Akiva asserts. This is the essence of the change that the wisdom of Kabbalah is offering to humanity. The result of proper connections and unity among us will be the revelation of the positive force, and complete disappearance of all problems.

In his essay, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Kabbalist, Rav Yehuda Ashlag writes, “It is written in The Zohar: ‘With this composition [The Book of Zohar], the children of Israel will be redeemed from exile.’ Also, in many other places, [it is written that] only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption.”

Our organization has set for itself the goal of following the footsteps of the great Kabbalists and disclosing the method of connection to the entire world. We have branches in 64 countries, and more than two million students worldwide. These students have but one hope: to achieve unity the right way.

The complete text of the brochure is here
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The Decline Of Babylon, Part 5

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, the linear process of egoistic resettlement is over, and we are again placed in a contemporary type of Babylon because of the global network embraces the whole earth. Babylon has expanded to the entire world.

The overall egoism that governs everybody is in fact the current Nimrod. At this time, all we need is for Abraham to come and announce to us: “There is the way out!” Today, everybody experiences tremendous fear because we can destroy each other just to eat. The main human problem is hopelessness: people hate the mere fact of their existence.

Comment: But previously, in Abraham’s time, there were only five thousand people who listened to and followed him.

Answer: Those were the ones who felt hopeless and at the same time strived to find purpose in life. Today, this aspiration has surfaced ​in our consciousness and many of us can already feel and recognize it. It is no accident that depression is one of the most widespread diseases in the world.

Nevertheless, Abraham doesn’t show up today because all the people of Israel have to act as Abraham. Originally, Abraham’s group set an example to the whole of  humanity: “Here is what we can achieve.” Today, Abraham’s group demonstrates a very negative example in the inability of the Jews to work as a good model to the world and this triggers humanity’s hatred towards them. This is the root of anti-Semitism.

People subconsciously hate the Jews because they sense that they have to bring them joy, happiness, deliverance, and show them the way out. “We have to receive something good from them, but instead, they bring us affliction, disasters, and squalor.”

For many, the destruction of Israel at a purely egoistic, primitive level seems like a solution: “No Jews, no evil.”

In fact, the evil descends to the nations of the world through the Jews. They are not wicked, but they “transmit” wickedness, even though they don’t know it.

By blaming the Jews, the nations of the world acknowledge that they depend on them and that their lives are influenced by Abraham’s group. So, it proves that this small nation is stronger than the rest of the population of seven billion people. If the Jews manage to transition from a minus to a plus, humanity will receive the potion of life through them.

Question: Could you please explain the reason that nobody likes the Jew?

Answer: People have to know how to use this force. Their attitude towards the Jews is instinctive and naturally awakens them. That’s why even nations that have nothing to do with the Jews still hate them.

We have to explain these issues to the people of Israel and to the nations of the world in order to initiate a unified system that will eventually bring us to a state of order.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14

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Why Are The Jews Hated?

From “The Only Way Out”

It is useless and futile to talk about who, how, and why Israel and the Jews are hated, and everyone is already fed up with this question. The answers to these questions don’t solve the problem since they don’t answer the main question: “What is the reason for the hatred people feel towards the Jews?” Many anti-Semites and Jews look for and find endless reasons for this centuries-old hatred .

In fact, the opposite is true.; there aren’t reasons that lead to hatred but it is the eternal hatred of Jews throughout the ages that depicts the hundreds of “objective” reasons.

It is time to acknowledge the fact that the actual existence of the Jewish nation under the ages of persecution is not just a random phenomenon, but a natural phenomenon that is similar to the force of gravity or the changing of the seasons. We can relate to the Jews any way we like, but the actual fact that they receive such special treatment indicates that it is a unique phenomenon.

Let’s ask ourselves: What is the uniqueness of the Jews? Is it the fact that there are so many Nobel Prize winners among them, or musicians and bankers? Yes, the Jews are known for their accomplishments in these areas and there is no argument about that, but bankers and Nobel Prize winners and even chess players aren’t the only Jews. It turns out that the main Jewish secret is concealed somewhere else.
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Split Of The Community: Who Is To Blame?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why in relation to the recent developments in Israel, did the Jewish-American community become divided into two parts? Why do most influential Jewish individuals and organizations take an active anti-Israel stance?

Answer: The same thing happened in Nazi Germany. Jews living in other countries are trying to hide behind the alleged anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist policy. It has been this way at all times.

But it will not help them because the attitude not even towards Israel, but just towards Jews stems from anti-Semitism, and not from anti-Israel sentiments, not because someone is “for” or “against” the Arabs—it does not matter. The Jews will be always blamed even if they themselves take a clear anti-Israel stance. At the same time, nothing will help us but to show ourselves and to give the world the method of correct existence that it is waiting for.

Question: Why is what is allowed for any country in the world not allowed for Israel?

Answer: Of course! According to statistics, over the past few years about forty million people were killed in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Libya, and Lebanon. But no one talks about it, raises the issue, or pays attention.

It is not about who is fighting whom, but the fact that the Jews who are supposed to bring the Light to the world are not doing so. Anti-Semites say: “You are the cause of all the suffering in the world.” So, it is not the Arabs because this was talked about before the establishment of Israel, before the war. In fact, this feeling is within a person who feels that he depends on our nation.

We need to understand them. Kabbalah speaks about this seriously, openly, because in a very short time we can completely change the attitude of the world towards us. We have no other choice.
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The Roots of Anti-Semitism

From “Who Are You, People of Israel?”

After thousands of years of exerting to build a successful human society using Nimrod’s method, the nations of the world are giving up. Moreover, they understand that the solution to their problems is neither technological, nor economic or militaristic. Subconsciously, they feel that the solution lies in unity, that the method of connection exists in the people of Israel, and therefore recognize that they are dependent on the Jews. This causes them to blame the Jews because they possess the key to the world’s happiness.

Indeed, when the Israeli nation fell from its moral height of love of others, hatred of Israel among the nations commenced. And thus, through anti-Semitism, the nations of the world prod us to disclose the method of connection. Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, pointed to that fact with his words, “Amalek, Hitler, and so forth, awaken us toward redemption” (Essays of the Raiah, Vol. 1).

But the people of Israel are unaware that it is holding the key to the world’s happiness, and that the very source of anti-Semitism is that the Jews are carrying within them the method of connection, the key to happiness, the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The complete text is here
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Back To The Present

From “Who Are You, People of Israel”

These days, humanity is approaching a very similar state to that of ancient Babylon, a state of mutual dependence, on the one hand, and mutual hatred and alienation on the other hand. And because we are completely interdependent in our “global village,” Nimrod’s method of drawing apart is no longer feasible.

To achieve balance we are now required to use Abraham’s method; this is why it is the nation of Israel that must lead the healing of the pains of human society. Unless we, the Jewish people, do it of our own volition, the nations of the world will coerce us to do it, by force. On that note, it is interesting to read the words of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford motor company, and a notorious anti-Semite, in his book, The International Jew—The World’s Foremost Problem: “Society has a large claim against him [the Jew] that he … begin to fulfill … the ancient prophecy that through him all the nations of the earth should be blessed.”

The complete text of the brochure is here.
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