I am a son of Holocaust survivors who were among the few of the Laitman family who survived the Holocaust. Two thirds of my relatives were slaughtered in the death camps. I was born in 1946 and was raised under the dark shadow that the war left on my family and on the Jewish population in all of Eastern Europe.

For me the Holocaust isn’t some distant memory, but a painful reminder of what might happen to us. It is this thought that brings up the constant troubling question in me: How can we prevent another Holocaust?

I feel an ocean of hatred closing in on us. The external signs have never been clearer and international reports indicate an upsurge in anti-Semitism. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a question was brought up on the BBC as to whether the time has come to cease talking about the Holocaust, and about a month ago, there was supposed to be a scientific convention in England about the legitimacy of the State of Israel. If this is not enough, an agreement regarding the use of nuclear weapon has recently been signed with Iran, which is more evidence as to why we must not rely on our allies.

It is hard to ignore the clear warning signals as to what is expected. So how can we prevent another Holocaust? In addition to lamenting about the past, we must make room for close scrutiny, examination, and the correction of our current state. We live in a closed system of forces that operate according to the law of connection. When we are compatible with that law, we feel good, and when we are divided and separated, this system, like any other system in nature, forces us to balance ourselves. Sometimes correcting this direction can involve great suffering.

I am aware of how difficult it may be for Holocaust survivors and their families to read what I say, but still the truth must be said. The Holocaust took place because the Israeli nation didn’t keep the law of connection. Why us? Because we have a special responsibility to keep this law. We have a role that was given to us back in the days of Abraham. When egoism tore the people of ancient Babylon apart, our forefather discovered the law that governs our reality, which is the law of connection. The few that learned the method of connection from him became the nation of Israel.

Keeping the law of connection is our life’s goal, and passing on the method of connection and unity is the only justification for our existence as a nation. At the beginning of the 20^th century we received an opportunity to return to the land of Israel, not in order to build a home for the Jewish people, but in order to connect within it. The Jews didn’t take this opportunity and preferred to isolate themselves in their communities in Europe or to integrate within general society. The reaction of the upper system to these actions was the Holocaust. A moment before the world drowned in blood, Kabbalists still cried out that we had to return to our land and unite, but the Jews didn’t listen. Instead of willingly moving closer, the terrible afflictions of the Holocaust brought us closer to one another, and it was as a result of the Holocaust that we received a country.

With all due respect to the United Nations, the real mandate for the existence of this country is our role. The county we received, as Kabbalists say, is only an opportunity to keep the law of connection, which is exactly what the world demands of us. Subconsciously, the world wants us to unite and to also pass Abraham’s method on to them. But we refuse to connect, and this is the source of the hatred they feel towards us.

Holocaust Remembrance Day and Independence Day have to become days in which we all engage in our role as a nation, and they must also be days of reexamining the essence of our existence. During these days, we have to gather in tens of thousands of roundtables throughout the country and talk about the only way of being truly independent—independent of our ego and connected to one another through love of others. This is the only way we can secure our future and our children’s future.
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Question: Can we say that the whole Israeli nation will undergo the state of the darkness of Egypt, as dark clouds are building up around us and things are getting very tense. Is this the approaching night?

Answer: Of course. Otherwise it is impossible because we have to build the quality of bestowal, which starts with a desire and the desire for it can appear only in a state of night. We must remember that.

Night, sufferings, detachment, weakness, and disappointments are part of our way. We need to collect them all and yearn to advance; otherwise, we will not feel the day. In the Torah there is no day or night. The moment we process everything, we sense the night correctly, we will begin to feel the Light instead.

After all, what do we feel as day? The attitude of love and bestowal unto others. Now, however, we feel it as night, as darkness. It is only the change in our attitude towards darkness that will invoke the feeling of Light instead of darkness.

We don’t move from one sphere of the globe to the other side where the sun shines and fills everything with light. No, we process our negative impressions of bestowal, love, and mutual help internally into a positive attitude, and then night turns into day.

Everything takes place inside us, in our attitude towards these values. There can be nothing else. We always start from night, because the attribute of bestowal is night for us.

When we correct our negative feelings and impressions and change them, we feel Light and day in the opposite state. We are the ones who determine internally what is night and what is day.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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Question: Is it really possible to unite in a way that others become more important to me than myself, if a person always thinks about himself first?

Answer: A person has to rise to a level where he thinks about others first.

Question: Why does the Creator give us impossible missions? First He gives us an egoistic nature, then demands for us to attain love for the neighbor as for yourself, and when we can’t do it, he sends us the Holocaust?

Answer: Did we really try it and fail? We did’t even try to do it. If we start trying to unite, we will see how the Creator will come and fight the battle for us.

We aren’t required to do anything other than make efforts to reach unity. It’s clear that we don’t have the desire, forces or understanding to do this. But we only have to start making efforts, like a baby taking his first steps.

These efforts are the only thing required of us. They are enough, and the Creator will do the rest. The upper law operating in the universe will finish this work for us.

Throughout all the generations, the nation of Israel was persecuted by others. In this way, we are being pushed toward correction, unity, and love for the neighbor as for ourselves. When others become closer to us than ourselves, we thus create an integral connection in which all of humanity is connected into one sphere. Everyone is united and depends on everyone. No one is more or less important; everyone is absolutely equal. That is when we will reveal a new world.

Today we see the world through the eyes of our egoism, assessing how much we can use it for our own benefit. But if we attain unity, we will see a perfect, boundless reality, which is beyond our egoism, beyond the interest to profit or the fear of losing. This will be life in the eternal ad perfect world—a life of paradise.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/12/2015

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Question: Is the European group of Bnei Baruch also to blame if the world experiences a disaster because of a lack of connection within Israel?

Answer: Today, everyone is responsible for this, meaning each one who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah and feels a connection inside Israel. When I refer to Israel, I am referring to all of our friends and groups all over the world.

All of us have received an awakening from the Creator, just as the group of Abraham received it in ancient Babylon. And so we are found today in the same situation of Israel (Yashar-El – straight to the Creator).

It is not important that one received an awakening 3,500 years ago in Babylon, came with it to this day, and another received this awakening in South America only a few months or years ago. According to the spiritual world, there is no meaning to these physical years.

All of us are already related to Yashar-El , directly connected to the Creator, and so must convey the Light through us to the world. If we do this, it will be good; and if not, it will be very bad. I hope that we will succeed.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/14, Chosen Topics on: Holocaust Memorial Day

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Question: The modern Israeli society suffers from divisiveness. People feel that they are strangers to each other, really to the point of loathing and hatred. Sometimes, you simply want someone to disappear, board an airplane with your family and depart forever.

Answer: This is what we felt at the time of the Egyptian exile. This is the slavery when the ego dominates us, “plays” with us more strictly, and creates relationships like these among us.

As a result, we find ourselves in a position where we simply have no where to go. Today, some still think that they can flee somewhere to another country, but nothing will help.

Question: So, Israel will become a boiling pressure cooker in which people are locked up, totally unable to tolerate each other?

Answer: Right, that is how it was in the past and it is what will also happen in the future. There will be no other choice for us besides attaining unity. In addition, being unable to find the exit, we will agree that unity is possible only above the hatred.

A Bridge Above The Abyss

Question: The chasms that divide the people have taken shape and crystallized for years. Today the impression is that it is impossible to build bridges over them. Is it possible to forget all of the differences and insults? Is it possible to take control over the negative potential?

Answer: It is possible. I don’t ask you who and what you are, to what community or party you belong. It’s nothing like that. I know only one thing: I am with you, we are with everyone, we need to be together, and this is what I am going on. Certainly, we are different, opposed. We even hate each other. All of this is completely unimportant. Rather, what is important is only one thing: We must begin to connect and unite between us.

We demonstrate this connection and unity through workshops where we sit very different people, strangers, reflecting the entire social spectrum. Let’s take one representative from each party, sit them down together and arrange a workshop and you will see that even in such a mixed composition, they will suddenly discover ways of connecting. They would discover this on condition: that no one tramples on the others and foments his hatred in this ground. On the contrary, each is ready to unite and connect with the others above all the previous thoughts and desires.

So, we actually realize this, and in the center of the circle some kind of new force is revealed, warmth, mutual understanding, an ability to support and maintain a mutual connection. This is the second fundamental force latent in nature itself, the power of love. It is not the love that breaks out between a man and woman, but the same force that penetrates through interpersonal relationships.

Steps Forward

Today, we are in the dimension of hatred and egoism. I do not tolerate others; I always search for superiority above them and want to see them below me, under my control.

But, it is impossible to continue this way. We have reached a point in our development where egoism is devouring us from within. It won’t let us live as before, neither the people of Israel nor humanity as a whole. So, for the first time in history, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed to the world. Its function is to teach us how, under new conditions and in spite of the opposition, we can hold and maintain a good, mutual connection.

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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/22/15

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Question: The Pesach Haggadah, the story of exiting from Egypt begins with the words: “We were slaves in Egypt…”

Answer: We still are slaves, but we don’t realize it. We consider ourselves a free nation living in the “land of Israel,” but it is not the “land of Israel.” It is not even Egypt yet. “Egypt” means that we acknowledge the Pharaoh’s authority over us. However, we think differently.

Look what’s going on! What kind of game our ego plays with the people of Israel! We are submerged in endless arguments, quarrels… We are completely immersed in all sorts of problems. Our government and the entire country are split into numerous fragments. We are almost facing a civil war!

We are very far from Pesach! We still are in the deepest and darkest Egyptian slavery of the seven “years of hunger.” We don’t realize that it is our ego that governs us, plays with us, and pits us against each other.

Pesach is about a decision to run away from slavery, to exit from the power of egoism, from the state in which we “gobble” each other up, as it is said, “And the children of Israel cried out from the work…”

Question: Are we slaves today?

Answer: No, we are not, since “a slave” means that one feels one’s slavery and realizes one’s dependence on one’s evil nature. We admit that we hate our neighbor and that we are compelled to argue and fight with each other. We don’t know where this desire comes from. It rises from the inside and we don’t even acknowledge it, nor do we feel that the force that governs us is alien to us. We think it is we who choose to behave this way.

Many people do bad things, but do not consider them wrong. However, there are people who acknowledge: “I am tired of my wickedness! I don’t know what to do with this body of mine, with my nature, nerves, moods… I look at others and want to ravage them. I love neither my wife, nor my family. I want to abandon this world. Let it burn completely. I have no idea where to run away from this life! I wouldn’t mind living on a desert island.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that human nature was created evil on purpose so that we come to the realization of its wickedness. First of all, we don’t feel that we are evil. We think it is natural for humans to be wicked. Then, we gradually learn to differentiate between ourselves and our nature and realize that we are built of two powers—“us” and our opposition, the evil inclination called “the Pharaoh.”

At this point, we regard the Pharaoh as the evil inclination that dwells in us, and think: “Maybe I should try to avoid its power? Let me try treating everybody well. It doesn’t matter what my attempts will end up with, but I still want to learn how to control myself!” The Pharaoh constantly turns off our “dual vision” that is set to differentiate between “us” and “him.” He makes us treat others in a bad way.

Eventually, we will come to understand that the Pharaoh is an evil and hostile power that took us over in order to make us acknowledge that it is an alien to us, thus bringing us to a desire to run away from it. It is not in our power to fight it, but we are able to detach from it. The detachment from the evil power is called the “escape from Egypt.” The evil stays intact; it is us who stop associating ourselves with it.

The evil is still inside us, somewhere in the deepest layers of us, but we don’t allow it to “jump” out; we suppress it and detach from it. Detachment from the evil by rising above it is called “exiting Egypt, an escape from the power of the Pharaoh.” At this point, we reach redemption. We are not yet a free people in the free land. We haven’t transitioned from slavery to liberty yet. We just ran away from slavery, but haven’t yet attained freedom.

At this point, we desperately need to detach from the Pharaoh. This state is called “Pesach.” We start correcting the properties associated with Egypt and the Pharaoh. We don’t have another nature. All we have is the evil inclination that we must correct and turn it into benevolence. In order to achieve this state after exiting from Egypt, we need a special power that allows us to make clarifications on our self-correction. This period is called “counting down the days of Omer.”

In Egypt, there was plenty of bread for us. During the first week after we exited Egypt we ate “frugal bread” called “matza.” Later, we returned to regular bread. This period is called “counting down the days of Omer. “Omer” is a sheaf of grains.

We check our wicked desires, all 49 of them. These desires are called “Sefirot.” Seven Sefirot or seven parts of our desire are called “Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.” Each of them splits into 7 parts. That’s why we have 7 X 7 = 49 different desires that we are ready to correct.

We “abandoned” these desires at the time of our exodus from Egypt, i.e., we stopped using them. Now, we start testing them again. We check each desire and evaluate whether we used them to hurt others, slander, fight, etc. We should find a way of using the same desires to benefit others.

We should transition from the evil to the good inclination in each of our desires. We have to do an “inventory” of our wickedness. We must find a way of using our desires for benevolent purposes.

So far, it is not yet about detaching from our prior state. During Pesach night, we run away and hide from all desires. We check them and try to understand what our desires look like now. We contemplate them from a new level already being “out of Egypt” and away from the power of the Pharaoh.

We look at our desires and become terrified that we previously had them. However, now we have already distanced them away from us; we do not consider them ours any more. We identify ourselves with the point that exited from Egypt and is outside of any egoistic desire.

At this time, from a new “height” we check each desire, one by one, all 49 of them. It is called “49 days of the Omer count” since from the new level that we have just achieved, we start counting and testing all of our desires and see if we are able to alter them and use them for good purposes instead of the wicked ones as we did before.

It is possible because of the Pharaoh who reveals our wickedness to us. Now, we can gradually turn the evil into the good. 49 days of the Omer count is the preparation for the 50^th day that is called “Shavuot”—the Giving of the Torah.

On one hand, it is called “Shavuot” because we counted all of our desires and made an “inventory” of them, on the other hand, it is called “The Giving of the Torah” since we receive the Light that Reforms.” The Creator said: “I created the evil inclination and made the Torah as a spice for it.”

At this time, we clearly see the evil since we made an inventory of our desires. Now, we need a special Light, a specific force, called “the Torah” that will help us use our desires one after another and all of them together for the sake of bestowal and benevolence of others since the major law of the Torah is “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the level we eventually will attain.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/24/15

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Question: The Jewish nation has gone through a special transformation, the transition from slavery to freedom, to which the feast of Pesach (Passover) is dedicated. What is the meaning of this transformation?

Answer: The meaning of liberation from slavery is acquiring the power of love due to exiting from one’s egoism. We are under the control of the system that advances us, especially given under the power of our egoism, which is called Pharaoh.

First, we feel good in this bondage, but then realize that we are in exile and are slaves to the egoism that rules over us absolutely. We do not agree with this authority and wish to escape from it, from the bad attitudes towards each other, because we see that in this form, it is impossible to move on and exist.

After many failed attempts, we become convinced that nothing can be done and only a miracle can save us. Indeed, egoism is killing us to the extent that we do not see success in anything in our lives in any way. In this way, Pharaoh’s rule between us is manifested.

That is the situation we see today in Israel. There are 23 political parties in a little country, huge gaps between different layers of the population, crisis in the education system, an increasing divorce rate, and growing use of drugs. Half of the citizens would be willing to move to another country if given the chance.

Our unkind attitude to each other can be seen from the behavior on the roads and elsewhere. We are divided by indifference to others and pride. Egoism reigns within us and makes us act in this way. It is not our fault, but it is our nature that plays with us.

One must realize that our nature is the evil inclination, which enslaves us. If we do not get out of it, then our lives will be over and we will not leave behind anything good for our children. Life will become worse and they will not have even those crumbs of happiness that we once had.

This is slavery, and the Passover Haggadah tells us how to escape it to reach freedom. But above all, we need to understand that we are in slavery. After all, while you see yourself in the darkness of egoism that separates us through mutual hatred, it is impossible to understand the reality of freedom from this angel of death.

We have to desire to become a free people in our own country, independent of our desire. We need to wish to achieve love, connection, mutual guarantee, and unity between everyone above our egoistic nature.

The people of Israel once escaped its egoism and rose to a height of unity and love, which is called the building of the Temple. But then we were not able to remain at that height and fell from it.

Rabbi Akiva taught that you cannot leave the principle of love for others as oneself; otherwise, we will again fall back to unfounded hatred. Egypt is the state of causeless hatred between us. After the destruction of the Second Temple 2,000 year ago, we returned to this state of hatred, which is called Egypt.

After thousands of years of living in unity and connection, the Jewish people again went to Egypt, to unfounded hatred. But today the whole world must realize that we are in Egypt.

Once, a small group led by Abraham left Babylon and became united into the people of Israel. But then it went back to Babylon and mingled with all the Babylonians. Today, we again find ourselves facing the same Tower of Babel and are confronted with hatred towards each other and the unwillingness to know and understand others. This is called a confusion of the tongues.

Once again, we have to make the same action as was once performed in ancient Babylon. It is said that acts of the fathers are an example for their sons. Today, we once more need to exit from Egypt, but this will be the last exile before the final liberation.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/22/15

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Question: The celebration of Passover is a special opportunity to learn something new about oneself, about our people, about our society, and make a qualitative change in our relationships to each other.

Rav Kook wrote that if the people of Israel once had not made this transition from slavery to freedom, the whole world would have never been able to make such a change. Is it true that the people of Israel affect the whole world so much?

Answer: The people of Israel are a special group of people that were selected from the entire world and came out from ancient Babylon in order to unite.

Today, the whole world is in the same mutual hatred, which once was revealed only between the Jews during the destruction of the Temple. Due to this hatred, Jews fell from the height of unity to the level of this world, and that means going into exile.

Today, the Jewish people are mixed with the entire world, and we all are in the same state, which is called Egypt or the slavery of mutual hatred.

Since the Jews have already exited this slavery, we have memories, the genes (Reshimot) of that previous state. This is why we must lead everyone else in exiting this terrible state the whole of humanity exists in now and in setting an example to everyone, meaning, being “a light to the nations of the world.”

Now this task is for the people of Israel who are living in the land of Israel. This is why we were able to come back here. We must realize our mission for the benefit of the whole world. After all, the purpose of creation is that all of humanity become one people, one family, as it is written in the Prophets.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/22/15

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We have a means that can help the whole world. When we come out of Egypt, from loathing and mutual hatred, we will see that the true human mutual connection solves all the problems.

Therefore today, Abraham’s method is needed everywhere. It is the present need and if we, the Israeli nation, do not fulfill and present it to humanity, the pressure that is put on us will grow. It is because the world subconsciously feels that we are hiding the key to happiness from it.

But if we do what we have to do and set a good example, the world will receive it with gratitude and respect. On the whole, this is exactly what the world expects of us.

I wish a holiday of unity and connection to all my friends!
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Not long ago we celebrated Purim and now the Pesach holiday is already approaching. All of the holidays of the people of Israel symbolize the joining and connection that must exist between us; they are just indicated on its different levels, its different intensity.

The strongest link in the entire history of Israel is attained on Purim. And the first time we reach connection between us is on Pesach, the holiday of freedom from slavery in Egypt.

Freedom is known as liberation from our ego, from unfounded hatred towards others, from rejection, from those ugly attitudes that are discovered among us when we cut each other off on the street or in any other instance where our interests collide.

When we succeed in reigning in our bad nature and attain oneness, we discover that we can correct our entire lives. We can lower the price of apartments and of food, get along in familial relationships, transform our cities into clean ones, and stop violence in our schools.

This is called the exodus from Egypt, the exodus from exile. We drown in our ego and don’t want to hear anything more. But, suddenly we understand that it is possible to build good relationships between us, to come closer. Not only is this possible, but simply necessary, because it is impossible to continue like this anymore.

Before the last election, all the parties promised to take care of our lives in all areas. But in fact, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, nobody will succeed in this unless he rises above all the differences and we all become connected above them. It is written in Proverbs 10:12: …love covereth all transgressions. As we begin to unite, without paying attention to personal benefit, then this new form of unity will begin to influence our lives.

The Pesach holiday and the story of the exodus from Egypt are metaphors that indicate the departure from the egoistic attitudes between people and the formation of higher attitudes. This is freedom from our inner Pharaoh, from the ego that dominates us. If we go out from under its control and can love others, this is called freedom, redemption. And after the exodus from Egypt and wandering in the desert, the people of Israel reach Mount Sinai and receive the Torah. They are asked if they are ready to become like one person with one heart, to live in Arvut (mutual guarantee), in oneness, in “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” This is called salvation, for within our connection and unity we discover a unique force that is hidden in nature.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/15/15

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