Entries in the 'Kabbalah Dissemination' Category

The Illogical Foundation

Dr. Michael LaitmanThanks to their energy and ingenuity, the Jewish people are always found in the first ranks of social and technological development, seemingly showing the world in which direction to go. But in the meantime, the task and mission of the people of Israel is completely different. And if we knew exactly what it was, we would attain peace and happiness for everyone and bring the world to an optimal state.

One way or another we are a people of an idea, people who are teachers. Everything revolves around this, and this pushes us to move things. In the Torah it is said that we will be a nation of priests, in other words, we will serve as a transitional link such that through us the knowledge of the general system of creation will be transmitted to the world.

To this day, we feel this hidden irrationality from which there is no escape. The latent problem in this is that we are not teaching humanity the correct way to live. Within our nature, there are the buds of that inner structure required to transform humanity into one and make it a harmonious society.

Nobody else has this, only the Jews. This is because they have already gone through this once and so can return to this again. Moreover, they must return to this in view of all humanity.

This previous experience has been stamped into them forever, and as a result of this, all of humanity feels that they are strangers, aliens, and they feel that the Jews: “Have something that isn’t in us and cannot be.”

Even if they went through another 2,000 years, it would all be the same. The Jews are separate and everyone else is separate from them. No matter how much they try, they will not mix with others. This is like a suspension (a solution containing substances that cannot be mixed with each other).You can dissolve them, scatter them, shake them, do whatever you want, but this essential characteristic will not be mixed. Through the generations, in spite of it all, they will still grow in the original state in which they were created.

This is because what is latent in them is irrelevant to mundane factors. Integrate them with whomever you want on the material level, replace them all with others, this point will pop up in them again. It is illogical. It doesn’t belong to the nature of our world, to physical bodies. In every case, it will sprout in their descendants in the same form as today. Everything will come out as if nothing had happened.

Let’s make a gross calculation, solely and only for a general illustration. Before 700–800 BC, with the destruction of the First Temple, the Jewish people lost ten tribes, five times more than the remaining two tribes. Throughout all the time that passed since then and up until today, these two tribes grew, let’s say, to 15 million people.

Considering the mass extermination of Jews throughout history brings this theoretical number to 20 million. From here it follows that the descendants of the rest of the tribes, who were five times more, they would need to total 100 million. This is quite a considerable sum, right?

And so, in a particular amount of time, we will see that these 100 million will suddenly be discovered as if out of nowhere. It will be discovered that they are Jews in different nations with completely different customs and different characteristics, no matter what and where. Suddenly it will be discovered that they are here, there, and everywhere. Moreover, when they are discovered with their Jewish traits, in them that same illogical something will be found. And again, the familiar picture will be repeated: The nations will look at the Jews and see that there is something in them, but what it is, is unclear. Even though they have the form and character of local residents, it doesn’t matter.

He could be an American, an Australian, a European, but you see that this is a Jew. It is as if he arrived from outer space, settled here among the inhabitants of the earth and lives in their clothes, whereas his interior is different. Living in him is a spark that connects him with the upper world. This spark remains; it is impossible to be released from it.

Hitler tried to exterminate all the Jews, but it is impossible to exterminate this spiritual point through physical annihilation. In any case it will grow in other people without any connection to genetics or the generations who were annihilated.

I repeat: The illogical foundation that exists in these people cannot be annihilated. History itself testifies to this.

And so the stock that is composed of the ten tribes that exists somewhere among other peoples has yet be revealed.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/24/14

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Humanity – Meet Nature!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You say that a human being, as the uppermost link of nature, strongly affects its processes. If that is the case, would it be possible to anticipate a disaster like the avalanche in Nepal?

Answer: That depends on the level of our development. If we take part in nature and discover its inner forces, its general process, its system and purpose, then without a doubt we can see how events are connected, not only in our world, but also in the higher worlds. For nature encompasses all of reality, including that which is now hidden from us.

Question: There have always been people who were capable of feeling what was not accessible to others’ perception. For example, even today the army uses Bedouin trackers in certain areas because they are capable of identifying things according to “imperceptible” signs more than a regular person could. But the disaster in Nepal unexpectedly caught even the local inhabitants who had generations of experience behind them. They didn’t feel the approach of trouble either. Why?

Answer: We are approaching the stage where a person must become aware of nature and take its management upon himself. But today, we are still not aspiring to this, and as a result, the Bedouins, Himalayan guides, and other natural experts are losing their ability to read nature.

So in this present stage, we need to penetrate into a new depth, discover its program and purpose, and gain understanding of its evolution. Since we are behind in this, we haven’t attained powers on a larger scale and so remain helpless.

Question: What is this new depth of nature?

Answer: This is the same level we must become familiar with, and we need the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to reach it. Therefore, it has been revealed in our day.

The wisdom of Kabbalah develops sensitivity within us to the general and comprehensive power of nature. Even though natural folk experts may discover particular and separate forces of nature, today these abilities just about don’t exist because a general global force is being discovered more and more.

It is influential through the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, but mainly through humans on a level that is not accessible to the children of the hot deserts, the snowy mountains or the virgin forests. Behind the nature that is familiar to them lurks the natural contour of the whole of creation.

Question: How is it possible to get a good response from nature?

Answer: We will not receive a good response from nature as long as we haven’t attained and understand the entire system. We must move towards this, and to do so, we specifically require the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is because it opens our eyes to the system. Then we are able to see how to be included in it correctly. If at every moment, we are concerned about holding onto our balance with nature, then everything will calm down, work out, and we will acquire security in a good and peaceful life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/21/14

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Taking Care Of Business

Taking Care Of BusinessQuestion: When the people of Israel fell from the degree of the Temple, they moved on like sheep that keep close in the face of danger. This danger was awakened by antisemitism that followed us everywhere. Why was it so?

Answer: This began when we fell from the degree of the First Temple. Antisemitism appeared when having built the First Temple, from this highest point, the sons of Israel swept down.

But it manifested very slowly—as they descended. At first there was no obvious opposition, and still, antisemitism was already manifesting during the times of the Babylonian exile between the First and the Second Temples, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, Queen Esther, and Haman.

At that time, I would say it manifested on the ideological level, on the level of the priests, the governmental level, but not on the level of the common people who did not yet understand this opposition, did not see it, as we see in the book of Esther.

But as we descended and grew more distant from the principle of “love thy neighbor as thyself,” antisemitism kept increasing and spread through the nations of the world.

It seems like antisemitism is irrational in its nature. The Jewish people have survived despite trials, humiliation, and destruction. The tendency to assimilate did not work: Even though many wanted to be like everyone else , still, they were not able to become like others. Also the intellectuals in the countries of Diaspora were frequently more antisemitic than the regular people.

Here we must understand that the educated people lead the antisemitic movement because they understand and perceive the difference between the ideologies, the difference in the approach to life in the depth of attainment and perception. I’d even go as far as talk about the difference in the inner philosophy of the Jewish people and the other nations.

A regular person cannot tell the difference. He can say: “So what that they are smarter, but then they are weaker. They are not like us.” After all, there are differences between all the nations, and overall, regular people do not have a special understanding in these matters. But it is possible to scare them through insinuations against the Jews, what has even happened in our time.

All of this is very irrational. Once I told an elderly woman in Siberia that I am a Jew, and she did not believe me: “Jews have horns,” she said. And the interesting thing is that I had nothing to say. She said it in such a naive and honest way that I just kept quiet. So if I do not have horns, then I am not a Jew.

But this is not what this is about. Antisemitism is a consequence of the descent of the Jewish people from the level of their highest attainment, the degree of love thy neighbor as thyself. If we had stayed up there, no one would have a problem with us language–there would be nothing but envy, good kind of envy. They would want to learn from us.

But as soon as we started falling from this level, neglecting this height, descending, antisemitism appeared right away.

So the solution is as follows: If we disregard the condition of “love thy neighbor as thyself,” which we must bring to the world, then people begin to hate us to the degree of our neglect of this condition. They want to see us carry out this commandment and teach it to them.

If we show them that we observe this condition and that we are prepared to be their teacher, we will see that any nation of the world is prepared to be our student. This is a part of nature, there is nothing that can be done about it. This preparedness is enrooted in them, and the only thing that is missing is our confidence and spiritual height. We must rise to the level of love thy neighbor as thyself and teach it to the other nations. Teach them to love instead of teaching them to live.

The world does not need anything else-—only this knowledge, this ability to be together properly interconnected between all of them.

But instead we teach others how to live, we get in their business: sciences, art, culture, even though none of it essentially is our business. And this is why they do not like us, do not want us, put pressure on us, persecute us. This is how this entire system of forces works; in fact, they push us away subconsciously: “Go, take care of your business.”

If, from the moment of arrival in Israel, we were to take care of our business, work on attaining the degree of loving thy neighbor and enlightenment of mankind—all the nations would become our loyal students. And it is not too late to begin.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/24/14

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Like Sheep Facing Wolves

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: After the First and Second Temples were destroyed, did the Jewish people feel and remember their foundation established by Abraham? Did the people of Israel remember around what they were created and consolidated? Did this foundation live among them?

Answer: Yes and no.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, the people fell from seeing the inner picture of reality, the managing forces, everything that happens in the world, and again found themselves in mutual hatred, mutual rejection, and mutual distance from each other, with an indifference that characterizes us even today.

Exiled from the land of Israel, we passed through many lands and turned to the West, to Europe, to the East, to the Arab nations, and we began to sink into apathy. Since then, what has held us together is not the power of love, nor belonging to one idea, not mutuality, not connection, and not mutual help without any calculations, but only the desire to survive. We were stuck to each other like sheep flocking together and facing wolves, but we didn’t hold ourselves together.

Basically our situation has been like this throughout the entire exile until this very day, which is the entire two thousand years.

Question: What role did religion fulfill in this?

Answer: Religion helped people in this state of absolute detachment from spiritual sources, from understanding, from everything. It simply strengthened and supported them in this low and abject state so that people could be involved in carrying out some kind of worldly activities, also called Mitzvot, and thus would maintain themselves in this manner. Religion is what is left and what was given to the people after the destruction of the Temple, instead of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The wisdom of Kabbalah opens the heavens, reveals the Creator, and reveals the power of unity to the people. Through realizing it between them, they discover the Creator, who is found among them, and who makes it possible for them to live within a sensation of a completely different reality.

And when all of this was lost, we acquired our present form. This pertains to everyone, except for a few Kabbalists in every generation who wrote books and developed this method, and who continue to work to attain the Creator and unity between us.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/24/14, Part 7

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The Jews Were, Are And Will Be Blamed For Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom M. Brushtein:

During those recent hot days, the Hamas missiles, accompanied by alarms, regularly visited the entire territory of the nation of Israel. In the meantime, the anti-missile system, the Iron Dome, was successful in intercepting those uninvited guests. Then the IDF initiated a ground operation.

Along with this, deep within our hearts, everyone understood that there was no military, political or other rational solution to this problem. It was possible to try to diminish the problem on the agenda, to confuse everyone or pretend that it didn’t exist, but there was no true solution, and there won’t be.

Why is it impossible to convince, relax, or ultimately annihilate those who hate Israel? It is because everyone feels, or at least assumes, that Israel/Jews always are to blame for everything.

The Jews were, are, and will be to blame for everything. They all are to blame, even those who are only about to be born. The Jews are to blame for establishing the Soviet police, and they also are to blame for destroying this police. The Jews who leave are to blame for leaving, and the Jews who stay are to blame for staying. (V. Boinovich, Russian author, poet and playwright)

There are those who think that people learned a lesson from the Holocaust. Certainly now, everyone in the world hates the Zionists and not the Jews. They hate Israel and everything related to it.

A little while ago, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a statistical report on the level of anti-Semitism. According to their data, more than a quarter of the population of the globe feels great hostility towards the Jews. In simple words, they are anti-Semites. The statistics are wrong because there are many more anti-Semites. Simply, some admit it and some still don’t.

All of the people among which we live, all of them together and each one separately are anti-Semites, expressed or implied. (Chaim Weitzmann, first president of the nation of Israel).

Both the Jews and those who are not Jews ultimately must recognize that the source of this attitude toward the Jews is beyond all rational understanding.

Who, for example, at the end of the forties, would seriously and openly preach that hatred of the Jews would be similar to what is happening today in Germany? (Historical Literary Collection).

Guess when these lines were published. Was it in the year 2014? Maybe it was in 1980, but no, it was in the year 1880. Also, a hundred years ago and a thousand years ago, the attitude toward Jews has not changed. In the best of circumstances, people tolerated them, and, at worst, they would annihilate them. Behind all of our attempts to find a logical reason for hatred toward the Jews is concealed the hope of finding a rational solution to this problem.

It is worthwhile to stop searching for logical solutions and, on the contrary, try to search for something illogical.

Anti-Semitism is irrational and is not subject to the dictates of reason”(George Orwell, English author and journalist).

In the year 1940, the first (and evidently the last) edition of the newspaper, The Nation, was published. An excerpt from the article:

“This newspaper The Nation is a new creation. It is a type of creature that is born in distress, in difficult and terrible birth pangs: from the poison of hatred that empowered the nations of the world to annihilate us from the face of the earth, the threat of extinction of millions of our brothers, and still their hands are outstretched—this sadistic creation in them knows no satisfaction. And further, the disaster doubles; we cannot delude ourselves that all of this is only a temporary passing phenomenon.” (Baal HaSulam).

And this is what this author writes about the solution to the problem:

“So, I said that we need to arrange a unique education for ourselves through a widespread campaign, to insert into each one of us feelings of a national love touching from one individual to another and from these individuals to the whole, to restore and reveal the national love that was implanted among us when we were on our land as a nation among nations. And this work comes before anything else, for besides its being fundamental—it also gives stature and success to all kinds of activities that we want to do in this field.” (Baal HaSulam).

A solution like this will confuse every normal person. What is the connection between what happened to European Jewry and the education for national love among the Jews who live in the land of Israel? It is true that we don’t see a direct connection, and, on the other hand, we say that there is no direct and rational connection to the Jewish problem.

The person who suggested this illogical solution Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag, 1884-1954), was the greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century. He wrote the commentary on The Book of Zohar. It is interesting that a similar solution to the problem has been suggested not only by Kabbalists, but by anti-Semites.

“An obligation is imposed upon the Jewish people to fulfill the ancient prophecies that establish that all of the nations of the world will be blessed through them, and for this, they are obligated to begin to carry out this new service.” (Henry Ford, American automobile manufacturer, printed and distributed the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”)

And so we are obliged to clarify which prophecies he is talking about.

“For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:24-26.).

Whatever it may be, our historical experience proves that the problem of anti-Semitism has existed and still exists. Not only our neighbors, but all the nations of the world will not leave us alone. The rational solution is peace for the territory in exchange for something else which we won’t accept, which everybody knows. Is it perhaps worthwhile to try and solve this problem irrationally, as Baal HaSulam writes? If others believe it, why shouldn’t we believe it?

“I believe that a wonderful future will be revealed for the Jews, not as a nation managed by someone, but as the realization of the great ideals of our civilization.” (Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States).
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The Secret Of The Ten Tribes, Part 6

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If people have attained the level of the Temple, how can the memory of such a high connection suddenly disappear?

Answer: Love passes and hate comes along. The force of the Light that sustains this altruistic state, this connection, disappears.

It was attained by the help of the Light and the moment it ceases to illuminate, the descent and fall are immediate and we don’t remember anything at all, as if it never existed.

This is the descent and fall after the destruction of the First Temple. First begins the Babylonian exile and Nebuchadnezzar comes and takes the ten tribes so only two tribes are left.

Question: Why does he take them? Why do these ten tribes disappear?

Answer: This, in principle, will be discovered in the future, but anyway, it is essential that they totally dissolve within humanity. They carry the principle of “love thy friend as thyself” without knowing it, and they will return. In these sparks were sown the seeds of love that were planted in humanity and will spread all over the earth, as well as in the Babylonians.

Question: So again there is an encounter between Abraham and Nimrod with Babylon.

Answer: Yes, but it isn’t the same Abraham. He has fallen to the level of Babylon and therefore they can connect to him. And therein lies the spiritual potential in him that gradually leads to the development of people and the development of nations on the ordinary corporeal level.

It isn’t only a technical process, but also scientific, artistic, pedagogical, and literary. In short, it affects every process of society. The ten tribes set this process in motion, since after the fall from the spiritual level, they still have the urge for advancing forward and developing. Thus they develop all of humanity.

But they develop it in a very interesting way. We can discover them among the great inquisitors, great religious leaders, and among great scientists who seemingly have no connection at all to Jews. We just need to dig a bit more deeply.

The Babylonians still exist according to the simple principle of let me live peacefully. Let me turn on my TV set in my own apartment and give me something to eat and that’s it, I don’t need anything else.

This is Babylon. However, the invoking stimuli that won’t let a person wallow himself is the result of the ten tribes that spread all over the world.

It cannot be any other way. Where will progress stem from if not from an urge that is aimed upward? The inclination to science, literature, art, and self-expression also stems from the desire to attain the Creator, but through an egoistic desire not focused on love and bestowal beyond the self, but which is expressed by self-love.

After the destruction of the First Temple, the ten tribes began to do their job on the general accepted level and the two tribes that were left, which symbolize the nation of Israel, kept on advancing in their ascent above the ego.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/03/14, Part 5

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The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 66

From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

Love Will Defeat Crisis

3. On the planet, there is a strange people that were created during the very first crisis in the Babylonian civilization. The principle of “love thy neighbor as thyself,” on the basis of which this people was created, everyone likes, but no one can realize.

About the laws, there is nothing more to add. They speak for themselves for they are visible in their own nature, and appear to teach not impiety, but the truest piety in the world. They do not make men hate one another, but encourage people to communicate what they have to one another freely; they are enemies to injustice, they take care of righteousness, they banish idleness and expensive living, and instruct men to be content with what they have, and to be laborious in their calling; they forbid men to make war from a desire of getting more, but make men courageous in defending the laws; they are inexorable in punishing malefactors; they admit no sophistry of words, but are always established by actions themselves, which actions we ever propose as surer demonstrations than what is contained in writing only: on which account I am so bold as to say that we are become the teachers of other men, in the greatest number of things. (Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian,  Against Apion)

This nation has a national identity and self-esteem; it does not lose heart and works, and wants to live like others, in close brotherly friendship with everyone.” (Maxim Gorky, Russian Soviet writer)

To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human persons; of the individual conscience and so a personal redemption; of collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind. Without Jews it might have been a much emptier place. (Paul Johnson, English journalist and popular historian, A History of the Jews)

4. Anti-Semitism, an aversion to the “strange” people, is a phenomenon that has no rational explanation.

It is enough to see oneself a Jew in a dream to make the most cheerful subject shudder in dread and send impotent curses to fate.” (Mikhail E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, 1826 – 1889, one of Russia’s greatest satirists).

Anti-Semitism is contained in the genes. German scientists have found that the level of anti-Semitism in certain states of Germany has not changed for centuries.

The highest percentage of anti-Jewish sentiments today —it is shared by 30-38% of the population—is noted where the strongest pogroms took place in the 19th and 20th centuries, and in 1938. (7Kanal, Israel).

The year 2012 was called in the report: the “year of unprecedented violence against Jews in France.” There were 614 anti-Semitic incidents, compared to 389 of such cases in 2011. (7Kanal, Israel).
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In The New York Times: “What We Jews Owe The World”


My second article, “What We Jews Owe the World,” published in The New York Times on October 10, 2014: 

What Jews Owe the World

By: Michael Laitman

Buying Our Way to Heaven

The holiest day of the year for Jews is Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), when they fast and pray. A key part of the prayer is reading the book of Jonah the Prophet. Interestingly, many observant Jews believe that buying the privilege to read the book will make them successful for the rest of the year.

Naturally, only the wealthiest in the community can afford to compete for it. The sums vary according to the affluence of the community, and in some cases, the privilege is sold for well over half a million dollars.

Cracking the Code

What people are not aware of, however, is the real reason why the book of Jonah is so important. Kabbalists determined that this reading is the most important in the year because it details the code for saving humanity, and this, in the eyes of Kabbalists, is more important than anything.

Jonah’s story is special because it speaks of a prophet who first tried to dodge his mission, but finally repented. Another special aspect of Jonah’s story is that his mission was not to admonish the people of Israel, but to save the city of Nineveh, whose residents were not Jewish. In light of today’s precarious state of the world, we should take a closer look at this story and its meaning for each of us.

Shape Up or Ship Out

G-d orders Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, who became very mean to one another, to correct the relationships among them if they wanted to survive. However, Jonah bailed out of his mission and took to the sea in an effort to escape G-d’s command.

Like Jonah, we Jews have been evading our mission for the past 2,000 years. And yet, we cannot afford to keep evading it. We have a task that was passed on to us when Abraham united us into a nation based on love of others, and it is our duty to set an example of unity for the rest of the world. Abraham wanted to unite all of humanity, but back then he only managed to establish a small group. (For more on that, see my article,  “Who Are You, People of Israel”, published September 20, 2014 in The New York Times.)

That group, namely the people of Israel, must still become a role model to the world. Rav Avraham Itzhak HaCohen Kook (the Raiah), the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, put it poetically in his book, Orot Kodesh (Sacred Lights), “Since we were ruined by unfounded hatred, and the world was ruined with us, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love, and the world will be rebuilt with us.”

Sleeping through the Storm

In the story, Jonah’s escape from his mission by ship caused the sea to roar and nearly sank the vessel. At the height of the storm, Jonah went to sleep, detaching himself from the turmoil and leaving the sailors to fend for themselves. Gradually, they began to suspect that someone among them was the cause of the storm. They cast a lot and discovered that it was Jonah, the only Jew on board.

In many ways, today’s world is similar to Jonah’s ship: It has become a global village, as though we’re all in one boat, and the sea around us is raging. And the sailors—all of humanity—are blaming the Jew on board for all their troubles.

Like Jonah, we are sound asleep. Though we are beginning to wake up to the existence of hatred towards us, we have yet to realize that not carrying out our mission, just like Jonah, is the reason for the hatred. If we do not wake up soon, the sailors will throw us overboard, as they did with Jonah. In the words of Rav Yehuda Ashlag, author of the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar: “It is incumbent upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and the rest of the people in the world… to evolve into assuming this sublime work of “love of others” (“The Arvut” [Mutual Guarantee]).

The Wake Up Call

The sailors on Jonah’s boat make a desperate attempt to calm the sea, and by Jonah’s order, they throw him overboard. Once he is in the water, the storm calms, but a whale comes along and swallows Jonah. For three days and three nights he introspects in its abdomen. He begs for his life and promises to carry out his mission.

Like Jonah, each of us carries within, something that is stirring up the world. We, the people of Israel, carry a method for achieving peace through connection. Unity is the very root of our being. This DNA is what makes us a people, and today we must rekindle it because wherever we go, this untapped power is destabilizing the world around us in order to compel us to unite.

The unity between us will inspire, even compel, the rest of the nations to follow suit, just as the current separation among us projects separation to the whole of humanity. This is the reason for all our troubles, including anti-Semitism. When we unite, it will endow humanity with the energy required to achieve worldwide unity, where all people live “as one man with one heart.” So the only question is whether we assume our responsibility, or prefer to be thrown overboard, only to subsequently agree to carry out our task.

Indeed, if we want to end our troubles and be rid of anti-Semitism, if we desire to turn judgment into mercy and have a safe and happy life, we must unite and thus set an example of unity for all the nations. This is how we will bring peace and quiet to the world. Otherwise the nations’ hatred toward us will keep growing. Now we can see why people are willing to pay so much for the privilege of reading the book of Jonah on Yom Kippur.

I’d like to conclude this essay with another quote from Rav Kook (the Raiah): “Any turmoil in the world comes only for Israel. Now we are called upon to carry out a great task willingly and mindfully: to build ourselves and the entire ruined world along with us” (Igrot [Letters]).
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Don’t Let Yourself Cool Down

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must reach an absolute connection between us, and we are now beginning to feel that this is being realized through our shared actions.

The first true connection between us will give us a feeling of the upper world. This connection will be called the ten Sefirot of the Kli, and the mutual shared feeling that fills us will be called Light.

The first Partzuf will be created within us, consisting of the Sefirot of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut with the Lights of NRNHY in which we begin to feel the higher, eternal, complete, and true state. We will then understand that the present state we now exist in is like a dream that is given to us so that we will be pushed, and in thrusting ourselves away from it, we will be awakened and begin to work in a practical manner.

To attain this, we must carry out a multitude of activities. But for the purpose of the appearance of a yearning for connection between us, our single group of ten or even a group composed of many groups of ten, is not enough.

If we want our spiritual needs to develop constantly so that we will be obligated to yearn for each other and the Creator, we must feed our desires all the time.

They do not appear within us by themselves; in order for them to appear, we must go out to the wider strata of the shattered Kli, meaning to all of humanity, to try and find additional desires among them. We must attract them to us, and in this manner we cultivate within us a yearning for coming together and elevation.

It is forbidden for us to forget about this, otherwise we will wither away. People who don’t find themselves in dissemination outside of their group withhold an incentive and drive towards elevation from themselves. They will begin to sit instead until they lose the general common drive, and the group will be disbanded.

So in the movement from me to we, we must remember wider dissemination. This could be the wisdom of Kabbalah or the wisdom of connection (Integral Education and Knowledge). It is not important what we call it; the main thing is that this is a wisdom about the right connection and unity, the restoration of the same collective Kli, the only desire that was shattered and destroyed from the start, even before the creation of our world.

We know that the authors of The Book of Zohar, when they gathered together to write it in a state of unity, were always discovering such hatred within themselves that they were ready to burn each other. And these were great people in the attainment of the head of the world of Atzilut. In this exact manner the shattering of the Kli of the collective soul was discovered in them.

But they had no other way to disseminate other than describing their attainments to help us with our correction, and in this was their correction. In this way, they departed from their ego and finished the work with absolute love. They then succeeded in describing great levels of elevation in The Book of Zohar.

If we turn to other Kabbalistic sources, they all speak about one one thing: issues about connection and the laws and general rules of unity between people in our world, and after that, unity between the souls until the discovery of the only corrected state.
[145306]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 4

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A Generation Of Seekers

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person faces many questions as to how to act, work, and speed up his development, that is, to speed up the revelation of the Creator. Revealing the Creator, the force that manages all of reality and our part in it, is the only thing a person does in this world.

In order to achieve it, we follow the advice of people who have already been through this process and who attained the revelation of the Creator. This is the reason that we study the wisdom of Kabbalah, which by definition is the method of revealing the Creator to the created beings in this world. All we have to do is to fulfill and implement what Kabbalists say.

Of course, the closer a Kabbalist is to our times, the more useful his advice is for us because he better understands us since he is lives the same lifestyle that and is as our contemporary.

Thus, we begin to study the system that includes, not only the system of concealment between us and the Creator, but also the system where the Kabbalists are, those who have attained the Creator. They revealed the Creator during their lifetime in this world, which means that they removed the concealment.

They are not in this world anymore, but the fruits of their work are not lost, and by using them, we can develop a special sense and recognition above our ordinary physical senses and mind.

Our physical perception of the world is even more limited than that of animals. All animals can feel a tsunami approaching three days in advance and flee to the mountains. It is only humans who don’t suspect anything. We don’t even feel nature and are the furthest from it compared to all the animals. However, it isn’t about the existence of the corporeal body but about our attitude towards the upper force.

The desire to attain the upper force awakens only in man and even that doesn’t happen in everyone. But in every generation since the existence of mankind there are people in whom such a need to reveal the Creator awakens and they fulfill this desire.

Besides revealing the Creator they also leave us their writings though books, letters, and articles. Each one writes in his own style about how to remove the concealment, the system of concealments, and how to use the system.

It is because it isn’t revealed all at once and not fully, but gradually. Thus we have to go through certain actions. Kabbalists tell us how to help each other do that if there are people in our generation with the same yearning for revealing the Creator.

There have been many generations of Kabbalists since the first man (Adam), who was the first Kabbalist to attain the Creator and who removed the concealment. We can use their legacy, and besides their writings, we can also use their help.

When we enter a system where the Creator is present, but invisible, we can use the help of Kabbalists who have already attained His revelation. They are actively incorporated within this system and sustain it on a certain level of revelation and attainment by bringing it closer to us and helping us become incorporated within it.

We only need to attain the sensitivity and the recognition needed to reveal it so that we can use the system correctly with the help of the Kabbalists.

We also have to carry out all their recommendations in this world. In our generation there are many people who want to reveal the Creator. We are living in a special time when there is permission to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to everyone. Anyone who wants to reveal the Creator can come and reveal Him.

Thus we have a unique opportunity. If we unite in our search for the Creator, it will be like looking together for someone who is lost in the woods. We can all go out together, many people, and search the whole forest. Everyone can go and cry out: “Hey, where are you??!” and so by helping one another, we will eventually find the one who is lost.

Similarly, we can look for the Creator together. Such a collective search is much easier than searching individually. It is actually impossible to find the Creator by one’s self, but together we will do it quickly and easily.
[144978]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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