Weitzman recalled in his memoirs, “A notable feature of the vote was that among those who spoke out against Uganda, the decisive majority were the delegates from Russia.” The representatives of Kishinev unanimously rejected the Uganda plan. The Western Zionists were shocked.

I remember how after the vote, Herzl said about the Russian Jews, “If these people had a noose around their neck, they still would be stubborn!” Next to him was a young woman who tore the map of Uganda off the wall. She angrily exclaimed, “Mr. President, you are a traitor!” Herzl sharply turned away. (From the book by Felix Kandel, The Land Under our Feet, Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 11).

An uncompromising spirit always characterized the Jews of Russia. They were people forged by suffering. When they lived in difficult conditions of limited space, they understood that Uganda wouldn’t be much better for them and that it was necessary to return to the true values.

In addition, in those times, the Jews of Russia were more religious than now, and even if the Zionists at the Basel Congress were no longer great supporters of religion, still there existed a spiritual foundation in them that they received from their family home. They all completed one religious school or another, and so they couldn’t imagine how one could break from a religious and ideological basis.

Therefore, as a reason for rejecting the establishment of the nation in Uganda, they used, first, the spirit of Russian Jewry, and, second, an order from above. Still we have to understand that our world evolves according to a particular program by particular forces, and it was understood that life in Uganda or any other place would cost us a few hundred years of intense suffering. Without a doubt, a hand from above brought us to the land of Israel to show how much this land matches the inner potential that exists in us.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/7/15

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Herzl knew of a rumor about Russian Jewry, but, after he became familiar with representatives from Russia, he noted that he was convinced that they required his help and spiritual leadership, and here at the Basel Congress, he saw that Russian Jewry had brought such a powerful culture that he couldn’t even imagine.

He continued, saying that they have an inner wholeness that had been lost by most of the Jews of Europe. They weren’t assimilated into any other nation, but drew upon all the good that there is in these peoples. By looking at them, he began to understand what gave power to our ancestors to survive in the most difficult times. Once, they asked Herzl, “What would happen if only the Jews of Russia follow you?” He answered, “Only? This is absolutely enough for me.” (From the book by Felix Kandel, The Land Under Our Feet, Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 11)

Russian Jewry is characterized by the integration of many different factors. First, it is very multifaceted. Jews were scattered to all corners of the empire. They settled in Moldavia, Crimea, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Secondly, a serious attraction to inner spiritual development was observed in them, whereas the environment around them was very limited. This is because, at that time, there existed the law of serfdom, a monarchy, and, in an especially rigid way for Russians, they didn’t let the Jews do anything, and a threat always hovered above them, and they feared for their lives. So, they had to provide themselves with at least some kind of security.

The state of affairs itself led to the appearance of an inner craving to find somehow to express oneself. In order not to be dependent on society, the Jews needed to give expression to some value by themselves, to reach their own self-expression within themselves, but from the outside, permission was not given to them. In principle, this has continued to our day, maybe not on such a level, but if we compare this with the days of my youth, I also felt a violation of human rights.

In this way, the general atmosphere in the remote places pushed a person toward great inner attainments since he knew that he only had what was found within him. He could not be a doctor, a politician, or a professor as it was in the West. At that time, there already existed a strong stratum of Jewish intellectuals there. At the same time, there was an an active distancing from Judaism. Many Jews changed their religion, like Strauss, or they completely assimilated into the society that surrounded them. Much later, they were the first who began to leave Western Europe and move to America where they created an absolutely new community that didn’t preserve their customs.

When I asked my grandfather, “Why, in your time, didn’t you travel to America along with everyone else?” He answered, “How could I go where I would have had to work on Shabbat? So, I stayed here.” For him, it was completely clear that in spite of all the pressures and terrible circumstances, he could maintain his internal law here. This was the essential difference between the Jews of Western Europe and the Jews of Eastern Europe, even though the latter were far more oppressed. The Czarist regime couldn’t leave them in peace and quiet. The Jewish question was a sickness within him, and it caused him great suffering. So, new decrees were constantly being issued that limited the rights of the Jews, and the opinion spread that they should be pursued and deported to the backyard of the empire. There, they could exist more or less quietly in spite of everything if only given the opportunity.

Question: Did something unique exist in the Russian people that compelled them to violate the rights of the Jews and thereby prepare them for the great breakthrough?

Answer: I wouldn’t say this. The Russian character is very full of contradictions because it is created from the symbiosis and conflict of different cultures. So, a Russian can begin to beat someone and, immediately after begin to hug and kiss him with great weeping. He himself doesn’t know what manages him, and this is a clear Russian characteristic. So in Russian society there are many bursts of cultural achievements that are impossible in the West. This made an impression on the Jews while they stayed within the irascible Russian society..

The atmosphere itself pushed them to develop. Because you don’t know what will happen to you in the next moment, you need to be directed only toward what is in you, what you know and can do, what you are in yourself. So, the most important were science, knowledge, and understanding of how to become something compared to others, but that this uniqueness will be within me because tomorrow I could become naked and barefoot, but, this they can’t take from me. So, the Russian Jews, who didn’t know what would come tomorrow, were obliged to go into science or culture, to gather an inner cultural or scientific charge, and when the time arrived for some kind of small self-expression, then all of the gathered inner potential began to erupt. The main thing for them was to express themselves.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/7/15

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Baal HaSulam, “The Writings of the Last Generation.” Introduction: …and looks into the past as one looks in the mirror and sees one’s flaws so as to correct them. Similarly, the mind sees what it has been through, and corrects its future conducts.

Question: At the end of the 19^th century, the first emigration of Jews from Russia to Israel began. Preceding this, there were brutal pogroms in Kutaisi and, after that, in Kishinev. However, the Jews still remained, living there for some time. Why?

Answer: An inner development was required both for the individual and for the people to move them from their place. For example, you can sit and suffer all the time, but still won’t be motivated enough to leave. However, when you are under the influence of external and internal pressure, the awareness of the accumulation of evil and bitterness leads the individual or the entire people to no longer being able to remain in the same place, and they must move.

Question: But why did the Jews specifically begin to leave Russia? After all, the accumulation of evil happened no less in Europe also.

Answer: In the 19^th century in Europe, there was relative calm. On a general background of anti-Semitism, the life of the Jews there passed quite well, and they prospered; whereas, at the same time in Russia, the “Black Hundreds” movement became active (extremist right-wing organizations who were active from 1905 to 1917, who among other things were also anti-Semitic). The Jews were put into settlements with defined borders and could not develop cities or villages.

The problem was that Russian society was very backward in much of its development in comparison to European society, whereas the Jews of Russia, according to their rate of advancement, were ahead of the Russians who lived with them. So, Russia was like a prison for Jews. They couldn’t do anything. Only the abolition of serfdom and the first Zionist Congress in Basel created the opportunity for a change in atmosphere, and they could just leave.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/7/15

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Question: Today the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah has become fashionable. Its devotees are celebrities, like Madonna. Does this disturb or help your global goal to bring a person to a spiritual nature?

Answer: On the one hand, it draws people’s attention to the wisdom of Kabbalah since they begin to read and become interested in it. On the other hand, Madonna and others  are not actually engaged in Kabbalah. Nothing can be done about it; this is how humanity develops. When it comes to the great spiritual system, there is no immediate understanding nor perception of what this is, so people approach this question from various angles.

Even the students who come to us to study don’t understand exactly where they are for half a year or more. They can be compared to those who studied quantum physics. There too, for a year students go around half in despair from lack of understanding. A person cannot immediately enter into a new dimension, so in the wisdom of Kabbalah, there must be a period of adjustment.

Question: Do these celebrities help you?

Answer: This doesn’t depend on them; rather, it is the need, the demand, and the imperative of the person. People come to the wisdom of Kabbalah when the question about the meaning of life pokes at their soul: “What am I living for?!” If this question burns in a person, he feels a lack of meaning in his existence and he cannot be at peace with this, so ultimately he reaches us. But if the question about the meaning of life is satisfied for him through food, sex, wealth, family, knowledge, etc., then he is stuck somewhere in these levels of satisfaction. This is neither good nor bad; in the meantime, the person is simply found on this level of development.

For some time I myself searched for the meaning of life, beginning with science and after that religion, and I didn’t find it in them. And when this became completely unbearable, I was advised to search for Kabbalists. I searched for my teacher for four years, and when I found him, I understood that this was for me.
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From the press conference 3/11/15

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Question: All three religions consider Jerusalem as a holy city. Why is there a very special attitude to this city as if it connects a person with the upper force?

Answer: “Jerusalem” means “perfect city.” It is a spiritual concept that does not add holiness to the material city and its stones.

While the human being is made very complex, he is strongly influenced by the force of simple human faith, the power of placebo, his beliefs. Thus, arriving in Jerusalem, people feel that this is a special place.

But this is a special holy place created by people themselves by their attitude to this city, but the material city has no holiness. All the differences between geographic locations are in their spiritual roots.

It is written in the book of the great Kabbalist Ari, The Tree of Life, that the whole land is divided into areas according to special spiritual powers that affect them: Jerusalem, the land of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Babylon, and all other countries of the world.

This refers to the spiritual roots, but there is no difference in physical stones. But people who live in this world are impressed by each other and thus give these these stones, air, and geographical location special designations.

We need to understand that only by rising above these material human experiences will we be able to achieve a true, correct impression that will come from the spiritual property called Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, the Temple, Israel, the nations of the world.

All these are inner properties of the human being; the upper forces that we need to reveal. Then the spiritual Jerusalem will be revealed to us and inside of it the spiritual Temple, which is the “holy of holies,” where we will meet with the upper force.

So, everyone has to come to the reevaluation of the upper force and adhesion to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/7/15

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Question: Why has the world always hated the Jews?

Answer: It is because this group of people who left Babylon and began to unite understood and agreed that through connection and unity, we re-educate ourselves and become like nature, a nature that exists according to a single solitary law, the law of general reciprocal connection.

This system exists within us, and in the remaining part of Babylon that was scattered over the face of the entire world, the method doesn’t exist. So, the nations of the world subconsciously feel that we have something that they don’t. It seems to them that we are hiding this, even though most of us don’t know ourselves about that secret.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the right, good, and mutual rapprochement between people above all the divisions and contradictions that separate us will bring them to resemble the general law of nature, mutual connection. This mutual connection is now being revealed more and more in the world and in human society. In its appearance in us, it arouses a completely different feeling of the world. We go out to a level, which is outside of time, movement, and location to other strata of the attainment of nature that are much deeper than those that we feel with our five physical senses.

For the first time in life, freedom of choice has been given into our hands. This is because all seven billion people are acting according to an inherent program. But when we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, freedom of choice appears in us, and we begin to feel what it is. The uniqueness of the wisdom of Kabbalah is in changing a person, giving him an additional sense that helps him feel in what kind of world he really exists. He begins to feel not only the world and our small space, but also the next dimension. The wisdom of Kabbalah raises a person above his egoistic nature.
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From the Press Conference 3/11/15

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Question: You talk so beautifully about unity, but what is one to do if unity doesn’t exist in their own home? I side with leftist political views whereas my husband favors extreme right-wing views. Our conversations about politics lead us to fights all the time. What can be done?

Answer: I think that you, and all the people of Israel, have received the opportunity to correct this situation. As it is said, “…love covereth all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12). How is it possible to attain peace between us? Peace doesn’t mean that one defeats the other and suppresses him, or convinces him that he was wrong, as we want to do in general.

Peace means that in relationships with another person who is against me heart and soul, in all characteristics and opinions, we reach complete mutuality. This is attained by building a bridge of love between us. And then on the physical plane we are left with contradictions and oppositions, in struggle, resistance and collision with each other, whereas above this, specifically as a counterweight, we build love.

It is necessary to learn how to do this. The main thing is not to be afraid that we have two planes: a lower one in which we contradict and oppose each other absolutely, and a higher one in which we are connected with each other. This is called, “…love covereth all transgressions.” Specifically above all the transgressions and mistakes, no matter how many great contrasts there are between us, we can build a stronger connection of love. One cannot be without the other. Therefore, if we are talking about wholeness, about unity and even about love, this is talking about two planes. It is impossible otherwise. It is possible to build a connection only above all the disturbances, frictions, and differences between us.

So nobody is allowed to demand that the other change. There can be no coercion, neither religious nor secular, from either side and in anything. Each one must remain as he is. If he wants to change, he wants this by himself. And we only need to learn by ourselves and to teach ourselves how to build love as an umbrella that covers us all, even though we oppose each other. And precisely then our love can be permanent, without being transitory, great and flourishing due to the fact that inside rage flames of our opposition to each other.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/3/15

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Question: You are inclined to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah by uniting the people through circles and roundtables, but what about the media, radio, newspapers, the Internet, flyers, etc.?

Answer: “Israel are not redeemed by sorrow and not by enslavement, not by being shaken, not by madness, not by being pressured and not because they have no food, but when ten people sit together and each one reads and studies with his friend and their voices are heard” (Tana Rabbi Eliyahu Zuta, Item 84).

We use all the other means of disseminating the method of correction as much as we can.
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Question: In what way are the spiritual methods of the East different from the wisdom of Kabbalah? After all, they apparently speak about similar things.

Answer: There are 3,800 religions and faiths in the world. All of the main religions actually came from Abraham who lived in ancient Babylon close to 3,500 years ago.

Abraham taught his method, meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah, to a small group that he called Israel. And he gave gifts, or other forms of faith, to the rest of the people. The Torah says that Abraham gave gifts to the children of his concubines and sent them eastward, where all of these methods reach back to us.

The difference is that the method of Abraham possesses the ability to correct a person, something that doesn’t exist in any other method. The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to attract the good force towards us that is concealed in nature and that will correct our hatred towards each other to love. This good force is added to our egoistic nature and we become bearers of two forces. The integration of these two forces makes it possible for us to work with them, develop correctly, and discover an additional form of reality that is found outside of us.

Modern physics talks about the existence of a reality such as this. Besides the universe, the world that we see now, there are other forms of reality. The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to go out beyond the framework of the limitations of this world and see higher worlds. Possibilities like this don’t exist in any other method because they don’t contain the Light that Reforms. The uniqueness of the Torah is that it contains a force that corrects our nature and raises us above the ego to a nature of bestowal and love, in that it opens our eyes, as it is said, “You will see your world in your lifetime” (Berachot 17a).
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/03/15

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Question: Jerusalem is a special city, revered throughout the world. How did it happen that it is considered holy by all the three major religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity?

Answer: Kabbalah is not related to religion. For thousands of years it was hidden, but once it lived among the people of Israel, instead of today’s Judaism, as the method of revealing the Creator in this world. Kabbalah allows a person to reveal the Creator, not just to believe in what he had been taught since childhood, not knowing what the upper force is.

Everyone imagines the Creator to the best of his imagination, but the wisdom of Kabbalah does not speak about this blind faith. Kabbalah is the method of revealing the upper force in this world.

This revelation is called “faith” in Kabbalah because faith is bestowal and love of others as of oneself. Due to the human aspiration to get out of oneself and bestow instead of receiving egoistically, one comes closer to the upper force that is good and does good. Then this force is revealed to him.

Everyone should come to this revelation—as it is written, “All shall know Me from the smallest to the greatest among them”—the followers of the three religions and the whole of humanity. This is the program of creation, which we will realize, whether we want to or not.

Meanwhile, we are developing by the path of evolution, and as the wisdom of Kabbalah is hidden, the three religions are preparing humanity to the revelation of the Creator. This preparation happens in the negative form because it reveals the emptiness and helplessness of ordinary faith, lies and lack of understanding, and lack of fulfillment.

In today’s world, religions are mainly used for the separation and division of people. Every religion has many trends within that do not accept each other. The wisdom of Kabbalah is waiting when we discover the emptiness of religion.

Therefore, today’s Jerusalem, which is a holy city for the three world religions, is not a real Jerusalem. Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) represents the “perfect city” (Ira Slemah), in which we all achieve perfection in the relationships between us, complementary to each other.

Connecting with each other, we fulfill the condition under which the Creator is revealed between us according to the law of equivalence of form. If despite all the differences in our religions, faiths, beliefs, and human qualities, we, nevertheless achieve equality and unity, agreeing to ascend above all the differences and cover them all with love, by this we fulfill the condition of the revelation of the Creator within us.

This will be the true Jerusalem.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/7/15

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