Until the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (temple), or until the fall from the spiritual level, the people of Israel understood that it was found “under treatment” by the Creator, the Higher Force. This is talking about a force that preceded our reality. This is the power of bestowal and love. And so it created the creatures with an opposite desire, reception.

We cannot be released from this desire. This is because we were created from it; it is our essential “substance.”

But to it we can add an intention to bestow. For this, the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to resemble the Higher Force, which is the bestower. And even though I am “woven” from the ego, from the desire to receive, I acquire a new form for it, a new external expression, an inclination towards bestowal.

In this manner I include within me two forces:

• My natural receptive force, from which there is nowhere to flee.
• The force of bestowal, an example of which I receive from the Creator.

I can acquire the power of bestowal from the Creator that will make it possible for me to limit my receptive power and not use it. It is impossible to nullify it because it is me. But I can decide that I won’t activate it on the “speaking” level and will use it only on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate, only to satisfy the essential needs. I will have food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge, but to a particular limit that I myself determine for myself.

And in everything else I act only according to the power of bestowal that I get from the Creator. I develop it more and more, so that next to my beastly body I grow the image of man, Adam, the one who resembles (Domeh) the Creator.

Actually, this power of bestowal, the power of the Creator, has been latent in the people of Israel from the start. It has remained in us since we received it, but now it is concealed. But we can revive it.
[150522]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/25/14

Related Material:
The Unity Of The Nation And The Wisdom Of Kabbalah
Spiritual And Physical Exile
Short Stories: From Wandering In The Desert To The Last Exile

Filed under: Education, Israel, Nations of the World - No Comments →

Question: Israel’s reputation today in the international arena, mildly speaking, is lamentable and continues to deteriorate. Why is this happening? After all, the historical contribution of our people is enormous.

We gave mankind the Old Testament, the foundations of law, ethics, morality, and much more. In fact, we are talking about a huge impact on the world.

These days it seems that everything is finally over and cut off from us. Should we perhaps re-awaken their potential? Is it time to look back and take a closer look at our own history?

Where did we come from? What ancestral properties define our role among the nations? We have experienced a boom and then went into a long exile, but left with special “baggage” and began to affect the world. What is this “charge” which remains with us everywhere?

Answer: First of all, the period when we were the country and the people is radically different from subsequent events. We ourselves have caused the destruction of the Temple and therefore went into exile.

For generations, from the time of entry into the land of Israel, from the time of Joshua and before, the collapse of our people in varying degrees was in the revelation of the Creator, the Upper Force. Kabbalists were always among us, people knew about them, spoke to them, and they influenced people in their turn.

The era of the prophets, kings, and so on were replaced, but there was a gradual decline after the spiritual peaks of the First Temple. Sometimes there were bursts of “residual” rises, but the overall trend led us down.

In the framework of this process, the Babylonian exile, after the fall of the First Temple, in a spiritual sense, was above the era of the Second Temple. It was a higher comprehension and sensation of the meaning of life , for the disclosure of the Upper Force, which accompanies, took care of, and developed us to become “a Light to the nations.”

The rollback lasted a long time, but before the collapse of the Second Temple, the prominent milestones, people knew and understood that they were “under the care of” the higher power.

Only in the last exile did we begin to shut ourselves down, to be removed from it, but not right away. For another hundred years, people have been depressed by this loss. Memory of the past still lives in us, as evidenced by the Book of Lamentations.

Moreover, the people knew in advance that there was no alternative, and they would have to go into an exile. However, they still had to fight it by trying to take the development along the good way, the path of acceleration.

In general, we always have two paths in front of us: the timely and the accelerated ways. The timely way in which we go under the strict influence of the forces of nature, according to the terms laid down in the general program.

The path of acceleration is where we can speed up the time and sweeten the stages by developing faster than nature requires us to. We are drawn to the future state, mobilizing forces in our environment. It depends on our unity, how eager we are to return to unity despite the egoism that dissociates us.

In order to “stay ahead of time,” pleas, prayers, and invocations are necessary to leverage the Upper Force for help. And then we develop in a good way when united.

Thus, on the one hand, we must recognize that our fall was going to happen, and that it is directed from above, and on the other hand, we must admit that it is caused from above, that we below could not move our development to a different path, a more favorable one in our eyes and in the eyes of a Upper Force.

After all, there are laws according to which at each point of the historic axis we must go through a certain state, experience a certain revelation of egoism of the human nature. Such revelation can take both a positive and a negative form.

By “accelerating” on the right path, I manifest my egoism since it is necessary for the egoism’s correction. In this case, I am not afraid because I know beforehand that it will be unpleasant, and I store appropriate strength, certain details of perception, and connection with friends, so together we would control the revelation of this “monster.” We are not afraid of it as joint forces can keep it in check so that it will not attack us.

Question: It is said that the Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred. Does this mean that we were not able to cope with the egoism?

Answer: Yes, the egoism broke free and scattered us away from each other. This alienation is called hatred. The hatred is really causeless, and I find vitality in this for myself. I feel good and nice to hate everyone. Such hatred manifests differently in our relationships, taking such forms that have no justification, no reason. Egoism rages in everyone by causing the contention.

Today we see how the hostility covers the whole world. Strife and conflict multiply, and like all naughty children, we sink into the mire of conflict by finding nothing else to do while walking on the brink of a major war.

So, the people of Israel lost the ability to curb their egoism and to stay on top of it. “Love your neighbor as thyself, a great Torah rule!” Rabbi Akiva shouted, “Let’s go back to love! Otherwise as a result of our hatred we will end up with the collapse of the Temple, the collapse of the people, and the collapse of the country, the end of everything.” But he was not heard.
[150455]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/25/14

Related Material:
Spiritual And Physical Exile
Short Stories: From Wandering In The Desert To The Last Exile
Like Sheep Facing Wolves

Filed under: Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World - No Comments →

Question: Irrespective of the abundance of problems that Israel undergoes nowadays, often we are the ones who add to the list of the troubles. Lately, the question of the legally enforced status of the “Jewish state” was presented to the general public.

Actually, the general public has to recognize that Israel is a national homeland of the Jewish people from all over the world that has the right for self-realization and self-determination. Besides, the new law will state that the land of Israel is the historic homeland of the entire Jewish people.

Answer: Never before were such questions raised in the Diaspora. We “sat quietly” around the world going about our business.

When we were given the opportunity to return to the land of Israel, the question of what laws should we live according to in this country emerged.

The biblical concept of “the holiness of the land” is not applicable to the current situation in Israel. It applies only under the condition that the Temple exists. That’s why this territory cannot be called “the land of Israel.” Such terminology refers to the future, to the time of the Messiah’s arrival as part of the faith of the people or to the time when good relationships among us will be set up.

If we refer to the roots, we still have to find correct definitions of terms such as “the people of Israel,” “the land of Israel,” “the State of Israel,” and “the Jews.” Also, we have to define the notions of “the countries of dispersion,” “the countries of the world,” and the “nations of the world.” These terms need thorough clarification. We have to understand in what way our laws are different from the laws of any other country in the world.

There is an apparent difference between the people of Israel and the nations of the world. We are aware of this dissimilarity irrespective of whether we live in this country or are dispersed around the world. Both in Israel and out of its borders, we see a very specific attitude to the Jews on behalf of the nations of the world. For example, we are blamed for causing troubles all over the world.

After a policeman shot an African-American citizen in Ferguson, huge banners appeared on the streets broadcasting that this accident happened because of Israel and is a result of the Jewish confrontation with Palestinians. Any event, even those that have nothing to do with the Jews, turns out to be “because of us.” It has always been like that. We can see that these incidents happen all the time. This tendency is built in their foundation.

That’s why we should realize what exactly happens with and around us. Anti-Semitism is caused by the fact that we are really a special nation created by Abraham on the principle of loving our neighbors as ourselves. In accordance with this principle, we have to live in brotherly love with each other so that we all are friends and nobody does to others what one hates for oneself. This is the condition of mutual guarantee, unity, reciprocity, when everyone takes care of others and others care about one.

Abraham gathered his students from all over ancient Babylon and created a group that later became a nation. It happened three thousand years ago. In essence, the Jews are not an ethnicity in the traditional meaning of the world; rather, they are Abraham’s assembly, the descendants of the Babylonians who joined Abraham under the slogan of brotherly love.

It doesn’t matter what tribe or ethnicity each of them came from. If anybody wanted to make a “dome of love” above things that separated them from each other, if one was ready to devote oneself to establishing connection instead of detachment, then one joined the brotherhood and became a part of the people of Israel. These men regarded themselves as a unified whole, not as separate entities. That’s what Abraham taught them.

This is the basis of the people of Israel. This is where our Torah, a study of unity, comes from. We are not united by ethnic roots. Each person in the world can become a Jew if he or she wants to be united with others and to live in accordance with the law of love.

In fact, the law of love is a law of the Jewish character. The goal of the people of Israel is to carry the entire world to understand one unified principle: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” In other words, the goal is bringing people to unity where there is no inequality or distance whatsoever. This is the goal of creation. We all have to attain it.

That’s why it is said that we have to be “the Light for the nations”; i.e., our task is to explain this notion to the whole world and help other nations attain the ultimate state.
[149613]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/30/14

Related Material:
The Jewish Character Is Unity
Time To Justify What Was Received In Advance
Regulators Of Spiritual Traffic

Filed under: Dissemination, Education, Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World - No Comments →

Question: This burning topic of relationships has become vitally important in our time in the ruling circles and their negative impact on society under their leadership.

Governments get replaced, but each time the same situation returns. Only the actors and forces change, but the dynamics remain the same.

There are several main parties striving for power, and they are constantly at war with each other, trying to trip each other. If I beat you today, then all you do from this moment until the next election is try to knock me over.

And so a politician who came to power and wished to make changes conceived by him is unable to do anything because the rest of his opponents are trying hard to make sure he fails.

The next election comes, someone else wins it, and all the other opponents begin to interfere with him and try to trip him up. Everything returns to square one. By this time, the whole country is suffering from the fact that politicians are trying to blame each other within the government. This only hurts the citizens more.

This is our reality today. Why does this endless struggle take place and most importantly, how can one change things for the better?

Answer: It is natural that there is a struggle for power, because we are all egoists. A person who battles through towards the power often times is more egoistic than a simple person, because one rises to this level. In the ruling apparatus, the one or two hundred leaders and several thousand officials are the biggest egoists of all.

Therefore, a very heated and aggressive environment exists in which problems, bribery, and fraud are concentrated. This is natural. This is not a property of any particular country because it happens everywhere. In some countries it is less pronounced, like in Scandinavia, which is traditionally characterized by a rather quiet way of life and socialist values.

The same struggle for power takes place in all other countries of Europe and in America. As countries develop, they become players in the same governmental games. It is like a boiling cauldron that continually boils on top of a strong flame versus simmering over of a low fire.

Question: Let us say we have politicians who have agreed to go to the polls together, and managed to win in a coalition. Prior to that, we had a common interest that held us together. We came to power and were able to have useful reforms. If we continue to work together, at least in this cadence, things will go well.

But it does not work! Despite the general interest to remain in power, we cannot act as partners. There are endless selfish games and intrigues, which do not allow us to achieve any success. Why does it happen?

Answer: These are egoistic games that cannot be avoided. Egoism blazes inside us and demands us to climb higher and higher, walking on other people’s heads to get there. Only in this case, a person feels successful, strong, and special. Therefore, this egoism, still engaged in a struggle, picks a new intrigue without any justifiable reason. This is the life for egoism, otherwise it does not feel itself as living.

Comment: But in the end, it harms everyone, including the one who started the conflict.

Answer: It does not matter. While this intrigue takes place, it fills our lives. Our selfishness incites us to fight, even in situations where there is almost no chance of winning. We become aware that we are at a loss and still keep moving towards the conflict because we cannot stand the quiet life. In everyday reality, there are no jokes and no life. Egoistic struggle, conflicts, and frictions give us a sense of life.

This is why we engage in social fighting as rival mafia clans or as children who fight in the yard. Boys fight all the time, even if they are brothers. Otherwise they do not feel like they are alive. If we force everyone to sit quietly in the corner, then this simply becomes death for these people.

The struggle lies in our egoistic nature, and this is why everyone is susceptible to it, starting with small children up to top politicians.
[150436]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/23/14

Related Material:
The Right to Choose, Part 3
The Right to Choose, Part 2
The Right to Choose, Part 1

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Israel Today, Nations of the World, Politics, Society, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Two ideologies, Hebrew and Greek, collided in the days of the Maccabees. The first one spoke of the good neighbor, the second one spoke of a person’s benefit at the expense of others.

This conflict is still relevant today. After all, the Jewish approach is not an abstraction; it is a highly specific and practical way for modern times. This is not just a perception of the world, but also are instructions for daily use.

In the days of the Maccabees, these instructions allowed them to win the spiritual war for the perception of the world, for the relationship to nature, to a person, to one’s existence and essence, and most importantly, to the goal of one’s life. The Greeks saw the purpose of life as a material success, a good body, and the Maccabees, on the contrary, intended to raise the spirit for the sake of why a person lives.

Question: Why was the victory of the Maccabees temporary?

Answer: Because there is a program of creation according to which we were supposed to hold out for some time before the destruction of the Second Temple.

In general, throughout history mankind develops in increasing egoism, and the people of Israel developed spiritually from the time of Abraham through Egypt, through the building of the First Temple, and then the throwback occurred from this high spiritual level until the collapse of the Second Temple two thousand years ago; it did not end our tendency to unite for the sake of revelation of the Creator.

With every generation growing egoism increasingly divides us, and today we see firsthand that there are no people as such, but only a collection of exiles.

Everything is built into the program of development of the world. Moreover, it is said that at the end of the twentieth century we begin to work on the integration of the people, where in our unity we reveal the upper force. But it will be a complete deliverance, as we will lead all mankind to follow us.

In general, the term “deliverance” means the disclosure of the upper force. In the course of its development, mankind must form the ability to reveal the Creator (Bore), which means “come and see” (Bo-re). In other words, we need to develop in a particular process until we reach the stage at which we “see” the Creator and will reveal Him in all of the formed sensations.

Having reached this stage, people feel themselves living in a higher dimension, out of the body. The body is there, but its importance is diminished; it disappears. Now people employ different feelings, the feeling of bestowal, love, and unity between them. And then all the small, egoistic feelings related to the animal body, our primitive relationships, gradually come to naught.

Just as we mature, childhood and adolescence pass. Over time, we leave our games and youthful fun in the sandbox.

The same thing goes for the spiritual path; starting the “game” in the upper world, in higher forces, a way out of themselves from the human body, we reveal the super-reality. And then our past, “childish” games fade and dissipate.
[150105]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

Related Material:
What Did The Maccabees Fight Against?
The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 2
The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 1

Filed under: Education, Egoism, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: In every person such an immense ego has grown that he feels that he is a king. How will this look if he corrects his ego and hatred towards others into love?

Answer: First of all, we clarify that all of us depend upon each other, like organs of a single body. Therefore we have no choice; we must connect with each other mutually and correctly so that everyone will work for the good of everyone. The system that is built by us must be integral, closed, and whole.

To the same degree to which we approach relationships like these, by mutually completing each other, to this degree we begin to feel the power that is working within us. Between us, and within our connection, the integral force that we call “higher” is revealed.

We begin to discover this a bit even in a regular workshops and during discussions in circles that we arrange in different places including on the streets. That is how we demonstrate to people how, with the right connection, even a spontaneous connection like this that lasts only an hour, it is possible to feel a kind of force, a unique mood, a feeling that is unusual. Something is changed, and even the world seems different.

Question: What is this unique thing that the integral force brings into our lives?

Answer: This integral force obligates us to change our lives to be similar to it. Everyone becomes consolidated, connected, and each one feels everyone else.

Question: Where will that powerful ego that obligates each one to feel that he is like a king disappear to?

Answer: The ego will remain, since we connect above this ego! As it is said in Proverbs 10:12: Love covereth all transgressions. Each one will feel that he is a king, and specifically with his royal power, he will want to make everyone happy. He will want to be a good king. Why do you think he will be an evil despot?

Question: But if each one feels that he is a king, how will all of these kings get along together?

Answer: In an integral system, each individual is as important as everyone else. This is because if he doesn’t perform his role, the entire system will break down.

Question: And who obliges each individual to perform his role?

Answer: The system maintains and supports a person and obliges him to act, and so he gives everything to do so. This mutual support is called a covenant, the power of Arvut (mutual guarantee), which must exist between everyone.

Question: Is there a chance that Israel will become stable?

Answer: We will be ready to do this since no other choice will remain. But the question is, will we reach this through the way of suffering or thanks to an understanding and awareness by which it is possible to advance by a short and pleasant way?
[149545]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/9/14

Related Material:
The Right to Choose, Part 3
The Right to Choose, Part 2
The Right to Choose, Part 1

Filed under: Globalization, Group Work, Israel, Israel Today, Kabbalah Dissemination, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator, Nations of the World, Society, Spiritual Work, The Creator, Unity, Workshops, World - No Comments →

We can only solve our problems on the social level through the relationships between us. Humanity is a general system, a general body, which should be managed properly so that it will feel good at any moment of its existence.

What form should humanity take on as it develops? It is clearly advancing towards a certain state, a certain form, towards some goal. We are changing and the world around us is also changing, and we develop for better or for worse.

The question is what does nature demand of us? Studying the laws of nature in the last decades, we begin to realize that nature is a whole integral system in which every component is connected to all the other parts, just like in the human body.

Therefore, all the parts should match each other and not oppose one another. Even if it seems that way, it is only because we don’t know how they integrate.

Nature has provided humanity with optimal conditions, except for the connection between people. These should be connections of a new quality so that we do not advance by blows, by the ego, hate, deceit, wars, and dominating others.

Now we are all cooking in one pot. If something bad happens to someone, it will eventually be bad for everyone. In this global world we have to build a homogeneous society in which all the people are equal, are properly connected to one another and mutually complementing one another. Such a society is based on the principles of equality, the right connection in which there is room for everyone, the right education for children and adults, and mutual concessions, until together, we reach connections of love. After all, there cannot be certain parts that wish to devour the others in one body, unless it is cancer.

Question: What is the complementary work needed between all the parts in regard to Israel?

Answer: Israel needs this much more than anyone else. It is because the Israeli nation must be the first to realize this process and to fulfill it in order to set an example to others, to be light unto the nations. The role of our nation in the world is to be a model nation. This is the reason that we are hated because we show everyone the opposite and set a negative example.

Question: How is the development of the Israeli society expressed in the plan of nature?

Answer: It should be a commune, a connection, according to the principle of “all of Israel are friends,” and “love thy friend as thyself,” so that no one would fail, there would be no great or small, and everyone should be equally connected. Everyone should only worry about the maximum connection between people in mutual complementation.

This is exactly how the human body, how every organ, complements all the others, and as a result, the body functions properly.

Question: Would a certain leader who could understand the plan of our evolution and could see at least one or two steps ahead win the trust of the public?

Answer: No. He would first have to explain his approach to the public and prove it by bringing evidence from science and from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and thus gradually get the public accustomed to the new model. It is because people only want to solve their daily problems and that’s all.

Therefore, they should first be prepared to understand the current situation and what is going on, why we are called the nation of Israel, why the whole world relates to us in a special manner, and what we should be. It is because according to nature’s plan we are the most special of all the nations and we cannot escape our role.

Question: And what if the people didn’t believe this, would we develop differently?

Answer: No. In that case, nature will oblige us to fulfill our role, but only under the receiving of hard blows. If we don’t want to understand and accept this role, we will accept it under the pressure of problems and troubles, including wars and even nuclear wars.

Question: If a certain leader could perceive nature’s plan and advance along the right track, what specific steps should he take?

Answer: First he should bring the educational plan to the whole nation by using media, schools, kindergartens, and workplaces. Education refers to knowing nature. In Gematria (numerology) nature (Teva) and God (Elokim) have the same value. Let’s recognize who governs us and what He wants of us. This is the only way to improve our life and prosper.

This is what happens to a child who doesn’t listen to his parents, but later eventually understands and does what his parents require. Then of course their attitude towards him changes for the better. Thus, this means that we reach the solution for all our problems, including health problems, wars, the high cost of living, etc. Everything will work out and advance smoothly, and thus we will receive everything, even before we ask for it.
[149467]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/9/14

Related Material:
The Jewish Character Is Unity
The Right to Choose, Part 2
The Right to Choose, Part 1

Filed under: Group Work, Israel, Israel Today, Kabbalah Dissemination, My Similarity to the Creator, Nations of the World, Society, Spiritual Work, The Creator, Unity, World - No Comments →

Question: You say that the Maccabees were fighting for a spiritual, altruistic approach for the sake of the world and for the sake of the place of the person within it. How exactly is the spiritual reality connected to relationships between me and other people?

Answer: It determines the principle of, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The person comes to a perception of the external reality in that he begins to place the other above himself. And this is the difference between the Jewish approach and the Greek approach. That is what the Maccabees were fighting for.

Well today, the egoistic approach is typical of everyone, including the Jews.

Question: How are these two approaches connected to a relationship with the Creator if in principle this is talking about relationships between people?

Answer: I try to go out of my ego, out from my personal interests, towards others. We build relationships like these in a group where the friends become more important in my eyes than I am to myself.

Everyone in our group wants to attain the perception of a higher reality, but for this we must go beyond the limits of our five corporeal senses, rising above them. And we rise when we place a new sense based on bestowal above our egoistic perception, on love of others.

The Kabbalists described this work in a very precise and clear form. And if we act in a form like this, then among us we discover that some kind of altruistic force surrounds and envelops us. Previously it evaded our perception, whereas now we feel that we must discover and feel it.

For this I must become like it, acquiring a similar power of bestowal and love. Only to the degree of inner changes like these can I feel the upper force that dwells outside. Otherwise, I simply cannot absorb it, I am blind to it.

But first we are born as “Greeks,” each one focuses on himself. This is absolutely natural, also it cannot be otherwise. It is said: “…the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21) and further, it is said: “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b). In other words, it is specifically the creature, the ego, the evil inclination, which dominates every person.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that it is necessary to rise above this essence, to transform the ego, and instead of hating the other, loving him.

Question: For whom is this “operating system upgrade” designed? Is it just for Jews or for everyone?

Answer: It is for everyone. Each one is ready for this if he has the appropriate inclination and drive for this. And gradually, with the general development of humanity, we will reach a time when this inclination will be awakened among many. Everyone can, and ultimately each one will be obliged to “upgrade.” Starting from the current stage, over several generations, everyone will come to this.

Question: Suppose that a person, in his work on himself succeeds in creating an inner change like this. What does he get from this?

Answer: He acquires life in another world where only the power of the Light dwells, meaning the power of bestowal and not the power of reception. The person identifies with it and finds himself in a world that is all good. There is no more competition; there is no evil, but only eternity and perfection.

This is what we acquire when we change ourselves, rising above life and death, above evil towards the good.

This “upgrade” is not realized by someone outside, it is not through a “click” on some super-computer; rather, we ourselves carry this out. I do everything by myself, consciously and deliberately, and so I feel and acquire the entire reality of the creation.
[150109]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

Related Material:
What Did The Maccabees Fight Against?
Changing The Old Program
The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 1

Filed under: Education, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The whole Torah is only about a person’s inner states. Jacob’s family of only seventy people reaches Egypt and settle among the Egyptians. The seventy representatives of the Israeli nation are the seventy major altruistic attributes that go down into the desire to receive, into their ego.

First they reach high positions in Egypt and become managers, but gradually the Egyptians, meaning a person’s egoistic desires, begin to enslave their altruistic attributes and subdue them.

Question: Why does the Israeli nation go down to Egypt?

Answer: The point is that it is impossible to develop spiritually in this world and advance to the spiritual world if you don’t ascend to new levels on the spiritual ladder, which is supported by your ego. The levels of the spiritual ladder are built from the material of the human ego, and the more the ego grows, the higher a person ascends by increasingly overcoming it. This is the only way to ascend from this world to the level of the upper world, from Malchut to Bina.

Therefore, it is impossible to manage without the slavery in Egypt, without Pharaoh, and without all the wicked figures that are revealed that the Torah tells us about. They are all in your heart.

The children of Israel go down to Egypt since there is famine is the land of Israel, meaning that there is nowhere to advance spirituality if you don’t attach your ego to it each time, correct it, and then ascend. This is the only way the spiritual levels are built. Therefore Jacob’s family has no choice but to go down into the ego.

However, they didn’t take into account that a new king rises in Egypt, “a new king that didn’t know Joseph.” The new Pharaoh is the same desire to receive that suddenly begins to grow sharply in a person. A person wants to develop the attribute of bestowal within him, dreams about ascending this life to a more sublime form of existence. Suddenly, arising in him, he sees only thoughts and desires that pull him away from this and which hold him by his arms and legs..

He feels as though a heavy load has been placed upon his shoulders. This means that a new king rises in Egypt that does not know Joseph. The new ego does not want to play games with a person, has no accounts with him, and only wants one thing: that you should work for him like a slave.

It obliges you to live like everyone else in this world, like all the Egyptians, and to be even more egoistic than them. Unfortunately, the Israeli nation today manages to be loyal slaves of the ego.

The Jews win Nobel prizes and are very successful the world over and even take pride in the fact that they are more successful corporeally than everyone else. We have taken the greatest pride in being the European basketball champions, have learned the Greeks’ games and began to play these corporeal games even better than they did..

Our ego is ready to work for its own benefit and this is called Pharaoh. If the desires for bestowal, spirituality, connection, and unity, which should be an example for everyone, are revealed within us, Pharaoh which is the force of the ego that manages us, immediately kills them.
[150012]
From KabTV’s “The Torah Chapters with Shmuel Vilozni” 12/15/14

Related Material:
See How Good Our Pharaoh Is!
The World Is Weary From Working For The Greedy Pharaoh
A Good Pay For The Labor In Egypt

Filed under: Egoism, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work, Torah, Unity - No Comments →

We should understand that the Jews didn’t enjoy the Greek culture, as contemporary authors try to portray. They simply don’t understand the inner essence of the Jewish people and what it meant to be a Jew in the land of Israel, the people of Israel in the country of Israel in those days.

The Greek and the Jewish ideologies are two basically opposite perspectives. All the other ideologies, such as the Greek ideology or other ideologies stemmed from man, who is a corporeal creature, an animal, an egoist. A person can only come up with an ideology that is aimed at his own corporeal, physical benefit.

The ancient Greeks, by the way, loved athletics and sports. They built stadiums, held Olympic games, and on the whole were inclined to hedonism. Basically anything that helps a person advance towards the goal of creation is good, but if I simply enjoy strength, agility, and stamina as long as the body is alive, I live for it.

This is also true with regard to other philosophical, esthetic concepts. They are all corporeal and they all stem from the five senses of our body and do not exceed their narrow perception.

The problem is that this limitation is evasive and cannot be noticed unless a person ascends above his five senses and says goodbye to his body and rises to a higher level, not after his death but rather here in this life.

The idea is to perceive reality above the five corporeal senses that are a desire to understand, to know, and to feel what is around us. All of a person’s senses perceive everything in an egoistic manner, internally, according to the principle of absorbing into one’s self. In such a state they cannot perceive more that what is dictated to them by the limitation of time, motion, and place as well as by the tolerance of each sense organ.

It is on the basis of this perception that the Greeks established their science and the realm of myths, which includes earthly fairytales regarding the relationships between their gods. This is how they imagined the laws of nature, in the form of an Olympic pantheon where the gods flirt with one another, get married, get divorced, live in peace or quarrel…

This is a very primitive picture, which of course is totally wrong. Therefore only children’s books remain of it for the next generations and I don’t recommend them because they establish a wrong conception of nature in a person.

Consequently only the basics of nature and scientific terminology are left of all of the ancient Greek culture.

As for the traditional Jewish perspective, it is actually inclined outward. In its framework we don’t need to absorb data from nature and to process it by our feelings and our mind, no. We need to exit ourselves and be incorporated in others outside ourselves. Thus we improve our tools of perception and make them unlimited and infinite.

After all, I exit myself, leaving my body, not wanting to remain in it. It only limits me and doesn’t allow me to understand things the way they really are. I cannot even really feel anything since I am imprisoned in the narrow limits of my senses.

What is more, when I perceive information through my five senses I process it by calculating my personal gain. It is inevitable because this is how my body operates due to its egoistic force. Therefore, out of the whole world that surrounds me, no matter what it may be, I only perceive what can enter my five egoistic senses, which is surely in my benefit or may bring me harm in the limits of a certain sense.

We don’t distinguish all the other phenomena around us. At the same time we can use instruments that do expand our boundaries a little, but we also perceive this information through the prism of our personal gain.

It turns out that if I want to be a real researcher I have to be independent of everything. Is that possible? After all, I was born an egoist, and by definition I only see what is good or bad for me, what is pleasant or unpleasant, beneficial or harmful.

I filter the flow of external data automatically and subconsciously, isolating only what my ego regards as worthwhile and ignore everything else. This is the reason that we all see the world and assess it differently.

At the same time, there is a different perception that is opposite from the natural Greek perception. According to that perception, I have to transcend what happens to me here on this planet, exit my ego, and ascend above myself with my self, if I want to be a true, independent, objective scientist, which cannot be found in the ordinary format of this world.

There is a method, which by a series of exercises and with the help of the environment and the friends, allows an ordinary person to perform such changes in him: to expand his natural perception and add a super natural perception to it, which means a perception that operates beyond a person’s natural ego.

Thus I can develop additional senses inside me that are not based on absorption internally but on bestowal, when I am ready to give, to love, to bestow, and am ready to be above myself. Love and bestowal are opposite from the perception of receiving, self-enjoyment, and hatred.

It is by such an approach that I begin to notice the reality that is beyond my egoistic vessels of perception. These vessels perceive merely two miserable percent of the whole spectrum and also distort the picture by presenting it to me in the form of this world to me.

Even physicists today say that they have reached a certain limit and that they cannot transcend it. Although there is undoubtedly something beyond that, they don’t know how to touch what is hidden on the other side…
[150006]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

Related Material:
The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 1
Live According To The Mind Or According To Love
Chanukah Is In A Person

Filed under: Body and Soul, Israel, Kabbalah Study, Nations of the World, Religion - No Comments →