Question: The people of Israel have an unusual characteristic that is not typical of any other people, an ability to criticize and blame itself. This phenomenon especially received strong expression in the recent war. Even though most of the people wholeheartedly supported the military operation, sometimes pointed and sharp criticism was heard. What is the origin of this phenomenon and what do we do with it?

Answer: There is a very interesting phenomenon among the people of Israel that we don’t see in any other people. For example, you won’t find a Frenchman who will suddenly want to be a Spaniard or Englishman. But among the Jews there are those who don’t want to be Jews and would be happy to be French, or English, anything, just not to belong to the people of Israel.

Is there something flawed in our attitude regarding our people if we have these thoughts? Because of this, people began to criticize its people, its current state, the general attitude and his personal attitude. All this follows from the uniqueness of the people of Israel.

It is not the people according to genetic characteristics; it is not established according to a particular ideology, and it did not sprout from a particular area or from an ancient tribe that with time became a people like all the rest of the peoples. Even though people may wander from place to place, according to their genes they belong to the same father and mother.

That is, some kind of family grew gradually, at first became a village, after that a city, and finally became a whole nation. Humanity came out of ancient Babylon and scattered over the face of the globe according to tribes. Many small peoples and tribes lived in Babylon who later spread all over the globe according to their nature. From them emerged Germans, English, French, Spanish, and all the European nations. Some tribes reached India, China, Japan, and Africa.

This dispersion from Babylon throughout the world happened 3,800 years ago; this is described in great detail, by Josephus in a very interesting way. But of all the tribes of Babylon there were people who joined Abraham according to their spiritual yearning, according to the spiritual principle. They wanted to become connected to each other, to discover the higher power in nature.

This is a unified force that acts throughout the whole world within a general global system, so it is possible to discover it only in a situation when various people connect who formerly were strangers, distant and even hated each other. And if they connect among them beyond the hatred, then they build a general sense of unity.

That is how the people of Israel were created, so a multitude of different opinions and different streams always exists within it. Essentially it is a gathering of representatives of all the tribes that lived in ancient Babylon. From all seventy of the nations of the world, those who left were not willing to remain on the level of a regular mundane nation but wanted to connect and belong to the higher power, to discover and explore it, to reach the goal of creation, its peak.

These people gathered into a group that eventually became the people of Israel. Therefore, within the people of Israel there are the roots of the seventy nations of the world, and on the other hand, there is a spiritual root. The earthly and spiritual roots are opposites, and in addition to this, the roots of the seventy nations of the world oppose each other. Thus Jews are so different, argue with each other, and don’t want to connect. We can connect only during a time of trouble, in contrast to the other nations who feel a mutual connection between them and belong to their people. After all, biologically they belong to the same root, to the same father and mother, whereas this is not so for the people of Israel.

So the people of Israel are a unique nation, one could even say it was created “artificially,” unnaturally. So our enemies justly claim that there is no such thing as the people of Israel. It is a people that cannot be measured by the usual mundane standard.

Only later, after many years, by natural development and mutual integration, have we become something that resembles an ordinary people with our own national characteristics. But also among us are special groups: priests, Levites, and Israel, that are genetically different.

Apparently it is impossible to measure the people of Israel in the usual way and compare it with other nations. We will never succeed in drawing any useful conclusions as a result of this comparison because the people of Israel are a most unique people.

This explains the great self-criticism of the Jews and the divisions within the people. After all, in every Jew there is a spiritual root from the seventy nations of the world, and in addition there is also a spiritual root that determines one’s belonging to the people of Israel.

We once ascended with the help of the spiritual root to the spiritual world. We reached connection; we discovered the one higher power of nature within that. After that, we fell from the spiritual level; we lost the feeling of the higher power and the connection with it. Within every Jew there are Reshimot (reminiscences) from the different states, so he is not able to relax and be at peace with himself, for he is built in a very complicated and variegated form.
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From Kab TV’s “A New Life” 7/22/14

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Abraham and his disciples were forced out of Babylon and wandered to a land that later became known as the land of Israel. This group of disciples aspired toward unity and cohesion in accord with the tenet, “love your neighbor as yourself.” The ego was relentlessly growing within them, too, setting them apart, but they exerted in unity nonetheless. In the words of Maimonides (Mishnah Torah, “Shoftim” (Judges), “Do for others what you would like them to do for you.”

Thus, through the connection, Abraham’s disciples, in rising above their egos,  discovered a new phenomenon: the force of unity, nature’s hidden power.

Science tells us that every substance in reality consists of two opposite forces—connection and separation—and these forces balance themselves out. But individuals, and human society as a whole, evolve using only the negative force, the ego. According to nature’s plan, we are required to consciously compensate for the negative force with the positive force of unity.

However, we don’t possess any of it. Rather, this force exists in nature and we must discover it through building positive connections between us. When Abraham and his disciples offset the power of the ego between them with the force of unity, they discovered the wisdom of maintaining balance. They called that method, “the wisdom of Kabbalah.”

The complete text of the brochure is here.
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Question: Did the followers of Abraham succeed in building a society of justice?

Answer: In principle, they were not attracted to creating a “beautiful,” “socialist” community. They were attracted to the fact that in connection with each other, they attained the next, deeper level of nature.

Abraham told them that the crisis was intended so that they would rise to the next degree in order to reveal the inner force of nature, its meaning, its purpose and development.

In fact, he was standing just one step above them, and they too aspired to ascend there, albeit unconsciously. They did not understand how to do that, how to enter the deeper level of nature, but they had already approached the foot, the threshold, of that degree and thus could hear Abraham. And by opening the door, he told them: “This state of crisis will lead us there. That is why it is needed!”

So, they all became like one family. Isaac succeeded Abraham, Jacob succeeded Isaac. In other words, the family passed the stages of development, called “Abraham,” “Isaac,” “Jacob, “Joseph.” It was he who brought them into Egypt, having gathered all the previous, preliminary degrees and summarized their full potential—and egoism—and striving for spirituality above it. Thus, they went down to Egypt, that is, in sensing the revelation of egoism.

Question: But did they live in unity until then? Didn’t the brothers sell Joseph into slavery? Didn’t he himself foretell that they would worship him? So, there was discord, hatred, between the brothers.

Answer: Of course, and very strongly. It is because they tried to love others like themselves. If you do not aspire to that, you do not reveal the levels of egoism. When everything is smooth, you can manage well. But suddenly some cause, some obstacle, appears, and you have to strive for unity in spite of all the problems.

They arise specifically for you to rise above them, constantly striving towards greater love, greater connection, greater unity. Unity can only grow above a feeling of division.

So, the followers of Abraham gathered more and more tightly in the struggle against their egoism until Joseph brought them to Egypt.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14

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I think that learning the art of good connection with others according to the method of Kabbalah should be a government program, covering all the sectors of society, from the very young to the elderly.

Question: But what about people who are strongly opposed to Kabbalah?

Answer: They just do not know what Kabbalah is. This name scares people, but it is not about mysticism, it is only about connection between people. A person is under the force of stereotypes, but it’s time to clear the wisdom of Kabbalah from them. We simply have no other choice. Unity can only be achieved with its help, and if we do not unite, not only we will not be successful, but, in general, we will have no right to exist.

When the Jews from around the world ask me in letters where they should move to escape from local anti-Semitism, I cannot tell them to move to Israel. How can we ensure safety here if the nation is divided?

If we unite and really become one whole, then it will be the safest place on earth. And it all depends on us. This is the difference between any other point on the globe and Israel where we ourselves define our security through our unity. If we unite here, we will achieve complete security. The strength of unity determines the degree of our security.

Question: How can we measure the strength of unity?

Answer: The strength of unity is measured by how much people are willing to sacrifice their egoism for the sake of others, to neglect their own comfort and well-being as during the war, and by how much they are friendly to each other. Only the strength of our unity will give us security.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/2/14

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Question: For the people of Israel, the discovery of the wisdom of Kabbalah is connected to their responsibility to the world. Will they want this?

Answer: The Creator leads a person to a group and to this type of decision through suffering. The suffering is caused by the fact that either you are searching to discover something by yourself or you are pushed and prodded from behind through all kinds of troubles and problems so that you at least will flee from them in the opposite direction if you cannot solve them.

So we turn to people who are in distress, in considerable trouble. In the past, the Jews already received enough examples of what can happen with them. It is only necessary to open their eyes a bit, without frightening them, but explaining, with the help of facts, where the hatred of the world comes from and what we are obliged and need to give to it. The entire “infrastructure” required for this work is already prepared, and the work itself is incumbent upon us.

We only need to build our message without wasting time and go out with it to people as quickly as possible. Our future depends upon this.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We will not be able to understand the modern global processes if we don’t first understand the state that became the basis, the real reason and the prototype about 4,000 years ago.

Two perceptions of our evolution were formed back in ancient Babylon during a similar crisis of humanity. The king of Babylon Nimrod led the majority along the path of natural evolution while the wise Babylonian priest Abraham called people to ascend to a new qualitative level.

Question: Abraham was a major ideologist and philosopher and a very respectable man, why did he need to start a revolution?

Answer: He looked for a way out and found it in the state that was created in the nation. The circumstances forced them to unite, but people couldn’t live together anymore. On the contrary, the ego grew in them so much that they began to find fault with each other and to hate one another.

Nimrod’s solution was simple and corporeal: “We should simply disperse and live separately, under my leadership, of course.” This is how the residents of a communal apartment disperse in order to stop bickering.

But Abraham had another idea: “We mustn’t disperse because the law of nature is a law, we cannot escape it. The earth will become crowded in the future anyway. We don’t need to invent anything. Nature, evolution requires that we unite. We have to unite above the ego.”

Few, of course, listened to Abraham, several tens of thousands out of three million people. After all, it’s a tough decision and it is much easier to disperse. One way or another, Abraham’s disciples followed him, came out of Egypt and carried the idea of love thy neighbor as thyself, by fulfilling it amongst themselves.

They felt despair at first; they couldn’t live with egoism any longer and wanted to do something with it, get rid of it. This is the reason that they found the goal that Abraham set for them attractive and not the idea of simply living a normal life, not to simply stop cursing and quarreling with one another, but to ascend to something new. It is the ascent to the next level that attracted them because it didn’t require annulment of the ego, but rather using it for the ascent.

Question: What strange people. They didn’t want to live in their own homes, in separate apartments, but preferred the spiritual ascent instead. It turns out that the basis of our nation is these depressed guys that followed Abraham?

Answer: Of course, the depression actually pushed them upwards. They understood the crisis in a totally different way, and they counted on it to help them find a meaning in life, in their existence.

The others examined the crisis practically: “Let’s solve it and carry on with our normal life.”

Eventually people divided very sharply into two groups and their ways were extremely different.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14

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Question: What is required for the practical realization of the method of connection?

Answer: You need to study and  have practical connection exercises, workshops, and roundtables that lead to the unification of the people. We must feel that it is possible to discover the force between us that connects us.

The essence of the method is simple: You need to sit in circles and talk about connection, about the reasons for it, about the goal of the existence of our people, about who we are. The connection raises us above our present state. During a discussion like this, we suddenly discover that within our circle some kind of force, warmth, and shared feeling appears that connects us together.

We suddenly feel that we are close to each other and depend on each other, like in a family and even more. There is some kind of thread inside that connects me with you and you with me. And threads like these are stretched between everyone. The inner network that makes this connection gives us exceptional experiences and a sensation of a new life in which we are connected into a single whole.

This connection raises us to a unique elevated state. We want to remain in that, to protect this spirit that makes it possible for us to rise above this life. All this life acquires a new shape. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us how to attain this unity in order to feel, in our power of unification, the higher component that is ready to change everything in our world.

If we try to discover this force of unification between us, then we discover the higher force that is ready to heal all of the unpleasantness and the problems in our individual lives and in society, in the economy, in politics, and to put order in the whole world.

We begin to radiate this force of unification to the whole world and it will change its attitude towards us. This is because all the nations of the world have been specifically waiting for this from the Jewish people. As proof, it is possible to bring a multitude of statements: both those of the Jewish sages and those of the anti-Semites.

It follows that nothing more is needed besides unification. And the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is the wisdom of connection and unification, must help us with this. So it has been revealed in our day.

So come, let’s learn how to attain the unification of the whole society. And in practice this is summed up in work in circles and with the study of essential questions like these: “Who is a man?  What is connection? How do we advance? What is the goal of creation? What is the mission of the people of Israel in relation to the rest of the peoples? What is the reason for anti-Semitism? How does one heal the entire common collective ego and that which is in each one personally, how is all the evil in the world corrected?”

People will learn all of this in those circles; they will clarify together and discover the power of unification that will heal all of the evil. This must become the permanent work of the people of Israel, our international mission, until we reach complete connection.

Every day, even several times per day, as much as possible, a person must participate in a discussion like this in a circle. There are plenty of unemployed people who have free time, and it is possible to arrange discussions of this type in workplaces, in schools, and on television for those who remain at home.

A circle in which people discuss all of their relationships will become the form of existence of the corrected society: In kindergartens, at school, at work, among retirees. All of the people will learn how to carry out their obligations in relation to the rest of the people: to correct, to unite themselves into one people, and to show an example to all of humanity.

Then all of the people will immediately change their attitude towards Israel and towards the Jewish people and we will truly become a “Light to the nations,” a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” We will become teachers for the whole world.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/2/14

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Question: It is possible to say that Israel is now in a “post-traumatic period” after the last military conflict in Gaza. In connection to this, I would want to understand what is happening with us, and what to expect later. How can we attain some kind of certainty, stability, and hope for a good future?

The war apparently ended and the nation returned to “normal life.” However, it is not understood what kind of a normal life it is possible to speak about at all. After all, the threat has not disappeared and the sensation is quite alarming. All that is left is to wait for the next round of violence and new missile bombardments.

Answer: Returning to normal life is like returning to your mother’s good, comfortable, and peaceful home. However, Israelis are returning to their normal life that is impossible to call normal, and during the latest conflict, additional traumas have been added to them.

It seems to me that the situation today is more stable than at the time of the military operations. At least, everything was clear then. They shoot; we shoot. Now, we are returning to a much more uncertain situation.

During the war, the Israeli society consolidated strongly. The newspapers behaved respectfully and didn’t upset the people with sensational articles. Everything was relaxed. The commotion quieted down because while facing a common threat, we didn’t continue with idle chatter. However, the moment that the military situation ended, everything immediately returned to the previous competition, to everyone’s struggle with their personal interests, to political quarrels.

So, the war ended, but life is felt as less stable than during the war. We hope that we are returning to a secure and normal life, yet this doesn’t exist. However, if the people of Israel will get together and attain some kind of unity, then it will succeed. Specifically then, we will reach stability and security. Many people remember warmly that sensation of unity that appears in times of danger. As long as the missiles fell on us, we felt that we needed each other. We had one desire, one concern. Even though we were frightened, we were together, and some kind of sweetness was felt in this. However, the moment the threat disappeared, we returned again to the previous separation and were ready to “devour” each other.

What gives hope is that, for the first time, people were sorry that we lost the unity that was attained and returned to the previous indifference, returned to building their profitable life at someone else’s expense.

This is not a post-traumatic situation from the last war. Rather, these are new traumas. However, this time, the situation finally began to become clear, and many people understood that the usual situation, when we are found without an external threat, is unacceptable.

The war let us feel what it means to be one people, consolidated, living with concern for each other and not in competition. It is understood that no one wants the reason for this unity to be war, but at least now we have discovered and felt what we are missing.

The problem is only in this: that this unity is attained only under the pressure of an external threat. Baal HaSulam compares our people to a sack of nuts that don’t want to connect and brush up against each other with their shells with a lot of noise, but the sack holds us together. At least from this, a feeling of mutual support with the neighbor, with acquaintances, with every person—every Israeli and citizen of this nation—appears with us.

The moment that the sack tears, all the nuts scatter in different directions, and, again, we have no feeling of belonging to one people. So, again and again, we require new external threats. We see that the higher power will not leave us in peace. We see this according to the anti-Semitism that has grown so much in the world.

I get letters with an identical question from Jewish acquaintances in South America, Texas, and Europe: “Where do you suggest that we go? What are we to do?” I am talking about South American and European Jews who were born in these nations, in these cultures. They are educated, they have good professions, and now they are forced to look where to hide, but there isn’t a place anywhere. They already are thinking, “Perhaps, there is another planet besides planet Earth?” This is how much they feel that there is no place for them anywhere.

I hope that faced with anti-Semitism like this, we will be forced to connect and unite, and then we will survive. If we will become linked more strongly, then we will succeed in everything, and we will win every struggle. No one can do anything to us. It is enough for the people of Israel to unite, and no one will pressure us anymore. The higher management works like this: that, if we yearn for unity, then the external threat and pressure will disappear immediately.

So, everything depends only upon our inner balance and connection, and all the economic, social and political problems and security depend only upon relationships between people, whether the people of Israel live in the land of Israel as a united people. This way, we tilt the entire world’s scale toward the side of merit or the side of condemnation.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/2/14

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It is not that most of the Babylonians disagreed with Abraham; rather, they didn’t feel that this was for them. Only five thousand people felt that he was the bearer of Light for their lives drawing them forward, that he could be their shepherd, their leader, their guide, and that they would follow him. They felt that they were going towards that small ray of light, without worshipping their idol, but they followed him as their leader.

He let them “taste” a little of the positive force. And they understood that in following him they could realize, attain, reach, and discover it. Subsequently this force would be called the “Creator.”

And whereas others “sorted themselves out,” they cut themselves off from Abraham and followed Nimrod, Terah, etc. Only one thing was left for them, the same bad situation, quarrels, and fights between neighbors, that in fact they had nowhere to flee from each other, but they still didn’t understand it. “We have terrible taxes. It is necessary to go somewhere; it is necessary to do something. We are going there, and where are you going? Well, that’s your business! Between you and me, I would not want to go that way at all, but they are going there so I will also go there… or should we go in a different direction?”

As it is said, “Change your place, change everything.” In the pursuit of a better life and on the run from confrontations, people scattered, went in different directions, gradually settling all over the face of the earth. But how long could that go on? They spread out to the degree of the growth of the ego, to the degree of their multiplication and their physical reproduction. They continually developed like this, searching for a better place.

Here it is necessary to understand that a person searches for a better place according to his inner feeling, according to the root of his soul. Ultimately, they spread to those places where their soul was inclined to go, wherever it led them.

In principle, animals operate in a similar manner. They roam the forest, wandering from place to place, and with them everything is measured: Here it is better, here it is worse, here there is lots of sun, here is little sun, here the ground is not suitable, and here there are lots of trees.

In other words, they were searching all the time, they constantly presumed where it would be better for them, where nourishment would be more accessible, where it would be more secure, where to find a mate, where to raise offspring, and so forth. A huge amount of internal information was processed and directed all of their movements.

The same thing happened with the three million Babylonians who followed Nimrod’s concept. The developing ego gave them similar sensations, and a person suddenly understood that the ego was attracting and moving him, one to the beach of the Black Sea, another to Alaska. In this manner they spread over the face of the world.

And then there was a great migration of peoples. And again people moved from place to place, but not just that, rather an eruption of a great egoistic desire moved them, for example, to subdue someone, to impose taxes, etc. But these were only external signs, essentially what was driving them forward was a feeling of the imperative to be nourished somewhere else, nourished internally, spiritually, and mentally.

Conversely, for example the Chinese, for thousands of years didn’t venture from their “corner”; the Japanese didn’t let anyone leave or enter. Such was the static state of the soul. And on the other hand, what culture, what civilization! Everything developed only within, with their unique problems and conclusions.

And so the Babylonian tribes dispersed and settled, each one found his place according to his soul. Josephus Flavius writes about this in detail: Some of them went to the land of Ashkenazi, others went to England, France, Spain, to the East, to Africa, etc.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14, Part 4

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Question: The physical forces, electromagnetic, gravity, and subatomic, influence inanimate matter. Is it possible to say that the upper force of the Creator acts similarly and moves people?

Answer: Certainly, the entire still, vegetative, and animate nature also moves under the management of the Creator who holds all the parts of creation in a single system. But the main thing is His influence in regard to us, in regard to the higher human level of nature.

It is important that our “speaking” level, the mind and heart, human thoughts and desires, should be compatible with the thoughts and desires of the Creator. This is because the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate act instinctively in coordination with the higher force. We have no control over them and we cannot manage the systems that are functioning within our body. But we want our thoughts and desires to be similar to the Creator. Then everything will be okay.

We are always working only with forces; they surround us in our lives on all sides. And the Creator is simply the collective force that manages and activates everything. Instead of some humans, governments, and nations, it is necessary to see the force that influence all these movements. There is nothing besides the upper force.

We see that we don’t determine anything by ourselves. Everything is developed according to some higher plan and we must be aware of it and be integrated into its realization.

Question: Is our brain prepared to absorb this higher knowledge?

Answer: We must absolutely attain the higher force. Abilities like these are latent within us. Our mind and heart will be joined to the general system and can be used within it to an infinite degree.

It doesn’t matter that I have a small computer. Rather it is connected through a cable to the computer of the Creator and I get all of His resources, while in my computer I use only a keyboard.

The wisdom of Kabbalah can carry out changes like this in a person. It explains to him, teaches, and educates by way of the teachers, the Kabbalists.

Question: What will help a person change his opinion of the higher power, to be freed from the stereotypes, and to open himself to cooperation with it?

Answer: There are two contributing factors here: On one hand, there is the pressure of troubles and suffering, and on the other hand, there is the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We hope that the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah will expand so much that there will be no need to be pushed from behind through troubles and suffering.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: Preparing the People of Israel for Light” 8/20/14

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