After the fall of the Second Temple, the people of Israel went into exile, i.e., completely disconnected from spirituality. This exit happened gradually because the Light fading level after level, Yechida, Chaya, Neshama, Ruach, and Nefesh.

Therefore, in generations of a few hundred years after the destruction of the Temple, there were Kabbalists, who were in its illumination. The spirit of the Temple was still alive in the people because the Light did not leave it immediately and was giving them a sense of belonging to spirituality.

However, eventually this spirit completely disappeared and remained only in rare people. Such chosen Kabbalists existed in each generation, until the time of ARI, the great Kabbalist, who passed all the method of Kabbalah that he discovered to his disciple Rav Chaim Vital. The ARI was unique because his soul came from a special place, from a general point of souls that is called Mashiach Ben Yosef.

Mashiach Ben Yosef is not a person, but a concept. There are many souls that belong to Mashiach Ben Yosef and also few souls that are called, or will be called Mashiach Ben David. We need to perceive it as a spiritual concept and not to tie it to a specific person in this world.

Looking at the history of humanity, it is hard for me to see an external form behind the internal one that is much closer and clearer to me. It is clear what forces act inside and what consequences will certainly follow. I can’t watch the puppets that turn upon the historical scene.

As soon as they distract me, I drift away from the inner essence of the picture and focus on the external form. Then I immediately get into egoistic desires and calculations of people who themselves don’t understand what is happening to them.

History is a very subjective concept. If we compare history books printed in Russia, the US, Israel, and Germany we will see that each of them describes the same events in very different ways, the exact opposite to each other.

So I prefer to stick to the force that spins all these puppets and creates history instead of focusing on the consequences of its manifestation in our world and on the way we explain them in our egoism, based on our emotions and stereotypes.

Also, geography doesn’t exist because Egypt, the land of Israel, the desert, and Mount Sinai in my story are spiritual concepts, different degrees of the ladder of spiritual forces. We should move to such a view of history and geography in order to judge these sciences properly, objectively, and to never be wrong. This immediately eliminates all disputes between historians and philosophers.
[192263]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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The Babylonian exile lasted exactly 70 years. 70 years corresponds to the full cycle of spiritual development that is required to become aware of the exile. The end of the exile is always revealed as a condition: either this will be the place of your burial, or you unite just like at Mount Sinai.

Only at Mount Sinai, it was at the request of the Creator to celebrate the Egyptian exile and escape from Pharaoh, and in Babylon it was thanks to Haman and Mordecai. Mordecai was a prophet and knew that without Haman he would not be able to do anything with the Jews. Haman played the role of the guard dog that assembled the Jews from all 127 countries of the Babylonian kingdom into one crowd.

So they were able to reach unity, return to the land of Israel, and start building the Second Temple. But this unity wasn’t as strong as during the times of the First Temple. It wasn’t their fault; they simply couldn’t do more since they brought additional egoism from the exile.

Besides, this had to happen this way according to the program of the upper system, because the destructions of the First and Second Temples correspond to two stages of shattering of desires in the world of Nekudim. The material development of our world is a direct mechanical consequence of the processes in the spiritual world.

Therefore, the Second Temple didn’t have many attributes of the First Temple. The Second Temple was on the level of Mochin de Neshama, much lower than the First Temple that reached the level of Mochin de Haya. This is a huge difference.

Mochin de Haya is the revelation of the Creator, and Mochin de Neshama is revelation of the relationship of the Creator to the creatures. It is like knowing a person himself, or receive parcels with presents from him sometimes.

Nevertheless, the Second Temple was a very big achievement. Actually, everything has its positive side. They received an opportunity to spread their spiritual knowledge and to write books about it precisely because they didn’t reach the level of Mochin de Haya. This wasn’t the case in the days of the First Temple.

There were many more Kabbalists engaged in spiritual attainment in the days of the Second Temple. The First Temple was like an academy that had only few dozen academics, and the Second Temple was like a normal university, with lower levels, but with thousands of students studying in it.

These thousands of “ordinary” Kabbalists have actually been more helpful to us because they could explain everything in the Mishnah and Talmud, and they wrote many commentaries and books. They allowed themselves to write about it because the attainment came down from the height of the deepest spiritual mysteries and approached the material world.

From the moment the Second Temple was built, it immediately began to crumble because it wasn’t the ultimate goal of development. The clock continued to tick, counting the seconds on the axis of time and leading us to the final point of the path. After all, the ultimate purpose of creation was incorporated in the initial plan and everything was predetermined.

It was clear that the Second Temple is also destined to collapse. However, Kabbalists fought to prevent this destruction, as they did in the days of the First Temple. They fought against people’s fall from the spiritual level and against all of those who welcomed Greek and Roman dignitaries in Israel. Inside the people of Israel there were terrible wars between the Jews.

Kabbalists were appealing to people, urging them to unite. Why did they fight for unity if they knew in advance that the Temple would collapse? The fact is that our work is to go by faith above reason. I don’t want to know what will be in the end in order to fold my hands and wait till the Temple falls. I must work and fight every moment to preserve the sanctity, and whatever will be, will be.

Even if I should die, I must keep sanctity as long as possible. Therefore, there were big wars to protect the Temple. After all, if the Kabbalists resigned to the fact that it will inevitably be destroyed, it would be a great crime since our work must be in faith above reason.

It’s like a sick person’s duty is to go to the doctor, take life-saving medicine from him and drink it, and then thank the Creator for his recovery. This is not clear to an ordinary person.

Today as well, people don’t understand that we need to build our life in sanctity without waiting for when it will happen by itself. This work is above reason and in our time, even inside it.
[192138]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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Desires can’t be killed! They can’t be destroyed; they can only be shut down and not used. The entire world has its purpose and therefore it is impermissible to throw anything away or even to exclude it from use.

This is determined by the attitude to the seven desires (seven nations) that are revealed during the development period called entering the land of Israel. “Land –Eretz” means desire (Ratzon), and “Israel” means straight to the Creator (Yashar-El). If we correct our attitude to the seven big egoistic desires that were revealed, we will neutralize them as if they don’t exist. Then we will become ready to settle in the land of Israel, which means to enter the desire that is directed straight to the Creator (Israel), meaning with an intention to bestow.

All the desires that exist from the times of ancient Babylon went through a shattering, terrible crises, and subsequent development. Therefore it is said about Abraham’s group that it allegedly goes to the land of Canaan, then to Egypt, to the desert, and then enters the land of Israel.

However, in reality these are names of the periods, when deeper, more cruel and egoistic desire was revealed inside the people of Israel, inside Abraham’s group. And we cover it more and more every time, not willing to use it in a criminal and egoistic way for our own sake.

We stay in the quality of bestowal all the time, creating a cover for all the desires that are revealed in us: for Pharaoh (the biggest egoistic desire), and for all the nations that stand in our way. From that moment on we can build such a connection from the corrected desires that we would be with each other not just in mercy, but actually in the intention to bestow.

It means this is not enough to not covet another’s property, when yours is yours and mine is mine, or to appeal to everyone to be friends. We really have to reach the connection of our hearts. Mercy isn’t a connection of the hearts yet, which implies connection of the desires. Therefore, I begin to scrutinize which of my desires can connect with the desires of others.

This is the first and second restriction, when all desires that are incapable of connecting qualities of reception and bestowal (Malchut with Bina) are separated. We refuse to use all this and begin to work only with the desires to bestow and with these desires to receive that annul themselves before them (AHAP de-Aliyah). From these desires we build the First Temple, our first connection in desires.

However this is only part of the correction, since we are under the second restriction and don’t use our real desire to enjoy. By building the First Temple we reach the light Mochin de-Haya with the illumination of Hochma. When we finish construction of the Temple, the upper force is revealed inside our connection. We ourselves lead it to revelation by providing a suitable vessel.

The actual quality of bestowal doesn’t have a form; we define the form with our desires that connect with each other. This is called revelation of the Creator to the creatures. The upper force is revealed inside our desires that are correctly connected to each other. This actually is the Temple.

As soon as the Temple is revealed, all the desires that so far are unable to be included into this connection begin to wake up and present new demands to us. And since their demands are valid, because they emanate from the ultimate goal of creation, its final implementation, we can’t resist them. We begin to be impressed by these desires that are revealed above the height of the Temple.

After all, these desires assure us that it is possible to build the much higher Temple, meaning to strengthen the connection between us! However, we don’t have a cover for such height and so we begin to fall.

In the interpretation of this world it means that wars erupt around the First Temple, characters that are known to all of us appear: K’tzinim (lords and nobles), Pharisees and Sadducees (Prushim and Tzdokim). The war begins inside this big group called the people of Israel.

Eventually, the strife goes so far that the connection between them breaks. And since the internal connection is destroyed, Nebuchadnezzar appears in the external form, who shatters the stony Temple located in Jerusalem. Obviously, this is just a result of the spiritual shattering.

But even before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple, the people of Israel have already fallen into their egoistic desires. And as a result, Nebuchadnezzar expels them from the land of Israel and moves them to Babylon, because they already don’t belong to this land and are not considered Israel (meaning aspiring directly to the Creator).

It is said about Babylon that 127 nations lived in it, and all of them were scattered around it. Internal separation reigned between them, and exactly in accordance with the spiritual root, with the internal state, they were scattered physically.

If you are interested why a person is in Kiryat-Gat or Beer-Sheva, in Haifa or Petach-Tikvah, there is a reason for it as well, and a purely spiritual one. After all, we only move because there is a spiritual reason that moves us.
[192053]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the Jews’ biggest mistake, in addition to their reluctance to correct their desire through the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: There are Jews who hide from their Jewish origin to such a degree that they act against Jews just like anti-Semites, hoping to eliminate their Jewish roots inside them by that.

We can see that in Europe and in the U.S. as they support anti-Semitic candidates for government, who afterward begin to destroy the Jews including those who helped them rise to power.
[192562]

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New Life 705 – Jewish Culture: The Synagogue
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The internal essence of the synagogue is a place where people connect and ask for the power to love one another. Today the attitude to the synagogue is very far from the attitude to a place that the synagogue is supposed to represent.

When Abraham and Sarah gathered people in their tents they taught them to connect and to reveal the upper force in the connection between them. When the Temple was destroyed we drew away from the upper force, from love of others, and the synagogues became formal rituals.

Unfortunately there is no warmth or love in the synagogue today and so people are not attracted to it. They only come to pray and then hurry back home. There is no soul in the synagogue, no spirit of life, and this is a state called exile. In order to come out of exile we need the force of the Messiah, the force that can draw us from exile, from the separation between us to connection, to the revelation of the soul. The Temple and the Ark of the Covenant, and nowadays the synagogue and the Holy Ark, are symbols of spiritual roots.

There is no holiness in stones if there is no holiness in the heart, and holiness is love. We have to pray for the love to be restored between us.

A Minyan, a prayer, reading the Torah, etc. are all symbols of the right connection in which the Creator is revealed. There is no trace of the inner essence of spirituality in all the rituals held in the synagogue these days. One can be psychologically moved by these rituals, but this isn’t the necessary correction of the heart. In the synagogue, all the hearts should melt into one heart in which the force of love is revealed, and the real Torah is the force that can connect all the hearts despite the evil inclination that is revealed.

A Minyan, a group of ten people who come to the synagogue wishing to connect, can reveal the Creator, the force of love between them. The revelation of the force of love in the world is the purpose of development, as it is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”
[179827]
From KabTV’s “New Life 705 – Jewish Culture: The Synagogue,” 3/17/16

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During its evolution, humanity has gone through many preliminary stages of development. It is trying to connect in order to become one man, Adam, like the upper force.

The first time such an attempt was made was in ancient Babylon. Rambam writes the patriarch Abraham gathered many Babylonians around him and organized them into a big group that he later led to the land of Canaan.

Under Jacob’s leadership, they moved to Egypt from the land of Canaan, went through Egyptian slavery, and exited from it under the leadership of Moses. But since they exited ancient Babylon, this group had one constant motto: unity and love your neighbor as yourself.

These weren’t just movements from one country to another. These were stages of development. Their egoism grew and developed, demanding a new method of connection. Abraham’s method wasn’t working anymore because it was suitable only for the period of the forefathers.

This period was over, and a new time had come. Pharaoh symbolized the huge egoism that the group of Abraham had accumulated, and therefore a more effective method of connection was required that was stronger and deeper than the old one.

And then they received the Light that Reforms. In other words, they began to work with the upper force, attracting it through practical attempts to unite. The condition for receiving this force is mutual guarantee. If we are ready to become guarantors for each other, meaning to connect, then we create the quality of unity and love between us, similar to the upper force of nature.

And then on the basis of the principle of similarity and equivalence of qualities, they could attract the positive force of unity, hidden in nature, called the Creator. Although all of nature of this world is based on a negative force, we can attract the positive force and include both of them within ourselves.

Symbols of the negative force that are revealed between them are the golden calf and the numerous other problems and troubles that the Torah tells us about that are haunting them constantly during their wandering in the desert. Despite this, they attract the positive force more and more, until they compensate the entire negative force that is revealed between them with it. It means that they have prepared themselves for the next stage.

This whole process is called forty years of wandering in the desert; it is the acquisition of the positive force that will cover the negative force. In all the egoism that was revealed in them in Egypt, they were given an additional force to enable them to treat each other with compassion. This is called the preparation for entering the land of Israel.

Obviously, we are talking about a new internal state, not about geography nor history.

Entering the land of Israel means that much stronger desires are revealed in them that were not revealed during the previous stage, called the desert. Much stronger egoism is revealed that is called the seven nations inhabiting the land of Israel, which must be destroyed or banished.

Of course, we are not talking about the people, but about the destruction of the egoistic desires inside a person and inside this entire group that is entering a new state, a new level of development.
[192027]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You claim that the solution for all problems is in our unity. I am an historian and have studied the history of the destruction of the First and the Second Temples. The First Temple was built by King Solomon, and I am not sure that there was any unity between the people of Israel at that time.

It also doesn’t look like people knew what unity was during the construction of the Second Temple and afterward during the time of Herod. Anyway, if by “Temple” we mean internal connection and not a material concept, then why do we mourn the destruction of the Temple on the ninth of Av?

Answer: There is a difference between the way historians and Kabbalists study history. Historians study events in the form in which they are seen by us based on the visible facts. The cause for all of the events also derive from the analysis of what they have seen. Therefore, they concluded that there were quarrels and feuds between the people of Israel and that clans were fighting with each other.

Humanity works with the means that are available to it and tries to understand the processes we undergo with their help. Therefore, historians ascribe what has happened to different reasons: economic, personal, and random events.

But the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins from a completely different root. Kabbalah says that the root cause of everything in our world is the force of nature, which has a program. Under this program, the force of nature, which can be called the upper force or the Creator, our reality unfolds.

Kabbalists study the actions of this upper force, try to understand it and ascertain the event which has occurred from its actions, instead of studying events relative to the subjective perception of a person, which depends on his development and his ability to comprehend events and their causes, the way historians do.

A person sees a spectacle unfolding in our world: Herod, Pharaoh, Moses, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. But they all are just puppets on a stage. Can we see the hand of nature that is acting inside the dolls and moving these puppets on the stage?

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with. It explains that creation has a beginning and a final goal. The upper force of nature leads all of the creatures from the beginning of creation to its end so that eventually they will achieve the same level of development and the same abilities as the force of nature itself.

Our desire to enjoy, which is opposite to the force of nature, to the desire to bestow, must develop and reach its worst form, opposite to the Creator and standing against Him. Then, a special creature should appear, which will have a desire to enjoy and a desire to bestow in itself simultaneously. It will be called Adam, a man, because it will be able to become like (Edome) the Creator.

A person is given conditions in which he can grow. He must include within himself qualities that are 100% opposite to the Creator and qualities that are 100% similar to the Creator at the same time. In this way, a person can become a perfect creature, independent due to his opposition to the Creator and equivalent to Him at the same time. This is the development that the Creator planned for creation.
[191959]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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New Life 435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What soul searching do we do during the month of Elul? What do we discover when we engage in such thoughts, and how do we get on a new path toward a balanced and harmonious life?

The Jewish holidays describe the phases on the way to the perfect connection between people and between humanity and nature. The goal is to attain the force of love among people and to become equivalent to nature, to God. There is one law in nature that ties together all its parts, except for mankind, into one system. We are pushed forward by blows until we cry “enough.”

The question is why do we suffer. This kind of soul searching during the month of Elul comes from a special illumination that that Light of the mind shines on us. “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.” “Beloved” refers to the great system of nature which develops us, the Creator.

Our soul searching is about why we quarrel with each other endlessly; why we were created with such an evil nature; how lowly and contemptible human nature is compared to the great pure and beautiful nature.

All the species in nature operate according to their instincts and so they are never wrong, while we go wrong over and over again. Why is that so? Because we try to use our emotions and our mind in order to harm others, and it returns to us.

In the additional mind and emotions we were given compared to the animals, we have freedom of choice.

The conclusion of the month of Elul is that I want to reach a state of balance, the state of “love thy friend as thyself.”
[144313]
From KabTV’s “New Life 435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching,” 9/14/14

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Question: Chronic shortage of electricity has led to the damage of the water purification system in the Gaza strip. As a result of this, the Palestinians are streaming sewage into the sea, and wastewater has reached the reservoir that provides water to the settlements on the border region of the Ashkelon coast. Some ecologists are calling the situation a near ecological disaster. We cannot isolate ourselves from Gaza, not from missiles and not ecologically. What must we do?

Answer: The Turks wanted to build an electrical power station in this area, after all this is a big area with magnificent buildings, swimming pools, and beaches and one and a half million people live there. They certainly should get everything necessary.

They cannot get along on their own because they are completely directed toward war due to their hatred of Israel. Besides, by providing them with free products and resources for many years, we have gotten them used to this. On paper, everything was apparently entered under their “debt,” but they have no intention of paying so they are not doing anything.

During the time that we were involved in building water purification plants and the purification of waste water so that we provided water everywhere in the land for all the situations that can happen in life (a situation that doesn’t exist in even one of the nations in the area), they were not really concerned about their future. It is our fault because we accustomed them to this. We passed the water wells to them and everything that was used by us in the beginning of our way in the area and they neglected everything. Seawater reached all of these systems and they became filled with salt. Now it is impossible to clean them.

What will they do now? They will suffer.

What will we do? We will also suffer because it is up to us to behave differently. But instead, we are supplying them with millions of liters of bottled water.

We must conduct aggressive policies as much as possible and do everything according to different principles, at least submitting documents through international organizations, submitting lawsuits, turning to a court to seriously transfer the matter to a legal track. It is necessary to put pressure on them to examine the manner in which they manage their economy and the fact that international organizations are giving them money to arm themselves and not for humanitarian supplies.

Question: How do you see the solution of this problem?

Answer: Our salvation is in union between us.

We are continuing with our work on unity and this will yield its fruit, because it brings the Upper Light into our world. The Upper Light brings a person to an awareness and understanding of why the world exists, in what manner it develops, and what the role and mission of the Jews is.

And the world is beginning to understand more and more that we have a particular mission and a task and that it affects not only us but the whole world, so it is necessary to make it possible to be realized. Lately I have even heard reactions like these and have seen some sobering here and there.

Let’s hope that we will hold out. We need to be particularly concerned about the connection between us, about unity within the nation, and then all of our adversaries will gradually disappear.
[192269]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/15/16

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Question: How do you see the generation that is growing up that toward the year 2030 will become adults and build the new Israel?

Answer: I only know one thing: we need to educate the nation so that they won’t become just a mixed collection of people from all corners of the world, that they truly will become a nation.

For this to happen, we need to educate them in the spirit of unity that goes above the problems, something that is possible to attain only with the help of the system of integral unity, which comes from the wisdom of Kabbalah. I don’t see any other possibility! Otherwise, all of the nations and the countries will crush us! Just as the world decided and determined to re-establish the state of Israel, so it also will decide to cancel it, and nothing will save us!

The only thing that we can do is to become involved with the education of the nation, and thus provide an example to the whole of humanity, to show what education should include on a national scale and to continue to pass on the system of unity to all of humanity since in the integral world where everything is connected in one network, only humanity is in a state of separation. Therefore, we are experiencing two conflicting systems that are leading us to a global world war.

The wisdom of Kabbalah also warns about this. The time has come to understand what the Jewish State is accountable for in its education, in the usage of its historical mission. It is this with which we specifically need to become involved, not in building a prosperous society because that won’t help us to survive.

Question: Many are convinced that the nation of Israel survived all through history thanks to its culture and customs, including its religion.

Answer: All of that was prior to the Holocaust and the expulsion to exile! Therefore, it’s not worthwhile to reassure ourselves that it will help.

Question: What does it mean that Judaism won’t be maintained?

Answer: If we don’t carry out our mission, don’t come to connection and unity, then from above this opportunity will be taken from us and we will be forced to scatter around the world. Some of us will be destroyed, and some will be assimilated among other nations.
[183193]
From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Independence Day” 4/30/16

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