Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does Tisha B’Av commemorate?“

Tisha B’Av is a very important and prominent state in the development of creation. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Tisha B’Av commemorates the ruin of the Holy Temple, i.e., the shattering of the vessels, the state when we lost consciousness (i.e. the shattering or ruin) of our connection as a single entity (i.e. the Holy Temple). In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn extensively about this state of shattering and how important it is, because there cannot be correction and connection without corruption and shattering. Therefore, on one hand, there is great joy in the opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us, and on the other hand, there is sorrow and crying from foreseeing the oncoming shattering, knowing that we needed to resist it, i.e. to maintain our connection as a single entity despite the forces emerging to shatter this connection. This coincides with the spiritual principle that, in spirituality, we always encounter two opposites in the same place.

Therefore, together with the joy at the opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us, we need to simultaneously be sorry about all the ruins that have taken place, out of necessity, due to their spiritual root. However, what is the destruction that we need to be sorry about today? It is that today, after the 16th Century, the time of the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria), which marked the beginning of the opening of the process of correction to humanity as a whole, then all we need to be sorry about is our negligence to willfully engage in this process of correction. That is, we shouldn’t be sorry about ruined Holy Temples from 1,000s of years ago, but that each day we fail to actively engage in the process of correction, we fail to build the new Holy Temple—a correction of the shattering in our connections. That is what is truly considered the ruin of the Temples.

Therefore, what do we need to take into consideration during Tisha B’Av? It’s why we cause the ruin and shattering of the Temple today. We shouldn’t cry about what happened 2,000 years ago. We don’t really know what happened back then. By crying about it, it’s as if we position ourselves as great righteous people and think poorly of the people back then, and that they lost the rule of the Temples. What we need to understand is that this ruin played out according to a necessity for a certain order to unfold. However, since the time of the Ari, the 16th Century, when we position ourselves against the process and the method of correction—the wisdom of Kabbalah—then the ruin is the shattering of human relations, the division that is spreading worldwide among humanity. We thus don’t relate to Tisha B’Av as a historical occasion, but as a state that is playing out in our daily lives.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is Tisha B’Av?“

Tisha B’Av is a very important and prominent state in the development of creation. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Tisha B’Av commemorates the ruin of the Holy Temple, i.e. the shattering of the vessels, the state when we lost consciousness (i.e. the shattering or ruin) of our connection as a single entity (i.e. the Holy Temple). In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn extensively about this state of shattering and how important it is, because there cannot be correction and connection without corruption and shattering. Therefore, on one hand, there is great joy in the opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us, and on the other hand, there is sorrow and crying from foreseeing the oncoming shattering, knowing that we needed to resist it, i.e. to maintain our connection as a single entity despite the forces emerging to shatter this connection. This coincides with the spiritual principle that, in spirituality, we always encounter two opposites in the same place.

Therefore, together with the joy at the opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us, we need to simultaneously be sorry about all the ruins that have taken place, out of necessity, due to their spiritual root. However, what is the destruction that we need to be sorry about today? It is that today, after the 16th Century, the time of the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria), which marked the beginning of the opening of the process of correction to humanity as a whole, then all we need to be sorry about is our negligence to willfully engage in this process of correction. That is, we shouldn’t be sorry about ruined Holy Temples from 1,000s of years ago, but that each day we fail to actively engage in the process of correction, we fail to build the new Holy Temple—a correction of the shattering in our connections. That is what is truly considered the ruin of the Temples.

Therefore, what do we need to take into consideration during Tisha B’Av? It’s why we cause the ruin and shattering of the Temple today. We shouldn’t cry about what happened 2,000 years ago. We don’t really know what happened back then. By crying about it, it’s as if we position ourselves as great righteous people and think poorly of the people back then, and that they lost the rule of the Temples. What we need to understand is that this ruin played out according to a necessity for a certain order to unfold. However, since the time of the Ari, the 16th Century, when we position ourselves against the process and the method of correction—the wisdom of Kabbalah—then the ruin is the shattering of human relations, the division that is spreading worldwide among humanity. We thus don’t relate to Tisha B’Av as a historical occasion, but as a state that is playing out in our daily lives.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Tisha B’Av: It’s been nearly 2000 years since the destruction of the temple, how come Jews still mourn it yearly on its anniversary?“

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the mourning at Tisha B’Av shouldn’t be about the ruin of the First and Second Temples that took place in the past, but the sorrow should be in relation to the failure of the Jewish people to make moves in establishing the Third Temple.

How does this work? Firstly, we need to understand that the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t relate to corporeal depictions in the Torah, but according to the language of root and branch, relates to the inner processes of human correction that are presented through its writings. Therefore, the meaning behind the establishment of the Holy Temples is the establishment of a united people above division. That is, using the method of correction that guides people to connect on a basis of “love your friend as yourself,” a group of people known as “the Jews” reached a state of spiritual unity (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]), and this is what the Torah describes as the construction of the Temples.

The ruin of the Temples that Tisha B’Av symbolizes means the detachment of the Jewish people from their spiritual unity “as one man with one heart,” and their exit into a state of exile, i.e. a state of dispersion from their spiritual unity.

This destruction and detachment is a necessary state in the process of humanity’s development. Why? It’s because we need to reveal the force of our shattered connections as a preparation to correct those connections. Therefore, on one hand, we need to resist the destruction before it takes place, and hold onto our connection as much as possible. On the other hand, since the destruction took place, we need to see that it could not take place in any other way. We thus enter a period of preparation until we are worthy of reconnecting on a new level, i.e. worthy of correction. This explains the laughter of Rabbi Akiva, a great Kabbalist, after the destruction of the Second Temple. Rabbi Akiva saw how it became possible to establish a much greater connection, one not just for the people of Israel, but one that includes the whole of humanity—the complete and final correction. In other words, he saw that the scene was set for the establishment of the Third Temple.

Therefore, if we work on developing our connection, everything should become more corrected without further destruction, wars and so on. If the people of Israel can use and spread the wisdom of Kabbalah, then we can correct ourselves and live in an upgraded harmonious reality.

However, if we fail to implement the method of correction to rise above our divisive drives and establish a new, heightened state of unity in our times, then we experience many delays and enemies on the path, such as the foreboding trend of anti-Semitism. For that reason, the people of Israel suffer from not wanting to accept the method of correction—to correct their connections to be “as one man with one heart” in “love your friend as yourself.”

Therefore, we don’t need to cry about what happened, since everything that happened in the past was necessary and there is nothing we can change about it. What we need to cry about is the fact that we fail to build the new Temple, i.e. a new movement to unite above the growing division of our times, because that is in our hands to establish—the Third Temple—and our idleness in doing so brings about myriad forms of suffering in the world, and also negatively rebounds on the people of Israel in the form of rising anti-Semitism. Therefore, there is no sorrow in terms of what happened, but sorrow in terms of what we’re failing to implement.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are people blaming the rise of anti-Semitism in the US on Trump’s election?“

Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), the greatest Kabbalist of our era, explains how anti-Semitism is a sensation that exists in all nations, and that before people translate the hatred they feel toward Jews into all kinds of circumstances in our world, the hatred itself precedes all reasoning.

“It is a fact that Israel is hated by all nations, whether for religious reasons, racial reasons, capitalist reasons, communist reasons, or for cosmopolitan reasons, etc. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each merely resolves its loathing according to its own psychology.”
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, “The Solution.”

Therefore, today there are people blaming the rise of anti-Semitism in the US on Trump’s election. Tomorrow, someone else will be blamed, and yesterday, anti-Semitism was due to something else.

Anti-Semitism is a historically reoccurring phenomenon that has taken place over 1,000s of years, so how could you explain its existence 1,000s of years ago? Was it because of Trump? Of course not. Everyone explains it according to however best suits them.

I think Trump is less anti-Semitic than those who shout at him that he is anti-Semitic—less anti-Semitic than American Jews themselves who hold government positions, especially liberal Jews.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is the Right or Left where most American anti-Semitism comes from?“

Anti-Semitism is equal to everyone. However, for the time being, there is more anti-Semitism coming from the left, because the left can cover itself more and say “no, we’re liberal, we’re for equality,” etc., but it’s interesting to see that after all that, they’re more anti-Semitic than the right.

Also, why does the right support Jews, Judaism and Israel? It’s because, for the time being, it fits with their struggle against the left, the liberals.

These things, however, can overturn, because as I mentioned, anti-Semitism is equal to everyone.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the actual reason as to why Nazis still exist, and why do they still hate the Jews?“

To state it concisely, it’s because the Jews have not made any steps toward realizing their spiritual role, to unite (“love your friend as yourself”) and become a positive example of unity for humanity (“a light unto nations”).

As human egoism—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others—grows from one day to the next, humanity increasingly suffers. The more humanity suffers, the more anti-Semitism increases and surfaces among people globally.

How does this work? It is because the Jews became known as “Jews” by uniting “as one man with one heart” some 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. It was at that time that Abraham guided Babylonians from all walks of life to unite above the growing human ego that was causing problems in society, and to be a positive example of unity to all people. These people who implemented such unity became known as “the Jews” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]). Since then, the Jews lost consciousness of their spiritual unity (when they fell into the exile some 2,000 years ago), and developed among the nations of the world.

Over the course of human development, the human ego has grown to a state where today, it is overblown and demanding correction. The symptoms of having a continuously growing-yet-uncorrected ego are the myriad problems and crises that the world experiences on all scales: personal (e.g. depression, loneliness, anxiety, stress, suicide, drug abuse), social (e.g. social division, crime, war, poverty, unemployment, inequality), and ecological (e.g. natural disasters, global warming, food insecurity). The demand for the ego’s correction today coincides with a demand for unification above the division we experience in our world. Since the Jews fail to implement their spiritual unity—unity above egoism—and have it enter mainstream society, then Nazi and fascist versions of unity appear in society’s fringes. The Nazi and fascist versions of unity are dangerous because they are not unity above egoism, but unity within egoism, i.e. the unity of one people against others.

Last century, the climax of Nazism and anti-Semitism erupted in Nazi Germany, since Germany was the most developed country in the world at the time. Today, there is a strikingly similar tendency of rising Nazism and anti-Semitism that is headed toward a climax in the United States, Europe as well as all around the world, because of today’s tight global interdependence and interconnectedness.

Therefore, since the Jews have made no steps toward realizing the method for their and humanity’s positive unification, the negative form of unity surfaces as Nazism. And Nazism is a force that indeed once again threatens to rise in its power and inflict much suffering upon the Jews if they again fail to bring unity to the world in time.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the root of all Arab and Nazi hate for Jews?“

Arab hatred of the Jews comes from Arabs and Jews being quite close to each other, struggling for the same land. However, beneath this surface reason, the deeper cause of the hatred is due to us Jews failing to realize our spiritual role and purpose in the world. This spiritual role is one of uniting (“love your friend as yourself”) in order to spread unity to humanity (to be a “light unto nations”), as we received it around 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon under Abraham’s guidance. If we were to realize our role, then certainly we would be awarded with a different, positive attitude not only from Arabs, but from everyone in the world.

In relation to Nazi hatred of Jews, in the 1930s, the Nazis tried organizing Jewish emigration to the Land of Israel, as such a physical gathering would have been a major stepping stone toward the realization of the Jewish spiritual role in the world. The Jews, however, objected. As such, they received punishment. The punishment didn’t come from people, since people in our world aren’t running anything. The punishment came from nature, which acts also through the desires, thoughts and behaviors of people. If the Jews had wanted to emigrate to the Land of Israel, as the Nazis strongly recommended them to do over many years, then the outcome would have been very different. Jews, however, refused, and we thus experienced the Holocaust. (I elaborated on the Nazi efforts to move Jews to Israel in the 1930s in my answer to “Were Jews able to escape Nazi Germany in the 1930s as the Nazi party became increasingly aggressive towards them?” and in my article on “Holocaust Remembrance Day.”)

Today, as we discuss these matters, we also see a sharply rising anti-Semitic sentiment showing a tendency toward another Holocaust.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will there be anti-Semitism after the coming of Moshiach (Messiah)?“

Firstly, what is the Moshiach (Messiah)? According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Messiah is not a human being, but a higher force that unites people above all differences and divisions. It becomes revealed through people’s efforts to attract it through their efforts to unite to one another, above their differences. It is a force that we need to attract, to draw upon us, which connects us and fuses us into a single nation on this planet.

The word “Moshiach” (“Messiah”) comes from the word “Moshech” (“attract” or “pull”), since it is force that pulls us above our divisive drives, the human ego residing within each and every one of us. The act of attracting this force is reciprocal: We attract it to correct us, and we attract it to pull us above our destructive ego, and when we engage in this action, then not only anti-Semitism, but all problems, diseases and negative phenomena in the world will disappear.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why did God allow millions of Jews to die in WW2?“

We need to understand, as is explained in the wisdom of Kabbalah, that in history, nature doesn’t consider the amount of bodies in the world. The upper force, or nature, calculates only with regard to the implementation of the process toward the attainment of its final perfect state of complete unification. In this process, there are times when we Jews flow in the currents of the world, like a disease in its latent period, and there are periods when the disease surfaces and needs to be treated.

The wisdom of Kabbalah became open for all in the 16th century, during the time of the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria). Since then, there has been a demand for its realization, i.e. the revelation of Godliness (the force of love, bestowal and connection) to all people in the world. Accordingly, if the Jews would have approached this method, wanting to engage in it and reveal Godliness both for their own sake and for the whole world, then we would be living in a completely different world today, filled abundantly with love, happiness and peace.

Since the Jews have made no significant steps toward the implementation of this method, then they cause all negative phenomena to appear in the world. Both Jews and non-Jews are unaware of this, but it subconsciously dwells within non-Jews that the Jews are to blame for the negativity in their lives. Therefore, the mass murder of Jews during World War 2 came as an extreme climax to implement the hatred toward them for that reason.

In his “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) describes this phenomenon:

“In such a generation, all the destructors among the nations of the world raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the children of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63), ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.’ This means, as it is written in the above corrections, that they cause poverty, ruin, robbery, killing, and destruction in the whole world.”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “If Arabs are also Semitic, then why does the term “Anti-Semitic” mean anti-Jew only?“

Firstly, I think that there is no real need to deal with such definitions, because they change throughout history according to the tastes and views of different people and cultures. Likewise, “Semite” has many definitions according to various sources. According to what is written in the Torah, the Arabs are the outcome of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, and accordingly, the Ishmaelites are relatives of the Jews. Today in particular though, anti-Semitism relates only to Jews, and Arabs themselves also relate to anti-Semitism as anti-Jewishness.

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