In the News (from Huffington Post): “Underscoring the close ties between Christianity and Judaism and calling Holocaust denial “madness,” Pope Francis told an interviewer that ‘inside every Christian is a Jew.’

“In a wide-ranging interview published Friday (June 13) in Spain’sLa Vanguardia newspaper, the pope said dialogue between the two faiths can sometimes be a ‘hot potato.’

“’I believe that interreligious dialogue must investigate the Jewish roots of Christianity and the Christian flowering of Judaism,’ Francis said. ‘I understand it is a challenge, a hot potato, but it is possible to live as brothers.’

“Francis’ statement seems to go further than his predecessor, St. John Paul II, who made headlines in 1986 as the first pope to visit Rome’s main synagogue and declared Jews to be the ‘elder brothers of the Christian faith.’

“’Every day, I pray with the Psalms of David. My prayer is Jewish, then I have the Eucharist, which is Christian,’ the Argentine pontiff added.”

My Comment: Undoubtedly, the further development of humanity towards the purpose of its creation will lead people to distance themselves from all religions and faiths of the world. They will increasingly begin to feel their common spiritual root, which is not clothed in earthly images and representations that religion and beliefs impose on them.

This will lead all people of the world to feel that only Kabbalah expresses the true representation of the higher force. In this aspiration to become close to it, they will come close to each other.
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From the book, The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein.

Law

Jews are blamed for all the sins of mortals. But we don’t talk about this. This is boring and useless. It is much more interesting and topical to talk about something else. About the “terrible” Jewish secret.

This is the most amazing thing, this “terrible” secret cannot be stolen because it is freely accessible to everyone, to Jews and non-Jews.

It is possible to share it with everyone; and nothing will happen. There is no need to control it, to go or to travel anywhere and there is no need to pay anything. There is no need to ask permission from anyone. It is imperative for all, but nobody knows this. It doesn’t weigh anything at all, but we cannot take it and go. It is very attractive, but we don’t want to look at it. It is more valuable than anything else in the world, but we don’t want it, even for free. It is found in front of us, but we don’t believe it. It is impossible to give it as a gift and it is also impossible to take it as a gift.

So what kind of secret are we talking about? You haven’t guessed yet? This is talking about an idea that consists of eight words: “And you shall love your friend as yourself”.

As is known, the Jewish people were founded by the patriarch Abraham. The ethical principle or ideal “and you shall love your friend as yourself,” was spread with the help of the people of Abraham all over the planet.

And you shall love your friend as yourself (the Golden Rule) is a basic principle ofthe religions of Abraham, in Confucianism, in ancient philosophy, and in a number of other world religions.

Only one thing is unclear, how did Abraham reach, if such a thing can be said directly, to this “crazy” idea, “you shall love your friend as yourself”? On the basis of what observations, discoveries, and experiments was it?

There are those who say that he received this knowledge from the Creator. Others claim that he discovered this by himself. The essential idea is not changed by this. The result is what is important. And the result is amazing; it surpasses all imagination. The principle, which essentially cannot be followed, lies at the foundation of all our civilization!

An approach exists that this is not some kind of ethical ideal but is a fundamental law of nature according to which all humanity must behave. …

It is specifically this approach that we want to examine in this book. If this is an ethical principle that was discovered by some person, then this is one thing. But if this is a law, and further, a fundamental law, then everything is absolutely different. In such a case we, as far as it seems, can look in another way not only at our present and our past, but it could be that ultimately we will discover how we must build the future.
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Question: Israel is in a difficult position these days, under a missile attack. Every time we hope it will not happen again we find ourselves in the same position all over again. What is going on here?

Answer: The point is that we want to solve the problem by using force, by military action. But this will not work because our enemies are strong enough and have enough money and weapons to stand against us. We think that we are stronger since we have powerful rockets armed with nuclear warheads. But we cannot use the weapons that we have under these conditions. Every war has its own rules and the reaction has to be according to the threat.

In addition to that, we do not live in a vacuum. The world intervenes in our actions, and somehow the UN, Europe, the Arab countries, Russia, and other countries are beginning to treat us more and more negatively.

We should understand that the course of events is not in our favor and that time works against us: either we find a solution or not. We had hoped that our enemies would finally understand that they should live in peace with us and accept our existence, but we see that this isn’t happening. Islam is becoming tougher and stronger.

The fundamental Islamists are growing stronger in Syria, Iraq, Russia, Europe,  and America and they are now represented in the United Nations. Turkey is also becoming more and more Islamist. We used to think that with time, the attitude towards us would improve, but we see that it is quite the contrary.

The whole world is advancing towards liberalization, integration, and becoming more and more unified, and softer. At the same time, the Islamists are accumulating more and more power and are advancing towards greater extremism. What the Torah says about Ishmael has come: “His hand is in everything and everyone’s hand is in him.” Now we are in the time of the general correction.

We should understand that this state is irrational and cannot be explained logically. On one hand, there are the right conditions today for a good life, especially in the Arab countries, but they still insist on carrying on their war against the Jews all over the world and especially against the state of Israel. We have no choice but to turn to our sources in order to find out the reasons for that.

After all, Islam and Christianity stem from the same source and this is where they receive the force for anti -Semitism. It has been this way throughout history until today. We should understand that it is help against us, and is meant to push us towards correction.

There have always been conflicts between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism and today the situation is even worse. Our allies are leaving us and taking the other side. They are changing their attitude towards the Jews and towards the state of Israel. We are witnessing a clear inclination to place the Jews against all the religions and all the other nations, but this actually happens in order to bring us to correction.

All these religions are drawing their force from the Torah and we should also receive our power from it. The only solution is the connection between us in order to truly become the nation of Israel. If we unite as a nation, we can stand against the whole world and solve all its problems. But if we don’t, we will drown, lose our power, and find ourselves in the hands of the enemy. Our only weapon is unity.
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From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/08/14

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The Book of Zohar, the article “Among All the Sages of the Nations of the World, There Are None Like You,” item 161: Among all the sages of the nations of the world and among all their kingdoms, there is nobody who will reach you. We exist within a particular reality. There are two approaches to perceiving reality. The first approach is a scientific research.

According to this approach, through our senses and the instruments that we construct to expand our senses in depth and breadth, we perceive the reality that we can feel with our five corporeal, earthly senses that also exist in animals.

The study of reality as it is revealed to our senses is called science. The foundation of science is philosophy, the approach to the understanding of the human perception of reality. This doesn’t mean the philosophy of today, which has become a bad word since it doesn’t have any real foundation, but the original philosophy, what it once was. From that, degrees in all disciplines are called Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)  as it is the foundation for all the sciences.

In this article, The Book of Zohar speaks about the philosophical approach, meaning the scientific approach of each and every person to the world and life in this world, to his desire to receive, to his desire to bestow, to the Creator, to the creatures, to everything, but in a sound way that a person is able to perceive in his mind and feelings. This is the approach called philosophy. It is impossible to refute it because we feel, see, examine, and measure all that exists in front of us.

However, there is another approach. If philosophy as science suddenly goes beyond its limits and begins to speak about phenomena that are not perceived by our senses, it stops being science and becomes some kind of mysticism, which is what today is called “philosophy.” This means that it is a philosophy without any real basis and without any practical examination.

What is no longer within the limits of earthly sciences, such as philosophy, are things that go beyond our senses: the origin of life, what happens before birth and after death, and the system of management and supervision. It is impossible for these topics to be discussed, since they are outside of the areas addressed by these methods.

This is within the realm of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is a science for someone who develops additional senses within himself, and he examines and investigates with these senses. Then from his investigation, he constructs a new science in addition to the earthly sciences that we have developed with the help of our five current senses.

Humanity developed, and through the five senses wanted to discover and use everything possible until it saw that in the end, everything that it attained brought it to a crisis and to a breakdown. This is our life.

And then humanity began to probe and ask. If there was something here that had not been taken into account, with whom we are in contact, who is managing us, why do all kinds of things happen to us, and so on. We need additional data about the situation we are found in. This data is not revealed to us with our five senses. So what can be done?

On one hand various mysticisms, religions, and faiths developed for people who were looking for what might possibly help. And on the other hand, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed because it has become imperative, and it invites humanity to become familiar with that reality that we don’t perceive with our five senses.

We can attain it if we develop an additional sense within us, which is not an extension of the familiar five senses, but  another approach to perceiving reality: not that I swallow everything and examine everything within me, but I can go outside of myself and not be dependent upon my body, on my desire to enjoy that creates the body for me. I go outside of it and examine reality as it is. Then I don’t see bodies, and I don’t see reality as it is portrayed for me through my five senses. And so the world becomes Ein Sof (Infinity).

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this. It speaks in the same way as philosophy, but it defines precisely where the part of science of philosophy exists, as philosophy once was, and not the useless quibbling of today, and where the sequel to science is, meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah that penetrates a field that our five earthly senses cannot discover.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/06/14, The Book of Zohar

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Question: Why is modern humanity yearning again for religion?

Answer: There is a crisis in the world. After the last world war, which was less than three generations ago, the population of developed countries with predictability, stability, and confidence in the future. Whereas now, with the appearance of the global crisis, it feels uncertainty, instability, a lack of a quest, certainly lack of a future, and a lack of hope for success.

Moreover, this feeling encompasses the entire planet. This feeling summons waves of concern all the time. Nothing is stable, not the future, nor any plans. After losing all hope, only one hope remains, which is hope in the Creator, an image ready to take the first position in the world and  to stabilize it. So a person creates the Creator for himself.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that there is nothing in the world other than nature, the force of bestowal and love that creates everything, directs and develops us to a state where we can understand our difference and opposition to this force and want to resemble it; which is to say, to acquire the characteristic of bestowal and love. Therefore the goal, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Vayikra 19:18) must become the principle for all of our activities.

Religions heard this commandment and forgot it, because in order to implement it, they had to change the egoistic nature of the person to an altruistic one (to bestowal and love for all). There is no profit in altruism; therefore all the religions speak about “And you shall love,” but not one of them implements it or understands its intent, because within the egoistic characteristics it is not possible to understand the characteristic of bestowal..

If they would understand what “And you shall love” means, then all religions would disappear and everything that separates people would disappear. The modern yearning for religion will lead to its reassessment by humanity and its replacement with a religion called, “love.”
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Also see the article, “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose”

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Question: Does studying Kabbalah seriously interfere with a person’s religious beliefs?

Answer: If a person is religious, Kabbalah does not prevent him from keeping his habits, traditional customs and the culture of his people. But he can no longer blindly believe in the other world that contains the reward of heaven and the punishment of hell, since Kabbalah will show him how to reveal the Creator in this life. One contradicts the other.

He gradually stops waiting for the reward that awaits him somewhere after death in another world. With difficulty, this image disappears and all his expectations shift to the present and revelation in the here and now! The entire focus shifts from the other world to this world and to this life.

In this way, his attitude gradually changes towards the “future world” and the Creator as the reality that he approaches and plans on revealing in this life. This is his goal, his purpose in life, and why he lives and carries out the advice of the Kabbalists.

For this reason, it becomes difficult for a person to remain in his previous religious environment, because he feels that he no longer relates to it in spirit. Those people still believe in reward after death and all their actions are determined by this. They even view reward in this life differently, which is why he feels different from them, and differences create distance.

But this does not lead to some kind of depreciation of religion, because this form eventually must bring the whole of mankind to Kabbalah and the actual attainment of the Creator and the Light. Kabbalists respect every faith. Religion was founded by Abraham, and will exist for as long as people need it and until they become ready to attain the Creator.

As they ripen, they will go from religion towards actual revelation, gradually changing their goal. We are forbidden to rush this process of development and can only show the possibilities that mankind has before it.

And of course, the first people to come to Kabbalah will be the nonreligious people, because they feel a greater lack of satisfaction than the religious people. A secular person thinks that he controls his life, and suddenly it is revealed that he does not have any freedom. This humiliates him and forces him to either forget or turn to Kabbalah.

Meanwhile, a religious person still thinks that he has a Creator who will take care of him, and for this reason, he will close his eyes to everything he can, and become an even bigger fanatic in order to protect himself from doubts and emptiness.

He will hate Kabbalah even more for opening his eyes to the fact that there is only one goal – the revelation of the Creator. But he is still better protected from shocks until this lack of satisfaction comes to him from nature, the Creator, and will speak within him. Then he will submit to Kabbalah.
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Excerpt from the lesson “Body and Soul,” 11/30/2010

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Question: Why was the paper The Nation that Baal HaSulam published immediately shut down?

Answer: The paper was shut down because of the mixed multitude that joined the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt. According to them, the correction is in remaining the way we are now and waiting for the Messiah, instead of connecting according to the principle of “love thy friend as thyself.”

Of course, they don’t like it when someone like us calls for the love of others and for the connection among the whole Israeli nation.

Their objection is clearly understood since when we call out for that it stands in their way of pulling people in their direction. Instead we guide people in a totally different direction, letting the whole nation know that the correction is in connection and unity, as the Torah requires.

It turns out that our Torah, our teaching, is opposite from their study. It says: “the opinion of the Torah is opposite from the opinion of the landlords.” A landlord is someone who thinks that he is his own boss, while we think that it is the Creator who has to correct us, that this is what we should pray for, and that our correction actually depends on the connection among us, when we become as one man in one heart.

They, on the other hand, want to separate everyone and to pull them apart from one another, since that way it is easier to control people. This is the style of the mixed multitude.

They are called the great affliction that accompanied our exodus from Egypt until this very day. They are the ones who bring about all the dangers and the problems of the Israeli nation, including the destruction of the first and second Temples, the exile, and today’s interferences. It is all their doing.

Their role will be revealed, but one way or the other, we have to do our job.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why did the Creator choose one nation for a special mission, and is this choice related to religion?

Answer: The true religion is to love your friend as thyself. This is the rule that Abraham publicized in ancient Babylon, and he gathered the people around him according to this rule into a group called Israel, which means Yashar El (straight to the Creator).

Only some of the people of Babylon followed Abraham; those who had greater vessels of bestowal. All the others had vessels of receiving. This was intentional so that they would have a chance to help one another.

First the vessels of bestowal are corrected so that they can ascend to a spiritual level. When Abraham collected them, they had nothing. So first they had to go through the hardening of the heart called Egypt, that is, they don’t ascend but rather descend.

After the exodus from Babylon, they go down to Egypt, then come out of Egypt and ascend to the receiving of the Torah. They then cross the desert, build the first Temple, and fall. They ascend again to the height of the second Temple and go through another descent to the corporeal level. This is in order to be mutually incorporated with the nations of the world and get ready for the end of the correction of the world.

The whole process, starting with the exodus from Babylon and everything that follows, is in order to reach greater connection. This is what Abraham taught. The moment they started to connect, they felt that they were in a greater and greater descent.

The Light that shone on them made it possible for them to descend more and more deeply into their ego and to see that they were far from bestowal, from the Light. Therefore, they felt the gap, the delta between the state of the exile in Egypt and the level they were on when they left Babylon, and they would have remained on that level if it weren’t for the Light. This is the gap between the Light and our ego.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: A new student who comes to the Pesach meal sees many religious customs and doesn’t understand what is going on.

Answer: These are not religious customs. All the customs of the Israeli nation stem from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and are transcendental and illogical. All this doesn’t exist in nature and so we don’t need to follow them blindly.

The 18 minutes during which the Matzo are baked, for example, are made of  the nine Sefirot of the Direct Light and nine Sefirot of the Returning Light. If we don’t manage to bake the Matzo during this time, a process of fermentation begins, which means that the egoistic desire will begin to swell and to rise. So we don’t eat leavened bread during Pesach since the fermented desire cannot receive the Light of Hochma (wisdom).

What does it mean to escape from Egypt? It’s a very quick transition when a person comes out of egoism and enters altruism, out of our world and into the feeling of the upper world, the feeling of the Creator.

Here, like in the time of birth, you cannot stall since you cease to be nourished by the previous system that provided you with oxygen and other nutrients. It operated upon you through the umbilical cord and your body functioned.

Now a totally different system operates upon you, as your lungs begin to receive oxygen through the air and you begin to breathe independently and to function; your temperature changes and totally new systems begin to operate, a different world and different senses. All this happens at once.

All the Jewish customs stem from the spiritual world and have no corporeal basis or justification. They gradually became customs of other religions as each religion received them in its own way and changed them to suit them.

For the Arabs, an offering is slaughtering a lamb. The word “sacrifice” stems from the Hebrew word “close.” The external customs of different peoples are not very different, but they all stem from ancient spiritual customs.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:29-34:30:So Moses came down from Mount Sinai. And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with Him. Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; and they shrank away from him.

The vivid story of the Torah is expressed by images and so we may think that Torah is the source of the drawing of icons and figures with a halo. But in fact, icons came into use as a means for telling ignorant people what cannot be expressed in writing since people were illiterate. So the content of the Torah was passed on orally and expressed in pictures.

The pictures are original conventional symbols, each conveying a specific event, like the “life of the holy.” This is where all the icons and from which everything that we call the “pictures of the saints” stem from. On the whole it is a means of conveying information, since in those days there were no other means but drawings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/13

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