Tisha B’Av, In A Vise Between Plus And Minus

Question: Why is Tisha B’Av (the 9^th of Av) considered to be the worst day of the year?

Answer: We are under the management of a system of forces that operates on us and influences us—sometimes in a good and comfortable way, and sometimes in a bad and unpleasant way—to awaken us and make it possible for us to integrate these forces correctly and reach the middle line.

If we balance these forces, we reach a state of absolute good. This is possible! The entire year will be a comfortable temperature of 25 degrees, and everything in life will be good, regarding any topic. The person is ready to balance all of the forces of nature in that he brings everything to balance.

On Tisha B’Av, the forces of judgment act with particularly strong intensity. However, essentially, they are not negative, but aspire to awaken us to reach balance, balancing all of nature.

Question: Are these forces stronger than a person?

Answer: Certainly, these forces are stronger than a person. They force him to carry out what is required of him. The forces of nature work on us and influence us to begin to change. We see what a mess is happening in the world. The world is withdrawing and gradually slipping lower and lower, but this awakens us to action.

Specifically now, there are opportunities to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to everyone and show that it makes it possible to arrange our lives, because everything is in our hands. Let’s calm down, look at things rationally, and all of us together will decide how it is up to us to bring our lives into balance.

The forces of judgment only seem to us as bad temporarily, depending on how we are feeling, but essentially there is nothing better than them after all they push us toward correction.

It is possible to reach balance only with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We don’t have the power for it ourselves. We must get an additional, unique power from above, above our nature, the power of bestowal, love and union. This power can balance the positive and negative forces, the plus and the minus.

All technological advancement is built on this. Every engine works because we know how to connect plus and minus correctly so that the positive and negative forces will activate it and require it to do useful work for us.

We exist in nature in which positive and negative forces are operating. However, the entire problem is that, in the middle, we don’t know how to use the plus and minus correctly and transform it into a mechanism that acts on the difference between the potentials in the best way for our benefit.

This is specifically what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us: how to use the two opposing forces that exist in nature correctly.

These forces are called the evil inclination and the good inclination, hatred and love. It is not necessary to annihilate anything! If we integrate these two forces correctly and use them correctly, we will get wonderful results.

However, a unique wisdom is required for this, because in normal life we don’t know how to balance plus and minus. We either love or hate, whereas we need to integrate both this and that by using the internal forces of a person, our attitudes, to rise above these two forces, above love and hatred. Then we can manage them and balance all of our lives through them.

Imagine that we do something like this in a family, with the children, at work, with friends, even just in the framework of our small physical world—how much happier would we become. Love and hatred must exist together and balance each other.

There is nothing superfluous in the world. Rather, it is only necessary to balance these forces. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 7/14/15