Kabbalah Is Not A Sect

Question: How do you react to the fact that sometimes your organization is called a sect? A sect is something that stands outside of the generally accepted outlook. In other words, Judaism presents certain things one way, whereas you explain them in a completely different way. Those representing the Orthodox Judaism are very frustrated by this fact.

Answer: Naturally, those who are engaged in Kabbalah stay under the watchful eye of traditional Judaism. After all, until the Jews were expelled, there was no such thing as Judaism per se, since our people observed the major law of existence: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” And now we must return to it. But it contradicts conventional religion because religion forgot that loving our neighbors is its foundation..

Three and a half thousand years ago in ancient Babylon, Abraham, the founder of all world religions, revealed the purpose of human evolution: harmonizing everyone with nature (the Creator – Elokim), the numeric value of which in Gematria is identical to the word “Tèva” (nature).

Having disclosed this issue, Abraham wrote his first book on Kabbalah Sefer Yetzira (The Book of Creation). Even today it is sold in bookstores even though it was written many centuries ago.

According to Abraham’s understanding, humanity faces the challenge of altering our self-centered nature and replacing it with an authentic, altruistic nature, i.e., attaining the condition of loving our neighbors as ourselves.

We are not a people in the conventional sense of the word. Rather, we are a group who three-and-a-half thousand years ago banded together under an ideological principle.

Therefore, you can call all the Jews a sect, although most of them still don’t know where they come from or why they are here.

For one-and-a-half thousand years before year zero year of our era, we lived above our egos and observed the law of loving our neighbors as ourselves. They are not just  words but an indication of the need to change human nature.

Later, we fell to the level called “the destruction of the Temple” or “the exile.” The last two thousand years we have lived in exile.

That is why religion appeared instead of Kabbalah. Religion claimed that if one mechanically fulfills all commandments, then one will stay healthy and happy, and after death will receive a place in paradise.

Until the 16^th century, the wisdom of Kabbalah was hidden from humanity, and in the 16^th century it was re-discovered for us by the great Kabbalist the ARI who lived in Tzfat. Later, the famous Kabbalist Baal Shem Tov began disseminating Kabbalah in Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine.

The writings of Baal Shem Tov’s disciples are not just Hassidism! It is authentic and true Kabbalah! So, since ARI’s time and on, Kabbalah was revived once again in the form of loving thy neighbor as thyself, because by observing this law we attain similarity with nature that is absolutely closed, and inside is at the level of synergy, perfection, and harmony.

Later, the great Kabbalist of the 20^th century Baal HaSulam wrote commentaries on ARI’s works and on The Book of Zohar. He simplified the language and made these sources available to us.

We believe that the law of “loving our neighbors as ourselves” is the core of our existence. Today it is essential to revive this law because the world has reached a general, overall crisis. The science of Kabbalah says that this is not just a minor, transient crisis; rather, it is a transition point to the next existential level.

We are facing a transformational challenge: either we’ll reach similarity with nature, i.e., build a homogeneous, common, inclusive society with the help of Kabbalah that explains to us how to once again become one people and teaches us the ways of leading humanity to oneness or…  . The important thing is that we must do so voluntarily, consciously, knowingly, having a deep understanding of what is happening and what we are doing.

Otherwise we’ll be forced to pursue this path by nature, which we become even more opposite to.

And here we might face a severe problem, a huge upsurge of anti-Semitism is on the way. It is not a temporary phenomenon. It’s a profound, permanent condition that might make the nations of the world hate the people of Israel. It will be the greatest animosity ever; it will lead the whole world to tremendous hardships, even to the next world war.

This explains why we just cannot stay calm or indifferent. It is essential to explain to everybody that the message “love thy neighbor as thyself” are not just beautiful words that we use to calm down our children when telling them “Don’t fight! Be nice to your friends.” It in fact is the general law of integrity and global interconnectedness of nature, whereas humanity acts as a cancerous tumor that devours itself.

Therefore, according to the natural law of development, we must bring ourselves to conformity with the basic law, the law of homeostasis.
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From the Press Conference 3/11/15