The Roots Of Racism

Question: What is the root of racism?

Answer: All the positive and negative motivations, characteristics, and qualities of individuals and society are based on our egoism. The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about how to change egoism and transform it into a characteristic of bestowal and love so instead of taking things in and absorbing it, the ego will engage in giving and bestowal.

The perception of creation as a positive and desirable movement from us towards others reveals a paradigm of completely different sensations in us. When in a person everything is directed towards himself, when he doesn’t feel, he checks himself: is this good or bad for me? It means that he automatically chooses: He accepts what is good for his ego; he throws to the side what is bad for his ego. And when there is no harm or benefit for the ego, it doesn’t enter into our senses; we don’t feel it at all. This is the way we perceive our world.

And when a person changes himself, turns in the opposite direction, meaning towards the good of others, he begins to perceive that part of creation that surrounds him that he previously could not feel because he perceived everything through his egoistic impulses.

Now he begins to feel everything in the light of altruism, and this is an absolutely different method of perception. Instead of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, five new senses are created now, which are called: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. With them he perceives what is called the upper world, but not within the receptive characteristics as in our world, rather within the characteristics of bestowal.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this; it is a wisdom about the correct perception of creation. However, our world doesn’t disappear from us; we see it; we exist normally within it, but the main thing is that we are involved with the development of our perception of the other part of creation that was previously closed to us.

So the wisdom of Kabbalah is wisdom about discovering the world. When we begin to feel the two worlds, we can even decide in a more or less logical manner where we are, why we exist, how we should behave, and so forth. This is what we must reach.

And in the meantime, our egoistic perception filters and classifies what is good for us, and everything that is good for others doesn’t interest us. As a general rule, we automatically choose what is useful and pleasant for us and we reject everything else; we don’t perceive it at all.

Racism is a state in which a person’s senses are not directed only towards having things be good for himself, but also that he enjoys it when things are bad for others. This is a problem of humanity. To this day we see how people relate to each other. We constantly develop according to an evolutionary axis: the ego grows constantly and therefore each one doesn’t just work for his own benefit, but also works to harm others. We constantly compare ourselves to others: the worse it is for them, the better it is for us.

With animals this doesn’t exist. With them, jealousy, envy and hatred don’t exist as they do with humans. It is comparison of ourselves to others that produces all kinds of racism. It seems to me that either I am suffering because of others or they have more luck than I do and so forth. In addition, each one of us is interested in appearing better in the eyes of society. This is typical only of humans because in us there are both beastly and human parts. The beastly part requires food, sex, and family, and the human part demands wealth, respect, and knowledge. When we yearn to fill ourselves with the sources of these emotions, we gradually come to jealousy, envy, and hatred.

It follows that it is better for us when it is bad for others. That is how our ego was initially arranged. If it is not developed, then as with the animals, it is not so important. But if I am a developing person, this won’t give me rest because I measure my status in relation to all people, or at least judge according to my neighbors. And the grass is always greener with the neighbor.

As a result, on the one hand, we are moving to a state of mutual hostility and hatred, on the other hand, the disclosure of our universal integrated independently of each other. And then we need the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to balance these two forces are mutually exclusive.

This leads to racism. In addition, a no less important factor in the eruption of racism are issues of nationalism or races; after all, we are not alike, we are different. dissimilar. As a result, on the one hand, we are moving to a state of mutual hostility and hatred; on the other hand, to the disclosure of our overall integral dependence on each other. And here is where we require the wisdom of Kabbalah to balance the two mutual forces that mutually reject each other.
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From the Video Conference 6/7/15