The Divided Nation

Question: My fellow businessmen know how to be sneaky and they cheat their clients. And I, on the contrary, am trying to be decent and rely on the honesty of others. And in the end I am left without anything and begin to envy them: “Why can’t I arrange my matters like them?” Is this a Klipa, impurity?

Answer: Klipa—is work against holiness, against the Creator, very sophisticated work.

Regarding your example, it is possible to say that one that deceives people in the end deceives the Creator and distances from Him. It is beyond a doubt.

If I take what I don’t deserve from the public or from nature, which is the Creator, then this is already the beginning of the Klipa. And what do I deserve? I deserve something if I work in order to bestow, if I exist in order to reach bestowal. In this case, I receive even necessities only in order to exist and be in bestowal, in order to be similar to the Creator and do the work of God. All the rest that is beyond necessities, I cannot take for myself. All the rest I need only to bestow to others. This needs to be a person’s calculation. He determines for himself: “This is what I need to exist in order to bring contentment to the Creator.” Everything beginning with this decision and continuing in the same vector is called Kedusha – holiness.

And in Klipa, I am the opposite, taking from others although I don’t deserve it and maybe didn’t even earn it. This also applies to the part of the people of Israel who do not work at all and completely immerse in the study of the Torah.

In general, due to the miscalculation in this respect, we are all drowning in the sea of egoism and distancing from the upper force. Year by year, it affects all more strongly, and at this stage we are starting to decline to a state that we already experienced in the previous century.

But it doesn’t mean that everyone has to go to work, or the opposite, to live from hand to mouth. Part of the nation really needs to study and part needs to work. Maybe there needs to be a certain rotation. Why not get organized in such a way that everyone will have the opportunity to work and also study?

Of course, in the time of the Temple, many from the nation devoted themselves to study. And the question here was not in quantity but in discernments. This is our work.

Moreover, the era ahead of us will not demand the same number of workers like before. Therefore, we only needed to arrange everything in the correct form.

The problem is that the two parts of the nation, the secular and the religious, don’t know how to talk to each other, don’t understand each other. This is the only obstacle. After all, if we were able to find a common ground and corresponding positions, I think everyone would understand: the one that studies should continue in his study. But there is no contact between the parts of the nation, there is no good attitude, there is no constructive and real dialog; there is only mutual hatred, and therefore we lack the correct analysis of the situation.

Actually, the country does not need tens of thousands of workers and soldiers. The size of the job market will contract over the years, and the modern army needs more technology than people.

Therefore, the current conflict in Israel is caused by political games. The powers that stand behind are deliberately igniting the fire.

And on the other side, the serious problem of the religious audience is that they cannot create a correct contact with the secular part and explain its position. The religious part does not start a dialog from fear of being influenced by the exterior culture. But lack of dialog causes war between brothers.

Remark: Although the walls are crumbling and the exterior influences are penetrating inside.

Answer: But this does not lead to contact, to mutual understanding. The walls are crumbling not according to our will but at the behest of time.

The parts should contact each other and begin a mutual clarification. Our problem comes from having a mutual “basket.” In the US there is no collision between the secular and the religious; they “don’t eat from the same plate,” they don’t have the same army, there are no contact points, there is no conflict that someone lives on someone else’s account, or that they don’t understand each other.

And in Israel, the nation is divided, split, and thus we continue the destruction of the Temple. Actually, the two sides are participating in this process, including those that study Torah. They call the secular part “the spoiled baby.” But if he is a baby, then he needs a special patient attitude, he demands care. Isn’t this what the Torah says? Where is the big heart, the nice caring approach, and not squabbles and strife.
In the end, all this weakens us and brings us to collapse.

Question: What would you say to the religious part of the nation?

Answer: I don’t have legitimacy in their eyes. Therefore I don’t have anything to say or anyone to talk to.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 55