A Worldwide Ideology

The Torah, Deuteronomy, 23:08-23:09: You shall not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not despite an Egyptian, for you were a sojourner in his hands. Children who are born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

This refers to the nations where the Jews lived during exile. Despite the fact that the peoples of the world oppressed them and organized pogroms, the Jews should treat them well.

It is interesting that when Jews leave the place of exile, they do not feel hatred, gloating, or any negative feelings towards the native population living there. This has never happened throughout history. And regarding the peoples who were in the Land of Israel and had to be conquered, the attitude was simple: destroy them.

Question: Why do the Jews who returned to the Land of Israel from different places experience a nostalgic attitude toward the peoples of the countries from which they came?

Answer: It’s because the Light is passed through the Jew who “fell” onto someone’s land and connected to another nation. By this he becomes responsible for their correction and has to attend to them. Therefore, he feels certain attraction, a special relationship toward this nation. This doesn’t exist in anyone but the Jews.

Question: It is written, “In the third generation they may enter the assembly of the Lord.” Meaning, the places where Jews lived during exile are sacred?

Answer: The Jews came out of Babylon and created a separate nation based upon a certain ideological principle. The nations of the world can do the same. Nothing needs to be changed other than the ideology. And the entire world will be this way.

Connection above egoism—this is the whole ideology.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/19/16

Family And A Woman’s Spiritual Development

Question: Does not having a husband, children, and a family affect a woman’s spiritual development?

Answer: No. If it didn’t work out for her to have a family, it doesn’t not affect her spiritual development, but if she can do it, why not seize the opportunity?
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/4/16

Are We Guarded From Above? Part 8

Judaism obligates Jews to follow many commandments: blessings, Kashrut (keeping kosher), Mikveh (ritual bath), prayer, in addition to multiple other actions. Judaism is considered the most complicated and an extraordinarily difficult religion.

All of it is in order for us, day by day, moment by moment, to remind ourselves by these action about the connection with the upper force and the need to constantly maintain it.

Question: Are you saying that this connection, love between people, guarantees us protection from above?

Answer: “Love your neighbor as yourself” is a great law of the Torah and represents the height of human development. There is nothing higher than that because this is how I include myself into the other person and do whatever he or she needs. Love is the law of an integral system, by which all its elements have to be connected.

Question: How does that protect me?

Answer: This is how I, or rather the single element of the system that I represent, follow the laws of the integral system. Naturally, this provides protection for me. I can never protect myself. I safeguard myself only through my ability to correctly unite with others because in reality I am connected with everyone and receive sustenance from them. In essence, they determine all my states because we are interdependent.

I am joined by connecting bonds with a multitude of others. If these connections are negative, then I suffer until I finally die. However, if from my side, these connections become positive, then in return, I receive a positive reaction from the system. Even if other people toward whom I act with kindness do not intend to respond to me in like manner, the upper force, functioning within the system, will influence them in such a way as to make them relate to me correctly.

In this way my actions begin to be in harmony with the force filling the entire system. My attempts to love my neighbor make me similar to the upper force. I tune into this force and by doing so, obligate the system to protect me. Resembling the upper what can be safer? I enter the upper almost as if I am entering a mother’s womb; is there a safer place than that?

The upper will protect me because I annul myself, my egoism, and become similar to it. I don’t think about myself, but act only according to the wishes of others. As a result, I become similar to the upper and enter it in the most minimal form. But even in this minimal form, nonetheless, I am within it as an embryo inside the mother. Where else can you feel more protected?
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From KabTV’s “A New Life,” #819, 01/26/17

Are You Happy In Your Life?

Question: Are you happy in your life?

Answer: I am happy to the extent that my students allow me to be happy.

In principle, what is happiness? If the Creator gives me an opportunity and I realize it in my life, feeling that it comes from Him and that it returns correctly from me to Him, then this is indeed happiness.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/11/16

The Correct Interrelation Of Screen And Desire

Torah, Deuteronomy 23:2: [A man] with injured testicles or whose member is cut, may not enter the assembly of the Lord.

A person can’t enter the assembly of the Lord if he doesn’t have such a correction as “Mila”—that is, when he had cut off three impure Klipot (desires). He can’t work with the remaining pure desires and get closer to the Creator.

The interaction of a man and a woman is the interaction of the Masach and desire. It is at the confluence of man and woman, between them, that the revelation of the Creator is present.

This is possible only when there is the right man, the right woman, and the right relationship between them. Therefore, there can be no strange women (desires). Then, the system is destroyed. Nor can there be a person who has some kind of damage in the Masach when the desire and intention occlude. The damage in the Masach is the “injured testicles” or “severed member.”

More details on this can be found in the six volumes of the Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). It explains how the seed emerges, how its heating occurs, and so on. In general, it describes the work of a huge, complex system. Then, perhaps, it will become a little clearer why everything is born around this, both new life and the revelation of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/10/16

Nothing Would Exist Without The Light

Comment: According to the laws of physics, there are active particles of light, photons, that convey electromagnetic effects and bind the atoms and the molecules of which man is composed. In fact, the light (the photons) make us whole. If it weren’t for the light, our bodies would disintegrate into atoms.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Light also sustains the whole system.

My Response: Nothing would exist without the Light. The general Light is the Creator.

It is the same in physics. If the initial Light had not appeared, everything else could not have developed: waves, matter, etc.

From a Kabbalistic perspective, the Light ties our desires together. The Light gradually disappears and seems to fade away to the extent that our desires begin to gradually retreat, and so everything begins to fall apart.

This is the reason that we see that everything is divided into different parts in our world, although it is all one common whole.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/25/16

Basic Income For Everyone

In the News (Independent): “French presidential candidates have backed a plan to introduce a universal basic income of €750 (£655) a month, in what they described as a bid to combat the threat of robots taking over three million jobs.

“Two of the seven candidates for the French Socialist Party leadership have proposed the measure, which would see every French citizen over 18 receive the monthly pay-out, regardless of their employment status.”

My Comment: It is impossible to introduce a basic income in one country when it is connected with the rest of the nations of the European Union. What would millions of Italians, Spaniards, Greeks, and all the others say? How would people from neighboring nations relate to their governments if France introduced a basic income for all?

Question: And if the European Union were to break up, would they be able to introduce a law like this?

Answer: In this case, yes. Otherwise the possibility of influencing each other cannot be ruled out. “I don’t want you to introduce a basic income because I am not in a position to do so. So, I will stick a spoke in your wheel.”

Question: And what about a person who would begin to receive a basic income?

Answer: What would happen is natural deterioration. If we don’t oblige a person to do anything, then total deterioration would appear because our nature is egoistic. The ego aspires to a state of tranquility or a direct uniform movement like all of nature. That is all, no superfluous and new movements.

And this would be a state of deterioration for the nation. A nation would not be able to do anything if it doesn’t obligate people to come out of their “lairs” and participate in serious events that develop and move them forward. Therefore, they must introduce integral upbringing and education and various social activities. Moreover, they must be mandatory. If not, then nothing will be left of humanity. It would slide back to the level of the beast by giving people the possibility of sitting in their dens and looking from there into the light with empty eyes.

Question: So is it necessary to introduce a basic income or not?

Answer: It is possible to introduce it only on condition that we employ people. First of all, it is necessary to introduce a system that would be seriously involved with the education of people and would obligate them. Conditions must be set for receiving a basic income: if a person studies and is engaged in a particular framework in which he works on himself to build a new future, a new nation, a new society, then he deserves a basic income. The physical work could be done by robots.

Then everything will start to flourish. As a result of education and upbringing, people’s needs will be reduced to a minimum, because there will be no earnings as such. Gradually, the base income will become mandatory. In principle, only this will remain because in the next ten years all the workplaces will be occupied by robots. People will no longer need to chase new excesses because everyone will have a certain normal income. Perhaps they will receive it not in money, but in the form of goods, food, clothing, free use of electricity, energy resources, and so on. That is, everything will be more or less reduced to non-cash settlement.

In general, this is a movement toward communism. Everyone will have a basic income and people will start working on building a free, egalitarian, and united society. This would be the work of people. Only a small part would be engaged with the development and construction of robots and their programming.

Robots are becoming commonplace today. Even though they look the same externally, they will be programmed differently, some will weld, others will glue, others will assemble, these will fasten, and so on. I have seen entire factories that were built like this. It was very beautiful!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/18/16

New Life #845 – Connection And Belonging To The People And The Nation

New Life #845 – Connection And Belonging To The People And The Nation
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Why has the bond to the land of Israel diminished over the years, how can we learn to live in it together in spite of growing divisions and separation, and what is the Jewish identity that we all share?

The tendency to connect doesn’t pass genetically from parent to child; therefore, the children and grandchildren of the founders of the nation differ from the previous generation. The way to renew the sense of belonging to the people, the land, and the nation is through explanation and an education for connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #845 – Connection And Belonging To The People And The Nation,” 3/28/17

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Epilogue To The Holocaust Memorial Day, Part 1

Perhaps these conclusions may seem ruthless and even cruel to someone. The Holocaust Memorial Day rightfully provokes a lot of emotions and pain in people. And yet after this day, let’s look at this phenomenon from a scientist’s point of view, who investigates the causes of the Holocaust so that it will never happen again.

We are talking now as biologists studying the human body. They do not think how sorry they are for a person who is dying from a cancerous tumor that spreads in his body, but they discuss the very phenomenon that occurs between the cells inside the body.

After all, only by looking at this phenomenon in this aspect and accurately finding out what is happening in nature, without adding our emotions here, will we be able to reveal the objective truth.

And then we can really do something to change the future and prevent a Holocaust happening again. In the end, it is natural that everything that happened had a reason and was not just an accident. Therefore, we need to find out how to cleanse ourselves and the entire world from this scourge.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that our whole life proceeds according to the laws of nature. Nature is equivalent to the upper force, the Creator, and we exist within its laws. The ordinary sciences of this world reveal physical laws to us.

But there is another more general science called Kabbalah, which reveals laws that exist on a higher level, from where all forces descend into our world. These forces build a power network in our world, whose laws are studied by ordinary sciences.

Humanity has experienced many significant events throughout its history: both good and tragic. Therefore, it is worthwhile to find out their cause and effect, depending on our reaction to them. Then we can choose the right form of behavior in our world for the future.

The Kabbalists approach to humanity’s history is to learn by analyzing these events, like in a laboratory: where are we and in which world, that is, in what system of forces?

How do they affect us according to how we change from generation to generation? And how can we respond to them in order to protect ourselves from such tragic events that we had to endure in the past.

This strictly scientific approach can be called unfeeling and even inhuman. But we are talking about the laws of nature about which we want to receive the purest knowledge, not adding our subjective opinion, in order to understand what is happening. And our attitude and personal emotions should not distort the picture so we can really find out which laws take course and what our reaction should be.

It’s good when people are concerned about the Holocaust and express their solidarity with its victims. But, unfortunately, this does not guarantee that in the future it will not happen again. Therefore, we need to study this phenomenon thoroughly and learn how to protect ourselves from it for the future.

From Rabash’s article “He Who Hardened His Heart”: All the hatred that the nations feel toward Israel is only because they are the Creator’s people, as our sages said (Shabbat, 89), “What is Mt. Sinai? It is that Sinaa [hatred] came down to the idol-worshippers.”

We need to understand that this hatred comes from the divided forces in the system of the common soul, which is called the “first man,” Adam HaRishon. One part, the people of the world, suffers and cannot do anything because it is the body in relation to the other part of Adam’s soul called the head (Li-Rosh) or Isra-el.
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Kabbalists’ Predictions

Question: How can I relate to the predictions of a Kabbalist who says that soon there will be no money or work? Could it be that the situation will continue for hundreds of years more?

Answer: I assure you that this situation will not last hundreds of years. Of course, we are not going to abolish work, pay, and all human relationships. We are only talking about where nature is leading us so that we will understand what is happening with us.

When I called upon everyone this past year to support Donald Trump, I appeared everywhere and said that this person could save America and advance the world in a good direction, everyone wrote to me, “Where did you get this from?! Don’t you know who he is? He has no chance! A Kabbalist must tell everyone about the future while you are undermining trust in you.”

I am not saying this because I am a prophet but because I understand the general trend of the development of the world and I see that Trump is closer to this trend. I only said that his approach was in accord with nature and that he will lead us in the way of Achishena (I will hasten it – Isaiah 60:22), in a good way.

Understanding the general direction of human development is necessary for us. It is necessary to know this and explain it to all people because this affects everyone and spiritual work affects only those who have a point in the heart, those who must find the meaning of life. So, we deal with those people separately and personally.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/18/16

What Is The Collective Mind?

Question: What is the collective mind from the point of view of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: It cannot be that the mind is not collective because we are in a system of mutual connection called “Adam.” This system includes all of our states within it that are called “worlds.”

Therefore, the mind is a sum of wandering signals that fill the system of connection between separate elements, people, or souls.

Of course, there is something that is revealed to the souls and that which is not yet revealed. Therefore, we can talk about the subconscious since there are four levels of revelation in each one of us and only the last level gives us the full and conscious existence, meaning that all the previous levels are found in the subconscious level.

If they come from us, then we can manage them; if they come from above, then we practically don’t feel them. But there is a possibility to foresee them. This is not fortune telling, but some prescience, some actions that cause the appearance of reason, that give us an idea of the inner mind (subconscious).

Question: In our world, most of a person’s states pass unconsciously. The reality that we perceive consciously constitutes a tiny part, a few percent. How is it in spirituality?

Answer: In the spiritual world, everything happens relative to a person who consciously summons his states: previous ones, those that are happening now, and those that will follow. In each of them is a part of the person himself, meaning a part of the creature and a part of the Creator. He determines our states in cooperation with us. By definition, He could be first, and maybe the second. But if we seriously comprehend all of our states, we will then begin to determine and define the Creator as the root cause.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/15/17

How Does The Spiritual Masach (Screen) Work?

Question: How does the spiritual Masach (screen) work?

Answer: On one hand, the Masach doesn’t let the upper Light enter our ego and work with it. This means that it keeps and sustains the restriction of the desire.

On the other hand, it gradually adjusts the attribute of bestowal of the upper Light to our desires, and by detaching us from our previous desires, it enables us to acquire new desires for love and bestowal. A Masach is the most important part of the soul.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/18/16

New Life #844 – Emigrants To Israel Don’t Feel They Belong

New Life #844 –Emigrants To Israel Don’t Feel They Belong
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Why is every Jew drawn toward correction and separation simultaneously; why does the feeling of belonging to the people and the nation that connects us wane, and how can we return to being united?

Spiritually, we have not succeeded in rebuilding the Jewish people and therefore we are not drawn to the land of Israel. The method for building the people, the land, and the nation is unknown to everyone except the Kabbalists.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #844 –Emigrants To Israel Don’t Feel They Belong,“ 3/28/17

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Israel Independence Day

I am very happy that the majority of my life was spent here, in Israel.

I am happy that after thousands of years of exile, my people exists as a nation and as citizens in their own country.

I am happy that we are becoming stronger with each passing year, and that for the envy of everyone and for the anger of our enemies, we are building a country that keeps getting better and better.

I hope that we will be able to overcome many more problems that exist in our nation, which mostly have to do with unifying the nation into one whole.

I very much hope that next year, the year of our country’s seventieth anniversary, we will reach a state when we will really become “as one man with one heart,” which was mentioned at the birth of our nation 3000 years ago.

Let’s make sure that this commitment is fulfilled.

Good luck! And Happy Birthday!
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Haaretz: “What’s Next for France?“

In my regular column in Haaretz, my new article: “What’s Next for France?“

Rifts in French society are growing harder to overcome. Unless treated as opportunities to boost connection, the growing weight will crush them.

The ever-present threat of terrorism and the rifts in French society concerning immigration, economy, Frexit, and other weighty issues are making the current French elections exceptionally tense. The result of the runoff will impact not only France, but all of Europe as the teetering European Union struggles to survive. Despite the tensions from the EU, in order to succeed, the newly elected president will have to give preference to France’s home affairs and achieve what currently seems impossible: the unity of the French people.

The new president will undoubtedly face fierce opposition, perhaps similar to that which Donald Trump is facing in the US. But even if, unlike in America, the election is decided by a wide majority, the new president will still need to deal with swarms of immigrants inundating France and taking over Paris. Besides posing a major security risk and a political and humanitarian challenge, the question of relations with the immigrants will continue to divide the French people and disrupt their lives.

Albert Einstein once said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Indeed, in order to solve France’s problems, the French president and the French people will have to rise to a new level of thinking: a comprehensive, all-inclusive level where all people matter and all views are included under an umbrella of unity.

The new level of thinking means that people stop trying pointlessly to persuade everyone that only they are right and everyone else is wrong. Instead, people will unite above their differences. In simple terms, uniting above differences means that we accept that we all have different views, but we also accept that the unity of our country (in this case France) is more important than the predominance of my personal view. Therefore, each of us says to him or herself, “I believe what I believe but other people believe differently. Now, let us take all those different views and utilize them for the benefit of the whole of society.”

Just like the different organs in our body, we are different in every way. In the body, this diversity guarantees our health and our existence. For example, the lungs and the liver both deal with the blood that flows through them. Yet, if they dealt with the blood in the same way, we would not have oxygen or we would have blood full of toxins. Either way, we would not survive. It may not be that obvious, but human society functions much like our bodies, and each person in it is like a unique organ. If a person compels another person to act or think the same as another, it stops the oppressed person from performing according to his or her unique role in humanity and inflicts damage on the entire human society.

In his essay, “The Freedom,” the great commentator on The Book of Zohar, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, wrote, “Anyone who eradicates a tendency from an individual and uproots it causes the loss of that sublime and wondrous concept from the world… From this we learn what a terrible wrong inflict those nations that force their reign on minorities, depriving them of freedom without allowing them to live their lives by the tendencies they have inherited from their ancestors. They are regarded as no less than murderers.”

The formidable challenge of the next French president will be to galvanize the starkly different parts of the French society into working for the benefit of the entire nation, just as different organs work for the benefit of the entire body. If successful, France will become a mighty nation, as its diversity will translate into agility, creativity, flexibility, and ultimately prosperity. If the new president fails to unite the French people, the country and its society will collapse. All they need to do is look to their ally on the west shore of the Atlantic to see how hard it is for a president to succeed when half the nation opposes him.

Treat Problems the Way Athletes Treat Weights

The human body is not the only example of complementary differences. All of nature consists of opposites that complement one another: light and dark, hot and cold, male and female, life and death. The same principle should apply to a healthy social life. The book, Likutey Halachot (Assorted Rules) writes, “The essence of vitality, existence, and correction is creation in achieved by people of differing opinions mingling together in love, unity, and peace.” The growing chasms in today’s societies indicate that we must intensify our work on unity accordingly.

Indeed, problems are not meant to be solved; they are meant to be levers for greater social cohesion. In his book Letters of the Raiah, Rav Kook wrote, “The great rule about the war of views, when each view comes to contradict another, is that we need not contradict it, but rather build above it, and thereby ascend.”

The French need not conceal the chasms in the French society. Instead, they should preserve and cherish the various factions in society, and use what each of them has to offer for the benefit of the entire country. The differences among the French people enrich and vitalize the French society and add color to the country.

France’s future leader will have to maintain two opposite levels one atop the other—rifts and differences to the point of hatred, at the bottom, and atop it, a layer of solidarity and mutual responsibility. Social tensions will not vanish. On the contrary, they will grow and thereby enable and compel the French to build stronger bridges among them. In this way, the differences between the factions will not be revoked or suppressed, but rather embraced as contributors to the diversity and strength of a united French society.

In order to build their muscles, athletes force themselves to lift incrementally heavier weights. Likewise, the rifts within the French society are growing incrementally harder to overcome. If the French treat their rifts as opportunities to work harder on their (muscles of) connection, they will have a robust and powerful society. If they give up and do not try to lift the growing weight, it will undoubtedly crush them.
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The Terrorist Attack In England

Question: Recently, there was a serious terrorist attack in England, which scared almost everyone in London and all over England. Khalid Masud, who was born in England and seems to be an Englishman, committed the attack. He killed three and wounded a lot of people.

Perhaps because of this, Britain has suddenly changed its attitude toward Israel for the better?

Answer: Nothing will change the attitude to Israel! Hatred remains hatred. Externally, it can manifest itself more or less, but it is the law of nature, and therefore, cannot be changed.

Comment: But this terrorist was born there, he practically became English…

Answer: Even if he converted to Christianity, it wouldn’t matter. His nature with respect to Jews remained purely hateful, anti-Semitic.

Comment: But in principle, he didn’t kill Jews. He killed the citizens of the country…

Answer: Of course. Because Islam must conquer the entire world and repaint it green.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 04/27/17

Love From Kabbalah Point Of View

Question: Are there any signs of qualitative spiritual work?

Answer: The quality of work depends on what kind of Light I receive from my equivalence to the Creator: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, or Yechida.

We must go through 125 spiritual degrees to complete similarity with the Creator. The similarity lies in my love for others. It turns out that I must achieve precisely the exit from myself in the unanswered, unselfish, and absolutely unearthly love of others, meaning in caring for others.

Love in Kabbalah is a state where I feel the desires of another person and want to fulfill them completely, as if they are my biggest and most important desires.

All my nature, my whole essence, and all my inner self I dedicate to the service of other people’s desires. Therefore, this condition is called spiritual slavery.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/18/16

Marriage For The Sake Of Children

Question: If a man is in civil marriage, is he considered married?

Answer: It is not that significant today. Everything depends on how much the couple considers themselves a husband and wife.

However, as a rule, a marriage is defined by (the presence of) children. I believe that the marriage is sacred if there are children in it. One has no right to divorce and is obligated to raise children under any given conditions. Children are better with any father than without him!
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From the Lesson in Russian, 12/4/16

New Life #843 – Is Judaism Racist?

New Life #843 – Is Judaism Racist?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The values of love and equality are the spirit of Judaism and the root of our original religion that has developed during the time of exile.

Judaism is based on the principle of “love thy friend as thyself,” which is the principle we have to bring to all of humanity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #843 – Is Judaism Racist?,” 3/21/17

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Women’s Spiritual Purpose

Question: Are the Kabbalistic friendship, love, and mutual responsibility possible between women? Or is such a depth of mutual spiritual inclusion more typical of men?

Answer: Yes, it is more typical of men. It is much harder for women to become friends. They can unite among themselves only in order to help the men. This is their purpose and this is how they should behave.

It is practically impossible for one woman to be a true friend of another woman. Yet, to achieve the upper goal, to help the men and to connect with the Creator, they can unite with each other because they have a specific goal that isn’t between them, but above them.

Question: Who is more egoistic, men or women?

Answer: They have different type of egoism. Therefore, I can’t say who is more egoistic. It is easier for men to be connected with each other, and for women it is easier to be directed to the goal.
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From KabTV’s Lesson in Russian 11/12/16

JPost: “The Second French Revolution”

The Jerusalem Post published my new article “The Second French Revolution”

To avert the risk of a second Revolution, France’s next president will have to do what currently seems impossible: unite the French people

Faced with constant threats of terrorism and sharp divisions concerning immigration, economy, Frexit and other weighty issues, the French public went to the polls this week to determine who will lead their nation.
Whoever wins next month’s runoff will determine far more than the fate of France. At stake is the future of the entire European continent. But in order to succeed, the new president will have to achieve what currently seems impossible: unite the French people.

The French Republic is split in two. The new president will face fierce opposition similar to that which Donald Trump is facing in the US, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is facing in Turkey and Mark Rutte is facing in the Netherlands.
Even if French citizens can agree on a new leader, if the country parts from the European bloc and closes its borders, he or she will still have to cope with swarms of immigrants inundating France and taking over Paris. Besides posing a major political and humanitarian challenge, relations with the immigrants will continue to divide the French people and disrupt their lives.

At the end of the day, there is no solution to these problems, at least not one that everyone agrees on, and can therefore pose a sustainable solution.

Albert Einstein once said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” From my own heritage I know that problems are not meant to be solved; they are meant to serve as levers for ascending to higher levels.

Rabbi Kook wrote in Letters of the Raiah: “The great rule about the war of views, when each view comes to contradict another, is that we need not contradict it, but rather build above it, and thereby ascend.”

In the coming years, it will become increasingly clear that the most formidable challenge today’s leaders face is maintaining and enhancing the internal solidarity of their nations.

From Individuality to Interconnectivity

The main cause of friction and animosity among people is our self-centeredness. It makes us reject one another, hate one another, and turns us into such narcissists that it ruins our chances of establishing meaningful relationships with other people.

The French, the Turks and every other nation in the world may sign any law they want. They can agree on compromises and establish an apparent stable social order, but experience has proven that agreements are destined to be broken, and countries are destined to disintegrate.

Today, even the United States of America is not immune to fragmentation. The only thing that can reverse our growing alienation is the understanding that we are not meant to settle our disputes; we are meant to rise above them and unite.

It is just as King Solomon said: “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes” (Prov 10:12). When we do this, our differences become strengths, as they force us to enhance our unity to match our intensifying level of disunity. In doing so, we learn to operate like a healthy organism whose various organs perform starkly different, yet complementary tasks.

The sooner we learn to work in this way, the sooner we will change the direction of society from ominous to propitious.

The French need not cover up the chasms in their society. Each faction is unique and has its own traditions that should be preserved and cherished. Instead of trying to make society uniform, the French would do well to treat their differences as varieties, elements that enrich the French society and add color and vitality to the country.

Even if challenging, the very effort will invoke such positivity that it will invert the dismal feeling of uncertainty and insecurity currently prevailing there, and enable the diverse communities to coexist in peace.

France’s future leader will have to maintain the two levels—rifts and differences, even to the point of hatred, and above it a level of mutual responsibility to enhance the unity of the entire French society.

Social tensions will not fade away. On the contrary, they will grow and thereby enable and compel the French to build stronger bridges among them. Again, the idea is not to accept the viewpoint of the other, but for all sides to form a new vision, one in which the unity of French society is primary, and everything else is secondary.
In this way, the differences between the factions will not be dismissed or suppressed, but rather embraced as contributors to the diversity of a united French society.

The Unity-Above-All Principle

If it is to succeed, the new French leadership will have to agree that the unity-above-all principle is its top priority. The cohesion and solidarity of the people depend on adhering to this notion on every level of life.
Unity must be the basis of relationships in society, family, work, schools and universities, and even in politics. There should be a Department of Unity, much as there is a Department of Justice, and it should take precedence over all other federal agencies. Its sole task will be to elevate and exalt the importance of unity above everything else—through social media, news media and every means of advertisement.

Presently, the world is going from bad to worse. Yet, the more hateful we become, the more life is forcing us to connect. As long as we resist this trend, the clash between life’s direction, toward connection, and our desire to separate will become increasingly painful. Unless we learn how to use reality’s tendency to connect for our benefit, by connecting above our hatred, the tension between the two opposite forces will snap, and an all-out war will break out.

When the war is over, a leader will still have to unite everyone above their differences. If leaders around the world understand the principle of connection above hatred and lead their countries toward it, they will translate this into applicable laws that will change all public systems and transform public discourse. These, in turn, will help each person rise above the isolation and find joy in connection and unity.

This year is going to be crucial for Europe as France, Germany, and other countries will decide the identity of their leaders for the coming years. If these elected leaders commit to unity, Europe will prosper. If not, the EU will disintegrate and the chances of war breaking out will increase dramatically.
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Are We Guarded From Above, Part 7

There are two levels of connection with the upper governance system. On the ordinary level, a person cannot independently affect the upper system in any way; he functions in it instinctively. The system exerts an influence on him from above and he instinctively reacts to this influence, being connected to the system in countless ways.

However, a higher level of connection with the upper governance system is possible, and Kabbalists have it. And no external objects or actions are necessary for this because this is an internal process, experienced by the individual.

Question: But still, traditions of Judaism are not just external actions; do they not have deeper roots?

Answer: The commandments have roots, but the actual physical actions do not possess spiritual power. We should not believe that the upper force is contained in the mezuzah. The mezuzah only symbolizes this force and helps us to learn about it. It demonstrates to us that a certain force called “mezuzah,” which guards the “home,” exists in nature. And what we call “home” is the soul. And this is how we come to understand that there is a “soul” and within it, there is a “mezuzah.” In this way we are introduced to spiritual concepts.

There is no divinity in the actual physical mezuzah nailed in the doorway. It merely points to a force in the spiritual world, to a particular role of the Creator with respect to the souls. All its divinity is contained within this understanding. In our world there is no divinity. Mezuzah is a symbol pointing to the fact that if I build my soul, then within it there will be a particular protective power called “mezuzah.”

Question: What does it mean to build the soul?

Answer: To build the soul means to carry out correction: the restriction of one’s desire, the screen, and the Reflected Light. For this I need the connection with others, for us to be at least ten, “Minyan” (the quorum of ten), and in the right kind of connection between us, we build the soul, “home.”

All the commandments of this world are only symbolic. The proof of this is Abraham, who destroyed all the symbols because people started to attribute spiritual powers to them and worship them as idols.

But in reality, these objects only symbolize spiritual actions that the person is obligated to perform: to build a connection with others above the personal egoism of each in order to create within this connection a place for the revelation of the upper force of bestowal and love that dwells between them. This is the point of spiritual action: to connect with the others above personal egoism. This is called love.

Question: If I perform such action, connecting with others, will I attract to myself some force that will protect me?

Answer: Of course! But you will no longer be thinking about that because you will acquire the power of love and all your goals will be directed toward helping others, in order to “live” within them and provide them with all they need. This is what is called “love your neighbor as yourself,” when you are ready to give him your only pillow. Only this force protects us in life, there is no other protection.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life,” #819, 01/26/17