The Torah, Deuteronomy 21:18 – 21:21: If a man has a wayward and rebellious son, who does not obey his father or his mother, and they chasten him, and [he still] does not listen to them, his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place.
And all the men of his city shall pelt him to death with stones, and he shall die. So shall you clear out the evil from among you, and all Israel will listen and fear.
This excerpt is about a person’s frenzied desire with the help of which he wants to attain the Creator. It is as violent and rebellious as a horse that stomps, balks, and throws off the rider.
If a father and a mother, which are the male and the female parts, give birth to a son that does not obey them and he is obliged to join them and to receive the upper Light through them to continue the path and give birth himself—then they have to bring him to the elders, to those who are above them, to the next step.
Suppose the father and the mother are Aba ve Ima, Hochma, and Bina, and ZON, which is under them. Then they have to raise the desire generated by them even higher—to where are four kinds of death: stoning, strangulation, burning, and hanging. In such a way, this desire is killed, which means that it descends to the level of the inanimate, and then its development begins again.
The stone is Lev HaEven, the stony heart. Therefore, one desire is killed by another great desire, which does not give it the opportunity to acquire the slightest bit of life.
Question: Where does the root of the differentiation into men and women in the physical world begin according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?
Answer: In the physical world, everything is divided into plus and minus, into the attribute of the created being and the attribute of the Creator, the attribute of the desire and the attribute of the Masach (screen), into Reshimo of Aviut ( the informational genes of the desire) and Reshimo of Hitlabshut (the informational genes of the Light).
Everything is accurately made of a male and a female part because creation is divided into the Creator (the male part) and the creation that He created (the female part).
Question: I don’t understand what I need to give, even if I wanted to give. What is giving?
Answer: To give, you must discover exactly what the other wants and act so that he will receive what he wants from you. That will be giving, bestowing.
Question: Is it possible to gather a group? Where is it possible to find the “right” friends?
Answer: You don’t need to do anything in particular. People are chosen in a completely random manner. But please note: everything that you do comes from above. A person has no independent action.
Question: Is it possible to examine how we connect into a group of ten?
Answer: No, before the Creator is revealed between you, there is no connection, so there is nothing to measure.
Question: There are times when there is no eagerness to watch the lessons, they are only for communication and connection. Is this normal?
Answer: Very good! This is not terrible. Connect, do a workshop.
Question: We have 11 people in the group. Is it preferable that men and women do workshops separately or together?
Answer: It is necessary to do them separately, without any connection to the number of people.
Men and women should not be together, except during meals, and even this depends on the type of meal. If this is a family meal, then it is possible, but if this is a meal with Kabbalistic content, then it should also be done separately. The men should not feel the presence of women.
Question: What can the feeling of attainment be compared with?
Answer: It is possible to compare it to being freed from all internal and external limitations, when you feel that everything is managed by the collective power of the Light, which is called the Creator, and you just swim in it. After that, this feeling disappears. Nothing is left until the full completion of correction.
Question: Could it be that in the future I will have several groups of ten: a group of ten in the lessons, a group of ten at work, a group of ten in the family?
Answer: Certainly, there is no problem with that. But it is first necessary to begin with ten people with whom you have a common goal, and then you go on.
Question: Scientists say that people lie to preserve their value in the eyes of others. According to psychologists, the so-called “white lie” is used in this case. What is a lie from your point of view?
Answer: A lie is a natural defensive reaction of an organism that doesn’t want to see itself damaged and humiliated. What difference does it make to me whether it’s a lie or the truth? The main thing is to keep myself at a certain level. If I need to lie, I’ll lie, and if I need to tell the truth, I’ll tell the truth. I don’t take into account either one or the other, I consider only my inner state.
Therefore, people don’t have any understanding of what is a lie or the truth. Everything is determined only in relation to a person. You can’t say to someone, “Why are you lying?” He’ll say, “I’m not lying, for me this is the truth.” Why is it the truth? Because in this way, I support myself in the best possible condition. That’s the only truth!
Objective truth doesn’t exist because our nature is only the desire to receive pleasure and to keep ourselves in the state of maximum possible comfort at any moment in time. Therefore, what supports this state is the truth for me, and what doesn’t support it is a lie.
Question: What is a lie in the Kabbalistic sense?
Answer: In the Kabbalistic sense, everything is evaluated only with respect to the purpose of creation. Everything that is in agreement with the purpose of creation is the truth, and whatever isn’t in agreement is a lie. What leads to bestowal, love, adhesion with the upper force, and ascent to the next level is the truth. All the opposite is a lie.
Question: What if this isn’t related to the purpose of creation and exists as we do in this world? Is it the truth or a lie?
Answer: Nothing can be said. We see in different eras and in different cultures completely different criteria for truth or a lie.
Question: Does it mean that we live in the world without coordinates?
Question: How does a Kabbalist feel our world and the spiritual world through a template of ten Sefirot?
Answer: It depends on the level and the state of the Kabbalist. He feels our world inside himself according to his level, partly through the revelation of the upper forces and partly through the revelation of corporeal forces.
Sometimes I feel that I am in a descent and actually perceive only this world, and sometimes I am in states in which I feel that there is an upper force field that manages everything. In between these two extreme states, I feel that I am in a higher or lower state of an ascent or descent accordingly.
Question: Should we try to avoid the feelings of the corporeal world? Are they harmful??
Answer: You don’t need to try to avoid anything. You should simply yearn to be incorporated in others. Thus you ascend in the feeling of your world.
There is nothing harmful and everything is actually beneficial. When you develop and advance along the spiritual path and discover the right vector, everything that is added to it is only meant to help you advance.
After a prolonged silence regarding the JCCs bomb threats, the FBI released the stunning news that the majority of threats had a single perpetrator and that the felon was not an alt-right zealot or a Muslim extremist, but a 19-year-old Israeli-American from Ashkelon, a small town in southern Israel. Indeed, the self-hatred of Jews seems to be an undying fountain of sinister ingenuity.
Another example of self-hatred is the Jewish involvement with the BDS movement. Today, the UN is finally recognizing the anti-Semitic nature of BDS and is holding an anti-BDS conference at the UN General Assembly Hall. But while the state of Israel and various Jewish organizations have finally mustered enough international support to fight the BDS, many Jews and former Israelis are among the leaders of the movement, and several Jewish organizations support it, such as J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Jews for Justice for Palestine.
Jewish self-hatred did not begin with the BDS. Nor did it begin with George Soros or Noam Chomsky. Throughout our history, we have had to face internal disputes that often erupted into full-blown wars. The rebellion of the Maccabees, circa 160 BC, was first and foremost against Hellenized Jews rather than the Seleucid Empire. Likewise, the commander of the Roman armies that conquered Jerusalem and exiled the Jews was Tiberius Julius Alexander, an Alexandrian Jew whose own father had donated the gold and silver for the Temple gates that Alexander shattered. In fact, prior to the ruin of Jerusalem, Julius Alexander obliterated his own Jewish community of Alexandria, causing “the whole district [to be] deluged with blood as 50,000 corpses were heaped up,” according to Jewish-Roman historian Titus Flavius Josephus. Similarly, during the Spanish Inquisition, the chief inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada was of recent Jewish descent, but that did not abate his zeal in expelling and killing the Jews. And just this past century, the Association of German National Jews supported and voted for Hitler and the Nazi Party.
History is replete with examples of Jews who hated their people so vehemently that they dedicated their entire lives to its destruction. If there is any hatred more enigmatic than anti-Semitism, it is Jewish anti-Semitism.
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article in The New York Times titled “Who Are You People of Israel” that talked about the unique origin of the Jewish people and the reason for anti-Semitism. The responses I received from readers made me write a more elaborate essay titled “Why Do People Hate Jews,” which I turned into a mini-Internet site that also contains a free copy of my book, Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour. Under the constraints of a newspaper column, I can only offer a brief explanation, so you are welcome to follow any of the above links.
If we search for a specific origin for the Jews, we will not find one. Our nation is based on an idea, not on familial kinship or ethnic or biological affinity. The “progenitor” of the Jewish nation was Abraham, which is why we refer to him as “Abraham Our Father.” The book Pirkei De Rabbi Eliezer (Chapter 24) says that Abraham was very concerned about the Babylonians among whom he lived. He saw them growing increasingly hostile toward each other and wondered why this was happening.
As he was reflecting on the predicament, writes Maimonides in Mishneh Torah (Chapter 1), he realized that in all of nature there is perfect balance between good and bad, connection and separation, and strength and weakness. Everything in nature is balanced by its opposite. At the same time, he noticed that human nature, unlike the rest of nature, is completely off balance. Among humans, the bad reigns high. The hatred of Abraham’s countryfolk for each other revealed to him the truth about human nature: “The inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21).
Abraham realized that if people did not replicate nature’s balance of their own volition, they would destroy themselves and their society would collapse. He began to speak of his idea to anyone who would listen and started gathering substantial following. Regrettably, as we know from Maimonides, Midrash Rabah, and other sources, Nimrod, King of Babylon, was not happy with Abraham’s success and chased him out of Babylon.
As the expat wandered toward what became the land of Israel, he kept speaking of his idea that human society must cultivate unity and brotherhood as an antidote to human egoism and hatred. Over time, Abraham garnered thousands and even tens of thousands of followers, whom he and his disciples indoctrinated with a method of connection that had one simple principle: When hatred erupts, cover it with love. Centuries later, King Solomon summarized it with the verse: “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes” (Prov 10:12).
Over the generations, the Jewish people developed their connection method and adapted it to the changing needs of each generation. During Moses’ time, the simple principle that Abraham had taught was not enough to lead an entire nation on a path of unity above hatred, so Moses gave them the Torah. But the principle of covering hate with love remained the same. When a man came to Old Hillel and asked him to teach him the Torah, he simply said, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah” (Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Shabbat, 31a).
For all their efforts, the hatred and egoism among Jews was (and is) growing just as it does in all other nations. As factions of the Jewish people became too self-centered to maintain Hillel’s principle, they departed from the Jewish people and either assimilated or developed less demanding forms of Judaism, which catered to their growing self-absorption. These factions eventually disappeared among the nations.
However, sometimes, such as with the Hellenists, these rogue factions became staunch enemies of Judaism. Ka’ab al-Aḥbār, for example, was not only Jewish, but a prominent rabbi from Yemen who converted to Islam and became an important figure in establishing the Sunni denomination. Ka’ab accompanied Khalif Umar in his voyage to Jerusalem. When Umar asked him where he thought the khalif should build a place of worship, Ka’ab pointed to the Temple Mount. This is why today the Dome of the Rock is located where the Second Temple stood before.
In resenting their origins, Jews-turned-anti-Semites are rejecting not only their heritage, but first and foremost their role as the bearers of the method of connection for the entire world.
During this time of the year, when families are getting together to celebrate Passover, the festival of freedom, we should remember that the one slavery we have yet to cast away is our own hatred of our brethren to the tribe. The hametz [leaven] is our unfounded hatred, and removing it, even if just for a week-long holiday, will be the greatest ever cleanup operation of our lives. It will also be the greatest service we can do for ourselves, our nation, and the world.
Being “a light unto nations” means setting an example of unity and brotherhood. With our current hatred, we are setting the opposite example. Biur hametz [clearing out the leaven] symbolizes the clearing up of our hearts from hatred and preparing them for unity and the establishment of our nation. This is why in the Torah, Passover comes before the reception of the Torah, which as we said is “love your neighbor as yourself,” and which began our peoplehood.
Happy and kosher (hatred-free) Passover.
In which situations is it correct to use restraint and concession, what is the method that makes it possible for us to listen to an opinion that differs from ours, and why is correct development only achieved through cooperation?
In all of nature, opposites connect and create life, while among people, connection must happen consciously.