READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN THURSDAY

Baal HaSulam. Exile and Redemption

LESSON MATERIAL

Exile and Redemption

Harmony between Religion and the Law of Development or Blind Fate

“And among those nations you will have no repose and there will be no resting place for your feet” (Deuteronomy 28:65). “And that which comes to your mind will not be at all, in that you say, ‘We will be as the nations, as the families of the lands’” (Ezekiel 20:32).

The Creator will evidently show us that Israel cannot exist in exile, and will find no rest as the rest of the nations that mingled among the nations and found rest, and assimilated in them until no trace was left of them. Not so is the house of Israel. This nation will find no rest among the nations until it realizes the verse, “And from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him for you will demand Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

This can be examined by studying Providence and the verse that states about us, “The Torah is true and all its words are true, and woe to us as long as we doubt its truthfulness.” And we say about all the rebuke that is happening to us that it is chance and blind fate. This has but one cure—to bring the troubles back on us to such an extent that we will see that they are not coincidental but steadfast Providence, intended for us in the holy Torah.

We should clarify this matter by the law of development itself: The nature of the steadfast guidance that we have attained through the holy Torah, as in the path of Torah in Providence (see the article “The Freedom”), a far more rapid development than the other nations has come to us. And because the members of the nation developed so, there was always the necessity to go forward and be extremely meticulous with all the Mitzvot [commandments] of the Torah. Because they would not do so, but wished to include their narrow selfishness, meaning the Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], this developed the ruin of the First Temple, since they wished to extol wealth and power above justice, as do other nations.

But because the Torah prohibits this, they denied the Torah and the prophecy and adopted the manners of the neighbors so they could enjoy life as much as the selfishness demanded of them. Because they did so, the powers of the nation disintegrated: Some followed the selfish kings and officers, and some followed the prophets, and that separation continued until the ruin.

In the Second Temple, it was even more noticeable, since the beginning of the separation was publicly displayed there by unvirtuous disciples, headed by Tzadok and Bytos. Their mutiny against our sages revolved primarily around the obligation of Lishma [for Her sake], as our sages said, “Wise men, be careful with your words.” Because they did not want to retire from selfishness, they created communities of this deplorable kind and became a great sect called “Tzdokim,” who were the rich and the officers, pursuing selfish desires, unlike the path of Torah. They fought against the Prushim, and they are the ones who brought the Roman kingdom’s rule over Israel. They are the ones who would not make peace with the imperious, as our sages advised according to the Torah, until the house was ruined and the glory of Israel was exiled.

The Difference between a Secular Ideal and a Religious Ideal

A secular ideal stems from humanness and hence cannot raise itself above humanness. Conversely, a religious ideal, which stems from the Creator, can raise itself above humanity. This is because the basis for a secular ideal is equalization and the price of glorifying man, and he acts in order to boast in the eyes of people. And although he is sometimes disgraced in the eyes of his contemporaries, he still relies on other generations and it is still a precious thing for him, like a gem that fuels its owner although no one knows of it or cherishes it.

A religious ideal, however, is based on glory in the eyes of the Creator. Hence, he who follows a religious ideal can raise himself above humanity.

So it is among the nations of our exile. As long as we followed the path of Torah, we were safe, for it is known to all the nations that we are a highly developed nation and they wanted our cooperation. They exploit us, each according to their own selfish desires, but we still had great power among the nations, so after all the exploitation, there still remained a handsome portion left for us, greater than for the civilians of the land.

But because people rebelled against the Torah in their aspiration to execute their selfish ploys, they lost life’s purpose, meaning the work of the Creator, and replaced the sublime goal for selfish goals of life’s pleasures. Thus, anyone who attained fortune raised his goal with glory and beauty. In consequence, where the religious man scattered his monetary surplus on charity, good deeds, building seminaries, and other such collective needs, the selfish ones scattered their surplus on the joys of life: food and drink, clothing and jewels, and equalized themselves with the prominent in that nation.

By these words, I only mean to show that the Torah and the natural law of development go hand in hand in wondrous unity even with blind fate. Thus, the bad incidences in the exile, which we have much to tell of from the days of our exile, were all because we embezzled the Torah. Had we kept the commandments of the Torah, no harm would have come to us.

Congruity and Unity between Torah and Blind Fate, and the Development of Human Calculation

Hence, I hereby propose to the House of Israel to say to our troubles, “Enough!” and at the very least make a human calculation regarding those adventures that they have inflicted on us time and time again, and here in our country, as well. We wish to start our own policy, as we have no hope of clutching at the ground as a nation as long as we do not accept our holy Torah without any allowances, to the last condition of the work Lishma, and not for one’s own sake, with any residue of selfishness, as I have proven in the article “Matan Torah.”

If we do not establish ourselves accordingly, then there are classes among us, and we will undoubtedly be pushed, once to the right and once to the left, like all the nations. And much more so, since the nature of the developed is that they cannot be restrained, for any important notion that comes from an opinionated person will not bow its head before anything and knows no compromise. This is why our sages said, “Israel is the fiercest among the nations,” as one whose mind is broader is most obstinate.

This is a psychological law, and if you do not understand me, go and study this lesson among the contemporary members of the nation: While we have only begun to build, time has already disclosed our fierceness and assertiveness of the mind, and that which one builds, the other ruins.

…This is known to all, but there is only one innovation in my words: They believe that in the end, the other side will understand the danger and will bow his head and accept their view. But I know that even if we tie them up together, one will not surrender to the other even a little, and no danger will interrupt anyone from carrying out his ambition.

In a word: As long as we do not raise our goal above the corporeal life, we will have no corporeal resurrection, for the spiritual and the corporeal in us cannot dwell together. We are the children of the idea, and even if we are immersed in forty-nine gates of materialism, we will still not give up the idea. Hence, it is the holy purpose of for His sake that we need.

LESSON

Morning Lesson October 17, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. Exile and Redemption. (The Difference between a Secular Ideal and a Religious Ideal)

1. R. (00:16) It is a very special article; the question is how do we understand it and what is it telling us? There is a group amongst all the nations coming from ancient Babylon that is, actually, basically, included from all the nations at a certain period of time where from them emerge the group called ‘Abraham’s group’, the group of the Patriarch of the people, Avraham, which needs to begin a certain form of development from the degree of a person to an Adam, one who resembles the Creator. And we call this “exile and redemption”: whereas ‘Exile’ is that entire state that we are in throughout years and millennia. and ‘Redemption’ is when we emerge out of the nature we were born in, the desire to receive, and reach the second nature, the nature of the Creator, the desire to bestow. And there probably is a great benefit in us going through this whole process in which we go through these many steps, gradually, and then understand and feel ourselves and everyone and all of humanity and all of nature, the whole great world, who it is, what it is, why it exists, how it is functioned and managed by the upper force which is the One, Unique and special, let’s see. 

Reading (02:56) “Harmony between Religion and the Law of Development…”

2. R. (03:15) ‘Those nations’, meaning those who have yet to come to the revelation of the Creator amongst them, meaning we are all born in that form and gradually each and every one, according to the desire in him can come to a degree that he connects to the Creator. 

Reading (03:38)

3. R. (03:49) Meaning we can’t remain in the degrees in which we’re distancing from the Creator but rather we’re all obliged to raise degree from to degree to knowing the Creator until we reach Dvekut, reach adhesion with Him.

Reading (04:06 – 05:46)

4. R. (05:47) Just as we see now how blows come down upon us and we need to learn from them.

Reading (05:57 – 07:07) 

5. R. (07:08) Meaning, the reason for the ruin of the First Temple, this is the state that they built already in those times, this was thousands of years ago ,could not sustain itself, could not exist because in place of being in support and connection between them, they started to play with as much as ‘one is stronger, richer, more famous, etc.’, meaning they let the ego go rampant between them which brought them to the ruin. And with the place of Holiness was burnt, their capital, and that’s how they dispersed.

Reading (08:20)

6. R. (09:02) Meaning the entire society that was then in Israel began to divide into different fractions, these for this and those for that and those for that. Just like today you have many parties and streams, and they go out for all kinds of protests wanting to prove to others that they’re more corrected and more right and more strong and that leads to the ruin.

Reading (09:41)

7. R. (10:16) Meaning they were against Lishma, against in order to bestow, and therefore what they were trying to build could not hold on to the background, on the foundation of the desire to receive.

Reading (10:39)

8. R. (11:26) This is actually the story that we had then.

9. S. (11:33) It is written, “search for the Creator, find Him, find Him with all your heart and all your soul,” why did Baal HaSulam call it his sentence?

R. Because specifically in such a state in which we’re completely dispersed, separated, we don’t have a society or state, and that the feeling of something that is common to us, that revolves around us, that surrounds us. Only in the group do we come to the recognition that in essence we are nothing and from this state we begin our ascent.

10. S. (12:41) Where does the difference come from , “from the one who follow the Prophets and the one who follow the kings and officers”, what internally causes those to follow them and the others to follow them?

R. That which is close to each and everyone.

11. S. (13:08) Baal HaSulam writes “until we see that the trouble isn’t a coincidence but Providence that comes to us from the Torah”; we see it very strongly that now we are reading a lot of Psalms in this time, can it happen to us too, such a state that we get used to living this state, could it happen now?

R. Of course it can, of course it will and can, and we have got accustomed to this. And before this last war we were also in a state where each is against the other. All these protests and parties and screaming in the streets, this hatred that filled the people, what is that?

S. Can we feel something good in this, us?

R. We cannot feel good in this, what we need to do is to battle against separation.

12. S. (14:41) I don’t understand what the problem with parties, or opinions or demonstrations is?

R. The fact that they want to cancel one another, and by that, they are seemingly weakening one another because if I am in a struggle with someone I need, to the same extent, to respect him, to respect him. That he too could be right, that he also has an opinion, and there are people, citizens, that are behind him. And that’s ….., I don’t feel good with that.

S. To understand another thing from this: Where did hatred go now, now that we feel Arvut in the nation, so what’s that, it covered the hatred that was there before, or the hatred is about to come double at us now?

R. We cannot engage in hatred now because the pain, our pain is higher, that’s one thing; the second thing is that whoever goes out today, let’s say with those same protests as before, would not be understood, they would be screamed at, be looked at as one that is with our haters and enemies. That’s why people won’t go out to protest, but do you think that we’re far from the state that was before? Within days it can return.

S. That’s exactly my question because now it’s like a common pain, there’s support in our soldiers, we are at one friend; but we’re let’s put all the calculations on the side, all the hatred, it’s waiting on the side but getting stronger to come against us. So what can we do right now in this state that on one hand, there is Arvut in the nation, but the hatred is about to come back, what can we do in such a state?

R. What mutual Arvut do we have on the people?

S. There’s a lot of people volunteering, helping.

R. That’s not mutual Arvut.

S. How do you depict this?

R. I simply see it as a blow that we receive which kind of muzzled us and doesn’t let us express, each, what’s inside of him. But the moment these external forces distance and expand away from us, disperse, then once more from within we have all the hatred come out of us.

S. What we see in the nation isn’t considered unity?

R. No, completely not, each with his opinion; the unity is considered that I’m willing to cancel myself, nullify myself in order to be unity with the other, and that’s how we are all between us. But not that we can say that we are in unity and perfection and wholeness and Arvut, we have nothing of the sort. We are just like Baal HaSulam says, “brothers in a time of need”.

S. So now we ‘see brothers at a time of need’ and we see them they’re annulling themselves for the general public, they’re willing to volunteer  and there are tons of examples?

R. Why?

S. Because there is a mutual problem.

R. From the problem, from the trouble.

S. But he writes the Creator is going to give us trouble and now we’re starting to start the connection between us, how do we take it to the next stage, how to continue this unity even though it comes from trouble, how to turn it into purposeful?

R. We cannot, we cannot, that’s the problem, here we are lying to ourselves; we think that if we come close to one another at the time of need then we can, with that nearing, continue in our correct development and that’s not, that’s completely incorrect! We need to come to zero and start from zero our connection for the sake of connection.

S. What is connection from the state of zero, connection for connection?

R. Without external forces that are compelling us to do but rather that we decided to live that way, connected to one another.

S. Also in our inner work when we get a blow, an internal one, that also pushes us to work in the ten. So what is the problem that the nation gets a blow, starts connecting because of the trouble, but keep going in a more purposeful way?

R. It cannot.

S. Why?

R. Because it’s a connection of a connection from the state of a blow, from the trouble and not from the good that they want to be. They didn’t begin to come close to themselves from zero to good that’s worthwhile for us, that we want to be close, to feel, to love one another, etc.

S. And how to go from this to that?
R. Only through a change in our consciousness, in our awareness.

S. How?

R. By talking, by bestowing, by disseminating, but not out of the troubles; there is no example in the world where out of trouble, a person comes to connection. It can only be under the condition that he wants to overcome the evil.

S. You see that the method doesn’t work, Baal HaSulam just told us about two thousand years ago what happened, and we saw throughout history the same, you get blows and don’t learn any lesson from this?

R. The laws of nature are laws: if you don’t accept them in some other way, then it continues.

S. But there is no mind from the blow, we don’t develop for the next time. From the destruction of the temple until now, we are in a tendency that nothing doesn’t promise the next war will be harsher?

R. Yes, yes that’s how it is written, that even things will come, “that in Jerusalem mothers will be eating their children”.

S. So how do you stop this avalanche?

R. Only through the dissemination of the method of correction, otherwise all of humanity will enter such things that everyone will eat everyone, like animals in the forest!

13. S. (22:40) Human ego is growing and demanding some expression, on one hand we also see the example that you are giving us, how the hatred is spilling in the streets. But we see that certain nations don’t even have that way to express themselves, to say something because they’re going to prison right away, there are a lot of nations like that, but he goes to grow. So how, on one hand the ego can get an expression, on the other hand, to have an ability to reach love so in a good way there is no solution when you can’t express yourself?

R. This is, all of this is not simple schematic, we need to understand this, we need to internalize this and to give the possibility for the world to develop correctly.

S. What does it mean it can develop correctly?

R. To develop correctly means to learn what desires and intentions exist in us, how we can gradually raise them to the highest possible degree in nature.

S. In the end, to develop spiritually, is that something that a person can do, let’s say, that one who just loves the others or one who doesn’t have that ability to express himself?

R. Eventually we all develop, there is no such thing as being free, there isn’t. We all need to develop, and no one should bother the other with his ego.

14. S. (25:06) I would like to go back to the article, the question is how can it be expressed that someone will be against Lishma because it is concealed?

R. During those times that he wrote about that happened all those years ago, certainly there were all kinds of fractions for Lishma, against Lishma, etc.

S. How could you prohibit me from working in Lishma, everybody knows what I’m working at?

R. We don’t understand the conditions they live in and don’t want to relate to this right now because maybe one percent of all of our friends will understand what I’m talking about, what do we need that for? Very simply, back then they were such conditions, people were closer to nature, they understood better what it is to bestow and what it is to receive, and that is why they were divided in such a way, to those who supported Lishma and those who do not support Lishma, these were the two big parties, that is what he is writing about.

Reading (27:00 – 31:09) The difference between a secular ideal and a religious ideal

15. S. (31:14) You said that the people began to connect out of trouble, so what’s the meaning that the Creator would send these troubles if that’s how the connection is happening?

R. I don’t know, let’s say that it is for us to gather together.

S. That is like an initial step to come to it? 

R. Yes, it starts just like with animals.

16. S. (31:55) A friend is asking to continue the scrutiny that the friend started: There is this opinion amongst the people that without a governance that put rights and left, the citizens will get along with just fine and mutually. Is that right in your opinion, and if not, what can you tell people to explain to them what is correct?

R. It’s not simple and it’s not short, all I can say is that we have never reached the right connection between us because to begin with we were in some arguments we’re dealing with it. It has to be education, not a short kind, and if we understand this method and the goal, we might succeed!

S. How do you still hold down mutual respect even though there are different opinions on every matter and amongst the people?

R. Again?

S. How do you sustain mutual respect even though there are big disputes about every single matter amongst the people?

R. From understanding that we are one nation and between us there is no difference except for tiny, ideological differences, and they too only exist on our level of development, our current level. In order to raise a bit higher, we always need to rise to greater connection, broader, stronger ,that’s why all these wars that we have in the streets are only so we can connect above them and rise to the next spiritual degree before us, that is what I can say.

17. S. (34:45) What do we need to learn as the results of the blows we’re receiving now?

R. We need to come close to one another without relating to all the revelations of evil in us, that is love that is above hatred, faith which is above reason, we must do that.

S. If we could be more precise: is it only through the sources we can do this, if we have hatred and we read the sources, then the reforming light shines upon us and takes us out of that?

R. Yes, it only happens through the source called Torah, as a principal, that source is in the hands of all nations, we just need to understand how to work with it.

18. S. (36:16) Yes, I would like to understand if we take, let’s say, a scale and we measure the suffering that took place, let’s say in the war in Israel, and on the other hand, our dissemination efforts. What efforts in dissemination can we do so it will bring to connection on the people of Israel, I don’t know, bring three hundred new students and the new tens that would be created. How to compare between our efforts in dissemination and the suffering that we have observed?

R. I don’t know, I don’t know, I cannot answer that.

19. S. (37:10) The Torah was prohibited, and they start to negate the prophets and clash between them. Then it’s written, “the selfish ones spent on excess things, food, drink. What is the role of the Jews in the world right now and the fate of the Jewish nation?

R. I don’t know, I don’t think they have a certain role or even apart from all this balance.

S. The text talks about Torah and the natural law of development go hand in hand together, and then it says that in the previous text we also read that “the glory of Israel was exiled when there wasn’t enough connection”. How can we ensure that in these challenging times that we preserve the glory of Israel to ensure that the development of humankind move in the right direction, that we and Bnei Baruch become the leader in this area?

R. To advertise the whole process and then we’ll see how the Creator is helping us in this, okay?

Reading (40:22 – 44:10)

21. R. (44:12) That is actually the entire article, and let’s hope that somehow we got some kind of impression from it, and we will come back to it in the future with the God’s help. 

22. S. (44:39) Can you please tell us: “To raise our goal above the corporeal existence”, raising their spiritual goal above their corporeal goal, is it to stop trying to do something in externality and only in internality?

R. It can be realized, what you think is important for yourself.

S. The question is about freedom, COVID and the war, there’s always limitations or prohibitions we have for something some expression of external expression, how to do things ourselves and limit ourselves in order to want to develop internally, can we grow and develop into that new way or am I wrong?

R. You’re not making a mistake, we have to grow into that state, we have to do the gradually, we will still talk about it.