The Last Spiritual Exile

In all of Israel’s exiles, He set a time and an end to all of them. And in all of them, Israel return to the Creator, and the virgin of Israel, Malchut, returns to her place at the set time. But now, in the last exile, it is not so. She will not return as in the other exiles. This verse teaches, “She has fallen; she will not rise again—the virgin of Israel,” and it does not say, “She has fallen and I will not raise her again.”

It is like a king who was angry with the queen and expelled her from her palace for a certain period of time. When that time was through, the queen would immediately come and return before the king. This was so once, twice, and thrice. But on the last time, she became remote from the king’s palace and the king expelled her from his palace for a long time. The king said, “This time is not as like the other times, when she came before me. Instead, I and all my household will go and seek her.”

When he reached her, he saw that she was lying in the dust. Who saw the glory of the queen at that time, and the king’s requests of her? Finally, the king held her in his arms, raised her, and brought her to his palace. And he swore to her that he would never part from her again and will never be far from her.

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The Integration of Israel (Those Who Had Attained Spirituality) into the World

We learn in the Wisdom of Kabbalah how after Abraham established his methodical system for the attainment of spirituality, he and his group of students left Babylon towards the land that later became the land of Israel.

Let us return to those people who could not perceive Abraham’s notion in ancient Babylon. When they departed Babel, they scattered across the globe as seventy nations and developed materially.

Alone, they would never have been able to perceive the notion of the spiritual. Yet, if they could not perceive it, it would contradict the purpose of creation: to bring all the people to the level of the creator. Hence, the contact point between Israel and the rest of the nations had to be recreated.

That process unfolded by intensifying the ego within Israel, after which the people declined from their degree and scattered among the nations. The idea was to mingle the souls of Israel with the souls of the nations of the world, to “sow” seeds of spirituality within the other nations.

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Kabbalah: A Practical Science to Arrange Reality Beneficially

Kabbalah is a practical, up-to-date science that answers everything a person looks for in life. It is time to reveal the secret wisdom to everyone. The wisdom of Kabbalah is becoming a practical science that anyone can learn to apply and use for his or her own needs. That is what Kabbalists have always been writing, and that is what The Book of Zohar says as well. Today, we are obliged to recognize the wisdom of the Kabbalah and study it to control reality by ourselves, according to its own instruction.

The Special Role of Jews According to Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a wisdom meant to lead the entire reality, which is meant for all people, not only Jews. However, there is an order of development. We Jews, the “chosen people,” have to be the first to get to know the forces that come from the upper world and use them correctly, in order to convey that knowledge to the rest of the world and thereby conduct the entire reality. That is the Kabbalistic definition of being chosen. We must be the first to study it and pass it on to the rest of humankind. The progress of the Jews determines the progress of all the others.

According to the plan of the upper world, all creatures without exception must rise from their present situation to a much higher degree, and that can be done only through the study of the upper force and the connection with it. We can change our lives while in this world. We can avoid unnecessary pains and attain happiness, wholeness, and eternity. Then, there won’t be any difference between life and a physical death, for we will be living in both worlds at once.

We Jews have a unique role: we have to find the way to rise from the corporeal life to a higher degree, to the spiritual life, and we have to show the world how it is done. That is the only thing that we are chosen for. In the meantime, we are not carrying out our mission, and that is why we look so bad and unworthy in the eyes of the nations. Because we have special souls, we have to be the first to work on attaining that knowledge and accordingly do what we must. We have no advantage over anyone, but only in that we have to start studying about the upper worlds, about the force, which comes from the upper world, immerse ourselves in that work first, and pass it on to all the other nations. This is what all the books of the prophets and Kabbalah say.

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Israel: The Journey from Spirituality to Corporeality

The awakening desire for spirituality is called “the land of Israel.” The people who lived in the land of Israel before the ruin of the Second Temple were in spiritual attainment. This means that the spiritual degree of the people of Israel and its presence in the corporeal land of Israel matched at that time. In that state, the people merited living in the land of Israel. When the people of Israel lost their spiritual degree and yielded to egoistic desires—due to the growth of the ego—the mismatch between their spiritual level and their presence in the land of Israel prompted the ruin of the Temple and the exile.

While the past spiritual fall caused the exile of the people of Israel from their land and their dispersion among the nations, today the situation is reversed: the physical return to the land of Israel preceded the spiritual return. Nevertheless, the match between the spiritual root and the corporeal branch must be kept, and for that reason the people of Israel are obliged to attain the spiritual degree called “land of Israel.” For that objective, the wisdom of Kabbalah is a means for the people to correct themselves.

Why the Israeli Nation Must Develop Spirituality to Secure Their Homeland

When Rabbi Ashlag completed his Sulam commentary on The Zohar, he wrote, “From these words we learn that our generation is the generation of the days of the Messiah, hence we have been awarded the redemption of our Holy Land.… We have also been awarded the revelation of The Book of Zohar … but in both, we have only been awarded a gift from the Creator, but we have not received anything in our own hands.”

The physical end of the exile and the return of the people of Israel to their land is not enough. A spiritual return is required. Baal HaSulam distinguishes between what he calls “a time of giving” and “a time of receiving.” A time of giving pertains to the creation of potential existence by the upper force; and the time of receiving is the actual realization of the possibility.

Until the people are corrected, they will not feel comfortable in this land.

The uncertainty and insecurity of day-to-day existence in Israel is there to prompt its dwellers to rise to the spiritual level called “the land of Israel.” The goal of the upper force is to bring humankind to search for the reason, the root of all processes. All the pressures on the nation of Israel by other countries, and its interior social, personal, and national level crises, exist only to compel people to ask about the purpose of their existence in this world.

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A Manual to Come into Contact with the Forces that Govern Reality

If an ordinary person were to begin studying a Kabbalah book in the right way, meaning after having studied the introductions and gone through some preparations, after being given a certain “key,” he or she would see how to communicate with the forces that act on our entire world and would know what to do with them.

In a Kabbalistic prayer book it says, for example, “Extend light from Partzuf Leah, pass it through Partzuf Zeir Anpin to its three Sefirot of NHY, then come down to Rachel, then couple them one with the other.” This is the sort of material you will find in a Kabbalistic prayer book, which is in essence a manual with exact instructions about how to change things in the control room of reality and what to change above to induce the desired change below. But without sufficient preparation, it makes no sense and would not lead the reader to any further understanding.

Today Everyone Must Enter Reality’s Control Room

In all previous generations, the Creator raised a few souls to do their work for the collective, but in our generation, everyone must do this work according to his or her own ripeness. Everyone must open the books of Kabbalah and begin to study the instructions to learn how to change reality. We have to reach the same level and quality of performance within our- selves as is described in the books to make the necessary changes in the upper worlds. All of humankind will eventually have to enter that control room and everyone will come to a place reserved for him or her alone.

The prayer cited earlier describes the way desires and thoughts about reality are meant to be used. The only force that can influence reality is the power of thought and humankind’s willpower. Kabbalists have prepared these prayer books as manuals that show us how to work with our desires. We only need to know how to read them and learn what to do, and we are required to do that right now.

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