The Land and Nation Are One

Deep inside the Nation of Israel there is a yearning to be home. Home is not just a piece of real estate or a space for a national enterprise, but rather forms an intrinsic component of the Nation’s being. This profound realization that the Land of Israel is not only a place to live, but one which is interwoven within the Children of Israel’s psyche is foundational to who we are and why as a Nation we cannot simply let go of pieces of our homeland.

Each member of the Nation of Israel, each Yid, each Jew has the potential to find himself, his or her complete self only within the boundaries of the Land of Israel.

This unshakeable bond, this inner calling, and pull home are all really about being drawn in the most organic way back to a state of self authenticity. This state, this inner geulah, redemption was lost or hidden away during the exile and now in an evolution of national spiritual awareness is being uncovered in the Land of Israel.

But why is this process taking so long? After all the Yidden, the Jewish people have been returning back to the Land of Israel, their home at increasing numbers for over two centuries. If this process is taking this long then one may think that we are not natural here, but that is not the case.

The return of the Jewish people, the Nation of Israel, to their home unlocked an immediate burst of light, not felt since we held sovereignty here nearly two thousand years ago, yet this light had no kelim, no vessels able to hold it and so they shattered and broke.

Being unable to contain this light, the inspiration, the development of an integrated national consciousness has taken time only to be felt now.

Why now?

The national enterprise rushed home, drawn to fulfilling the yearning of their innermost desires to be once again one with themselves and their land. However, a process of such magnitude needed the direction of the Tzaddikim, the spiritual leaders of the Jewish people. This light, this direction carved out of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and his followers was the missing link that could smooth the Yidden’s return.

So now that the thirst for an inner redemption which was activated by coming home is finally reaching its peak, the Baal Shem Tov’s light has become the central force behind the awakening and the completion of the inner return of the Nation of Israel to their Land and ultimately the realization that the Nation of Israel and the Land of Israel are one indivisible whole.

(Based on Orot Eretz Yisrael 1, Olat Rehiyah Part 1:203, Likutey Moharan, Keter Shem Tov)

ISRAEL AFTER 70: From National to Global Rectification

“When the Lord returned the captives of Zion, we were like people in a dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter,​ and our tongue with exultatio​n: then said they among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us; so we rejoiced!​ Bring back our captives,​ O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Though he goes on his way weeping, bearing the store of seed, he shall come back with joy, bearing his sheaves. ” – Psalm 126

We have come home.

After 70 years since the British left the Land of Israel (which they sinisterly called Palestine) with their tails between their legs, the State of Israel has risen from the dreams and hopes of the Jewish people around the world to become a global leader in so many areas.

Against all odds and in a miraculous fashion the State of Israel has become a beacon to so many around the world. The number 70 is a transitional number.  It represents the end of one era and an entry to another.  After all the first exile of the Jewish people lasted 70 years exactly as prophesied. King David lived 70 years, which is seen as a paradigm for the concept of the years of kingship. 70 is also the number of root nations in the world as well as being the numerical value of Gog uMagog. The sages taught that there are 70 faces of Torah.

So What’s Next?

The Nation of Israel is meant to lead the world to a new era.  We of course are not quite there yet, but the feeling that we are heading to something incredible is all around us.  The challenge for Israel is that transitioning from a country at siege yet extremely successful to one which takes its success and transforms the world may result in altering Israel as we know it.

Anyone with eyes wide open can see that the world as we know it is collapsing.  The paradox of new advances that are literally changing how people live to the chaos across the globe with super powers preparing to destroy each other can be overwhelming.

Despite the potential carnage, there is light and hope.

It is at this juncture that Israel is meant to lead. The broken world we live in is only broken because we have yet to fix it.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov said the following: “If you believe that you can destroybelieve that you can build.” 

Israel has all the ingredients to lead the world from its darkness to a state of light, yet something is holding us back, keeping us from transforming the chaotic storm winds into a new order. For 70 years the State of Israel and the Zionist movement has been rooted in classic Western nationalism. But that in its core can only take the Jewish people in Israel so far.  Our job is to bring a new, rectified order to the world. One that merges the physical and spiritual together.

Achievements in technology cannot be divorced from the traditions of the Torah.  These advances are part of a holistic redemptive process that sees an Israeli experience as one that blends multiple forces together. If we think of advances in technology as only a “tikkun olam”  (rectification of the world) in a physical sense then we are lacking a wider perspective.   Technology is a tool or vessel for the spirit or will of the Creator.

The State of Israel as an entity is a tool for a global redemption.  It is at one hand the vessel which was formed to allow the reconstitution of the people of Israel in their ancient ancestral land as prophesied more than 2,500 years ago.  This has happened in miraculous fashion, but the State of Israel is far more than that.  It is now transitioning into the activated tool for the will of “Knesset Yisrael” the mystical concept which expresses the rectified Israeli Collective, whose mission it is to ultimately repair the broken world, which still awaits its full rectification and direction.

Rebbe Nachman teaches in Likutey Moharan that the Jewish people’s role is to repair the “supernal altar” of the nations.  This means that we are to turn them away from worshipping a false notion of spiritual connection and recalibrate their yearning for a divine relationship to one which is an authentic personal relationship to the one above or better expressed, the one within. We can only do this by example.

The vessels to spread the light of the Creator have been built in the first 70 years of the State of Israel.  It is now time for Israel to rise to the occasion and steer the world out of the darkness and chaos it finds itself in.

 

 

Is This the Last War?

Whether or not the attack in Douma, Syria by Assad’s forces was really a chemical weapon may never be fully proven, but the attack itself appears to have finally pushed the proverbial trigger of war that has been building up for the past few years.

From Russia to the USA, China to Taiwan, Pakistan to India, and Iran to Israel, the global structure we have grown accustom to is breaking apart.

This may be the final war.  A war so terrible that it resets our reality and opens the possibility of giving us a new beginning.

Afterall, the war we are about to witness on the outside is merely a projection of the inner chaos which rules our individual and family lives.  We have grown disconnected from one another and from the Creator and in doing so created a cultural and spiritual vortex of emptiness. It is this emptiness which is now becoming manifest in the world around us and it is this emptiness which is leading the world as we know it to become shattered like our own personal lives.

Our sages teach us that in the year the Moshiach will be revealed, the nations of the world will agitate one another leading to a final destructive war where a majority of the world is destroyed.  About this time it says that the Nation of Israel will run from side to side in fear and G-D will say: “Do not fear for everything that I have done is for your benefit… your time of redemption is now.” (Yalkut Shemoni)

We cannot imagine the depths of spiritual decay we have all fallen to and yet no matter how far down we fall, we can rise to unbelievable heights.  That is if we are unbound from the world around us. We must want and be willing to rise and reconnect to who and what we are meant to be.

It is true, the world is about to enter moment of extreme shaking. Yet, this shaking is necessary if we are to be prepared for the next stage of the redemption process. Chaos leads to order. If this is to be the last war, then the reordering after the chaos must begin within each of us.  We must choose good over evil, the will of G-D over our own wants and desires.

“Kol ha’olam kulo gesher tsar m’od v’haikar lo l’fached klal: The whole world is a very narrow bridge, but the essence, is not to be afraid at all.”

(Rebbe Nachman of Breslov)