Israel Is a Spiritual Calling

The following are excerpts of Michael Laitman's commentary on Letter 20 of The Arvut, shedding light on the connection between Israel and the other nations.

6. There is a role for those called "Israel." But not all of them are actually descendants of Abraham, from his group, from his disciples, from the ancient people of Israel. As we know, this is a matter of spirituality, and therefore each of those Babylonians who were scattered throughout the world, who has the root that awakens called "Yisrael-El," then according to the goal that yearns for Yisrael-El, is called "Israel." These are the people who must as quickly as possible apply the wisdom of Kabbalah to themselves, to reach "Lishma." This means that their desires will be to bestow for the sake of bestowal and receive in order to bestow.

By Israel correcting themselves, then from the connection between souls, they also make a preparation in all the other souls who do not feel the desire to be Israel. Then they too awaken and are ready to receive the Torah, that is, the means to resemble G-d. So that the entire world ultimately reaches this correction. Michael Laitman - January 8, 2009.

7. The correction is a gradual correction that occurs in those who have received awakening, and therefore are called "Yashar El-Gol", Israel. Over the generations, over a long period of time, they make correction according to the desire that awakens in them, and they are given all kinds of heaviness in their hearts, and the entire world is supposedly on their shoulders and they must correct themselves within the entire world, among the entire environment they are in. And they must thus accept that the entire world was created for them, that they must correct themselves in order to later correct the world. And the world is waiting for this and expecting this, and therefore those who are called Israel must develop themselves as quickly and as much as possible in the way that is desired in the eyes of the Creator, to bring the entire world to the completion of correction. Michael Laitman - June 15, 2016.

8. Those who are called "Israel" and have received the desire to be Yashar El-Gol, must feel themselves responsible for both their own correction and for the correction of the entire world. Because they do not correct themselves for themselves, certainly not for their own benefit, that is in order to receive, how can that be, but only to bring satisfaction to their Creator. Because satisfaction to the Creator is done precisely by the fact that the whole world will be attached to Him.

Therefore, Israel's mission is general. But in correction, it turns out that they correct themselves slowly and grow themselves to be similar to the Creator, in order to realize their correction later on over the whole world. And it turns out that they correct themselves over a period of ten thousand years, six thousand years, and only then, in the very last stage, do all the nations of the world join in and correction is made in them at once. Michael Laitman - June 15, 2016.

9. Guarantee is a law that we must uphold from the moment society reaches, in part or in whole, a state where it must already be connected by the law of guarantee, reciprocity. So first it was revealed as necessary in society in "Babylon", that some of society recognized this obligation, and therefore they accepted the system of pledge from Abraham and put themselves under what is called the "burden of Torah and commandments". That is to say, to correct ourselves by reaching "love your neighbor as yourself" which is a great rule in the Torah, by the light that reforms, and thus to carry out 313 "itin" and 313 "pekodin".

And now we are approaching the next situation, where not only that group that once took upon itself the law of pledge and violated it, but now both it and the whole world are reaching a situation like it was in ancient Babylon at that time, and feel themselves falling apart and there is no possibility of distinguishing society. No matter which people, today it is also impossible to say "people", because in every country there are many different peoples, different cultures, literally Babylon in all countries. The division is according to all the data, also according to the social situation, also according to the educational and cultural situation, and according to religion, nationality and everything. Every country is in such a situation and so are all the countries among them, and therefore, as Baal HaSulam states, we are at the beginning of the 'generation of the Messiah', and discover that we must reach the unification of society and even the unification of the world, because we are all dependent on each other. Michael Laitman - June 12, 2017.

10. To the extent that they advance, advance, advance, to the guarantee of small groups, then in this they also awaken the rest of the general vessel, the rest of humanity, also at the disadvantage of being in the vessel. Although they do not have the means, they do not have a method, they do not have the ability to act on their own, but a disadvantage does arise in them, and then from the disadvantage it emerges that they have a demand.

Then they reach those called "Israel", who have a connection with the Supreme Power, they have a connection to build the guarantee between them. And from the guarantee between them to bring out the Supreme Power, and through them to influence the entire world. Therefore, those called "Yashar El" will feel more and more pressure, a demand, from the so-called "nations of the world". The nations of the world are called all those who have no inclination for correction, they only have an inclination for receiving the filling, they belong to the body of the parzuf and not to the head of the parzuf. Therefore, the demand for this filling will be for everyone, but the demand for this correction will only be for those who belong to the head of the parzuf, who are called "Yashar-El" (meaning straight to the Creator). And so the world will have to move towards its general correction. Michael Laitman - May 1, 2018.

The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee] - Letter 20

20) But the end of the correction of the world will only be by bringing all the people in the world under His work, as it is written, “And the Lord will be King over all the earth; in that day, the Lord will be one and His name one.” The text specifies, “on that day,” and not before. And there are several more verses, “For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord…” “…and all the nations will flow unto him.”

But the role of Israel toward the rest of the world resembles the role of our holy fathers toward the Israeli nation: As the righteousness of our fathers helped us develop and refine ourselves until we became worthy of receiving the Torah, for were it not for our fathers, who observed the whole of the Torah before it was given, we would certainly not be any better than the rest of the nations, as mentioned in Item 19, so it is upon the Israeli nation—through engagement in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma [for Her sake]—to qualify itself and all the people of the world to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of the love of others. This is the ladder to the purpose of creation, which is Dvekut with Him.

Thus, each and every Mitzva that each person from Israel performs in order to bring contentment to one’s Maker, and not for any reward and self-love, helps, to some extent, with the development of all the people of the world. This is because it is not done at once, but by a slow, gradual development, until it increases to such a degree that they can shift all the people in the world to the desired refinement. And this is what our sages call “shifting the balance to merit,” meaning that the desired weight of refinement has been achieved. They compared it to weighing on a scale, where the shifting of the balance is the achievement of the desired weight.