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The Solution
Throughout time and throughout the world, wise men have
failed to come up with a solution that would be accepted by all. I
offer a genuine solution that is both acceptable and unites them
all.
The New Society
The acceptance of the religion of “love thy neighbor as
thyself”, as simple as that, (meaning the religion is “love thy
neighbor as thyself”!). A just distribution of the profits, so that
each works according to his skills and receives according to his
needs. Private property exists, but its owner must not profit from
it more than he really needs. Property owners will be under public
supervision, or under self-trusteeship, or through bookkeeping. The
unemployed will receive their needs equally with the employed.
People who live in communes will receive equally with the workers.
Profits will be utilized for building public assets.
The Change of Form
The will to receive that's imprinted in each creature
has a different form to the Creator's. Therefore the soul departed
from Him, because a change of form in the spiritual is like an ax
that cuts in two in the material. Thus it is clear that what the
Creator wants from us is equivalence of form, by which we return and
cleave to Him as before we were created. It is as the verse goes:
“To cleave to His attributes: as He is merciful, so shall you be
merciful”. Meaning that we change our attributes, which are the will
to receive, and accept the attributes of the Creator, which consist
purely of bestowal, in such a way that everything we do will be only
to bestow upon our fellow man and benefit them to the best of our
ability. By that we come to the purpose of adhesion with Him,
meaning equivalence of form. And the things that man must do for
himself, the minimum needed for him and his family, is not
considered a change of form because “necessity is neither praised
nor condemned”. And that will be discovered at the time of the
Messiah. When that lesson is learned we shall attain complete
redemption.
Two Paths to Discover Perfection
A path of Torah or a path of pain. This technique will
bring about a total destruction of the world in a third world war.
The survivors will decide not to work for themselves more than is
actually necessary and dedicate the remainder of their actions for
the good of others. And if all the nations of the world consent that
no man should care for himself but only for others, war shall cease
to exist.
The Torah of the Messiah
The Torah (also method) of equivalence of form. The
Messiah will teach everyone to worship God through equivalence of
form, meaning that he'll prove that if people follow his way they
will be better off. However, if they do not take upon themselves the
work of God, they will be led into a path of terrible pain and be
destroyed by war. Then the nations of the world will seek advice on
how to avoid wars, and they will come to the Messiah, to Jerusalem,
and he will teach them this Torah.
The Religious Formation
The religious formation of all the nations should first
and foremost obligate its members to bestow upon their fellow man
the concept of another person's life coming before one's own, a
formation of “Love thy neighbour as thyself”, meaning that one will
not benefit from society more than the underprivileged. This is a
comprehensive religion for all nations that will operate within the
framework of the new society. But otherwise, each nation may pursue
its own religion and traditions, and one must not interfere with the
other.
The laws of this equal to all religion (bestowal) are:
· One will work
for others to the best of his ability, and beyond that if
necessary, until there is no more hunger in the world.
· Although one
may be a hard worker, one will not benefit from society more
than the underprivileged, so that the standard of living will be
equal for all.
· Although
there is a religion, honors must be added that are compatible
with the religion – he who bestows more upon society will
receive a higher decoration.
· The laws of
society will punish anyone who refrains from doing his utmost.
· Each and
every one must endeavor, according to this religion, to
constantly improve the standard of living of the world, so that
all those who come in it will take pleasure in their lives and
enjoy life more and more.
· Not everyone
must delve in spirituality, but only a chosen few according to
the changing needs. There will be a so-called Supreme Court and
all who wish to participate in the spiritual life, must first be
permitted to do so by this court.
· Each
individual or group who enter the new framework must take an
oath of allegiance to observe all that is so because God has so
commanded, or at least to pledge to teach his children that God
has so commanded. Those who claim to settle for the ideology
should be accepted on condition. If they live up to it they can
be fully accepted. Nevertheless, they must promise not to pass
on to their sons their path of heresy, but to trust their
education in the hands of the state. And if they want neither
they must not be accepted at all for they will corrupt their
friends and the loss will exceed the profit.
· There must
first be a small organization whose members are willing to work
according to their ability and receive according to their needs
for religious reasons. They will work diligently as though they
were contract workers, if necessary more than eight hours a day.
In this organization, there will be the complete administration
as that of a state, so that the administration of that small
society suffice for a framework for all the nations of the
world. That organization will be like a center point that
expands over nations and countries throughout the world, and all
who enter that framework will accept the leadership and
administration program of the initial organization, so that the
whole world will be united in facing the consequences of loss or
enjoying the profit.
· All
contradictions between members of society will be resolved
between the relevant parties, and anyone who exploits the
weakness or strictness of his fellow man will be ostracized from
society. If some exceptions are found in society, the public
must be notified of them until they are reformed. If efforts to
reform them fail, society should treat them as outcasts so that
they cannot corrupt others in the society.
· No man will
claim his needs from society. Specifically appointed people will
inquire about the needs of each person and will see to their
satisfaction, so that everyone is absorbed solely in bestowal
and never needs to contemplate his own needs.
· The freedom
of the individual should be maintained as long as it is not
harmful to society. Anyone who wishes to leave and join another
society must in no way be detained, even if their leaving is
harmful to society.
Publicity
There are three foundations to the circulation of the
religion:
1. The satisfaction of desires: in every man
there is an unknown spark that demands to unite with God. And
when it sometimes comes to life and awakens to know God, or to
deny God (which is the same thing), and if there is someone who
can satisfy that need, he would agree to anything. In addition
there is the matter of the afterlife and reward in the next
world. There is also the matter of the pride of the individual
and the pride of the nation.
2. Proof – that the world exists but for
Him, especially in the days of the atomic age.
3. Publicity: hiring people to spread these
words to the public.
There is no harder blow to the capitalistic regime than
this new formation of society. We should not expect at all that the
capitalistic regime would disappear by itself. Publicity: if one
bears in mind that all wrongs are only amendable in the new society,
it will not be difficult for him to devote himself to it.
Jews should present before the gentiles a novelty in
the wisdom of religion, in justice and in peace. In that most
gentiles are our disciples and this wisdom is attributed to us
alone, and this is what they expect from the return to the Land of
Israel. Israel is poor, its inhabitants are doomed to suffer and
emigrate from the country. The only cure for that is the new society
as it not only unites all nations as one in helping one another, but
it gives strength and endurance to each and every one. And most
importantly – the new society gives strength to work in such a way
that the productivity of the work will compensate for the poverty.
If that religion is accepted, the building of the
Temple is possible.
The basis of all this explanation is the discovery of
both spiritual and material creation, which is no more than the will
to receive, regarded as existence from absence, but what that
substance receives is extended existence from existence. Thus we can
vividly see what God demands of us: equivalence of form. For by
nature our body has but the will to receive and none of the will to
bestow, which is the opposite of the Creator, which is all bestowal
and no reception. That difference of form causes severance from the
Creator. Therefore we are obliged to bring contentment to our Maker
through acts of Torah and Mitzvot, and bestowal to others, in order
to receive that form of bestowal and once again cleave to the
Creator as before creation.
The Leader of the Generation
People naturally believe a leader who has no private
interests and no commitments for himself, who dedicates himself and
abandons his privacy in favor of the benefit of the public, because
indeed that is how it should be. And if the leader harms another
person because of some private interest, he is a liar and a traitor
and as soon as people find out about it, they will trample him to
the ground. There are two kinds of private interests: physical and
mental. There is not a leader in the world who will not fail the
public for mental interests. For example, if one is merciful, and
because of that he does not rid society of evildoers and does not
warn about them, or that he is afraid of vengeance, perhaps even the
vengeance of the Creator, and because of that refrains from making
the necessary corrections. Thus, because of private interest, he
demolishes the public. Even if he rids himself of material
interests, he'll still not want to rid himself of idealistic or
religious interests, although they are only his own without any
bearings on the public, for they discern only the word “benefit”,
for they have nothing, even the most idealistic that can stand in
the way of benefit.
Good Deeds and Mitzvot (acts that prompt adhesion)
The mind cannot perceive something that the senses do
not first detect. A person does not wish for something because it is
good, but is good because he wishes it. The senses do not detect
something that is not done first. Thus, action leads to the senses,
which leads to understanding. For example: the senses cannot take
pleasure in bestowal before they actually bestow, and it is
impossible to grasp the great importance of bestowal before your
senses get a taste of it. By the same token, it is impossible to
take pleasure in adhesion before many good deeds that can bring to
it are performed, provided they are done in order to please Him,
that is to take pleasure in the contentment that He gets by your
performance of the good deed. Once the pleasure in good deeds has
been felt, it is possible to understand Him, to the extent of the
received pleasure.
There are two aims to religion:
A. Not For Her Name, pragmatism, when he
gets what he wants he is satisfied.
B. Religious, a mental need to cleave to
Him, which is called For Her Name.
By action he can come from not For Her Name to For Her
Name.
The Aim and The Purpose Of Life
To attain adhesion with the Creator so as to please Him
alone, or to purify others so that they may attain adhesion with the
Creator.
Two Servitudes In The World
To the Creator or to His creatures, one of them is a
must. There is no taste of total freedom but to those who are
servants to the Lord alone and to no other creature in the world.
Contact, Touch With Him
There is nothing more natural than attaining contact
with the Creator, as the verse goes: “The whole earth is full of His
glory”, but one does not know it and does not feel it. And the
worshiper who is endowed with contact with Him, gains nothing but
the knowledge. Thus he becomes more natural, simpler and poorer,
until one can say that before he was endowed, he, and the masses
too, were outside the simple nature, for now he is equal and simple
and understands all people and is very much involved with them and
no one is nearer and more natural to the masses than him and one
must love him alone, for they have none closer and more brotherly
than him.
Author: Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag
Translation: C. Ratz
Proofreading: J. Kersen
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