There are many people suffering on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war. Nonetheless, it is the Creator who evokes these situations for the sake of correction, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him.” Moreover, we must not attribute this war to anyone but the Creator, because “the heart of kings and ministers is in the hands of the Creator.” True victory is not where one side subdues the other, but that they connect above all problems and battlefields. Connection is the true victory, i.e. where both sides understand that there is no victory in war but each of us has to defeat our own ego, and this is how we will win the war. There is no other way. We cannot come out of this war until we think correctly about what is going on, that it is not just a war, but it is in order for us to become more connected and so that we will turn to the Creator and demand of Him that “He who makes peace in His high places, may He make peace upon us” (Heb. “Oseh shalom be Merumav, Hu yaase shalom aleynu”). We will then reach true peace. “Shalom,” which means “peace” in Hebrew, also means completion, wholeness, and perfection. We can reach such completion and perfection only in the connection of all opposite ends together, which is only possible through the revelation of the Creator—because we connect in Him.

Today, we live in times that kabbalists call “the last generation,” and the laws that apply to the last generation are no longer laws that pertain to certain regions or countries, but to humanity as a whole. Moreover, we very much need to see these laws with our own eyes: how they encompass our planet, how everyone receives the intellect, emotion, perception and inclination toward these laws, and that we live in such tight and inescapable global interdependence. Take, for example, the coronavirus pandemic. Look at how it connects everyone in a common concern. If we fail to reach the feeling of our interconnectedness out of our own accord, then a pandemic comes around to show us our connection. And if that is still not enough, then we can expect to experience more extreme natural occurrences, such as hurricanes and other disasters, in order to show us how small we really are, and how we need to be better connected in order to spare ourselves such blows. Today’s times are global and human society has become global. All we need today is to understand the extent to which we are global, and to reach a common understanding of the general collective force that encompasses us. If we reach such an understanding, then everything will work out just fine.

Humanity has been building society for thousands of years—fighting, lying, and trying to annihilate one another—eventually making us reach a state of understanding that subordination is not beneficial toward our development nor trade towards different societies in the world. Our goal in humanity, according to the law of nature, is for everyone to integrate and become as interdependent as possible. We will come to a state where we will understand that we must abide by this law of nature to reach the next level of growth in humanity, which is not based on the decision of any committee or at a convention. Our ego keeps growing. We need to deal with the ego, but only through the correct and beneficial connection among each other.

Today we see so many couples in loving relationships, followed by hatred, getting divorced or moving apart. It seems as if we need to learn a lesson toward relationships. We asked Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to share his insight with us. “Love and hatred need to complete one another, to reach a correct and proper state – the negative characteristics, habits and behavior are part of the way they came into existence. These attributes, both good and bad, through a correct connection between them, must be revealed, precisely to strengthen their love and understanding for the other, and not for them to move apart – allowing growth in the relationship between them to occur. There is a maxim in the wisdom of Kabbalah: ‘Love covers all crimes’ – there are crimes and love - that covers them all.”

Throughout thousands of years of human development, humanity has come closer together – making us question our advancement and future of the world. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are in the “last generation,” and we are reaching a state where our corporeal development will connect with that of the spiritual. Both are starting to come together. Humanity will begin to understand that its development will occur through sufficient requirements for physical work and an increase in the engagement of spiritual work – building correct connections in our relationships among each other. To reveal the Creator, the created being (human level), has no choice but to realize this.

We see that in human development, the forces of separation are becoming increasingly revealed. Human civilization lacks nothing besides the correct connection and attitude toward one another. It is only by coming closer between us, that we will influence the whole of nature towards a good outcome – and conversely, moving away from one another brings destruction to the entire nature. From the speaking level (human level), we will influence the still, vegetative and animate degrees. According to the new science – that of the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah – the science of the generation of the Messiah – the generation of the end of correction, the more we are able to correct ourselves, the more we will see these phenomena in the world, and putting out fires and planting trees will not help us. We need to arrange our thoughts, desires, and qualities – such that we will understand that everything depends only on this.

Shame is a tremendous force in creation. People are capable of doing anything to avoid feeling ashamed. Pretty much everything we do in life after the ages of five or six is due to shame. In fact, all the people in the world, our entire civilization is made up of tiny people, and each of them is concerned with how not to feel shame on various levels. Our entire existence is rather petty because the most constant concerns are how not to reach a state of shame as we observe each other’s behavior. This inclination leads to various phenomena, such as some who cover shame with insolence, or what is called “Chutzpah” in Hebrew, and others who cover shame by engaging themselves in all kinds of business, and others who want to stand out from the crowd, and others who delve into philosophies, religions, and other teachings. These all emerge in order to cover the same. This is how we build our families, societies, and countries. Nowadays, it has become quite clear how everyone acts in order to cover shame. In many cases, we even place covering shame of higher importance than dying. Eventually, we will have to thank the feeling of shame for how much it helps us in reaching a state where we come close to the Creator, find Him, and adhere to Him.

There is a single force and system that can correct everything. It awakens within us the opposite corrupt states. This is in order for us to find these corruptions and ask the upper force—the spiritual system—to act and bring the spiritual system closer to us. We will feel very uncomfortable in regard to the spiritual system since we are below it in an egoistic connection. Since the spiritual system is above us, we feel these two systems working in a bad and inconvenient way. Everything that we see today in the world, whether floods, fires, heatwaves or pandemics, to name a few, are due to these two systems abiding in opposition. This opposition exists in order for us, from the lowest point, to ask for balance with the upper system. By raising a deficiency, which is called “raising MAN” in the wisdom of Kabbalah, with such a prayer, the upper system not only nears us, but it also starts adjusting the relations between these two systems: the corporeal and the spiritual. This is how we will eventually reach correction. Everything depends on our mutual responsibility.

The forces of nature work on the inanimate level. It will thus take a lot of time for the forces of nature to influence us through the vegetative, animate, and then human levels. However, during that time, we will suffer along with our families, our countries, and everything else around us. We thus need to start understanding and digesting the changes that are happening in nature. We should start by responding to them from our human level, which is the highest. In other words, we should improve human connections by correcting ourselves. Even though there is a tremendous gap between our egos, which operate by self-absorption, and positive human connection, which requires opposite altruistic attitudes—through our correction, we can correct all of these harmful events. What is the point of dealing with all the fires, floods, and germs? We should rather deal with everything from the highest level, from where these harmful events come from—the point where we are detached from the upper force. If we correct our connection at that point, then the rest of nature will calm down, and there will be no problems or tensions. Imagine if we would not have discovered radio waves. How would we communicate then? It is a natural law that every time we climb from one level of comprehension to the next, we elevate and correct the previous level. Fighting fires and floods at the level of the fires and the floods simply reveals our weakness. It shows a lack of understanding at what level we are supposed to fight such phenomena. If we fought natural disasters on the level of our detachment from each other and from nature, then we would enter into balance with nature at a higher level, and then we would experience that balance throughout all of the lower levels.

The general trend today in the world is toward globalization. Several people feel themselves as citizens of the world, identifying with no specific country or city. There might be a possible explanation for this, such that egotistically, it is easier, better, and more convenient for humanity. If we discuss the connection among all of us, then we will see that while we are under the influence of global natural disasters and calamities we see coming our way, we will feel that we are parts of one planet and one nation of humanity. People with concern for the planet are saying that Earth is suffering due to our inability to unite for the sake of aiding each other during natural catastrophes, such as fire prevention. Instead, we see each country taking care of its own affairs, and should we continue in this manner, the world will surely collapse. Kabbalah can give us a method of connection through which we will be able to rise above our ego for humanity’s benefit. By doing so, we draw upon ourselves the upper general force of nature. This force will perform all the necessary positive changes. The uniqueness in the method of Kabbalah is to elevate us above our will to receive, to that of a general desire.

In our world, there is just one force that governs everyone: the will to receive pleasure. No matter what we do, we are constantly searching and choosing that which will ultimately bring us the greatest pleasure in the most optimal and safest way. Humanity develops through intellect and emotions, which are sufficient to gain knowledge to better succeed in this world. Then comes a time where humanity feels that it is not enough anymore, and finds itself in trouble, seeing that there are problems and obstacles. This pushes humanity toward the search for different methods, ideas, inventions, and gadgets to mitigate life, to see how to better advance. However, what we start finding is that our technologies and scientific discoveries only bring us harm. We have reached a state where the development that we aspired for and respected suddenly becomes increasingly dangerous. From various harmful elements being released into the environment, to many countries possessing nuclear weapons, or toxic chemicals in our food and even our actions toward one another have become increasingly toxic. An inner enemy, our ego, stands in the way of positive further progress. The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals and teaches that what will save us is to develop positive human connections. Our connections, the connections between all of us, are all that we need to fix.