To understand the secret of Jerusalem, we must journey back to ancient Babylon. There begins the story of the people of Israel, the foundation of the nation.

It was Abraham the Babylonian, a persistent seeker, who discovered that nature is a single system. At that time, a great war was raging, accompanied by a tremendous eruption of egoism, i.e., the desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone at the expense of others. As the Midrash says, “Half the world fell by the sword” (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 24).

Abraham tried to explain that if people rose above their egoism, they could build bonds of connection and mutual complementarity, and in those bonds discover the single force operating throughout creation, the force of life and love.

The few who listened became his students, forming the community known as the House of Abraham, a collection of strangers united by a common idea and method. From them, our people eventually emerged, as Maimonides describes in The Book of Knowledge.

“Love covers all transgressions” is the method of proper Israelite connection. The process is quite complex. It contains stages and degrees of connection that must be learned. Together, these stages are considered the spiritual construction of the Land of Israel.

The word “Eretz” (“land”) symbolizes desire, while Israel signifies a clear direction, from the two words “Yashar-El” (“straight to God”), i.e., straight to the force of love.

The bonds of love built above hatred are like bridges between people. From each person a bridge extends to another, and all the bridges connect together until, above them, a kind of dome is formed. At the center of this dome emerges the heart of the Land of Israel, which is Jerusalem.

The initial ascent above egoism in order to build a bridge to another person is also called an exodus from egoism. This departure is hinted at in........

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