My new article on Linkedin “A One-Sentence Constitution”

Evidently, the Jewish nation is unlike any other. Even when we want to believe that we are, life, or rather, the rest of the nations, do not allow us to think so. When the State of Israel was established, we sought to run our country according to the rules that seemed appropriate at the time. As a result, we mainly followed the British Mandatory rule, with “leftovers” from the Ottoman rule that preceded it.

Yet, from one election to the next, we are realizing that our system of government is failing; people are dissatisfied and the government is dysfunctional. We cannot be like other countries because we weren’t formed like other countries, and we aren’t meant to be like other countries. We are meant to be an am segula, a virtuous nation, which serves as “a light unto nations” by following a one-sentence constitution: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).

Our sages knew this, of course. Rabbi Akiva declared that this was the great rule of the Torah; Old Hillel said to a man who wanted to understand the gist of Jewish law, “That which you hate, do not do unto others,” and countless other references in Jewish writings testify to the centrality of the concept of love of others and mutual responsibility in Jewish law.

The founders of our country were also keenly aware of this law and its vitality to our success. David Ben Gurion, leader of the Jewish community in Israel before the establishment of Israel, and the country’s first Prime Minister, wrote that “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ is the supreme commandment of Judaism. With these three words [the length of the sentence in Hebrew], the eternal, human law of Judaism has been formed… The state of Israel will be worthy of its name only if its social, economic, political, and judicial structures are based upon these three eternal words.”

Aaron David (A.D.) Gordon, the ideologue and the spiritual force behind practical Zionism and Labor Zionism, echoed Ben Gurion’s words when he wrote, “‘All of Israel are responsible for one another’ … [and] only where people are responsible for one another there is Israel.” And finally, Eliezer Ben Yehuda, reviver of the Hebrew language, asserted that “We have yet to open our eyes and see that only unity can save us. Only if we all unite … to work in favor of the entire nation, our labor will not be in vain.”

Regrettably, we have not built our social, economic, political, and judicial systems on these three words, as Ben Gurion had stipulated, nor have we united “to work in favor of the entire nation,” as Ben Yehuda required, or have become “responsible for one another,” as A.D. Gordon specified. As a result, as a country and as a nation, we are failing miserably. If we continue on this path, we will have no future here. In the best case scenario, we will “escape the discomfort until too few remain to merit the name State, and they will be swallowed among the Arabs,” as kabbalist and thinker Rav Yehuda Ashlag put it. In the worst case scenario, we will be dispersed by force, either through war or through civil war.

If we want to avoid this dreadful, but certain fate, we have no choice but to comprehend that our nation is a spiritual one, and as such, our country must be founded on the spiritual law of love of others: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the only constitution that is suitable for our country and our people, and the only mode of governance that will make Israel a welcome state among the nations.

Even Henry Ford, who loathed the Jews of his time so vehemently that he became Hitler’s idol and received from him the highest award that a none German could receive, admired the Jews of antiquity precisely because their social structure was based upon these “three eternal words,” as Ben Gurion put it. Ford wrote, “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems … would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

Today, the paramount task before us is to establish such education in the nation that will lift us above all our disputes and quarrels and establish unity, mutual responsibility, and indeed, love of others in the nation. And since hatred is so entrenched within the nation, this education must encompass the entire nation, on all its factions, equally, and apply to all ages. We must reform our society from one where envy and hatred govern, to one where support and love set the tone until we realize the tenet “Love your neighbor as yourself” in practice. This is Israel’s only viable governance.

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Comment: Nowadays, in connection with the latest events in the world, there has been a terrible increase of anti-Semitism. They do not like Israel, they do not like Jews.

In Europe, in Germany, they burn flags, call us child killers. In England they tell us not to wear kippahs (yarmulkes) and traditional Jewish clothing and to dress as if we are English or tourists. In France, the situation is quite bad. In America, Jews remove mezuzahs from the doors so that nobody knows that Jews live there. And so on, you can list many facts. We have come to this state.

My Response: What could be better than what is happening now? This is to put the Jews on the right track so that they fulfill their purpose. After all, if they do not fulfill it, then literally the world will slide into darkness more and more.

How else can you bring them to their senses? Only by applying more and more pressure. Still, I do not see that it helps much. Although there already was such suffering, such blows upon them, it still did not help.

We must understand why everybody hates us. Also, the anti-Semites must understand why they hate us. We see throughout the history of the Jews and the world, how it is wrapped around the Jewish people. Therefore we have to ask ourselves: Why is all this happening?

They hate us, they love us, no matter how they treat us, they are clearly treating us as something special. What is special about this ethnic group, this people, this race? They even think this is some special race. We need to explain that.

The fact is that it all began in ancient times, somewhere around 5,000 years ago when humanity began to reveal its attitude to its condition: “Who am I? What am I? Where am I from? What am I for?” And so on. These questions were asked by a man named Adam. This is what he was called, supposedly by accident, Adam.

This person began to ask this question, began to reason, to investigate. As a result of his special passion, his thirst to answer this question: “What is a human? What is his purpose, what is he for?” Adam revealed that the world exists in order to attain the upper force that governs it.

It is possible to attain this force only through special exercises when a person tries to rise above egoism, above himself, and to attain the upper force of nature, which only wishes to be in the quality of bestowal and love for others, in universal connection.

In this way, the upper universal connection between all parts of creation is revealed. This upper general force of all the parts of creation is called “the Creator.”

This person Adam revealed this force. He described it in his book Raziel HaMalach (The Secret Angel). This is a small book because at that time they wrote on clay and with sticks.

Adam created the first school where he taught his knowledge, everything he had learned, to the people who were interested in it. Quite a number of people came to him, listened to him. All kinds of beliefs also came from him since different people understood this teaching differently.

This lasted, in principle, 20 generations of his disciples: 10 generations until the disciple called Noah and another 10 generations to the disciple called Abraham. And all these generations of disciples created more disciples around them, and so it went on for hundreds of years.

In the generation of Abraham, the understanding of the knowledge that Adam passed on to them already begins. Abraham taught this to his disciples in Ancient Babylon where at that time were also special conditions. Why special conditions?

Because if before Babylon, before Abraham, the teaching of the system of the universe and the knowledge of where we exist, what surrounds us, what we are connected with, who’s governance we are under, and so on, was all purely individual, then, from Abraham onward, it was already happening in the connection between people. Therefore, Abraham is the first person who created the school of Kabbalists.

In principle, they were studying in some way before, but they were not so dependent and connected with each other. Abraham had already realized, understood, and revealed that the attainment of nature and its upper force depends on the connection between people. Therefore, he put forth the slogan “love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is already such a revolution, when you need to move from just pulling yourself up to the level of bestowal and love for others to starting to arrange people to such a state. Here he came into conflict with the egoism that at that time represented by Nimrod, the king of Babylon. And, of course, Abraham had to leave him.

From here begins the group of Abraham, which he called “Yehudi” from the word “Yehud,” connection, unity.

Jew (in Hebrew, Ivri) is from the word “ever,” meaning that they pass from this life, when everyone is for himself, to a life when everyone is for others. They also called it “Israel,” meaning aimed “straight to the Creator,” “Yashar-El,” Israel. This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah begins. That is, in principle, this is the wisdom of attaining the Creator.

Question: If we move from that time to the current time, then is the hatred because Abraham instilled this principle to live not for yourself, but for others, into the people of Israel, and the Jews do not live like this? Can we say that this is written in the spiritual genetics of a person and also not in the spiritual one?

Answer: Of course! Absolutely! This is a record, informational data, that exists in a person. They cannot be eradicated, nothing can be done about them. The only thing that can be done is to change hatred into love through an explanation.

Question: How do the nations feel that there is this record in the Jews and in Israel?

Answer: Subconsciously.

Question: Will this continue until we reach the root?

Answer: That would be good. Let us hope that it does not get any worse.

Comment: But it already was very bad, really. Look what we went through in our history!

My Response: Yes, but you can see how it does not affect anything. It turns out that the only thing left is a really serious mass explanation through an appeal to everybody and especially to the nations of the world, not to the Jews.

It is because the Jews are stiff-necked people. They will not believe and will not go, and will not do anything unless the nations of the world force them. Therefore, we must appeal to the nations of the world and explain to them what the Jews should do. To force the Jews to fulfill this purpose. Then it will work.

This is what we need to do. I really hope that with the help of all our students from all over the world, we will be able to do this.

Question: Is it the responsibility of the Jews to explain to the world and to give to the world the method of connection, unity, and love for one’s neighbor? To do it by themselves and give it to the world?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will they continue pressing on us until we get to that point?

Answer: “Pressing” is putting it mildly. But the thing is, it will not help. The only thing that will help is dissemination, explanation to all the nations of the world what Israel’s mission is and what their mission is.

It is written that they must raise the people of Israel up on their shoulders and lift them to the mountain of the Creator. This means that they must force the people of Israel to climb the mountain of the Creator so that the Jews will pave the way for all the nations of the world.

Comment: This explanation should enter into the heart, that is what’s important.

My Response: I think that, in general, the ground is prepared for this, and as much as it is impossible to accept it, it will be accepted precisely from its opposite.

The idea in itself is simple. It goes through all the generations, through all the persecutions, through all the exterminations, through all the destruction of Temples, and so on, right up to the Holocaust and our current state. The same thing, again and again.

Comment: But the idea that Kabbalists convey does not enter into ordinary people, into their hearts; that is the difficulty.

My Response: It affects everyone. But the understanding of the idea itself: Where it comes from, why, what drives it, what is the engine, the source of this historical movement, this is known only to Kabbalists.

Comment: I see that it has been mostly present in Baal HaSulam and present in you very vividly! You feel that the time has come, has arrived. This is almost the central point of history for you, the central point of the world!

Antisemitism is a segment in history, and for you it is the central point of the world.

My Response: The world revolves around this.

Comment: To bring the Jews to an understanding and to the fact that they pass this instruction to the world.

My Response: I think not even the Jews, but the world.

I do not think the Jews can take it upon themselves. They are too egoistic, divided, weak and do not understand their purpose and place, their role, nothing! They will never be able to do it with their egoism.

Question: Will the nations of the world be able to force them?

Answer: Yes! Exactly in such a way.

Comment: Yes, but hopefully it does not come to another Holocaust.

My Response: Therefore, we need to do it quickly.

Question: To explain quickly? That is, the nations of the world should understand what they are doing, what they are doing it for? Is this the understanding they should have?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/24/21

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My new article on Linkedin “It is the Turn for Jews in America”

After a decade in Silicon Valley in the United States, Maya Greenberg returned for a short homeland visit to Israel. Maya is a longtime student and active in spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, someone who helped me a lot in organizing one of the lecture tours I gave across America in 2014 to warn about widespread antisemitism.

Today, mid-2021, I no longer have to warn of the impending danger of hatred against Jews. It is rampant everywhere, from colleges across the US to social media. The voices of hatred toward the Jewish state and toward Jews in general resonate loudly and hostilely.

Like many Israelis living in America, Maya also learned that as soon as Americans hear in the news or read about another Israeli military operation, it immediately ignites a heated debate about the role and tactics of the Jewish state and its right to self-defense. Maya often reluctantly stands at the forefront of information, becoming an ambassador who feels obligated to answer every question that arises.

We talked this morning, and I advised her—and all Israelis in America—to divide their answer into two parts: what they should answer to those around them, and what they should answer to themselves. The message to each part is completely different.

What the Israelis try to say and explain to the Americans will not really give them a satisfying answer. Maybe at best it will only soften their perception until the next controversy. On the other hand, what the Israelis will say to themselves should be a scrutiny of the highest importance because the fundamental change that the dire situation requires stems from internalization of the bond between the Israelis and the Jews in general.

God forbid, I do not belittle anyone who is not a Jew. Their role is simply different: to awaken Jews to unite. Therefore, the real work to change the current predicaments lies on Jewish shoulders.

As Baal HaSulam, the greatest Kabbalist of the twentieth century, wrote, “Bear in mind that in everything there is internality and externality. In the world in general, Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are considered the internality of the world, and the seventy nations are considered the externality of the world.” (“Introduction to The Book of Zohar”).

In other words, all of humanity is connected in one system of communication, in which Israel is the innermost part, the essence. The people of Israel are like a small world that reflects all of humanity within it. Because of this, Israel is responsible for everything that happens in the world for better or worse.

As Jews, it surprises us over and over again that subconsciously the world feels more than we do that the key to all of humanity’s problems is in our hands. This fact is the origin of the natural, instinctive hatred toward the Jews and the cause for the great pressure on Israel to accept its responsibility to fulfill its role. The fate of the world will be decided by Israel.

If we, Jews, were fully aware of our internal function within the universal network of communication, if we would rise above our egoistic nature, then humanity would also rise to the top of its potential and flourish over separation and hatred. Then the nations of the world would honor Israel, as it is written, “Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my standard to the peoples: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.” (Isaiah 49, 22)

On the other hand, if the Jews in America—locals or Israeli expatriates—who are the focus of hatred, abandon their role and let their hearts be washed away by the currents of life and become indifferent to their role to unite, then the pressure of antisemitism will increase, the torments will intensify, and the next blow will be only a matter of time.

Maya paled at what I said. But unfortunately, just as in every period throughout history, bloodshed and bloody events have knocked on the door of Jewish communities around the world; now it is America’s turn.

The Jews in America feel the future is uncertain and there is a reason for that. They are disconnected from their roots, self-centered, only concerned about where to live in peace and comfort under the radar, even trying to shake off their link to Israel. Their connection to Judaism is very often relegated to making three visits to the synagogue per year, showing off their expensive Menorah at home, and paying their annual dues to their Jewish congregation.

The very detachment from the spirit of unity among Jews leads me to expect a worrisome future for Jews in America, a situation that could deteriorate as in those dark days in Nazi Germany where soldiers would roam the streets looking for Jews to pick up and haul to a train station and from there to a local concentration camp.

I expressed this concern at the annual conference of the Israel American Council (IAC) which was celebrated in Washington, DC in 2014. There, too, I tried to explain the many similarities between the conditions that motivated Germany to carry out the Holocaust and the current situation in the United States, which pose a great danger to Jews. I repeat my concerns again here and now.

Unlike during the Holocaust, American Jews still have a chance to be saved. Their unity would eliminate all evil and the antisemitic storm would subside.

Both American Jews and Israelis in America must understand the magnitude of the danger and solidify their connection as a united people who share the feeling of being one society in which a unique force binds them together. American Jews and Israelis in America must support each other, be guarantors for each other, because only reciprocity and mutual care will save them from a gloomy and dire fate. It is not too late to start, but the time to start is now.
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My new article on Linkedin “American Jewry and Jewish Israelis in America – Worlds Apart”

An Israeli student of mine, who has been living in Silicon Valley for quite some time, described the situation between American Jews and Jewish Israelis living in the US in the following words: “As an Israeli, I feel that I have no connection to American Jews. I am in a community of Israelis, we speak Hebrew, live the Israeli culture, the news in Israel … and it feels like a completely different nation.

I think it is an accurate depiction: These are two different nations, two different nations with a similar history and similar names, but they have grown so distant that they are worlds apart.

In fact, this is how it should be. We came from the various nations that occupied ancient Babylon and joined into a single nation when we agreed with Abraham’s teaching that mercy and friendship were the values to live by. Later, under Moses, we pledged to unite “as one man with one heart.” We fought to maintain and solidify our unity for centuries, but eventually, we succumbed to the hatred that prevailed among us before we first came to Abraham, and this is where we stand today.

While we were united, the nations saw that peace was possible, that there could even be love among sworn enemies, and Israel became a role model nation, a pilot society, a miniature implementation of world peace. Later, when we failed, we failed the whole world, and it hates us for it.

Now, it waits for us to reinstate the covenant between us and become a role model nation once again. It won’t forgive us for not trying, and it won’t forget our debt to humanity. It doesn’t care that American Jews hate Israelis who come to live there. If there is no unity among Jews, the world hates them, since they dim all hope of peace and unity. If they unite, they are what they were meant to be, “a light unto nations,” and the world gives them its full support.

The Jewish nation must bring about shalom [peace], from the word “shlemut” [wholeness], the wholeness of all of humanity above all differences. Antisemitism is the world’s way of telling us off, admonishing us for not trying to unite. If Jews in America, from every faction and denomination, bridge the rifts between them, their future will be bright and beautiful. If they do not, they can already see where this is going.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Future of Israelis Living in the US”

An Israeli student of mine who is living in the US approached me with some questions regarding the future of Jews in the US, and specifically that of Israelis living in the Land of Unlimited Opportunities. The student said that Israeli Jews are feeling uncertain and described the disconnection between Israelis living in the US and Jews who were born there. The student also described a sudden burst of support for the State of Israel among Israelis living abroad following Operation Guardian of the Walls.

Indeed, the situation of American Jewry is becoming increasingly uncomfortable. The same goes for Israelis living there, if not more so. Because Israelis still feel connected to Israel, either through family ties or because it is where they grew up, they cannot cut it off from their system altogether. However, by and large, Israelis living in America want the least connection they can have with Israel and with Judaism. This may be a conscious or unconscious state of mind, but this is where the majority of Israeli Jews living in the US stand.

There is a very interesting process happening here. A new reality is forming, and as always, the Jews are at the heart of it. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent. The Covid-19 pandemic is just one example of it. Another example is the recent global spike in prices of transportation, staple foods, and utilities. Evidently, we have entered a phase in the evolution of humanity where what affects one part of humanity affects all parts of it.

If we want to resolve today’s crises, we have to think in terms of what’s good for humanity rather than what’s good for me, my city, or my country. Whether we like it or not, mutual responsibility is the call of the hour, and Jews, as the ones who first conceived this notion, are expected to lead it even if no one is verbally expressing this request. Jews are not requested to take over the world, but rather lead by example: We need to show that we are responsible for one another, and the rest of the world will learn from our example, just as it did in the days of the second Temple when non-Jews would come to Jerusalem to witness the unity of the Jews during the festivals of pilgrimage.

According to the book Sifrey Devarim (Item 354), “Nations and kings would say, ‘Since we have troubled ourselves and came, let us see the merchandise of the Jews.’ They would go to Jerusalem and see the Jews eating together and praying together, and since among the nations, the God of one is not the God of another, and one’s food is not another’s food, they would say, ‘It is befitting to cling only to this nation.’”

In his essay “About the Laws and Their Details,” philosopher Philo of Alexandria offered a beautiful depiction of the unity of the Jews that was so appealing to the nations: “Thousands of people from thousands of cities—some by land and some by sea, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south—would come each festival to the Temple as if to a common shelter, a safe haven protected from the storms of life. …With hearts filled with good hopes … they made friendships with people they had not met before, and in the merging of the hearts … they would find the ultimate proof of unity.”

These days, Israeli Jews are standing up to defend Israel, but I don’t feel that it is done for the right reasons. Unity should not be a step Jews take in response to antisemitism; it should be the step Jews take in order to prevent antisemitism altogether, at first, and ultimately because by this they are serving as a role model, just as our ancestors did in antiquity, before we gave in to unfounded hatred among us.

I am not optimistic that Israeli Jews in America will accept what I am writing here, but perhaps in a few years, when the pressure on them mounts, they will find them pertinent. In the past, we did not unite in the face of antisemitism, or if we did, we did too late. I hope that this time, we will be more attentive to the message and will wake up to the call for unity before another heartbreak lands on our nation.

We cannot defeat our enemies with arms, but only with our spirit. When we raise our connection to the level of mutual responsibility and solidarity, we will deter all the negative forces, and even our enemies will become our friends.

For more on this topic, refer to the books Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

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My new article on Linkedin “Six Days in June that Changed Israel for Good”

Israel’s Defence Minister Dayan, Rabin and Commander Narkis walk through the Lion’s Gate into Jerusalem’s Old City during the Middle East War

This week, fifty-four years ago, the Six-Day War broke out. Leading to it was a weeks-long period of stress and anxiety in Israel, knowing that a war was about to break out, and that the intent of the enemy armies was to wipe the country off the map, as they had intended to do in 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence. But fifty-four years ago, six days after the war broke out, a truce was declared and Israel found itself several times bigger than it was six days prior, and in control of all of Sinai, the Golan Heights, all of Jerusalem, and the West Bank.

At first, Israelis were ecstatic with relief. But soon, hubris settled in, conceit began to contaminate the nation, and division plagued the Israeli society. Since then, Israel has not been the same. The Six-Day War changed Israel for good, but for the worse, for the far worse. The prize for defeating the armies of the enemies hands down on all fronts intoxicated us and turned us into arrogant fools. Instead of using the victory to show the world what Israel was really for, we bragged that Jews, too, could be strong.

The world does not need strong Jews; it needs spiritual leadership, guidance toward love of others, as our own Torah teaches. The world has plenty of strong nations, but none that can bring unity to the family of nations. This is what it expects from the Jews. And since Jews began to boast in their military power instead of in their solidarity, instead of supporting the Jewish state, the world shifted its support to the Palestinians.

Our sages have always connected the prosperity and success of our nation with unity, and our failures with division. The book Masechet Derech Eretz Zutah (chap. 9), for example, writes the following about the power of unity: “Thus would Rabbi Eleazar ha-Kappar say, ‘Love peace, and loathe division. Great is the peace, for even when Israel practice idol-worship and there is peace among them, the Creator says, ‘I wish not to touch [harm] them.’’” However, “If there is division among them,” continues the book, “what is it said about them? ‘Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt (Hosea 10:2).’”

Even before the establishment of the State of Israel, the great kabbalist and thinker Rav Yehuda Ashlag, aka Baal HaSulam, wrote in an essay titled “The Freedom”: “The matter of social unity … can be the source of every joy … and the separation between them is the source of every calamity and misfortune.”

Six years after the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur [aka October] War broke out and caught us completely off guard. We managed to pull through it and ward off the invaders, but we paid heavily for our hubris and complacency. Yet, even then, we didn’t learn the lesson. Since then, each time Israel faced a military campaign, we pulled together and won. But each time, our unity diminished. In the last campaign, Operation Guardian of the Walls, our unity has completely eroded.

We decry our growing division in the face of intensifying antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, yet fail to understand that it is precisely our division that is intensifying the antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment.

The sweet nectar of a sense of omnipotence is a poison that is destroying our society. We have to understand that our military strength buys us time, but it will not hold out forever. Our unity is our real weapon since it turns our enemies into friends and unites the whole world around us, rather than against us.

Henry Ford, a rabid antisemite and one of Hitler’s role models, wrote surprisingly positive and hopeful words about Jews in his nefarious book, The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem: “The whole prophetic purpose, with reference to Israel, seems to have been the moral enlightenment of the world through its agency.” In another place, he writes, “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems on paper, would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.” Indeed, as the book Maor VaShemesh writes, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them.”
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In the Port of #Oakland, USA, under pressure from Pro-Palestinian activists, the Israeli cargo ship #Volans was not allowed to unload.
Don’t be surprised—after you voted for #Biden! Everything is still ahead!
From Twitter, 6/5/21

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My new article on Linkedin “A New Level of Pressure”

Operation Guardian of the Walls may seem like yet another round in a seemingly endless campaign between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but it isn’t. By all indications, it marks the onset of a new level of pressure on Israel and Jews the world over, one that will impel us all to reflect more intently on the reason for our being here in Israel, and the existence of our nation altogether.

Antisemitism is no longer exclusive to Republicans or Democrats, to Europe, or to the US. It is omnipresent, and Jews the world over are beginning to feel that there is no escape from it. This is the positive thing about it: It is clearly a pervasive, natural phenomenon that we cannot dodge. From day to day, humanity is being divided in a way we’ve never seen before: Jews on one side, and everyone else on the other. Those on the Jewish side are feeling mounting pressure from the world’s intensifying hatred, while everyone else is being prompted to hate the Jews.

In a sense, it is reminiscent of Abraham’s situation when he started talking about the need to unite and rise above the ego in his homeland of Babylon and found himself at odds with almost everyone, including the king, and even his own father, Terah, who supported pushing his “unruly” son into the furnace.

It is not an indiscriminate pressure. The nations are pressing Israel and Jews to change their behavior. The demand itself is correct, but without understanding the nature of the change, the Jews experience it as arbitrary hatred rather than as a demand for a specific correction. If this continues, it will explode with an attempt on the part of the world to inflict on the Jews a final annihilation. In fact, the only reason that this has not yet happened is that our vocation requires our presence in order to carry it out. But if we shun it for not much longer, nothing will help us, just as from a certain point, nothing helped European Jewry in the 1940s.

As the world grows increasingly belligerent, people feel that the origin of the aggression is the Jews. Even if the Jews don’t feel it, this is what the nations feel, and they say it very openly. Denying it won’t help since this is what they feel, and reason never defeats emotion. They will buy into any pretext, and there will be no way to convince them otherwise, since they will be right: We are the cause of their misfortunes.

The ancient onus on the people of Israel to bring unity to the world, to set an example of implementing “Love your neighbor as yourself,” has never been revoked since it was given. As then, so now, the people of Israel are the focal point of humanity. We were, and we are the purveyors of the faiths, ideologies, and ideas that drive the evolution of humanity, and we cannot opt out. But the only thing that the world needs now is unity, solidarity. It’s got plenty of everything else, but zero care and mutual responsibility. Our nation, which was established on the basis of mutual responsibility and love of others, and from which entire nations drew their social ideals and morals, must revive its commitment to its task, establish internal unity, and become the example that everyone expects it to become.

We must understand that our conflict with the Arabs is not really with the Arabs; it is with all of humanity. This is why the whole world sides with Hamas, a designated, officially proclaimed terrorist organization. The fact that humanity is on the side of the terrorists indicates that the one thing that is worse in the world’s eyes than terrorists, the one thing that does more harm than a genocidal organization that uses children as human shields, is the Jewish people.

Even if they cannot articulate it, their demand from us is unity. If we unite, they will lift us on their shoulders as in the prophecy of Isaiah (49:22), since they, too, will be able to rise above their conflicts and establish world peace. If we do not unite, the world will unite against us.

For more on this topic, refer to the books The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour
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My new article on Linkedin “The Conflict Isn’t Territorial, It’s Spiritual”

We think our struggle with the Palestinians is over territory, but it isn’t. It is a purely spiritual conflict, and not with the Palestinians, but with ourselves. Since the Jewish people has abandoned its cause, it lost its legitimacy to exist as a nation. Until we restore our unity, we will be pariahs in the eyes of the world, which will tolerate our presence only as long as it hopes that at some point, we will return from oblivion, restore our solidarity, the essence of our nation, and be the example that everyone expects us to be. If we wake up in time, the world will unite around us. If we overstay its patience, it will unite against us.

Any attempt to attribute a historical aspect to the conflict misses the point and distracts us from our task. Instead of trying to prove that we were here first, which is like the chicken and egg argument, we should accomplish what we were made to accomplish, and this will end all the arguments and conflicts since everyone will support us.

To accomplish our task, we must remember that the Jewish nation is unlike any other nation. It began as an eclectic cluster held together by the idea that unity and solidarity are the keys to a solid society. The early members of the nation left their homelands and countryfolk to join a group whose members they did not know, and who often came from rivaling clans and tribes, yet subscribed to Abraham’s ideology that solidarity should be the backbone of society.

Our ancestors struggled quite a bit among themselves, rising and falling according to the level of their unity. Nevertheless, by the time of the Second Temple, the word of the innovative society had gotten far and wide, and people from all the nations came to see the miracle. Greeks scholars came, learned from the prophets, and returned home to develop the Greek philosophy. Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, summoned seventy sages from Jerusalem to translate the Five Books of Moses into Greek, thereby creating the first translation of the Bible. But before he let them translate, he sat with them and learned from them. According to Flavius Josephus, after two weeks of extensive learning he said “he had learned how he ought to rule his subjects.”

The renowned philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote that Jewish pilgrims, who gathered in Jerusalem three times a year, “made friendships with people they had not met before, and in the merging of the hearts … they would find the ultimate proof of unity.” Likewise, the book Sifrey Devarim writes that gentiles would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Eventually, we fell from unity and invaders started flooding the land. First came the Hellenists, the Jewish converts who adopted the Greek culture and abandoned unity. Then came the Seleucids, who destroyed the Temple once. The Maccabees defeated them, rebuilt the Temple, but not the unity, and so the Romans came and ousted us from here entirely.

We didn’t lose the land because we were weak; we lost it because we were divided. When we are divided, the world stops loving us, stops seeing us as an example they want to follow, and does not want us around. Following the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD, The Roman emperor Hadrian wanted to do away once and for all with the pugnacious Jewish people. To achieve this, he not only dispersed the remaining Jews in Judea around the Roman Empire, he changed the name Judea into Syria Palaestina (lit. Palestinian Syria).

To this day, the world sees this stretch of land as Palestine, and not as Israel, since we have not lived up to the name Israel, which entails mutual responsibility and love of others. If we want the land of Israel to become Israel once more, we first have to become the spiritual people of Israel: united “as one man with one heart.” Only under this condition will our struggles be through and we will find peace among ourselves and with the nations.
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My new article on Linkedin “What Antisemites Want From Us”

Mass demonstrations with ferocious hostility against Jews and Israel’s right to defend itself are increasingly common around the world as new crowds join the latest global antisemitic campaign fueled by biased media coverage. The establishment of international committees to investigate war crimes on the latest Israeli military operation accompanies renewed existential threats from Iran for the annihilation of the Jewish state. In short, there is a global consensus that Jews are the main problem in the world.

Let’s be clear. This is not about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, religious fanaticism between Judaism and Islam, intensifying clashes of opinion between right-wingers and leftists, or between Democrats and Republicans. The problem is not focused on the limited area of the Land of Israel either, because the phenomenon of hatred existed long before the establishment of the State and would continue even if we were to emigrate from it to other parts of the world. We are dealing here with a natural phenomenon—antisemitism, a law of nature.

However, this is not just a narrow hatred toward Jews that I speak of, but a broader hatred. Even without Jews on the planet, there would be hatred between each person and others, a vibrant and fermenting hatred between all streams of humanity. The root of the problem is the human ego that is at the core of human society, an ego that grows and begins to consume itself. And the only way to curb it is to correct it.

It just so happens that Jews have a unique method of connecting and being saved from the clutches of the formidable ego that exists in the human race. And this salvation is not just for the Jews alone, but for all without exception.

Because worldwide, we are all connected in a global, integral communication network, every small shift affects the rest of the systems, moving all the networks. Israel is a major hub in the grid of power relations in this globalized system. If its members would repair the bonds between them and transcend the natural egoism, the connecting force Jews would create between them would radiate “light into the nations.” This is the spiritual ideology that the Jewish people were founded upon.

The history of the Jews began in ancient Babylon about 3,800 years ago. Our ancestor Abraham gathered around him representatives from a collection of clans which have today evolved to constitute the whole of humanity. Meanwhile, over the years, Abraham’s adherents have become the people of Israel—a group that worked to discover the power of unity in nature; a team that, for better or worse, has been chosen to implement the terms of mutual guarantee between people according to the rule, “love your neighbor as yourself.”

From the point of view of nature, the change that will take place within the hearts of the people of Israel is the transformation that will spread throughout the world. Because our egoism or self-centered vision constantly grows and neutralizes the sense of danger that hovers over our Jewish heads, even while pressure from the world in the form of antisemitism increases, this notion of our Jewish responsibility to unite and be the role model for humanity to follow is still far from our understanding.

We are hard-hearted and stubborn people. Even while poisoned arrows are fired at us we are unable to believe what is happening and the magnitude of the problem. At the last minute, the “smart Jew” within us always tries to rise up and claim that the situation needs to be studied, digested, and understood, its cause and effect analyzed. A good calculation is made if we think it will pay off. On one level, Jews hear, but by the time that the message truly permeates and becomes real to us, I fear that it may be too late. Hopefully, this current crisis of antisemitic hatred and hostility will be the exception to what has been the rule and we will finally come to recognize the truth that the only chance that we have to ensure our good future instead of being beaten is through our connection.
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