The Times of Israel published my new article “Tackling the Question of Jewish Identity After the Jersey City Shooting”

The eternal discussion of who is a Jew recently became revamped when the attacker of the recent deadly shooting at a Jewish supermarket in Jersey City was found to be connected to the Black Hebrew Israelites.

Who Is a Jew?

If we examine Israel’s original sources, we find that Jews are a nation unlike other nations. That is, the Jewish people share no biological roots, but rather emerged from unifying based on a spiritual idea: the need to love and unite above all differences. The first instance of this unification was around 3,800 years ago in ancient Babylon where Abraham the Patriarch guided diverse groups of people to achieve such unity.

It means that if Jews unite based on this spiritual idea, and organize themselves under the supreme value “love your neighbor as yourself,” then they can be considered as a nation. Likewise, there is no basis for them to be called a nation if they make no effort to connect above the inborn selfish human nature.

When the group gathered by Abraham aspired to unite, they discovered that they hated each other, and upon the hatred, without eliminating it, learned how to love. In other words, unification was only achieved through the principle, “love will cover all transgressions.”

Why Does Hatred Appear When We Try to Come Closer to Each Other?

As in any natural system, interaction of opposites vitalizes and sustains the system. For instance, we cannot have day without night, left without right, and positive without negative. Unity is achieved through balance between the opposite forces. Therefore, when we take steps toward unification, we need not erase the hatred that surfaces, but instead, rise above it.

Mutual complementarity is key to the process of uniting. It is less like a young couple who quarrel out of unfamiliarity and relax, and more like a mature couple who have lived together for many years, who recognize each other’s weaknesses and know how to complement their differences of opinion. Therefore, similar to the balance between spouses, there should be balance between various factions of the nation, and between all nations of the world, as is written in Likutey Halachot (Assorted Rules): “The essence of life and existence, and correction of all of creation is in people of different opinions integrating together in love, unity and peace.”

Why Is There Growing Pressure on the Jewish People Today?

Today, there is growing pressure upon us to realize our role: to unite and spread love and peace to humanity, i.e., to be a “light unto the nations.” If we fail to repair our connections and reach the balance in question, we prevent the positive unifying force from flowing to the rest of the world. And when we block the positive force from reaching other people, negativity flares up specifically toward us in the form of anti-Semitism. Such hatred can lead to outbursts of violence, as we saw in the horrific murders in Jersey City, and in many other Jewish-targeted shootings, stabbings, crimes and threats.

As for defining who is a Jew, the Hebrew word for “Jew” (Yechudi) derives from the word for “unity” (yichud). By uniting, Jews attract the positive unifying force dwelling in nature, the force that is necessary for rising above hatred and achieving balanced relations.

Therefore, the remedy that can protect us from trouble is the power of unity. It is as Rabbi Kalman Kalonymus wrote in Maor vaShemesh (Light and Sun), that “when there are love, unity and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come upon them.”

Similarly, the ADMOR of Gur, stressed in Sefat Emet (True Tongue): “Israel’s unity induces great salvations and removes all the slanderers.”

By rekindling the unification we cultivated centuries ago, and sharing Abraham’s method of connection with everyone, we can guarantee a happy and peaceful life for everyone in the world. It is my hope that we can realize this method sooner rather than later, as by learning how to positively connect above hatred, we will spare much suffering to ourselves and to the entirety of humanity.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “When Jews Become Anti-Semites”

Is speaking a foreign language in Paris dangerous? Apparently it is not, unless the language is Hebrew. That was the recent experience of an Israeli student, victim of a brutal attack at the Paris metro by two unknown perpetrators who left him unconscious after he was heard speaking Hebrew on the phone. The assault was “clearly motivated by the hate of Israel alone,” said Meyer Habib, member of the French National Assembly, the same body that days ago passed a resolution equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

For a moment it seemed that with such a bill, truth had won, but the ongoing anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli sentiments prove that one cannot rest on laurels. The next step is to secure our lives against the constant threats toward us. A day before the vote, 127 Jewish intellectuals, including Israelis, published an open letter in the Le Monde newspaper against the law equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. The Paris metro attack is symbolic of how their beautiful words failed to help them, but the letter exposes our true nature: the Jew can become his own greatest enemy.

What Is the Line Between Criticism of Israel and Anti-Zionism?

There is no problem with criticism of Israel, but not the venomous criticism which calls for its destruction. Total freedom of expression for anybody calling for peace should be allowed, but not peace through annihilation, certainly not through anti-Semitic messaging of which we have had more than enough.

Jews make up less than one percent of France’s population and yet, nearly 40 percent of the violent acts linked to religion or race were committed against Jews in 2017. Last year, anti-Semitic attacks rose by 75 percent. France’s interior minister has described these manifestations as hostility that is “spreading like poison,” forcing entire families to emigrate.

In earnest, what brings educated people to act illogically? How is it possible that Jews who live either in Israel or abroad identify with organizations that promote delegitimization of their home? How do they envision their future?

BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) is already a known phenomenon among international organizations, especially in those acting against the Jewish people and the State of Israel. It includes Jewish and Israeli activists, who are the biggest anti-Semites. Why is it so? The reason is that they try to break free from fulfilling their destined role to be “a light unto the nations” and look for ways to erase or hide their roots. Some even think that if they assimilate, they will lose their inherent Jewishness, but according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is impossible. Jews will forever remain Jews. Their Jewish spiritual root is eternal.

As hatred for this uncontrolled, and even unwanted status awakens in the Jew, so does his or her hatred for the essence of the people of Israel. It is an animosity that people in general cannot explain the root of to themselves, but it is strong enough to motivate them to act aggressively against the Jewish people.

Jews vs Jews: The Struggle With the Spiritual Root

Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes that, “In every person, even secular, there is an unknown spark that demands unification with God. When it sometimes awakens, it awakens one to know God, or deny God, which is one and the same.” (“The Solution”)

That unknown spark Baal HaSulam refers to is called the “point in the heart.” It exists in every person in the world, but it is more salient among the Jews and less evident among the nations of the world. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that the heart is the amalgamation of self-love or egoism, and the point in the heart is the unique spark aspiring for the love of others. As the ego grows, so does the tension between it and the point in the heart, and thus, dislike and even hatred for the Jews surges in the person. Moreover, the internal relations between the point in the heart and the heart are reflected on the outside in the relations between Israel and the nations of the world. We thus are approaching a situation where the nations of the world without exception will rise against Israel.

Therefore, there are Jews who feel deprived and pressured by anti-Semitism or anti-Israeli sentiments, and in order to escape the hatred toward them, they live in different countries around the world, trying to hide their Jewish identity. Gradually, they themselves become Jew-haters, either consciously or unconsciously. There are others who, instead of leaving Israel, remain in the country, make a living, study, teach, and establish a family, but rejection of their true identity remains in their hearts. Examples of such anti-Semitic Jews living in Israel are the ones who sign public letters of support for anti-Semitic organizations from their offices in academia.

If the people in academia worry about the fate and situation of Israel, they would do better to open the history books and the authentic sources of the Jewish nation, to understand the role of the people of Israel, which is to unite and pass on the method of unification to humanity. However, they lack awareness of their noble role, and the height of their responsibility to the world.

When Jews recognize the importance and urgency to become united above what separates them and spread this unity to the world, anti-Semitism will disappear and all boycotts, demonstrations and accusations against Jews will stop. In its place, there will be a newfound radiance, plenitude and fulfillment that spreads through the Jewish people to the entirety of humanity, inverting anti-Semitic sentiment into its opposite: support, respect and encouragement of the Jewish people.
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The Times of Israel published my new article “How to Eliminate Anti-Semitism in the United States”

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The way to eliminate anti-Semitism in the United States is the same as how to solve anti-Semitism anywhere in the world: to raise awareness of the root cause of anti-Semitism in order to invert hatred into love.

Kabbalistic sources explain both such a cause and solution to anti-Semitism. It is because Kabbalists perceive developmental processes unfolding in our world, and can both warn people of oncoming threats, as well as offer a remedy to prevent such threats from materializing.

For instance, Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), the most renowned Kabbalist of the 20th Century, tried convincing European Jews in the 1930s to leave Europe because he foresaw the oncoming disaster. Both following his example, as well as taking heed to the alerting recent rise in anti-Semitism worldwide, I also feel the need to communicate the message about the root cause of anti-Semitism and its solution both to Jews and non-Jews, and I extensively write and speak on the topic with the hope that, at the very least, a future mass tragedy can be prevented.

In relation to the United States, I have lectured to Jewish communities in the United States at various intervals over the last 20 years. During the 2000s, I was laughed at when I mentioned that anti-Semitism was going to become a growing issue in America. Now, in the 2010s, after anti-Semitism’s immense exponential growth, both in the amounts of anti-Semitic crimes and threats, as well as in anti-Semitic sentiment, I am saying that the all signs are pointing to the next Holocaust emerging in America.

However, as much as I write and speak about this topic, I see little response to this message from the Jewish people. It is written about us, that we are a stiff-necked people, i.e., we have a tough skin that makes it very hard to penetrate such awareness into our perception.

In any case, in order to prevent a future dystopian scenario for the Jewish people in the United States, as well as elsewhere, the message is the same for all Jews: we need to unite, according to the tenet “love your friend as yourself,” in order to become “a light unto the nations,” i.e., a conduit that passes the positive unifying force dwelling in nature to the world. If the message doesn’t become accepted through education, explanation and promotion, then anti-Semitic blows and suffering will rise, “softening our stiff necks,” undesirably increasing our ability to absorb such a message.

That is the state we first reached some 3,800 years ago in ancient Babylon, under Abraham’s guidance, which granted us the name, “the people of Israel” (“Israel” from the words, “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God” [“God” being the same as “Nature” according to Kabbalah, i.e., a positive force that connects all elements of reality]). Also, according to the same unifying tendency, we were later named “Jews,” from the word for “unity” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).

Today, we are reaching new global proportions of anti-Semitism that the world has never seen, since today’s world is more globally-integrated than ever before. Due to anti-Semitism emerging as a natural phenomenon in non-Jews, toward a subconscious expectation for the Jews to pioneer a process toward more positive human connection, then we can expect a future where everyone other than a few Jews will be anti-Semitic.

Therefore, we Jews first and foremost need to show everyone how unity above the growing hostile divisions in society is not only a possibility, but that there is a method of connection to guide our every step of the way. By implementing such a method on ourselves, we send positive unifying ripples throughout humanity’s consciousness, and invite an opposite attitude from anti-Semitism upon ourselves in return. In other words, by witnessing increasing positive connection, and subsequent rises in happiness, support and confidence in society at large, the general attitude toward a unified Jewish people would become favorable and encouraging.

However, if the Jewish people will continue rejecting, ignoring or remaining unaware of the message of the need to unite, then instead of seeing unity form in society’s mainstream, we can expect unity to form more and more in society’s fringes, i.e., as Nazi and fascist unity. Such unity is dangerous, since it is built on uniting around the hatred of the other, and it becomes the infrastructure that can lead to the manifestation of horrific events, as exemplified by the Holocaust.

Therefore, I hope that Jews in general, and especially American Jews, will start noticing that the ball is in our court, and that we need to play the game well: to prioritize our unity in order to spread unity onward. If we do so, we will experience a better general state in America and around the world. However, if we fail to realize what the wisdom of Kabbalah is saying on this pressing issue, then the state will become much worse.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What has shocked you the most about Trump declaring that Jews are a “nation”?“

Nothing shocked me about this declaration. It was a move to combat anti-Semitism and the rising anti-Israel movement on US college campuses. However, such actions will not stand in the way of anti-Semitism’s expansion.

I’m certain that anti-Semitism will continue becoming an increasing problem if we fail to treat it at its root, i.e., that we, the Jewish people, will wake up to what made us Jews in the first place—our inclination to unite (“love your neighbor as yourself”) above divisions (“love will cover all transgressions”) in order to spread unity to humanity (to be a “light unto the nations”).

The more torn today’s societies become, and the more people suffer from social division, the more anti-Semitism will rise.

Why? It is because we, the Jewish people, were originally founded based on a unifying ideology—a group of people who lived in ancient Babylon some 3,800 years ago, who gathered around Abraham, uniting according to the method of unification that he discovered and applied on himself.

When we reached sublime states of unity above the divisive social climate of that time, we became known as “the nation of Israel.” That is, our nationhood was never biological, as with other nations. It was ideological, based on the idea of unifying with positive connections of love and bestowal.

After Abraham’s time, we received the name “Jews” (Yehudim) from the Hebrew word for “united” (yihudi). However, since the ruin of the Second Temple, we entered a long period of exile, which continued till today. We detached from the sensation of our unification and dispersed both around the world, and in our attitudes to each other.

Today, as humanity becomes increasingly globally interconnected, technologically, economically and culturally, the time has come for our internal attitudes to become as connected as our external systems.

The more we develop today without working on upgrading our attitudes to each other, the more we will feel our tightening connection in a negative way. We can see such paradoxes in our era, where the more the population increases to numbers we have never seen before, the more people feel isolated and lonely; and the more we build vast global social networks, the more people feel depressed and stressed.

All such problems point to the need for positive connection in society. Therefore, implementing the unifying role of the Jewish people today becomes all the more necessary and urgent.

We Jews today first and foremost need to understand the need for a major transformation—to move toward unification, mutual consideration, concern, support and encouragement of one another—and that we hold the keys to pioneer such a monumental shift in society, spreading unity worldwide to a point where humanity would feel as a single nation.

Until we start realizing the method of connection we have at our fingertips, the world will continue pressuring us. Even if the current US President has a favorable attitude to us for the time being, it has no effect on the global-scale correction that is upon our shoulders to initiate.

In fact, the contrary is the case. It is similar to a person with a disease who was given a painkiller. He feels fine, even though the disease continues spreading.

In the meantime, he lies in bed, talking and laughing with others around him, everyone thinking everything is okay, but he is just numb to the disease, which gradually brews under the surface toward an irreversible outbreak.

It is similar to Germany in the 1930s, where there was a period of positive relations between the Nazis and the Jews (as I elaborated here). It is a latent period where we need to digest the process unfolding, our role in the process, and act accordingly, not simply thinking that everything is business-as-usual, because nothing will heal that way. History shows us how the Nazis quickly overturned the boat on the Jews, getting rid of us with ease.

And so, history is repeating itself before our very eyes. Although we see some seemingly encouraging moves toward Jews in actions such as Trump’s executive order recognizing Jews as a nation, or for instance, the British election of Brian Johnson as opposed to Jeremy Corbyn, it is for a limited time only.

If we fail to complement this relatively calm period with motions toward becoming a positive conduit of unity toward the world, then we can expect an intensification of anti-Semitic hatred to reach a future boiling point. Trump and Johnson will eventually become replaced with new leaders, and all it takes is for them to press a few buttons and we will lose all the help we now have. It is similar to how Hitler swiftly shifted gear to the Final Solution. He also had pro-Zionist consultants close by, who later became revealed as anti-Semites.

Therefore, although we see signs of support from some world leaders for now, anti-Semitic sentiment continues growing under the surface. We still have some time to adjust our sights and prioritize unity: to implement the method of connection among each other, from which it will ripple through humanity. By doing so, we will see a new and harmonious balance of forces blossom in the world, and can prevent a future of mass suffering and bloodshed from materializing.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Israel’s 3rd Elections: Fateful Wake-Up Call for the People of Israel”

A third election round has been announced in Israel for the first time in history due to our inability to form a government.

What can I say? All I can say is that we need something to shake us. I’m sorry to write such words, but it hurts when you love the people of Israel and the State of Israel. After all, it is my home.

I have lived on this land for decades and never once thought about leaving. However, I see no positive future if we continue business as usual, without a thorough scrutiny and decision to change the way we go about our lives.

It is our duty to provide every citizen with the method that initially connected us as a nation, and which would grant us an undeniable right to live in this land. It is as Kabbalist Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (Rabash) opened the first of his many writings on how a society can make the shift from division to unity: that we have gathered here to establish a society in order to rise and become human, in the fullest sense of the word (the word for “human” in Hebrew, “Adam,” is also the word for the collective soul that we discover when we unite according to nature’s integral laws).

In other words, the purpose of our gathering in one place is not to merely continue living mindlessly in the currents of life here instead of in the diaspora, but to realize the method we were given: to unite and pass the force that unifies us to humanity.

Today’s divisive atmosphere in Israel is a sign that we will be unable to find peace among each other if we fail to understand and implement nature’s integral laws. It is what unified us in the first place, i.e., an inclination to unite upon the divisions of the ancient Babylonian society from which we emerged as a nation.

It is our purpose and role in the world to reach such unity, and without moving in that direction, our purposeless squandering, where we each focus on building our lives at the expense of others, brings about the opposite: social division.

Our disunity then receives a negative reaction from the nations of the world. That reaction is known as anti-Semitism, and its widespread awakening today is because we are in a developmental stage where we need to make a step toward uniting as a single nation, according to the tenet that brought us together in the first place: to unite (“love your friend as yourself”) above divisions (“love will cover all transgressions”) in order to spread this unifying tendency to the world (to be “a light unto the nations”).

According to the laws of nature—integral laws of interconnectedness and interdependence—the people of Israel have a key role: to spread positive connection among humanity. We were given a method to do so, the same method of connection that Abraham guided us with in ancient Babylon, and which has undergone upgrades over the generations to suit us in our time.

Essentially, it is a method of how to actualize connection between us to the same extent and quality as nature’s connectedness, gradually discovering the immense unifying force of nature the more we connect.

Also, our revelation of nature’s unifying force spreads among humanity’s collective consciousness, inverting our current increasing divisive tendency—where we behave like cancerous cells taking as much as we can for ourselves at society’s expense—to a unifying, peaceful and loving tendency that benefits humanity.

I will never leave Israel. I will remain here and do everything in my power for its success. However, its materialistic achievements as a startup nation is no sign of success to me. Success for the people of Israel can only be spiritual: that we realize our role to be a conduit of unity for the world.

Ever since our ancestors achieved the sublime unified state under Abraham’s guidance some 3,800 years ago, our role has remained unchanged. We have since detached from that awareness, but as explained by Kabbalists, the time has come where the need for unity is not only pressing on us within our current borders; it is also expressed worldwide as a growing divisive tendency increasingly tearing societies apart. Thus, not a day goes by where I cannot speak or write about this phenomenon, as a peaceful or painful future depends precisely on the people of Israel’s unity or lack thereof.

Once we clarify and establish our exalted, spiritual and eternal goal to ourselves, our lives will then shift in a positive direction. The shambles we find ourselves in today is due not to a few politicians who failed to form a government, but we—the entire people of Israel—are responsible for it.

Therefore, we must lift our heads out of the water, recognize that we are all one family, interconnected and interdependent, and we must all address the problem together. In the meantime, not only do we suffer, the entire world suffers as it depends on our inner spirit to rise as a united people of Israel.

I thus hope that we will start feeling the great responsibility upon us, to ourselves and to the world, and start implementing the method of connection that we have at our fingertips.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can we stomp out Anti-Semitism in the United States?“

The way to eliminate anti-Semitism in the United States is the same as how to solve anti-Semitism anywhere in the world: to raise awareness of the root cause of anti-Semitism in order to invert hatred into love.

Kabbalistic sources explain both such a cause and solution to anti-Semitism. It is because Kabbalists perceive developmental processes unfolding in our world, and can both warn people of oncoming threats, as well as offer a remedy to prevent such threats from materializing.

For instance, Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), the most renowned Kabbalist of the 20th Century, tried convincing European Jews in the 1930s to leave Europe because he foresaw the oncoming disaster. Both following his example, as well as taking heed to the alerting recent rise in anti-Semitism worldwide, I also feel the need to communicate the message about the root cause of anti-Semitism and its solution both to Jews and non-Jews, and I extensively
write and speak on the topic with the hope that, at the very least, a future mass tragedy can be prevented.

In relation to the United States, I have lectured to Jewish communities in the United States at various intervals over the last 20 years. During the 2000s, I was laughed at when I mentioned that anti-Semitism was going to become a growing issue in America. Now, in the 2010s, after anti-Semitism’s immense exponential growth, both in the amounts of anti-Semitic crimes and threats, as well as in anti-Semitic sentiment, I am saying that the all signs are pointing to the next Holocaust emerging in America.

However, as much as I write and speak about this topic, I see little response to this message from the Jewish people. It is written about us, that we are a stiff-necked people, i.e., we have a tough skin that makes it very hard to penetrate such awareness into our perception.

In any case, in order to prevent a future dystopian scenario for the Jewish people in the United States, as well as elsewhere, the message is the same for all Jews: we need to unite, according to the tenet “love your friend as yourself,” in order to become “a light unto the nations,” i.e., a conduit that passes the positive unifying force dwelling in nature to the world. If the message doesn’t become accepted through education and promotion, then anti-Semitic blows and suffering will rise, “softening our stiff necks,” undesirably increasing our ability to absorb such a message.

That is the state we first reached some 3,800 years ago in ancient Babylon, under Abraham’s guidance, which granted us the name, “the people of Israel” (“Israel” from the words, “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God” [“God” being the same as “Nature” according to Kabbalah, i.e., a positive force that connects between all elements of reality]). Also, according to the same unifying tendency, we were later named “Jews,” from the word for “unity” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi]).

We are gradually reaching new heights of anti-Semitism that the world has never seen, since today’s world is more globally-integrated than ever before. Due to anti-Semitism emerging as a natural phenomenon in non-Jews, toward a subconscious expectation for the Jews to pioneer a process toward more positive human connection, then we can expect a future where everyone other than a few Jews will be anti-Semitic.

Therefore, we Jews first and foremost need to show everyone how unity above the growing hostile divisions in society is not only a possibility, but that there is a method of connection to guide our every step of the way. By implementing such a method on ourselves, we sends positive unifying ripples throughout humanity’s consciousness, and invite an opposite attitude from anti-Semitism upon ourselves in return. In other words, by witnessing increasing positive connection, and subsequent rises in happiness, support and confidence in society at large, the general attitude toward a unified Jewish people would become favorable and encouraging.

However, if the Jewish people will continue rejecting, ignoring or remaining unaware of the message of the need to unite, then instead of seeing unity form in society’s mainstream, we can expect unity to form more and more in society’s fringes, i.e., as Nazi and fascist unity. Such unity is dangerous, since it is built on uniting around the hatred of the other, and it becomes the infrastructure that can lead to the manifestation of horrific events, as exemplified by the Holocaust.

Therefore, I hope that Jews in general, and especially American Jews, will start noticing that the ball is in our court, and that we need to play the game properly: to prioritize our unity in order to spread unity onward. If we do so, we’ll be in a better general state in America and around the world. However, if we fail to realize what the wisdom of Kabbalah is saying on this pressing issue, then the state will become much worse.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “How Germany Can Help Prevent Another Holocaust”

“I bow my head before the victims of the Shoah,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her first visit to Auschwitz in the 14 years she has been in office. Her gesture emerged amid the backdrop of the debate between upholders of the belief that Germany cannot ignore its past, and the extreme right calling for minimizing Nazi atrocities in the Second World War.

Neither option, however, can prevent a new tragedy for the Jewish people. Doing so requires a deep investigation into the root cause of Jewish persecution, and its solution.

Merkel also referred to the alarming level of anti-Semitism in Germany in the last few years, and announced donating $66 million to preserve the memorial site. However, solving anti-Semitism requires much more substantial action.

If Germany truly wants to contribute to the world and avoid returning to the darkest chapter of its history, it would do better to establish and advance its own research institute, led by non-Jewish Germans, which examines anti-Semitism: its causes, and efforts toward a solution.

Anti-Semitism Still Rampant in Germany

Last year alone there were 1,646 anti-Semitic incidents in Germany, a ten percent increase compared to the previous year, reaching a record high in a decade. Following a neo-Nazi attack on a synagogue in Halle, and a wave of recent violent attacks against Jews, leaders from the German Jewish community feel “under siege.” They also have additional reasons to be worried. For instance, one in four Germans show anti-Semitic sentiments and thoughts according to a recent survey conducted by the World Jewish Congress.

The current reality shows that 75 years after a million Jews were murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz-Birkenau, anti-Semitic manifestations have not vanished. They are still embedded in German society.

Why? Understanding the core reason behind anti-Semitism felt among many millions of people starts with understanding anti-Semitism as a natural phenomenon.

How Anti-Semitism Is a Natural Phenomenon

Anti-Semitism is a natural phenomenon that awakens at any given moment in every person and nation, both in Jews and non-Jews.

If Germans scratch the surface of this problem, they will be surprised to find that their sentiments of hatred, as well as the world’s animosity, stem back thousands of years. They will read in the sources how since the dawn of history “Esau hates Jacob,” meaning the nations hate Israel, and how from the time the Torah was given from Sinai, hatred toward Jews was enacted with regular legality.

Every time Jews were united, there was brotherhood and peace among the nations of the world, whereas when they were separated and Jews used their egoistic inclination only in their own favor and at the expense of the other, there was internal unrest among the nations. Consequently, negative feelings arose in human beings or in whole nations, which encouraged them to hate Jews wherever they were. It often also transformed into intolerable acts of violence.

The Cause and Solution to Anti-Semitism

Jews have an intrinsic attribute, a sort of DNA, to connect and bestow, called the “point in the heart.” When we develop this point through the study of the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, we can then unite above our differences, and pass the sense of unity and fulfillment onto humanity.

Anti-Semitism emerges when we Jews separate from each other, which is our current state, instead of uniting. Our separation sends ripples of a divisive mindset throughout humanity’s collective unconscious, adding to the division that tears societies apart around the world. In return, the nations of the world point at us with resentment and complaints. Therefore, unless we undergo a major transformation and implement the unifying principle of “love your neighbor as yourself,” connecting through our hearts, attacks against us will continue.

Thus, thorough scrutiny, research and awareness about the true cause of anti-Semitism is a fundamental and significant first step to solve the problem once and for all. The more that the idea of the need for Jewish unity spreads, together with the understanding of anti-Semitism as a natural response to a lack of Jewish unity, then the more we would be on a new path to a safer and friendlier Germany, Europe and even world.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can Jews be anti-Semites?“

Not only can Jews be anti-Semites, they can be the biggest and most severe kind of anti-Semites.

Why?

It is because we Jews have a point that connects us to humanity’s corrected and unified state—“love your neighbor as yourself”—which we once discovered under Abraham’s guidance some 3,800 years ago. Together with that point, we also play host to the shattered egoistic desire, which opposes the point of unification, detaching us all from each other.

Every Jew accommodates this duality: an egoistic desire to receive, which seeks personal benefit at the expense of others, coupled with the altruistic point of unification that is attached to humanity’s peak unified state of development.

Whoever feels closer to the central point of unification is drawn to develop differently than those swept into the rat race of the masses, to positive connection in society. Whoever resists such development, letting the ego determine his or her goals and pleasures in life, is against unification, and is thus, according to its deeper definition, an anti-Semite.

However, whether or not certain people are anti-Semitic is not the main issue. We rather need to understand how such inclinations surface as part of a natural phenomenon, where they originate, and how our sentiments emerge from the interplay between these inner forces.

If awareness of the authentic cause of Jewish self-hatred arose among more and more people, then we would be able to somewhat influence humanity’s balance with nature. Humanity would then be able to better understand what it is going through.

In short, Jews are the biggest anti-Semites, precisely because they host the two extreme points of unity and anti-unity.

These two points have constantly changing relations. They actually exist in every person, and we see them in every nation and in every stage of development. However, due to once discovering unity upon the great differences between the people in ancient Babylon, the Jews have a much more prominent differentiation between these two points: on one hand, access to the same method Abraham used to unite people above their differences, and on the other hand, a more inflated ego that resists such unity and makes Jews disproportionately successful in egoistic endeavors compared to other nations.

Therefore, the more humanity develops, the more the nations of the world feel hatred toward Jews. It is because anti-Semitism is a natural response of the ego’s growth, which hates the point opposite itself, a desire that wishes to concede upon the ego in order to positively connect with others.

People in undeveloped areas, such as tribal peoples, have no such attitude to Jews. The more people develop in a civilization, with its amassing egoistic competition and materialistic individualism, the more their attitude toward Jews develops. All of a sudden, people who encounter more and more problems from trying to make their way in the modern civilized world, start feeling that they dislike Jews. It is due to the ego’s growth, and the subsequent tension between the ego and the deeper point within the person that yearns for positive connection with others.

We will reach a state where the whole world will reveal their negative attitude to Jews. It thus all depends on how soon, and to what extent, we Jews will start exercising our potential: to realize the method to unite (“love your neighbor as yourself”) above divisions (“love will cover all transgressions”), through which we can become a conduit for unity to spread among humanity (“a light unto the nations”).

When such a transformation takes place, the rising hateful attitude to Jews will invert to its positive form: a supportive, respectful and even loving attitude toward a people who bring a new elated sensation of happiness and togetherness to the world.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why does Germany’s Angela Merkel visit Auschwitz for the first time amid rising anti-Semitism? “

It is a political move on her part. Politicians make such moves not according to emotion, but according to what’s more worthwhile for them and their party. So I am sure that Angela Merkel and other people involved accordingly made a calculated decision.

The phenomenon of anti-Semitism, however, is much broader than politics. Until widespread knowledge about anti-Semitism’s true cause will spread, it will remain an unsolved problem. It will thus only continue worsening as we head into the future.

Anti-Semitism is a natural phenomenon. It surfaces in every person and nation, both Jews and non-Jews. Combating anti-Semitism is thus possible only if we gain awareness of where it comes from and what is its cause. Currently, we Jews raise the issue of anti-Semitism in a way where we as if seek to ask other nations not to hate us, and we see that it never works out.

It is impossible for the nations of the world not to hate the Jews. It is also written in the Torah that Esau hated Jacob. Esau symbolizes the desire to receive, the quality of the nations of the world, and Jacob is the force that balances the desire to receive with the desire to bestow, the quality of the Jew.

Also, today we can identify hatred among Jews themselves who lack knowledge of the cause of anti-Semitism. If we do not learn the law of nature, how nature operates through all these phenomena, we will then always be mistaken.

The law of nature specifies that humanity’s final state is one of total unification, defined by the tenet, “love your neighbor as yourself.” The Jewish people became knows as such from having once attained a similar unified state around 3,800 years ago, under Abraham’s guidance in ancient Babylon (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).

Therefore, Jews hold this message, to unite according to “love your neighbor as yourself,” within themselves. It is, as if, embedded in their “DNA” as a definitive component. The point within the person that connects with humanity’s more unified state is known in the wisdom of Kabbalah as the “point in the heart.”

Anti-Semitism emerges due to the following distortion: Jews have a latent point within that lets them access a reality of love, bestowal and connection. The Jews, however, do not want to realize the potential of this point, because they have been born, raised and identify completely with their egoistic nature.

Moreover, how could it be that Jews are anti-Semites? It comes from the attitude toward this point in the heart within. If they hate this point, i.e., want to live a comfortable egoistic life, and have nothing to do with trying to develop love, bestowal and connection to others, then such Jews become the biggest anti-Semites. In other words, anti-Semitism is always in relation to this tendency to love, bestow and connect that the Jews once attained: if they start trying to realize it, anti-Semitism will lessen, and if they reject it, knowingly or unknowingly, anti-Semitism will continue rising.

Therefore, the knowledge about the true cause of anti-Semitism is half of the problem’s solution. The next stage is to understand how we need not try to eliminate hatred toward Jews, but to discover a loving, bestowing and connecting tendency equal to or greater than the hatred upon it, according to the words, “love will cover all transgressions.” When we understand how to work in such a way, we will see how anti-Semitic hatred was given to humanity in order to elevate it to the peak of its existence. Until we do so, the hatred will continue being aimed solely at Jews more and more, and we’ll be blamed for everything.

We Jews are to blame for the hatred that anti-Semites feel toward us. However, it’s not due to the direct reasons that they point out, whether it be directed at the State of Israel allegedly oppressing Palestinians, or that we Jews have assumed too much power in countries we have assimilated into, among many others. It is instead due to us lagging behind our own revelation of love, bestowal and connection among each other, and our subsequent failure to pass on a connection with the source that brings abundance into our lives, which is capable of bringing peace, harmony and perfection to everyone.

Therefore, until we will initiate a major change toward uniting (“love your neighbor as yourself”), anti-Semitism will only grow.

Also, the €60 million that Germany donated to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation in advance of Merkel’s Auschwitz trip would be better put to use if Germany opened a research center for the phenomenon of anti-Semitism.

Through investigating anti-Semitism, there is hope that we would discover its true cause and understand what needs to be fixed in order to reach a solution.

What can truly help combat anti-Semitism is the spreading of the true cause of anti-Semitism, understanding it as a law of nature.

Germans would discover that they are not to blame for the Holocaust, and moreover, that no anti-Semite is to blame for the hatred they feel toward Jews.

Jews are unaware of the fact that they are to blame for anti-Semitism, because they have a role in nature to reach “love your neighbor as yourself,” and pass the knowledge of that law to everyone. Due to what our ancestors discovered in ancient Babylon under Abraham’s guidance, we once again have a demand from nature upon us, to unite above divisions and bring the world to balance. This will, in turn, create a counterbalance against the negative force of anti-Semitism, which will bring the world to a perfect state.

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Shaul Magid, the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, meets Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to discuss anti-Semitism and why the connection between Jews is the only true solution to it.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise. There are summits and discussions on how to stop it. Various solutions are suggested. However, anti-Semitism continues escalating despite the many efforts to counter it. Thus, the question arises: What is missing in all the efforts to combat anti-Semitism?

The wisdom of Kabbalah states that there is a law of nature, according to which Jews have to consciously connect, and through their connection, let the positive upper force of love and bestowal enter the world. Since the Jewish people originated in ancient Babylon as a group gathered by Abraham around the principle of “Love covers all transgressions”—a method of overcoming the egoistic human nature by building positive connections between people—today is the time for them to reappear as one united entity and expand this unity for all humanity.

Human nature is included in the laws of nature. Therefore, Jews have to act according to nature’s plan. If they don’t, they call on themselves hatred and violence from the nations of the world, dressing up as anti-Semitism of different forms, and the external threat connects them at some point.

Is there a peaceful way for Jews to connect?

Yes. This is a conscious connection according to Abraham’s method. If Jews from all over the globe come together and start implementing “love your neighbor as yourself,” and sharing the method of connection with the nations of the world, they will invert the way in which the law of nature works and let the good enter the world.

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