Michael Laitman, on The Times of Israel: “On the Difference between Unity and a Show of Unity”

On January 26, Jewish leaders met under the auspices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, to discuss unity in the face of antisemitism. The meeting took place one day before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The speakers stressed “that the community should unite and go on offense against anti-Semites across the political spectrum.” Former Obama-administration Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ira Forman, for example, said, “If we only criticize anti-Semitism from our political opponents and not people in our own party, our own ideology, we really aren’t caring about anti-Semitism. …We’re just using the platform of anti-Semitism to wage war against our political opponents, and those are those of us on the left, like myself, those on the right, have done too much of this and we have to end it.”

Unity has great power. Accordingly, this meeting could have been a powerful show of force. It could have shown that Jews can unite in the face of Jew-hatred, which would have gone a long way toward mitigating antisemitism.

Regrettably, there is a big difference between wanting unity and wanting to show unity. The latter is powerless and evokes ridicule and contempt. The former is what we really need but do not have, and Jewish leaders around the world do not seem to aspire to it. Their goal, it seems, is clout and wherewithal. This is why nothing will come out of that meeting.

Unity is the key to mitigating antisemitism. It is also the key to the success or failure of our nation. As I have shown multiple times in essays, op-eds, and in several books, unity is the foundation of our nation. When we are united, the world welcomes us; when we are apart, the world scorns and despises us.

Uniting in order to fight against antisemitism would have worked had we used it as a first step toward true unity, unity of the heart. If we had moved from unity because of fear to unity because we care about each other and feel responsible for one another, I would have rooted for it. But the “unity” of Jewish leaders is merely a front. Behind it hides the same division, the same hatred between the parties, and no real effort to form a bridge above it. I am convinced that the only goal of the conference is to raise money for the organizations running the event and increase their influence in the community and in politics.

If this is the goal, the result will be the opposite of unity; it will lead to more division among us and more derision from the world. Time will tell, but I have little doubt about my conclusion and little hope that I am wrong.

For more on the significance of Jewish unity, see my 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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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Remembering the Holocaust: What Is New About Old Antisemitism”

Record antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world has become a regular headline. But there is an important difference between it now and in the past. The perfect storm caused by the interplay of all-powerful social media platforms and the link between COVID-19 conspiracy theories against Jews and criticism of Israeli policies has triggered antisemitic violent rhetoric worldwide. A staggering 3.5 million posts with antisemitic content were posted on social media last year according to an annual report of the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs released just before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The number of antisemitic posts on five different social media platforms increased by 1,200% in May 2021 compared to data from 12 months earlier. This was prompted by Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls, which was launched in May in response to Hamas firing thousands of rockets at densely populated Israeli cities.

The recently published findings of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency on the state of antisemitism worldwide point in the same direction. 2021 was the most antisemitic year of the past decade. In addition to anti-Zionist diatribes, antisemitism took the form of conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic and comparing vaccination regulations to Nazi Germany’s policies. Reminiscent of the past, Europe was the epicenter of nearly half of the antisemitic incidents reported last year; North America followed with 30%.

There were some quiet years, but today Jew-hatred is reaching new levels all over the world. Antisemites are eager to find what they see as the final solution. Of course, if we consider the consequences of the Holocaust, the situation today is much better. But if we look at what has happened in the last ten years and even in the last 20 years in the United States and in Europe, we can clearly see that the situation is not changing for the better.

The peoples of the world cannot escape antisemitism; it is in their genes and in their blood. It is a law of nature. Jews can ask nothing of them until the Jews themselves bring correction to the world. They hate Israel until Israel corrects them.

If Israel does not unite and become a role model to make all the nations of the world rise up against their egoism, that is, against the hatred among them, then the nations of the world will unite and rise up against the people of Israel. One of two.

It is written that “the externality of the entire world, being the nations of the world, intensify and revoke the Children of Israel – the internality of the world. In such a generation, all the destructors among the nations of the world raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the Children of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63): ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.” Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”).

So what is on the horizon for the Jews in the world? The answer depends solely on the Jews. In the meantime, we are approaching a situation where everyone will gang up against the Jews until the Jews open their eyes and realize that they have no choice but to activate the spirit of connectedness between them. And to rise above their selfish calculations since this is the only way to save themselves (and the world). Only in this scenario will antisemitism cease, “And all the nations will acknowledge and recognize Israel’s merit over them, until the realization of the words: ‘And the people shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord.’” (Isaiah 14:2)
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My new article on Linkedin “Remember the Past to Protect from the Future”

A week ago, the Ruderman Family Foundation released a report examining antisemitism in the US today. According to the report, “Ninety-three percent of American Jews are concerned with the current levels of antisemitism in the United States, with nearly half of U.S. Jews (42%) experiencing antisemitism either directly or through family and friends over the past five years alone.” It turns out that American Jews, who thought, “This would never happen in America,” are facing the same old hatred that every Jewish community in the Diaspora has experienced since the ruin of the Temple nearly twenty centuries ago.

No online or offline efforts to curb expressions of antisemitism will help. Antisemitism will exist as long as its root exists. It will keep growing until its engine, the core reason for its existence, is uprooted. And only we, Jews, can tear it out because the root exists within us.

Some months ago, Oren Jacobson, co-founder of Project Shema, which helps Jewish students, leaders, organizations and allies explore the difficult conversations surrounding Israel and antisemitism, published an op-ed on Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). In the column, he lists some of the accusations that antisemites use as pretexts for hating Jews. “Jews get attacked for supposedly controlling the world (governments, banks, media),” he wrote, “for being disloyal to our home countries, for killing Jesus, for making up the Holocaust, for being greedy, for undermining the white race and subverting people of color (among other things). We’ve been blamed for plagues, famine, economic hardship and war. Whatever major problem a society has, Jews have been blamed for it.” In other words, as retired General William Boykin once stated, “The Jews are the problem; the Jews are the cause of all the problems in the world.”

The Ruderman report was released on January 20, the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, when the Nazis devised the “final solution to the Jewish question.” A week later, on January 27, which is today, is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. There are other memorial days surrounding the Holocaust, but none of them will protect us from the next tragedy. If we want to avoid another reason for establishing even more memorial days, we must recognize that the key to solving the problem is within us, and get proactive about solving it.

The key to solving antisemitism lies in eliminating our internal divisions. Throughout history, our unfounded hatred, the hatred that cost us the loss of our sovereignty in the Land of Israel, has also inflicted on us all the persecutions and exterminations we have experienced since. For us, “Love your neighbor as yourself” is not an empty slogan; it is a commandment that we must obey if we want peace and quiet in the world. The world accepts us only when we accept each other. If we hate each other, the world hates us in return for our hatred of each other. This may seem counterintuitive, but it is true nonetheless.

In 1929, Dr. Kurt Fleischer, leader of the Liberals in the Berlin Jewish Community Assembly, sensed why the Germans were becoming increasingly antisemitic. He stated, “Anti-Semitism is the scourge that God has sent us in order to lead us together and weld us together.” Regrettably, the awareness of the linkage between antisemitism and internal disunity did not penetrate deep enough, and the result was catastrophic. This time, we must let the message sink in so that our generation does not suffer the consequences of our hatred for each other.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are educated people more likely to be racist antisemites?“

In 1936, Albert Einstein wrote his friend a letter where he discussed the atmosphere of Jew hatred in American society. He wrote about the magnitude of antisemitism, especially in the academy, but also in industry and in the banking sector. He said that the enemy was everywhere; perhaps it could not be seen, but it could truly be felt.

Einstein mentioned how he did not understand how educated people, especially in the academy, could not see the extent to which Jews contributed to research and development, and asked how could they hold such dark ideas about the Jews?

The truth is that the more developed a person is, the more he hates Jews.

Hatred of Jews exists in everyone, including Jews themselves, until the Jews fulfill their role toward the world: to embody an example of positive connection, and act as a conduit for such connection to spread worldwide.

If Jews were more connected, the hatred against them would not only subside, but people would willingly wish to learn how to positively connect from the Jews.

By generating the force of connection among each other and wishing to become one nation, “one man with one heart,” then we can influence others so that they will also connect.

In the meantime, neither we nor the rest of the world understand that we need to positively connect, that at the end of it all, we need to all become as one nation. That is, connection is not solely a Jewish obligation, it is universal, but the Jewish people activate the process, and they need to lead it to a state where all will become “as one man with one heart.”

When the Jewish people will aim themselves at unification, then antisemitism will become a phenomenon of the past.

Based on the video “Kabbalist Responds to Einstein’s Antisemitism Experience” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “There Is Hatred in Their Hearts”

Today, Thursday, January 27, is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Precisely a week prior to the event, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that condemns denial and distortion of the Holocaust. Interestingly, the timing of the resolution, January 20, 2022, is also the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, where the Nazis devised the plan for “the final solution to the Jewish question.” How symbolic it is that on the day when the Nazis determined to extinguish us, the UN resolved to condemn any attempt to deny or play down that attempt. Regrettably, a symbol will not prevent the recurrence of genocide against the Jews.

The nations’ lofty words are empty since their hearts are filled with hate toward us. Just as they would not help us before WWII, when they knew that we were heading for extinction, and just as they refused to bomb extermination camps during the war although they realized what was happening there, they will not lift a finger for us now. If anything, whoever perpetrates the next genocide against the Jews will find many willing partners eager to “pitch in.”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is just another opportunity for UN functionaries and bureaucrats to justify their bloated salaries. No one attributes any importance to it.

In fact, if you examine the statistics, you will find that since the 1947 UN resolution to establish a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine, the UN has been doing everything it could to go back on its decision and leave the land entirely for the Arabs. Their remorse, therefore, over their inaction during the Holocaust, is phony.

As is becoming increasingly clear, the situation of the Jews around the world has not improved. The Holocaust may have given us a few quiet years, but these are gone, and the curve of Jewish welcome in the world is sloping sharply down.

The obvious odium that the world feels toward the Jewish state reflects its feelings toward the Jews in general. The bias against Israel is a convenient way for the nations to express their feelings that no matter how hard the Jews may try to justify their existence, the world will always find them guilty of every woe and every hardship. The harder they try to appease, the more they will meet contempt.

The only time when Jews are welcome is when they are united among themselves. When there is cohesion among them, the hollers against them subside and everyone respects them.

Jewish unity is our only protection against the violent hatred of the world. It is 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. Similarly, the book Shem MiShmuel concludes, “When [Israel] are as one man with one heart, they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.”

Our unity protects us not because we are stronger than the entire world when we are united. We are not. Jewish power was never about military strength; it was always about spiritual fortitude rather than physical might. When we are united, we are the example that the world wants to see, the “light unto nations” we were destined to be. Deep down, every non-Jew feels it and reacts accordingly when we are united.

In fact, over the generations, there have been very keen people among the antisemites who were aware of the nature of their hatred. They knew that they hated us for not being who we are meant to be—a light of unity for the nations. Some of them were even able to articulate the nature of that light, and stated that their grievance against the Jews is that they are not setting an example of unity, and thereby causing the world not to be able to unite.

One of the most striking examples of such a keen perception is the most antisemitic document ever written in the United States: Henry Ford’s The International Jew—the World’s Foremost Problem. In this hate-filled composition, you will find some of the most appalling statements about the Jewish people. Yet, alongside those outrageous accusations, Ford wrote that Israel’s unity will “prove a great and serviceable factor in bringing about human unity, which the total Jewish tendency at the present time is doing much to prevent.”

In other words, in one sentence, Ford both claims that Jews must promote world unity, and accuses them of working hard to prevent it. As for how the world can learn from the Jews how to unite, Ford advises that “Modern reformers who are constructing model social systems … would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

The choice is ours. We can unite and lead the world by example, or we can remain divided and suffer the consequences. If we do not want the world to set up another memorial day for Jewish victims, we should heed the words of our sages and our haters. Both are right, and both urge us to unite.
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My new article on Linkedin “Remembering the Holocaust: What Is New About Old Antisemitism”

Record antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world has become a regular headline. But there is an important difference between it now and in the past. The perfect storm caused by the interplay of all-powerful social media platforms and the link between Covid-19 conspiracy theories against Jews and criticism of Israeli policies has triggered antisemitic violent rhetoric worldwide. A staggering 3.5 million posts with antisemitic content were posted on social media last year according to an annual report of the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs released just before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The number of antisemitic posts on five different social media platforms increased by 1,200% in May 2021 compared to data from 12 months earlier. This was prompted by Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls, which was launched in May in response to Hamas firing thousands of rockets at densely populated Israeli cities.

The recently published findings of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency on the state of antisemitism worldwide point in the same direction. 2021 was the most antisemitic year of the past decade. In addition to anti-Zionist diatribes, antisemitism took the form of conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic and comparing vaccination regulations to Nazi Germany’s policies. Reminiscent of the past, Europe was the epicenter of nearly half of the antisemitic incidents reported last year; North America followed with 30%.

There were some quiet years, but today Jew-hatred is reaching new levels all over the world. Antisemites are eager to find what they see as the final solution. Of course, if we consider the consequences of the Holocaust, the situation today is much better. But if we look at what has happened in the last ten years and even in the last 20 years in the United States and in Europe, we can clearly see that the situation is not changing for the better.

The peoples of the world cannot escape antisemitism; it is in their genes and in their blood. It is a law of nature. Jews can ask nothing of them until the Jews themselves bring correction to the world. They hate Israel until Israel corrects them.

If Israel does not unite and become a role model to make all the nations of the world rise up against their egoism, that is, against the hatred among them, then the nations of the world will unite and rise up against the people of Israel. One of two.

It is written that “the externality of the entire world, being the nations of the world, intensify and revoke the Children of Israel – the internality of the world. In such a generation, all the destructors among the nations of the world raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the Children of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63): ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.'” Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar“).

So what is on the horizon for the Jews in the world? The answer depends solely on the Jews. In the meantime, we are approaching a situation where everyone will gang up against the Jews until the Jews open their eyes and realize that they have no choice but to activate the spirit of connectedness between them. And to rise above their selfish calculations since this is the only way to save themselves (and the world). Only in this scenario will antisemitism cease, “And all the nations will acknowledge and recognize Israel’s merit over them, until the realization of the words: ‘And the people shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord'” (Isaiah 14:2).

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Satan Speaks in Understatements”

Eighty years ago this week, the Wannsee Conference convened. It was named after the villa in Nazi Germany where the conference took place, and its purpose was to find a “final solution to the Jewish question” and make it Germany’s official policy. The result: a detailed work plan to exterminate all 11,000,000 Jews living in Europe and the Soviet Union. There was no drama at the conference, no expressions of hatred, just facts and details. Even words like “extermination” or “killing” were absent from the minutes of the conference. The final document simply stated, “Approximately 11 million Jews will be involved in the final solution of the European Jewish question.”

This is the face of institutional antisemitism, the most diabolical form of the most tenacious hatred. Like the rest of its siblings, this genre of hatred did not die at the end of World War II; it simply moved to a more spacious lodging. Now residing on Manhattan’s East Side, it has an entire complex at NY 10017, New York City, and the name of its new residence is the United Nations Headquarters. Everything else, however, has remained the same: The same hatred and the same determination to demolish the Jews.

There are, however, two differences between then and now: 1) The immediate target of the hatred has shifted from the Jews to the Jewish state, Israel. The Jews themselves will be dealt with later, once the Jewish state has been exterminated. 2) The Jewish question is no longer an internal German or European matter, as some countries argued during the war to excuse themselves from saving Jews. Today, the hatred spews openly from the entire world toward the entirety of the Jewish people.

In the worldwide campaign against Jews, every pretext is exploited and every trouble is pinned on the Jews. Not only Israel’s military campaigns to protect against rocket attacks from Gaza are exploited, but every misfortune that happens anywhere is blamed on the Jews. From the 9/11 terrorist attack through the 2008 financial crisis, to the Coronavirus, everything is pinned on the Jews.

We, the Jews, have but one remedy, one “vaccine” to protect us from adversity. Regrettably, for centuries, we have been the staunchest anti-vaxxers and have refused to swallow it: Our vaccine against hatred is internal cohesion.

Every spiritual leader since the inception of our nation has implored us to take it. Every prophet and every sage both promulgated it and warned us of the consequences of avoiding it. We have never listened, and we have always suffered the consequences.

The time is approaching when another round of Jewish anguish will unfold. As with everything these days, it will not be a local torment but a worldwide agony. As then, so now, the choice is in our hands to take the vaccine of Jewish cohesion above all divisions, or suffer the civilized, replete with euphemisms, deadly wrath of the world.

Snow lies in front of the House of the Wannsee Conference. On January 20, 1942, high NSDAP and SS officials met in the villa on Berlin’s Wannsee.

For more on the importance of Jewish unity, see my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Anne Frank’s Betrayal and Human Nature”

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart,” wrote Anne Frank, the Dutch-Jewish girl who kept a diary while she and her family were in hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

In relation to the Holocaust she questioned, “Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly uptill now?” Anne and seven other family members were discovered by the Nazis on August 4, 1944 in a secret annex above a warehouse in Amsterdam. After all were discovered and deported separately to concentration camps, Anne became ill and died when she was only 15 years old.

The question of who could have alerted the Nazis about the Frank family’s location has puzzled multiple researchers for almost eight decades. Following a six-year investigation, an international team of historians and other experts disclosed the identity of the man who they believe betrayed Anne Frank’s family during World War II.

The main suspect is a Jewish notary and businessman named Arnold van den Bergh, a member of the Judenrat in the Netherlands, who presumably disclosed the Franks’ hiding place to protect his own family from deportation.

The presumption that a Jew betrayed another Jew elicited contrasting reactions; there are those who are outraged by the claim and those who say they are not surprised by this expression of Jewish self-hatred. But I choose to look at the humane side of things: never judge someone until I have walked in their shoes.

Many years ago I watched a documentary film about two Jews—one of them a prisoner put to torturous forced labor at a Nazi concentration camp, and the other, his strict supervisor who did everything he could to oppress him. Today they are good friends. And when the oppressed Jew was asked how he could look his former, cruel boss in the eyes, he answered simply: “I understand him. If I had been in his place I would have done exactly the same.”

My conclusion is simple: even if the results of the new investigation are true and indeed it was a Jew who betrayed Anne Frank and her family, we cannot judge people who are under heavy duress. We can talk about the importance of democracy, express ourselves creatively on an enlightened world, play in life like on a theater stage, but once we experience extreme circumstances in our lives and are in a situation where we are trapped, then we discover that psychology takes on a new form: fear and threat can bring us to a new way of thinking. It may even encourage deeds, which in normal conditions would be considered cruel and unthinkable. So is human nature.
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My new article on Linkedin “Why Everyone Thinks We Are So Terrible”

The more humanity evolves, the more it installs negative reactions on all levels of nature. But its adverse effect is felt most strongly on the human level. Within the human level there are also divisions: There are the Jews, and there is the rest of the world. Don’t believe me? If you check how many UN resolutions concern Israel and how many concern the rest of the world, you will find that in all major committees, such as the Human Rights Council or the Security Council, Israel is the subject of UN resolutions several times more than all the countries of the world combined! What’s more, all those resolutions are condemnations and calls for Israel to correct its behavior.

If the whole world feels that Israel is several times worse than all the countries of the world, put together, it makes sense for them to deal only with us, the main problem of the world. Therefore, whatever level of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments the world has expressed so far is certain to increase.

It is written that Israel became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai when they united “as one man with one heart.” However, it is also written that when Israel received the law of unity, the commandment to love one another as themselves, hatred for Israel descended upon the nations of the world (Midrash Rabbah, Shemot 2:4).

Since that fateful day, we have been indebted to be a model nation, to set an example of unity to the entire world. In the words of our sages, this was called being “a light unto nations.” When we succeed, we are hailed as heroes and the world feels that it can learn from our example how to manage its affairs. When we fail, and more often than not we do, we are condemned as villains and blamed for all the problems in the world, especially the conflicts.

Since the inception of our nation, all the sages throughout the generations have confirmed the link between our unity and the well-being of the world. Over the past century or so, however, we have grown so thick that we have lost all sense of our obligation. The term Tikkun Olam [correction of the world], which so many Jewish leaders like to use in an ethical sense, does not actually refer to any other nation. It refers only to the correction of our sina’at hinam [mutual hatred without cause], which prevents us from being “a light unto nations” and enables the correction of the world.

What we define as antisemitism or as anti-Zionism is really the demand of the nations that we set the example we are obligated to set: an example of unity.

People define spirituality in many ways, but if there is one law in our world that is truly spiritual, and yet openly present among us, it is antisemitism. There is no rational way to explain it, yet everyone feels it and cannot resist it. Therefore, rational explanations will not heal or even lessen antisemitism.

The only remedy to Jew-hatred is Jew-love, namely for Jews to learn to love one another for no other reason than to set an example of unity over hatred so the whole world may be healed from conflict. Only when we follow this one spiritual law will we be liberated from the oldest, most persistent, and most malignant of all hatreds.
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My new article on Linkedin “Texas Synagogue Siege: Still Something to Pray For”

Explosions and gunfire were heard before the 10-hour hostage ordeal at Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas ended. Four hostages were released unharmed in yet another attack by a gunman on an American synagogue, which is happening with greater frequency in recent years. Although the standoff ended safely, this time, with the FBI Hostage Rescue Team freeing the rabbi and his congregants, the Jewish people will need to activate special forces from their unity and solidarity to be safe in their places of worship and everywhere else.

Unfortunately, the threat will not stop and fears will only increase. The trend of Jew-hatred has not changed for centuries, it is only getting stronger, especially in America. Every antisemitic incident, small or large, should remind us that there is an eternal reason for this phenomenon that needs to be investigated.

“Prayers answered,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted after law enforcement stormed the synagogue to free the hostages of a gunman who had disrupted a service to demand the release of a convicted terrorist. The incident is a powerful reminder that Jews cannot even feel safe in their places of worship. Although the motives were different, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 and Poway Synagogue in California in April 2019 were both struck by deadly attacks while Jewish congregations were praying.

Since then, Jewish institutions have tightened security measures, but this does not seem to be enough. In coordination with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Jewish Federations of North America announced a $54 million plan to install secure doors and surveillance cameras and hire security personnel at Jewish organizations, schools and synagogues.

Unfortunately, the threat will not stop and fears will only increase. The trend of Jew-hatred has not changed for centuries, it is only getting stronger, especially in America. Every antisemitic incident, small or large, should remind us that there is an eternal reason for this phenomenon that needs to be investigated.

Antisemitism is a strong and deep feeling of hatred towards Jews, a natural and burning feeling that cannot be dimmed in any way. Our attackers see in us, the Jews, the causes of all human suffering, and it is rooted in nature.

All of humanity is connected in one network, in an integral natural system within which the people of Israel are the innermost part; it is a small nation that reflects within it all of humanity. Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), wrote in his Introduction to the Book of Zohar: “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.”

That internal force can be activated in the Jewish people through our connection. It is what the nations of the world subconsciously want from us and it is what dwells deep within as the core reason behind every expression of antisemitism.

Rav Abraham Isaac Kook also emphasizes the importance of our role in his writings Orot (Lights): “Israel is the essence of all existence, and you have no movement in the world, in all nations, which you will not find in Israel.”

When we are divided and in conflict with each other, with every Jew praying his or her own prayer, we ourselves awaken the spirits of hatred against us. Conversely, when we connect with each other, we awaken a positive force that spreads in a unique and hidden way in the integral system of nature so that we neutralize hatred and bring peace and tranquility to the world.

This time “our prayers were answered.” In order to prevent the next catastrophe, we must multiply the connection of good and friendly relations so that a common desire and prayer will crystallize between us, the Jews of the whole world. As it is written, “The genuine movement of the Israeli soul at its grandest is expressed only by its sacred, eternal force, which flows within its spirit.” Rav Kook, (Letters of the RAAIAH 3)
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