The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism and Pandemics”

Be it a plague or a war, a flood or an earthquake, a revolution or a financial meltdown, in the end, there is always one culprit: the Jews. In America, too, many already blame COVID-19 on the Jews, as is the case with the riots engulfing the tormented country.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the Jews stood shoulder to shoulder with the blacks in their fight for equal rights. No one remembers and no one gives them credit. Now, too, they stand shoulder to shoulder with the protesters. No one will remember and no one will give them credit.

The Jews donate to various charities and NGOs more money than any ethnic or racial group. But what do people say? “First they stole it, now they’re giving us the crumbs to buy our gratitude.” Of course, not everyone says it, but a great many do, and an even greater many tacitly agrees with them. It’s always been like that and it’ll always be like that until we learn what fundamental flaw we Jews have in our approach.

Jews are the only nation that has ever been tasked with bringing peace and love to the entire world. We gave the world the most altruistic motto ever conceived, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” yet we display the complete opposite of it: internal enmity and odium. We may sympathize with strangers’ pains, but we loathe our own coreligionists. And even though they don’t verbalize it, deep down, this is what Jew haters hate about Jews: that Jews hate each other.

When we became a nation, we were given a task: Unite “as one man with one heart,” and thereby become “a light unto nations.” For centuries, we have been trying everything to avoid our vocation. We talk about morals, ethics, justice, but we refuse to talk about love.

Morals are a miserable surrogate for love. Just as a mother doesn’t need morals to tend to her child because her love guides her, if we cultivate love among us we won’t need morals, and we will treat each other beautifully. Then, and only then will non-Jews say, “Now we respect them.”

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My new article on Linkedin “For all the Pain, COVID-19 Is Not a Punishment”

Every day, I get emails and phone calls from people telling me that only six months ago, life smiled at them, and now they’re at a loss. Their world has crumbled and they see no future. It’s heartbreaking. With every passing day, humanity is feeling more and more helpless, agitated, and disoriented. People are afraid that they will not be able to feed their children.

Just as the virus mandates that we think about not transmitting the bug to others, we have to start thinking about others when it comes to food, water, housing, and power supply.
But what is happening is not some punishment from above; it is a calling to unite, to think about each other rather than ourselves. Only if we work together, we will be able to guarantee our future. Acting alone and worrying only about ourselves, as we have done for so long, will only exacerbate the situation. The longer we stall, the more people will join the circle of scarcity.

COVID-19 is the ideal catalyst of mutual responsibility: If we don’t wear masks and keep our distance, we will not only risk catching the virus; there is even more of a chance that we will transmit it to others. Just as the virus mandates that we think about not transmitting the bug to others, we have to start thinking about others when it comes to food, water, housing, and power supply.

We have to teach ourselves and others about our interdependency, that we are tightly connected and dependent on everyone, including people that for one reason or another we currently hate. We are all in this together, the whole city, the whole country, the whole world.

If too many people get sick, food production and supply chains will be hampered and hunger will drive people into far worse desperation than we have seen so far, and we have seen a lot. If every community, city, state, and the whole country pulls together, to see that every American gets the basic needs, just the staples, because they understand that we are all in the same boat, it is enough to set the country off to a new, good future. And then we will see that for all the pain that the coronavirus has inflicted, it is not a punishment, but a lesson in mutual responsibility.

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My new article on Linkedin “Hunger in the United States of America”

When speaking of hunger, we are used to thinking of countries in South Asia, or Yemen, Syria, or in Latin America. This is no longer the case. Thanks to COVID-19, hunger is now a real threat in the U.S., as well.

Today, every American must rise above color, race, ethnicity, or class, and simply pitch in.

“A wave of hunger is expected to hit Minnesota families over the next six months,” states Frank Vascellaro on CBS Minnesota, a phenomenon not seen there since The Great Depression, as families are already diluting milk to make it last longer. But it isn’t just Minnesota that’s hurting from the COVID-19 crisis. All across the country, children are going hungry. According to a new study by the nonprofit organization, Hunger Free America, child hunger has soared across America during the current health and economic crises, “with 37 percent of parents nationwide cutting the size of meals or skipping meals for their children because they did not have enough money for food in the last month.” Considering that the report was published on April 10, matters are probably even worse by now.

The worst thing about the hunger crisis is not that it is happening because of an enemy from without, but simply because of absence of mutual responsibility.
I have warned countless times that there will be massive job losses and people will need immediate solutions. Now it is happening as we speak. Hunger is the worst crisis that can be; a person will do anything to feed his children. If you want to devastate a country from within, don’t fight it, starve it. This is what is happening today in America.

The worst thing about the hunger crisis is not that it is happening because of an enemy from without, but simply because of absence of mutual responsibility. There is plenty of food, but it is not going where it’s needed since the people who need it can’t afford it. In such a case, the authorities should take over and guarantee that every child and every person gets food.

Once this is taken care of, authorities must engage every American in sessions that inform them about the current crisis, why people are not getting food, why they cannot find a job, and what they can expect going forward. Every resident must know that finding a job is no longer a personal problem; it is a social crisis impacting the whole world. And since the whole world is connected, a crisis in one place soon migrates to every other place.

When people grasp that everyone in society is dependent on everyone else, they will begin to change. You will begin to see more acts of mutual concern, more construction of community services established by the community and for the community. The government, for its part, must encourage and support these initiatives as they are the basis of the new society that will emerge—a society of mutual responsibility. There will simply be no other choice, no other way to survive.

Today, every American must rise above color, race, ethnicity, or class, and simply pitch in.

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Medium published my new article “Learning Nature’s Teaching Method”

In the early 1930s, my teacher’s father, the great Kabbalist and illustrious thinker, Baal HaSulam, wrote a groundbreaking essay titled “The Peace,” where he outlined how humanity can achieve peace and what will happen if it doesn’t. Among other things, he articulated nature’s way of tending to its creations, how it rears them until they become independent. In his words: “Let us take the making of a human being as an example: The love and pleasure of the progenitors are its first reason, guaranteed to perform their duty. When the essential drop is extracted from the father … nature has very wisely secured a safe place for it, which qualifies it to receive life. Nature also gives it its daily bread in the exact amount. Nature has also prepared a wonderful foundation for it in the mother’s womb so that no stranger might harm it.

The coronavirus has given us the chance to practice mutual responsibility. All we have to do is obey two laws: wear masks and keep our distance. If we did that for just a few weeks, we would be rid of the plague.

“It tends to its every need like a trained nanny who will not forget it for a moment until it has acquired the strength to emerge into our world. …Then, too, nature does not abandon it. Like a loving mother, it brings it to such loving, loyal people it can trust, called ‘Mother’ and ‘Father,’ to assist it through its days of weakness until it grows and can sustain itself. As man, so are all the animals, plants, and inanimate; all are wisely and mercifully cared for to ensure their own existence and the continuation of their species.”

However, cautions Baal HaSulam, when we grow, we must assume responsibility and start behaving more and more considerately toward each other, care for one another and for all of nature. The more we resist nature’s lessons, the more insistently and painfully it teaches us. And the lesson that nature teaches us, wrote Baal HaSulam almost a century ago, is to build a society based on giving rather than receiving. Because we are reluctant, he added, “humanity is being fried in a heinous turmoil, and strife and famine and their consequences have not ceased thus far.”

However, nature’s lessons do not have to be harsh. Baal HaSulam writes that “The wonder about it is that nature, like a skillful judge, punishes us according to our development. For we can see that to the extent that humankind develops, the pains and torments obtaining our sustenance and existence also multiply.”

In conclusion, writes Baal HaSulam, “You have a scientific, empirical basis that nature has commanded us to obey with all our might the rule of bestowal upon others in utter precision, in such a way that no person among us would work any less than the measure required to secure the happiness of society and its success. As long as we are idle performing it to the fullest, nature will not stop punishing us and taking its revenge.”

Finally, Baal HaSulam warns, just a few years before World War II broke out, that “besides the blows we suffer today, we must also consider the drawn sword for the future.” Therefore, he adds, “The right conclusion must be drawn — that nature will ultimately defeat us and we will all be compelled to join hands in following its dictates with all the measure required of us,” namely “to obey … the rule of bestowal upon others.”

Nature’s gradual teaching method ended in Europe’s destruction and the death of tens of millions of people, since they would not listen. Now we are seeing the escalating cycle of hate becoming an ominous whirlpool that’s threatening to drown the entire world once more, and the cost will be much heavier than even the previous world war.

In The Writings of the Last Generation, Baal HaSulam writes that a third, nuclear world war will happen if we do not take upon ourselves the commandment of building a society of giving and mutual responsibility. Judging by the escalation in hate crimes and international tensions, it is easy to see his prediction materializing. But nature is a skillful judge; it will treat us according to our actions. If we choose mutual responsibility now, we will avert nature’s harsh lessons.

The coronavirus has given us the chance to practice mutual responsibility. All we have to do is obey two laws: wear masks and keep our distance. If we did that for just a few weeks, we would be rid of the plague. But can we? Do we care enough about others to help the world get rid of the bug? The coronavirus is a test of our commitment to each other. If we fail, nature will provide a far more stringent, and far less sympathetic, teacher. And if we keep failing, Baal HaSulam’s prediction will come true.
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Medium published my new article “COVID-19 and the Anxiety Epidemic”

Of all the scares that COVID-19 has wrought, probably the most fearful one of all is uncertainty about the future. During the lockdown, the country experienced a staggering rise in anxiety. On May 4, William Wan of The Washington Post reported that “The country is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation, and fear generating widespread psychological trauma.” The anxiety eased by about 40% a month later, as the country began to roll back lockdowns, reported the Medical Express, but now that the number of cases is rising once again and states are reissuing stay at home orders, anxiety is bound to rise again.

American authorities at all levels must draw a clear plan that will secure basic livelihood for every person, and enhance the social ties of individuals into communities.

With all that has been going on in America over the past few months, uncertainty about the future is the last thing the country needs. Since this anxiety stems from a real fear that people will have no job and no way to make a living, there is only one way to deal with it: American authorities at all levels must draw a clear plan that will secure basic livelihood for every person, and enhance the social ties of individuals into communities.

People must know what is going to happen to them, to their children, and to society as a whole. Therefore, as soon as possible, authorities must initiate open virtual sessions that explain how all the systems work. People have to know that contagion is not limited to viruses; we are an integrated society and affect one another on every level. The closing of one small business has a negative impact on many people who are seemingly unrelated to it: suppliers, delivery personnel, accountants, manufacturers, property owners, etc.

The same chain of infection that applies to COVID-19 applies to everything we do, say, or even think. If it is positive, we are transmitting positivity. If it is negative, we are transmitting negativity.

Likewise, one person’s depression affects not only that person’s kin and friends, but the friends of the friends, friends of the kin, healthcare workers, coworkers and the people they know, and so forth. The same chain of infection that applies to COVID-19 applies to everything we do, say, or even think.

If it is positive, we are transmitting positivity. If it is negative, we are transmitting negativity. Only once people internalize this, they will begin to feel responsible for one another, and that responsibility will pull them out of their down and mobilize them into constructive action.

In the near future, travel and tourism will drop sharply, as will sports and entertainment, trade in accessories, and countless other industries that thrived until a few months ago, leaving tens of millions out of work. These people will need help fast, and the only things that will help them are 1) basic sustenance, 2) grasping our mutual connectedness, and 3) enhancing their social ties and connection to the community.

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New Life 1241 – Global Community
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

An individual is supposed to receive a sense of security from the community that cannot be bought with money. Money will not help a person protect himself against harmful agents such as the coronavirus, but community life will. The coronavirus is showing us that our egoistic relationships are opposite to the integrality of nature. Unless all of humanity becomes one community, we will not survive the 21st century. From the perspective of our egoistic human nature, each one of us wants to be the king of the world. This is the reason that we need to educate people to live in a community. We are part of a global nature. We will learn to connect to each other and to nature integrally, and then everything will be fine.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1241 – Global Community,” 5/18/20

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New Life 1240 – Mental Resilience In The Coronavirus Era
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

We have lost the world we knew and are entering a round system in which everyone is connected to everyone. The coronavirus crisis is occurring because of our egoistic attitudes toward one another. We have a lack of consideration for others and for nature. Our relations and thoughts about each other impact the whole system of nature. Positive thinking and hobbies can help but we must not ignore the negative phenomena since we are the ones who have caused them. We need a mature attitude to reach balance in our lives. Good relations between us build mental resilience and healing for everyone.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1240 – Mental Resilience In The Coronavirus Era,” 5/18/20

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New Life 1239 – The Coronavirus And Human Evolution
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

Nature creates humans as good, but our egoistic desire to dominate others makes us bad. People who dominate others are strong and rich and do not have support from the integral power that is found in nature. They will not survive. In the world of tomorrow, people who know how to overcome their egos, think of others, and draw society toward unity will be considered strong. The characteristic of love is the most important for survival because we live in a global and integral world. Connection with the general power of nature depends on the bestowal of goodness to others. A person who has improved in this way, will feel like the king of the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1239 – The Coronavirus And Human Evolution,” 5/14/20

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Question: Is nature something living, rational, with emotions, thoughts, plans, and the possibility of a meaningful reaction to our impact?

Answer: Nature is a rigid system consisting of inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human parts. All of them are in a certain dynamic equilibrium. If we upset this balance with our selfish influence, then nature reacts to this in the opposite direction, deviating like a pendulum to the other side. This is what we experience today with the example of the coronavirus.

Now we will be hit by such blows that will force us to become integrally connected because we exist in a state of “the last generation.” The last generation means the last egoistic generation in which the ego is corrected. We must fix it.

Question: So all our suffering comes from nature?

Answer: Of course. All suffering comes from the fact that you violate the integration of nature, its balance. Only from the loss of balance in nature that occurs through your fault do you get a reaction from it, which you feel as pain, trouble, and problems.

Man himself is very weak. You put a little pressure on him, and he already moans, cries, and is ready to do everything as it should be done. Thus, nature will force us to become good, mature, and most importantly, kind parts of nature toward each other.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 5/10/20

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What Does Nature Want From Us?
Listen To What I, Nature, Am Telling You!
The Crowned Virus

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why does coronavirus not affect animals and birds?“

We humans are the main victims of the coronavirus due to our negative connections to each other.

Animals have no hatred in their connections. For instance, even a lion hunting to kill an antelope does so out of an instinctive necessity for food, and not out of a will to express power and dominance over the antelope.

As such, the viruses and germs that animals pass to each other physiologically have lesser infectious impact as they do in humans, where our negative thoughts and emotions make us more susceptible to disease.

While animals live in balance with nature, humans have excessive desires that bring us out of balance with nature.

The exploitation, manipulation, abuse and hatred running in the midst of human connections make the effect of viruses that we spread to each other much more potent.

Therefore, no matter how much we wash our hands, wear face masks and keep our distance from each other, unless we undergo a fundamental attitude shift—from negative relations to positive ones, where we replace exploitation, manipulation, abuse and hatred with support, encouragement, love and care—we will continue seeing more and more coronavirus infections and deaths among us.

Also, note how we call our distancing “social distancing” and not merely “physical distancing,” since we need not only distance ourselves a few feet away from each other, but due to our negative connections, we need to distance ourselves socially and emotionally for some time in order to secure our health.

Moreover, even if we devise ways to heal ourselves from the coronavirus, with no accompanying attitude upgrade, then we can expect the virus to strike back in more complex and intricate ways, since our negative attitudes to each other will continue making us vulnerable to harm.

Therefore, together with the social distancing conditions that our health departments advise us to follow, and together with the efforts to come up with a vaccine against the virus, the ultimate remedy to this pandemic, as well as to many other problems in our lives, will come when we change our attitudes to each other from negative to positive.

Above photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash.

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