Thrive Global published my new article: “Coronavirus and the Value of Life”

We like to think of ourselves as conscientious, moral people. But COVID-19, or Coronavirus Disease, is exposing our true nature: selfish to the core.

2019 was a record year for Dengue Fever in Latin America. Some 3 million people were infected, and 1,500 of them died. Each year, the disease is claiming more and more lives but hardly anyone outside Latin America knows about it. Why? Because it’s Latin America, and in the eyes of the West, Latin American lives are worth less than West European lives or North American lives. If we in the Western World valued Latin American lives the way we value our own, the media would give it due coverage.

Likewise, the coronavirus aroused very little interest as long as it remained inside Mainland China. Would we really be alarmed if the virus killed, say, 100,000 people, or even a million people in China, but did not migrate to other countries? What would it take for us to move uncomfortably in our seats? The answer is not a number, but the identity of the affected.

We like to think of ourselves as conscientious, moral people. But COVID-19, or Coronavirus Disease, is exposing our true nature: selfish to the core. This is why the world started panicking over the coronavirus only when it spread to the rest of the world; this is the sad reality of our lives.

Two Lessons from the Virus

So far, the coronavirus has taught us two very important lessons:

We are all equal in the eyes of nature. Whether you are rich or poor, a tyrant or a servant, the tiny bug could not care less; it’ll hit you just the same.

We are all mutually dependent. We are passing the germ from one person to the next and one person’s irresponsible behavior, even if inadvertently, can cost other people’s lives and numerous others pain and agony.

What the virus will not teach us is how to turn this negative interdependency into a positive one. This, we will have to learn on our own, through our efforts to build a new paradigm of living. If we focus our efforts on improving life for everyone rather than only our own, and often at the expense of others, we will transform our environment, the social and ecological ones.

The pandemic is an opportunity for us to develop a new outlook on ourselves, to envision success not as a triumph over others, but as empowerment of society as a whole. True, this thinking goes against our nature, but nature itself is going against our nature nowadays, so we had better start thinking outside the box. If we don’t change our mode of thinking, reality will force us to, and much more painfully.

Coronavirus Disease is a prelude to a stream of ordeals that will befall humanity until we’re willing to become mutually responsible on the social and ecological levels. It does not take a lot to see that the virus is a test to our mutual consideration. Look at how China reacted in the beginning of the outbreak, pretending that the virus was no big deal, and look how it has managed to slow down its spread—by placing everyone in quarantine until the spreading dwindles. And it worked. Look at how Italy initially dismissed the danger, and look at the catastrophic results.

Now we need to take the mandatory mutual responsibility to the next level and start reaping its fruits. We can do much more than heal society from the virus. We can heal it from the spreading alienation, loneliness, and depression that have plagued our societies long before the virus. All it takes is our willingness to accept that we are responsible for one another.

Cherish the Difference

If we accept mutual responsibility, we will learn to cherish each other’s differences. Our unique characters will no longer separate us; they will connect us and will give each of us unique ways to contribute to society, which no one else will be able to give.

Questions of race or gender equality will become extinct since each person will be priceless. How can you evaluate a person who has unique qualities that no one else has, and who is ready and willing to use those qualities to benefit all of society? Will it matter if that person came from Latin America, China, or Germany? Will it matter if that person is well educated or not, rich or poor, black, white, or yellow? None of it will matter. All that will matter is that that person has a priceless gift to give to all of us. This is the reality of people living in mutual responsibility.
— Published on March 11, 2020

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My article in Newsmax: “Sooner We Learn Coronavirus Lesson, Sooner We’ll Heal”

We’re still not getting what’s coming.

COVID-19, or coronavirus, is messing up our lives and we have yet to grasp the consequences. The masks, the quarantine, but mostly, the fear, are telling us that a new phase in our existence is emerging.

So, the sooner we get a grip on things, the better it will be for everyone.

Imagine this:

You’re sitting at home, cannot go to work because your employer went out of business, cannot buy food because the stores have all been emptied and there’s no supply to refill the shelves, and supply shipments have virtually stopped. But you have children to feed. What will you do? You can’t even send them to school where they can get a meal since all schools have been shut down by the virus!

What will you do, grow vegetables in the bathtub?

If it sounds mad, it’s because it is. But in a matter of months, this scenario could be the reality of tens of millions of Americans, Europeans and people in every country in the world.

The simple reality is that we cannot exist without provision from the outside, and the coronavirus is decimating that provision. If we don’t find a way to reboot the chains of supply that have been frozen still by fear, we could be facing hunger of a magnitude that will destroy our society and claim the lives of millions of people who aren’t even sick with the virus.

The Key to a Successful Reboot

Why is all this happening?

Because we are ignoring one simple, natural law: interconnectedness. Interconnectedness means that everything in nature is connected to, and therefore dependent on everything else.

We, on the other hand, live under the assumption that we needn’t recognize anything other than our own needs. Herein lies the problem: While the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature function in harmony and balance, the human level seeks only to exploit: We use nature and abuse each other simply because we can.

Now, in what seems like the first time, but certainly not the last, nature is saying, “Enough!” Reality is demanding that we become responsible, mature, but mainly, considerate of one another and of the environment.

Now we are called upon to raise our eyes, acknowledge the world around us, and begin to think more in terms of “we” and less in terms of “me.” This is how all of nature operates, and it demands that we do, too.

Becoming More Like Nature, and Less Like People

In order to start balancing our approach to reality, we should begin to work more like nature, and less like people, or at least less like the people that we used to be until the outbreak of COVID-19. To do that, we should start including other interests in our thoughts. What animals and plants do instinctively, we are required to do consciously.

While it is much harder for us to do than it is for animals and plants, it holds a unique reward: an enhanced perception of the whole of nature. The more parts of reality we include in our awareness, the broader our perception of reality becomes. It is an endless process of growth with infinite rewards, bound only by our willingness to exert in it.

As nature is interconnected, so we can become, if we set our minds and hearts on it. In that sense, the coronavirus is an unprecedented opportunity for growth, and it would be a horrible mistake for us to miss it.

By disconnecting our supply chains, the virus has reminded us that we are inseparably connected. By thinking about this interconnectedness and what it requires of us, we can defeat not only COVID-19, but also the “viruses” that sicken our society, pollute our minds, and make us destroy each other and the world around us.

In that sense, the coronavirus is a vaccine, not a pathogen, and the sooner we learn what it teaches, the sooner we will all heal.
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Thrive Global published my new article: “Coronavirus: A Lesson in Mutual Responsibility”

In less than three months, COVID-19, a.k.a. Coronavirus disease, has taught us a lesson in humility before the forces of nature that we had refused to learn for more than a century.

Staff in protective suits spray disinfectant on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) train after Indonesia confirmed new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia March 10, 2020 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/NovaWahyudi/ via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. INDONESIA OUT.

Who would have thought that a virus, and not a particularly deadly one, would press the world’s kill switch? Who would believe in the beginning of this year that a measly flu-like germ with the name of a beer brand would paralyze aviation the world over, crash stock markets globally, start an oil-price war between OPEC and Russia, put entire countries under quarantine, shut down schools and universities the world over, cancel major sports events, and all within ten weeks?

In less than three months, COVID-19, a.k.a. Coronavirus disease, has taught us a lesson in humility before the forces of nature that we had refused to learn for more than a century. It taught us that our protections, safety nets, and struggles for power and dominance are useless when nature decides to play its tricks on us.

“Most of all, Coronavirus is teaching us a lesson in mutual responsibility. It is forcing us to recognize the painful fact that we are interconnected and interdependent the world over.”

But most of all, Coronavirus is teaching us a lesson in mutual responsibility. It is forcing us to recognize the painful fact that we are interconnected and interdependent the world over. Because when a virus that started in Wuhan, China, can kill your loved ones in Chicago, Illinois, don’t you wish your countries would not be embroiled in a trade war? Wouldn’t it be nice if countries could collaborate just once and take collective action to stop the spreading of the virus? Wouldn’t it be much more helpful if we realized that we are responsible for one another even when we are half way across the world and don’t want to hear about it?

A Wonder Drug for Earth

Ironically, this pathogen is like a wonder drug for Earth. For decades, we have been warned about the harm that overconsumption is doing to our planet. For decades, we have been told that we must restrain our greed, excessive depletion of natural resources, and the shopping frenzy that has become our favorite pastime. For decades, we have ignored the warnings. Now, nature is forcing us to simply stop: no flights, no shopping, no entertainment. Quarantine yourselves at home and reflect on your actions, your commitment to others, and theirs to you.

In truth, nature is kind; it could have taught us the same lesson with far more aggressive measures. It could have caused a nuclear disaster like the one in Chernobyl or an earthquake like the one that devastated the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It could have made Ebola far more contagious and destroy half of humanity. It could do a million things we cannot even imagine that would all but obliterate humanity. But it is not; it is giving us a chance to reflect on how we live and start living more responsibly toward each other and the planet that is our common home.

Now it is time for us to help each other learn to care for one another. It cannot happen if we try alone, but since we’re all trapped already in one boat, much like the passengers on the virus-hit Diamond Princess in Japan and the Grand Princess in California, we should all embrace mutual responsibility and start building a more balanced and considerate way of life. Evidently, nature has a far greater cache of penitentiary measures than we can ever counteract. So far, it has been merciful and gentle with humanity; we do not want it to pick up the stick.

The world we live in now is the brainchild of our egocentric mindset. If we do not change our thinking, the world will not change for the better however we may try to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy and diminish deforestation. But if, instead of our current attitude, we will begin to nurture mutual consideration and responsibility, our world will reflect it and will transform in sync with our new state of mind.

It is written, “They who sow the wind, reap the storm” (Hosea 8:7). If we sow egoism, we will reap its consequences many times over. The current crisis is but a sample of what might happen. But likewise, if all of us aboard the ship called Planet Earth, sowed mutual care and mutual responsibility, what would we reap? Can we even begin to imagine the benefits?

Maybe now, when everything is put on hold, we should take a moment to reflect on our mindsets and start reforming the relationships in our lives. Maybe now is our chance to reverse course, to start imagining different courses for our lives. Maybe now we should start thinking less in terms of me and mine, and more in terms of community, society, and humanity. After all, who knows how many more breaks nature will give us?

— Published on March 10, 2020

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The coronavirus has become a global-scale problem for humanity. The death toll of the virus that originated in China and has spread throughout the world has already surpassed 3,000 people. How should we relate to this problem?

We encounter numerous problems on the path of our development. New viruses and new diseases appear all the time. Due to global warming, the earth evaporates and we discover something new every day. We may witness the comeback of diseases that existed in the distant past, some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.

We don’t know where the new viruses come from, we didn’t live back then since humanity exists on this planet consciously only for a few thousand years. That is why we may expect the manifestation of an increasingly large number of new viruses and bacteria.

The wisdom of Kabbalah gives a simple means of protection: we have nothing to be afraid of if we unite with each other. By way of our unity, we create a place and the force that kills all the viruses. Try it and you will see.

For example, we recently held the World Kabbalah Convention at the heart of Tel Aviv. More than 5,000 people from 78 countries participated in it. We were together for the three days of the main convention as well as before and after it, for 10 days in total. And no one got sick, or even caught a cold.

The thing is that we have a vaccine: a special disinfecting agent that eliminates all the microbes—it is our unification. This is the force of nature that acts against all evil forces. If people want to unite together, they fear no virus, they get a vaccine that kills all the viruses, both spiritual and material.

This is why I had no doubts about holding this convention. Some suggested canceling the convention or at least restricting access to people who have to avoid big gatherings for fear of different infections, meaning nursing mothers or people with chronic diseases.

However, I’m confident that such a convention does not pose any health risk. We have the remedy for all the viruses, we only need to learn how to use it, and it is not simple.

People need to learn how to utilize the connection between them that can eliminate and disinfect all infections and kill viruses that exist at the biological and also spiritual degrees. This might seem mystical and unreal, but precisely the connection between people is the remedy for all diseases and problems. It is because our unity takes place at the highest possible level in this world.

There are four levels of nature: still, vegetative, animate, and human. At the still, vegetative, and animate levels, nature exists the way it was created, without changes. But at the human level, we may influence what happens. If we build good relationships between us, we pass energy and force to each other so that it as if vaccinates us from evil thoughts, problems, and bad relationships.

But if we don’t correct relations between people, we stimulate the proliferation and manifestation of various viruses and natural disasters: volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, typhoons, and so on. Everything depends on the relations between people because we exist at the highest level of nature. That is why our attitude either kills nature, or on the contrary, commands it to become better.
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From KabTV’s Program “The World: The Coronavirus Epidemic,” 3/3/20

Related Material:
“Benefits Of The Coronavirus” (KabNet)
“How To Respond To Questions About Death In The Coronavirus Era” (KabNet)
“Coronavirus Ship Is A Lesson In The Need For Mutual Responsibility In Israel” (Times Of Israel)

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KabNet published my new article: “Benefits of the Coronavirus”

What kinds of benefits could a virus that has killed people and that has offset the world into panic possibly have?

The coronavirus is helping us come to terms with our smallness and weakness as human beings in the face of nature.

Whether it’s a virus, a natural disaster, or countless other blows, we get regular examples of how nature pays no attention to our differences the way that we do.

“Becoming aware of the detriment of the human ego is one major stage in our future development.”

The Main Benefit of the Coronavirus: Global Awakening to Humanity’s Interdependence

We are gradually being led to the conclusion that we are a single humanity, like one big family living on the same planet. Ultimately, all borders and walls we build to fence ourselves off from each other will fall short in the presence of the tightening form of globalization that nature is urging us to realize.

Nature sends us blows to show us how interdependent and interconnected it is, and how we are inescapable parts of its integrality.

The coronavirus can thus be viewed as yet another lesson that nature is trying to teach us: no matter how much we see differences among each other, there is an enveloping nature paying no attention to our labels.

“We have already come to such a degree that the whole world is considered one collective and one society.”

– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “Peace in the World.”

The coronavirus’ benefit is to humanity as a whole gaining awareness of its oneness. It serves to destabilize our egoistic infrastructure, so that we see the need to work out how to operate within our increasingly interdependent global conditions. Once again, nature shows how it penetrates through all kinds of partitions we set for ourselves around the world.

Where Do the Partitions We Set Between Each Other Come From?

They extend from the human ego that wishes to benefit itself at the expense of others.

The human ego shatters the perception of the whole reality into small pieces. The coronavirus corners our egoistic selves, showing how they function oppositely to the altruistically-fueled supreme force of nature, while nature itself gradually urges us to reach awareness of our interdependence and interconnectedness among each other and with nature in its wholeness.

Toward the realization of our total interconnectedness and interdependence with nature, we will have to become aware of our egoistic nature as a negative disturbance. We will have to see how the ego cuts us off from each other and from nature as a whole, and by doing so, the ego prepares us for myriad future blows, whether a new virus outbreak, or other problems on personal, social and global scales.

Becoming aware of the detriment of the human ego is one major stage in our future development.

Either through suffering or through connection-enriching education and influence, we need to reveal the wickedness of the human ego.

The revelation can be a pleasant one if we aim to attract nature’s positive force, which connects perfectly between all elements of nature, on the still, vegetative, animate and speaking levels, and then between the revelation of the positive and negative forces, humanity will be able to work in the middle, clearly observing what it is going through, and acting with clarity in response to nature’s influences.

How Can We Awaken the Positive Force of Connection into Our Lives?

Very simply, our connection evokes nature’s positive connecting force. Then, by attracting the positive force in nature, we reveal the negative egoistic force opposite it, and the awakening of both forces gives rise to a higher and more supreme force, a new level of connection where perfection and balance is sensed.

It is as it is written in the song, “Ose shalom be Meromav, Hu yaase shalom aleinu” (“make peace in His heaven, He will bring peace upon us”): Peace is integrity in our relations, between inverse forces of nature.

We are facing a period of having to learn how to connect with each other, holding positive and negative forces of nature in our reins.

When we start working with these forces, we will see how every finest detail in reality, as well as the world’s major events, all link into a single picture.

The wisdom of Kabbalah guides our discovery of these forces. It provides us with a method to experience harmonious connection, attracting nature’s positive force, revealing the negative egoistic force opposite it, and learning the ways to walk the balancing rope between them.
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KabNet published my new article: “How to Respond to Questions about Death in the Coronavirus Era”

As the Coronavirus continues its world tour, and panic penetrates populations of people, some are facing the ultimate question about death.
How should we respond to death? What is death? What happens after we die?

The nature surrounding us is wise and great. We are birthed within, and develop in, nature. Many systems function on a moment-by-moment basis to sustain our bodies for 70, 80, and even 100-plus years.

“And part and parcel with our global-scale problems is a global awakening of life’s deeper questions.”

But why? Are we supposed to just be born, live then die?

We endure difficult and painful years between our births and deaths. How much pleasure do we actually squeeze out of them? We care for our bodies in a Sisyphean way, and we feel less and less energy to keep going.

It is as if we’re shifting from living-and-breathing organisms into a biodegradable stage, after which we completely disintegrate.

Is there any benefit to such an existence? Or are we just supposed to struggle for years to make our way in life as best as we can until we eventually perish?

Evaluating the Purpose of Life through Four Levels of Nature

Each and every finest detail of nature holds benefit and continuity.

There are three distinct levels in nature: still, vegetative and animate. The person, in his current developmental stage, belongs to the animate world. Humanity, however, differentiates itself as the “speaking” level, which is higher than the animate.

What, then, makes humans different to animals?

We are fundamentally a two-legged breathing mammal that fulfills its basic animal needs to eat, drink, sleep and reproduce. However, we have additional mental and emotional capacity, letting us absorb knowledge and wisdom. We raise children, pass knowledge from one generation to the next, and develop tools and our society with the aim of making us feel better and more comfortable.

In other words, we have basic survival needs for food, shelter, sex and family, and then we have social needs where we compare ourselves to others, and we thus fence ourselves off from each other, clothing ourselves, housing ourselves and filling our houses and bodies with countless products that we advertise to each other.

So are we just “smart animals” that have worked out how to make ourselves more comfortable in the world?

The Key Difference between Humans and Animals

The key difference between humans and animals is that we humans have a deeper aspiration seeded within us that aspires beyond the boundaries of our temporary protein bodies.

We also have the ability to pinpoint this aspiration. Like animals, we’re afraid of death and want to live. But in addition to animals, only we humans ask about why we live.

Not all humans ask about the meaning of life. Around a tenth of the adult population asks about the meaning of life, and all children ask about it, but soon forget.

Therefore, the coronavirus, conflicts between different countries and factions, falls of markets, and fierce social division: the harm that society’s cells do to themselves spread like a disease throughout the body of humanity.

And part and parcel with our global-scale problems is a global awakening of life’s deeper questions.

The Journey to the Ultimate Sensation of Our Common Origin

I hope that people with such questions will seek their answers, disallowing the billions of materialistic influences to distract our journey to the sublime perception and sensation of our common origin, and learning and implementing the laws of that perfect reality on the way.

By actively seeking to uncover the answers to our inquiries, like peeling layers of an onion, we delve deeper into the understanding of the need to connect positively to others. Through our positive connection, we enter reality’s control room, balancing our attitude with nature’s attitude of mutual love and bestowal in an interconnected and interdependent wholeness.

When we reach such equivalence of form with nature, we become healthy and beneficial parts in the system of our existence, entering into direct contact with nature’s fundamental quality—love and bestowal—and experiencing a new and perfect life, free of fears, mistakes and problems.
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The Times of Israel published my new article “Panic Over the Coronavirus Reaches Israel. Here’s What We Can Learn from It”

The coronavirus made Aliyah to Israel. Israelis are now panicking over the virus filling its media headlines. Nobody knows how the virus spreads, whether through water or air, migratory birds or a group of South Korean tourists. Until the root of the virus is found, any and all answers are “right.”

However, some of the responsibility is with us, i.e., humanity. We are all under special pressure requiring that we somewhat contribute to the toil with this phenomenon. Therefore, in addition to the Ministry of Health’s guidelines and recommendations, we must balance judgment, and look to diagnose the root cause behind the spread of the threatening virus, the general cause of all our troubles.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, human nature is a desire to enjoy. This desire grows and requires maximum enjoyment for minimum investment. The more it grows unrestrained, the more it wants to enjoy at the expense of others. Thus, the egoistic desire, where we each want to enjoy at others’ expense, counters nature’s general desire: the desire to give pleasure.

When we exit balance with the harmonious nature, which operates altruistically, we receive feedback signaling that we need to revise our direction and realign ourselves with nature. Such feedback can appear as a viral outbreak, a protest in society, a mass shooting, a hurricane, a terror attack, i.e., any number of forms on personal, social and ecological scales.

All the ups and downs that humanity has experienced, including market turbulence, crises between individuals and countries, and even the breakdown of the family unit, occur as a result of an imbalance between the desire to receive, the individual nature, and the desire to give, the global nature.

It could be argued that pains soften us and make us more adept to come closer to nature, but nobody desires suffering, and there is no commandment to suffer.

Therefore, until we learn to how to positively connect in society above each person’s desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone, we will continue to fall, time and again, in myriad different ways.

The ego’s most powerful expression is in rejecting our connection to each other.

Nature operates in order to bring us closer to each other, and if we fortify ourselves inside our ego, then nature strikes twice as hard.

Blows from nature could increase to a point where humans will have no choice but to understand that only together can we deal with the blows, otherwise we will die.

Nature gradually develops us to a state of perfect connection, and on our way there, we need to deal with the ego that resists connection with others. Eventually, we will reach a state where if we fail to connect, then everyone will fall, and if we succeed in our connection, then we will all rise to a higher level of consciousness.

If we saw the complete system of nature, we would be surprised at how even the tiniest amount of connection or disconnection between us influences nature’s collective system for better or for worse.

Why is nature’s complete system concealed from us, then?

It is because, if it were revealed, we would have no consciousness: we would be like rocks, plants and animals, which all act in an instinctive balance with nature, lacking free choice.

Since the bonds connecting between us are invisible, we need to regularly listen to explanations of how we are connected and how we can discover those connection, to discuss the complete system of nature and our role in it, to acknowledge our egoistic desire to enjoy that is opposite to nature’s altruistic quality, and to amplify our need to come together.

Moreover, we need not wait for crises to connect us forcefully. Instead, we can awaken ourselves to connect simply because we can feel much better by connecting than by being divided. In other words, there is a positive force dwelling in nature that reveals when we connect, and by discovering that force, we experience much higher states of happiness, confidence, love, freedom and peace than we could ever experience if we failed to make any motion to connect.
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/30/20

When Austria refuses to treat patients from Italy, Germany forbids exports of medical equipment, France refuses to provide masks, and the rich northern countries want no burden of dealing with southern debt, we are in trouble.

In addition to the friction between countries, there is a sudden increase in unemployment, and if it reaches a situation where food can no longer be served on the table, then we are in serious turmoil.

Will Europe or countries in other continents descend into another world war?

In the future, a war is indeed possible, even though we definitely hope it will not happen. But in the meantime, war is highly unlikely.

The coronavirus sets appalling conditions for war. The need for social distancing during a pandemic counters the circumstances needed for war, which requires flexibility of motion and the ability to mobilize armies.

Other than risk from the enemy, soldiers would be endangered by the coronavirus itself, as they would need to gather frequently in tight group settings.

Therefore, while the idea of war can be put on hold while we try to deal with the coronavirus, we still bear witness to bitter resentment cooking between countries.

And if we fail to rise above the divisive atmosphere separating us, then we can expect another form of crisis to wake us up to the need to unite above our differences.

Today, the coronavirus shows us a prime example of how it doesn’t discriminate between different people and countries.

If we as a human society step up to the challenge of relating to each other as equally as nature relates to us, where on one hand, we recognize our innately divisive drives that try to separate us, and on the other hand, prioritize unification above our divisions, then we would overcome the tendencies that would otherwise lead us to more suffering, wars and crises.

Moreover, by building positive connections upon our differences, we would discover a new and harmonious world where everyone becomes friends and family. It would be a world where love and care increasingly spread virally from one day to the next, and instead of needing to tighten our lockdowns to be protected from a pandemic, we would willingly tighten our connections to each other, protecting ourselves from any kind of harm.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Coronavirus Ship Is a Lesson in the Need for Mutual Responsibility in Israel”

Three of the 15 Israelis aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise liner have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and hospitalized in Japan, while extensive efforts are underway to evacuate the others home to Israel.

The help they demanded from Israel during their crisis and predicament raises the questions about the kind of support that the state of Israel should provide its citizens when they encounter certain extreme problems abroad.

While it is usual for the state to be concerned about its citizens’ welfare abroad, hard experience demonstrates that intervention procedures could be arranged in a much more beneficial way, both for citizens and for the country in general.

I completely support the state’s responsibility toward Israel’s citizens, provided it has the necessary infrastructure of mutual responsibility among the citizens themselves and an officially acknowledged governmental organization that would be engaged in handling such matters.

Such an institution could be called “The Office for Mutual Responsibility.”

On behalf of the state, the Office for Mutual Responsibility would be responsible for rescuing every citizen in Israel and around the world in desperate circumstances and finding solutions to the variety of problems that emerge. Every entreaty for help would be satisfied by the force of a potent social atmosphere, orchestrated by the work of this office, to generate positive connection among all citizens.

Currently, there is no such official body in Israel dealing primarily with positive social connection and developing mutual responsibility among the nation’s citizens.

For the most part, Israeli citizens today neglect their relationship with the state, feeling that they owe it nothing—dodging payments wherever possible, and fleeing far away to a distant land if an opportunity presents itself. The general atmosphere is a society of individuals each trying not to be suckers, in a common effort to get the upper hand on others and the state wherever possible. In other words, each person’s sole concern is about himself and how to use others in order to stay one step ahead.

We need to realize as a society that this atmosphere suffocates us.

We have had the highly publicized examples of a soldier getting caught behind enemy lines and a young woman being imprisoned overseas after getting caught with marijuana. In both cases, the parents had to scream loud and long through the media until they garnered enough support to achieve their success.

However, these are the isolated success stories.

Mutual responsibility must become a way of life for everyone, a constant concern for others, and not just a hurried, stop-gap embrace when someone’s need suddenly catches our attention.

Mutual responsibility is a shared sensation of closeness, where we feel committed and belonging to one another—neighbors, colleagues and people on the street—just like we feel toward our own family. I am speaking of responsibility toward all people, society and the state. It is written in our sources that, “Love your neighbor as yourself—it is a great rule in the Torah.” This is the law that should be at the foundation of our society.

As suggested by its name, “The Office for Mutual Responsibility,” this institution not only gives to people when they are in need, it also requires from people when they are capable of contributing.

Members of such a social framework would need to pay their dues in order to sustain it. Therefore, it would require financial contributions, volunteers, and a general atmosphere of giving, wherever and however a person could.

The Office for Mutual Responsibility would function almost like an educational institution whose duty is to make us all feel that we are one big family. Anyone contributing within such a framework would also be worthy of receiving help from it whenever needed.

It is not enough to expect that by paying our taxes and contributing military service, we are entitled to receive help from the state if we are in trouble. Mutual responsibility requires regular learning and contributing with the aim of building a warm network of the quality of relationships that feel similar to a mother’s constant, loving manner toward her children.

Once we establish such a setup within Israel and provide an example of a well-oiled society operating upon the principle of mutual responsibility, a positive rippling effect would spread such a unique form of connection to the rest of the world.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/19/20

If we used to caution our kids about talking to strangers and walking in side alleys, today they sit at home with their mobile devices and all the dangers are at their fingertips.

The latest dangerous viral trend, the Tripping Jump Challenge (a.k.a. Skull Breaker Challenge), distributed on the social app, Tik Tok, has already led to death and injury.

In the challenge, three people line up and jump at once. The participant in the middle is unaware of the prank, told that they are simply recording a slow-motion video of the jump. After the jump, the two on the sides proceed to trip the unsuspecting participant in the middle, while they are in the air, so that they fall backwards.

The “best-case scenario,” if you could call it that, is shock and taunting of the one who got pranked. This is also why the participant who gets pranked is often also not a friend of the pranksters, but a victim of bullying.

The worst-case scenario, however, is much worse: death and severe injury.

The tragic nature of this phenomenon shows us how we are incapable of controlling ourselves as a society.

It is not the first viral challenge that has led to harming and killing its participants. Also, once again, it has taken death and injury for us to wake up to the problem and try to apply a patchwork solution, until the next case comes along.

We have the means at our disposal to restrict the Internet so that such negative phenomena stay away from our children and teenagers.

We can demand that international organizations oversee the Internet, determining and monitoring what is allowed and disallowed.

Also, we can do so not only when it comes to the question of harsh violence and porn, but upon everything contemptuous and slanderous.

We could raise youth awareness to be better equipped in dealing with the freedom they have on the Internet.

But we don’t.

Moreover, if we wanted to, we could impact a revolution by instigating a new form of education spanning the education system as we know it, in addition to media and cultural influences that shape our values—connection-enriching education that aims to clarify how a positive future depends on actively developing positive social connections.

Since most of the complaints about the harm caused from such incidents come from concerned parents, then this appeal is primarily to the parents: With your common concern for your children, unite and together break the social consensus that everything is permissible. Otherwise, tomorrow your child could very well be the next victim.

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