Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “How to Unite a Nation that Is Not a Nation”

Earlier this week, Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, gave a heartfelt speech where he called on both sides of the political rift surrounding the proposed judicial reform to lower the flames and build bridges above the disputes. “We are in the midst of fateful days for our nation and for our country,” Herzog said. “We have for quite some time now not been in a political debate but on the brink of constitutional and social collapse … we are on the verge of a violent clash—a powder keg…on the threshold of one man’s hand against his brother’s,” he stated, adding that both sides need to understand that if only one side wins … then all of Israel loses.

Are we really brothers? We certainly do not feel like brothers, at least not as it seems in protests and in clashes with authorities and the calls by political leaders to shed blood. So, are we brothers nonetheless?

The truth is that we are not. In its origins, the people of Israel came from different places, different tribes, and different cultures and faiths. Our ancestors formed a nation, but they did not come from the same family and there was no familial connection to keep them together at times of disagreement.

For this reason, whenever a dispute erupts among the people of Israel, it leads to fierce clashes, intense hatred, and a deep sense of alienation. The only way to solve these rifts is through acknowledging our origin, our consequent vocation, and by committing to carrying it out. Without all three, we will have no peace of mind and no peace. We can already hear voices among Israeli leaders calling for bloodshed “in order to save Israel’s democracy.” Unless we realize the purpose of our nation, we will fall once more, as we always have in the past, into such division that will bring upon us death and destruction.

Currently, many of us still feel as one nation, albeit a deeply divided one. Yet, that feeling is quickly dissipating in the face of slurs and hollers that stymie any attempt at unity and demand a total surrender to the dictates of the entitled. These people do not feel that we belong to one nation, even if officially we do.

This is why our only option to avoid yet another dismal chapter in the annals of our nation is to take up our vocation as a national task. Only if we return to our roots, to our legacy to the world—to be as one man with one heart and to love one another as ourselves in order to set an example for humanity—will we be able to overcome the rifts that tear us apart.

The divisions between us are not about this or that reform; they are reflections of our ingrained hatred, the same hatred that has haunted us since the inception of our people. The hatred we see on Israel’s streets today is the same hatred that divided and weakened the leadership of Israel’s first kingdom, and the same hatred that set off a bloodbath among the Jews inside the surrounded city of Jerusalem, which led to the fall of the Second Temple. It is always the hatred between us that inflicts on us adversity, and nothing else.

No foreign general or leader has ever been able to defeat Israel unless Israel first defeated one another and paved the way for a conqueror to come and plunge the relics. No leader ever turned against Israel unless he saw that Israel were weakened by their own discord. Today, we are paving the way for the next villain to come and exploit our disunion. But as then, so now, the new chapter of Israel’s chronicles of defeat will not be for the might of our foe, but for the infirmity of our union.

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Question: Can the 400 years that the Jewish people spent in exile be considered a period of a dream?

Answer: The period of a dream is generally called the entire period before our common redemption from egoism because a dream is a minimal influence of light from above, which holds us only in a physical form.

This is the state we are in now. Therefore, it is called a dream: the illumination of VAK, that is, a small illumination of light that is not even felt by us.

Where does life come from and why do electrons spin? Where does all the energy come from and how did our universe appear?

Does it all come from an infinitely powerful explosion point, which is just one point, and all matter, energy, and information developed from it?

We do not feel where it comes from. It goes away, diffuses into the next dimension and comes from there again, but we do not feel these transitions.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A 400-year-long dream” 4/26/12

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Question: Why did the Nazis pursue a policy directed against Jews?

Answer: The fact is that after the Weimar National Assembly, which adopted a constitution that equalized the rights of all the peoples of Germany, in particular Jews with Germans, it suddenly became clear that Jews occupied high positions in industry, science, and culture for several decades. According to the studies of political scientists and psychologists, this caused great envy and increased anti-Semitism.

Before that, everything was relatively quiet, although everyday, anti-Semitism has always existed because it is in the blood of mankind. This is the realization by the peoples of the world that the Jews have something secret, and supposedly they rule the world, they know something, they hide something.

Indeed, these people have a method of correcting the world. And now, when he offers it to everyone, no one wants to hear about it, because it is an anti-egoistic technique. But the feeling that the Jews have something is true. This attitude has always been with them.

After all, the main thing is the struggle for whose God is either yours or mine; it cannot be both is what Christians believed.

The Jews did not have this at all. God is the general force of nature. He is one!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Why Did the Nazis Hate the Jews?”

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Question: Why are Jews among the richest?

Answer: Because they know how to handle money correctly, and have for thousands of years.

Question: What does it mean to handle money correctly?

Answer: To earn, to keep, to save, to turn money into a bank-type enterprise, and so on. That is what they can do. But it takes a long time to learn.

Question: And this can be learned?

Answer: I think Jews are not the best in this matter, but life forced them. They could not sit in one place, they could not work and create large enterprises because they were taken away from them, set on fire, smashed.

Therefore, they had only one opportunity left—to work with money. A lot is written about this. I believe that this is what led them to a relatively independent material well-being.
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From KabTV’s “Blitz of Questions and Answers” 1/6/23

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Judicial War May Devolve into a Civil War”

The judicial reform that Israel’s new administration is advancing has stirred turmoil throughout Israeli society. From every sector and faction of society, people are condemning the reform or rooting for it. Those condemning it warn that the reform will obliterate Israel’s democracy and place it at the mercy of politicians. Conversely, those who praise it say that it will restore the balance to Israeli democracy, which has been disrupted when Israel’s supreme court took excessive rights into its hands, such as the power to revoke laws or appoint new judges.

Recently, the protests against the proposed reforms have become so heated that prominent figures in the Israeli society, such as incumbent mayors, decorated retired generals, opposition leaders, and former prime ministers have begun to tout the possibility of a civil war, with some even explicitly calling, on social media and in public speeches, for the murder, no less, of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, and the entire cabinet, in order to restore democracy.

Since the inception of our nation, we have been known as obstinate people. We are extremely opinionated, and we think that only our view has merit. Worse yet, at certain points in our history, we took this view to the extreme and not only believed that anyone who disagreed with us did not deserve to live, we also acted on that belief and went on vicious civil wars. Now, it seems, we are heading there again.

Democracy is not good for such people. Democracy is for those who believe that general policy decisions are made at the polls. If more people prefer one policy to another, the parties that support that more popular policy will win the election. It does not make them entitled to abuse the minority, but it does make them entitled, and even obligated to implement the policy for which they were elected.

If I think that my country is democratic only when the view I support is in power, then I am not a democrat; I am a tyrant in disguise. It hurts me when I see what is happening in Israel today. While the rest of the world is learning and progressing, we are stuck in power struggles that will unquestionably bring the country to its knees and ruin the State of Israel.

Perhaps, considering our bloody past, when we killed each other in civil wars, it would be better if the people were dispersed and the nation disbanded. I have no idea what the Creator has planned for us, but if the choice is between dissolution and civil war, I prefer the former.

That said, there is a third alternative. Our people always have been and always will be obstinate, arrogant, and opinionated. If we are disbanded now and reassemble later, we will still have to face each other and disagree just as we do today. We are like that because our ancestors were like that, and precisely because they were like that, they realized that their only chance of success was to step on their own egos and form a union precisely with their dissenters. In those days, it was either unity or death. Now we are approaching that dramatic point once more.

In the past, when our ancestors chose unity, we not only became a nation; we also became a model for the world, a proof that no matter how much we cannot stand each other, if we rise above our hatred and unite, the bond we will form will overcome anything, and the power of such a nation will be insurmountable.

At the moment, I do not see that people are in any mood for conversation, much less unity. All I see is bellicosity. But as long as we are still not fighting, there is hope that we will come to our senses before we drown the ship that we are on.

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Question: You write that the concept of sacrifice was revealed after the consecutive entrances into Egypt of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “Egypt” in Hebrew is Mitzraim, i.e., Mitz Ra—the concentration of evil when man enters this evil.

The people of Israel (our inner desires) made sacrifices. The Egyptians, who represent egoism, seeing how the Israelites made sacrifices and tried to unite, hated them for that. In general, our ego hates when it is sacrificed.

The question arises: can we say that this is where the root of anti-Semitism comes from?

Answer: The root of anti-Semitism comes precisely from this state, when people see that Jews interpret everything in the inner sense of the word.

For example, sacrifice means the sacrifice of our egoism. Pray is not to some God or something, but to the upper force that can reward you with the opportunity to be kind and empathetic to other people. And so on. This misunderstanding of Judaism led to the beginning of anti-Semitism.

Question: Does it mean that hatred of the quality of bestowal and love, which was cultivated by people called “Israel” who lived in Egypt at that time, in principle, caused anti-Semitism?

Answer: Yes, it is natural hatred. If I am in the qualities of reception, I just want to receive pleasure, and if I see that someone near me is trying to connect and acquire another quality, the quality of bestowal and love, I naturally hate that person.

Thus, my hatred of the qualities of bestowal and love evokes anti-Semitism.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/8/23

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Comment: After the ruin of the Second Temple, the Jews could not maintain their spiritual state and dispersed to different countries.

My Response: These were no longer Jews, but a lost nation from which ten tribes had previously left. Two tribes remained who passed from country to country. Where they were allowed to take shelter, they settled down for tens or hundreds of years, and again they set out on the road.

It is remarkable. There is no such nation in history that was suddenly expelled from some country. I can’t imagine any comparison when a whole nation, hundreds of thousands of people rise together and go to another country.

Question: But how did Jews relate to this themselves?

Answer: The main thing is to save and preserve what we have because we must be one nation.

Comment: Nevertheless, although Jews are together, they still have no spirituality.

My Response: It exists, but not at the same level as before. The understanding that spirituality—a connection with the Creator and a mission that exists in the people—was all there, but there was no obvious manifestation of this.

Look at the books they wrote. They have not completely lost the understanding that there is an upper world, attainment of the Creator, and work for the Creator. Take and read these books. They knew they were cut off from it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What to Expect from the Jews?” 1/21/12

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Holocaust Remembrance Day: Reflections on New Antisemitism”

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time to reflect on the past, and how modern-day circumstances prove that the ominous specter of antisemitism didn’t simply die with World War II.

Indeed, Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg, recently stated that social media had given antisemites propaganda power “that the Nazis could only dream of.” Mr. Goldberg also shared his fears of a “bleak” future without survivors to tell their stories.

In my book, New Antisemitism Mutation of a Long-Lived Hatred, I emphasized the fact that antisemitism is alive and kicking and should serve as a wake-up call to Jews all over the world. Like Mr. Goldberg, many in the Jewish community have grave concerns for the future.

For example, Steven Spielberg, who established the USC Shoah Foundation to preserve the memory of the Holocaust, has expressed deep concern that genocide is as possible today as during the Nazi era. “When collective hate organizes and gets industrialized, then genocide follows. We have to take it more seriously today than I think we have had to take it in a generation.”

Within three months of Hitler’s coming to power in Germany in 1933, a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses and professionals was ordered. The Nazis’ official explanation for the boycotts was that they were implemented as a counter-reaction to the demands of Jewish organizations in the US and Britain that were boycotting German-made products due to the Nazis’ rise to power. This action legitimized anti-Jewish activity and gave it official support which had not existed until that time, and it marked the commencement of the war against the Jews, with the penetration of the German consciousness with antisemitic ideology.

The Nazi boycotts were accompanied by harassment and vandalism of Jewish businesses, people, and institutions. The boycotts were followed by a widening cyclone of actions that led to the deaths of six million of our brethren. For this reason, it is understandable that when Jews hear the word “boycott,” it still triggers a brutal reminder of the beginnings of the Holocaust.

There are differences between the 1930s and today, the major one being the existence of the State of Israel. The position of Israel today in relation to worldwide Jewry is similar to that of the Jews of Germany in the 1930s: it stands at the frontline and bears the brunt of a new war against the Jews. Antisemitism has been repackaged under the guise of anti-Zionism.

Israel is an intrinsic part of the collective Jewish identity and is perceived as such by the nations of the world. So, when judgment is passed and punishment is imposed on Israel, it falls on the entire Jewish collective and not only an individual part. The increasing pressure against Jews and the State of Israel is a wake-up call for Jews to come together and ask essential questions: Who are we as a people? Where do we come from? Where are we headed?

The Jewish people are a unique example in humanity. The fact that our ancestors originally came from a wide variety of backgrounds, united above their differences, and became one nation, united “as one man with one heart,” makes us unique. But this uniqueness does not mean we are to look down on others; it means we are to serve others by using our ancestral wisdom to benefit humanity. Giving the world an example of unity under the motto, “love your neighbor as yourself,” is what the nations subliminally demand from us. They instinctively feel Jews hold the keys to peace and prosperity in the world, and their complaint for our not sharing these keys manifests as antisemitism.

It is incumbent upon each and every Jew to unite above our differences yet again. The only thing that will put an end to the new war against Jews is our making the entire Jewish people as one. As the great Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag wrote about the pivotal role of the Jewish nation and what is expected from us to fulfill:

“[The Creator said] ‘You shall be My Segula [remedy/virtue] from among all peoples.’ This means that you will be My remedy, and sparks of purification and cleansing of the body shall pass through you onto all the peoples and the nations of the world. The nations of the world are not yet ready for it, and I need at least one nation to start with now, so it will be as a remedy for all the nations.” The Writings of Baal HaSulam, The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]

Over time, Jews have abandoned the unique connection we once cultivated and have become self-centered. However, the pressure of globalization is forcing us toward interdependence once again as humanity seeks a way to live together peacefully but cannot find one. Until Jews relearn how to create unity between us as before, the world will lack access to the knowledge of how to accomplish this necessity for integration and will continue to blame us for its woes. It is mounting pressure upon us until we finally change our course of action toward cohesion rather than division.

The need for cohesion is as crucial today as it was in those days. Jews must embark on a shared path to become a unified and thriving people once again with a desire for a common spirit and vision. We must set aside our materialistic impulses and our fears for the sake of this and future generations.
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While working on themselves at the level of the Second Temple, the people of Israel tried to do everything possible to stay on it, but egoism grew because the ego that contained all of humanity was not corrected since humanity was still developing egoistically.

Therefore, the developing egoism affected the Jews, and they could not remain at the same level of benevolent interaction with each other. Their condition is represented by the wars with the Romans and the Greeks, but in fact these were internal wars of the people of Israel.

The fall occurred under the influence of egoistic desires: the Greek ones (in ideology) and Roman ones (in action). Of course, this is not about the Greeks and the Romans because we are talking only about the internal states of the same group of Abraham.

Eventually they fell from the level of the Second Temple: “Do not do to the other what is hateful to you,” were completely disconnected from any kind mutual actions, and became like ordinary people. This means that they were captured not by the Egyptians or Babylonians, but by humanity in general, which was disconnected from all spiritual categories.

This is the next, most difficult stage—the third exile from spirituality. The Jews entered it gradually and lost their previous degree. This continued for many years and ended in the 16^th century in the time of Ari.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 5/4/14

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The method for exiting the state of spiritual exile began to develop in the sixteenth century; it is called Kabbalah. Of course, Kabbalistic teaching existed before that. The great ideologists following Abraham and his disciples discovered all this and wrote it down. Their books are called the Holy Books of the Jews.

But the fact is that they did not have a clear method for exiting selfishness. At that time, the last state—which began to manifest itself during the time of Aristotle—had not yet been revealed.

Ari is a great Kabbalist who laid the foundations for the method of correction. After him, other Kabbalists began to appear: the Baal Shem Tov, the Magid of Mezrich, and many others. Thus, the number of spiritual guides who described the same methodology, but in different styles expanded, and they could work with people theoretically and practically at different levels.

However, the development of Kabbalah, which went from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the present day, stopped at us. The last of the great teachers was my teacher Rabash. He and his father laid the foundations of the method of correction in action, in its application.

And we who follow them, by implementing this method, hope for an effective way out of the exile in which we and all of humanity are. This is a special exile because that group of Abraham is dissolving into the whole of humanity, if not physically, then morally, spiritually, and ideologically; they are losing absolutely everything.

A part of this group alters the entire methodology, that is, it takes on mechanical actions without thinking that it is necessary to engage in this internally, with one’s own intentions, with one’s heart. This is the big problem of getting out of the last exile.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 5/4/14

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