Entries in the 'Israel Today' Category

“The Conflict Isn’t Territorial, It’s Spiritual” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “The Conflict Isn’t Territorial, It’s Spiritual

We think our struggle with the Palestinians is over territory, but it isn’t. It is a purely spiritual conflict, and not with the Palestinians, but with ourselves. Since the Jewish people has abandoned its cause, it lost its legitimacy to exist as a nation. Until we restore our unity, we will be pariahs in the eyes of the world, which will tolerate our presence only as long as it hopes that at some point, we will return from oblivion, restore our solidarity, the essence of our nation, and be the example that everyone expects us to be. If we wake up in time, the world will unite around us. If we overstay its patience, it will unite against us.

Any attempt to attribute a historical aspect to the conflict misses the point and distracts us from our task. Instead of trying to prove that we were here first, which is like the chicken and egg argument, we should accomplish what we were made to accomplish, and this will end all the arguments and conflicts since everyone will support us.

To accomplish our task, we must remember that the Jewish nation is unlike any other nation. It began as an eclectic cluster held together by the idea that unity and solidarity are the keys to a solid society. The early members of the nation left their homelands and countryfolk to join a group whose members they did not know, and who often came from rivaling clans and tribes, yet subscribed to Abraham’s ideology that solidarity should be the backbone of society.

Our ancestors struggled quite a bit among themselves, rising and falling according to the level of their unity. Nevertheless, by the time of the Second Temple, the word of the innovative society had gotten far and wide, and people from all the nations came to see the miracle. Greeks scholars came, learned from the prophets, and returned home to develop the Greek philosophy. Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, summoned seventy sages from Jerusalem to translate the Five Books of Moses into Greek, thereby creating the first translation of the Bible. But before he let them translate, he sat with them and learned from them. According to Flavius Josephus, after two weeks of extensive learning he said “he had learned how he ought to rule his subjects.”

The renowned philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote that Jewish pilgrims, who gathered in Jerusalem three times a year, “made friendships with people they had not met before, and in the merging of the hearts … they would find the ultimate proof of unity.” Likewise, the book Sifrey Devarim writes that gentiles would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Eventually, we fell from unity and invaders started flooding the land. First came the Hellenists, the Jewish converts who adopted the Greek culture and abandoned unity. Then came the Seleucids, who destroyed the Temple once. The Maccabees defeated them, rebuilt the Temple, but not the unity, and so the Romans came and ousted us from here entirely.

We didn’t lose the land because we were weak; we lost it because we were divided. When we are divided, the world stops loving us, stops seeing us as an example they want to follow, and does not want us around. Following the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD, The Roman emperor Hadrian wanted to do away once and for all with the pugnacious Jewish people. To achieve this, he not only dispersed the remaining Jews in Judea around the Roman Empire, he changed the name Judea into Syria Palaestina (lit. Palestinian Syria).

To this day, the world sees this stretch of land as Palestine, and not as Israel, since we have not lived up to the name Israel, which entails mutual responsibility and love of others. If we want the land of Israel to become Israel once more, we first have to become the spiritual people of Israel: united “as one man with one heart.” Only under this condition will our struggles be through and we will find peace among ourselves and with the nations.
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“What Antisemites Want From Us” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “What Antisemites Want From Us

Mass demonstrations with ferocious hostility against Jews and Israel’s right to defend itself are increasingly common around the world as new crowds join the latest global antisemitic campaign fueled by biased media coverage. The establishment of international committees to investigate war crimes on the latest Israeli military operation accompanies renewed existential threats from Iran for the annihilation of the Jewish state. In short, there is a global consensus that Jews are the main problem in the world.

Let’s be clear. This is not about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, religious fanaticism between Judaism and Islam, intensifying clashes of opinion between right-wingers and leftists, or between Democrats and Republicans. The problem is not focused on the limited area of the Land of Israel either, because the phenomenon of hatred existed long before the establishment of the State and would continue even if we were to emigrate from it to other parts of the world. We are dealing here with a natural phenomenon—antisemitism, a law of nature.

However, this is not just a narrow hatred toward Jews that I speak of, but a broader hatred. Even without Jews on the planet, there would be hatred between each person and others, a vibrant and fermenting hatred between all streams of humanity. The root of the problem is the human ego that is at the core of human society, an ego that grows and begins to consume itself. And the only way to curb it is to correct it.

It just so happens that Jews have a unique method of connecting and being saved from the clutches of the formidable ego that exists in the human race. And this salvation is not just for the Jews alone, but for all without exception.

Because worldwide, we are all connected in a global, integral communication network, every small shift affects the rest of the systems, moving all the networks. Israel is a major hub in the grid of power relations in this globalized system. If its members would repair the bonds between them and transcend the natural egoism, the connecting force Jews would create between them would radiate “light into the nations.” This is the spiritual ideology that the Jewish people were founded upon.

The history of the Jews began in ancient Babylon about 3,800 years ago. Our ancestor Abraham gathered around him representatives from a collection of clans which have today evolved to constitute the whole of humanity. Meanwhile, over the years, Abraham’s adherents have become the people of Israel—a group that worked to discover the power of unity in nature; a team that, for better or worse, has been chosen to implement the terms of mutual guarantee between people according to the rule, “love your neighbor as yourself.”

From the point of view of nature, the change that will take place within the hearts of the people of Israel is the transformation that will spread throughout the world. Because our egoism or self-centered vision constantly grows and neutralizes the sense of danger that hovers over our Jewish heads, even while pressure from the world in the form of antisemitism increases, this notion of our Jewish responsibility to unite and be the role model for humanity to follow is still far from our understanding.

We are hard-hearted and stubborn people. Even while poisoned arrows are fired at us we are unable to believe what is happening and the magnitude of the problem. At the last minute, the “smart Jew” within us always tries to rise up and claim that the situation needs to be studied, digested, and understood, its cause and effect analyzed. A good calculation is made if we think it will pay off. On one level, Jews hear, but by the time that the message truly permeates and becomes real to us, I fear that it may be too late. Hopefully, this current crisis of antisemitic hatred and hostility will be the exception to what has been the rule and we will finally come to recognize the truth that the only chance that we have to ensure our good future instead of being beaten is through our connection.
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My Thoughts On Twitter 5/30/21

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

We won’t be able to affect the deterioration of the climate in any way, other than by our relationships. Because of them, it is changing for the worse, and because of them, it can also start changing for the better.
We exist in a closed system of nature, where our thoughts and relationships are its highest force!

In our world, only Isra-El, one who rises above #egoism, has freedom of will (of decisions and behavior). Otherwise one is ruled by one’s animate egoism. Therefore we have to see the world as a world of puppets that are controlled by the Creator according to our choice to behave in the quality of bestowal.

The riots in #Israel will stop only if the #Jews carry out the Creator’s commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” to rise above the individual egoism. Otherwise the Arabs will “teach” us the right relationships. Because we are at the last stage of correction! The Creator is managing us through them…

Why does the #UN investigate Israel’s actions in Gaza in the May 2021 military campaign, but doesn’t talk about the victims on Israel’s side?
It’s because it’s okay to kill #Jews!
And if they don’t do it, then they are to blame for everything!
From Twitter, 5/30/21

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Why Did We Come To The Land Of Israel?

961.2Question: What is your opinion on the truce and ceasefire between Israel and Palestine? How did you take it?

Answer: I take it in a very straight-forward way, my opinion does not change. Since the Jewish people came to this country, they must know why they are here. They did not just run away from earthly problems, they came here to demonstrate their goal and their spiritual purpose to themselves and to all the nations of the world.

If they do not do that, then of course they cannot live on this land. Other nations can more or less exist here somehow but not them.

Therefore, I am not very happy that we took over this land and that we are behaving in this way here. Year by year, we are becoming more and more egoistic, we are not setting an example to other nations of how we should live even within our own people. There are huge contradictions between us, all sorts of egoistic relations that do not exist among other nations. Thus, we are not in the Land of Israel but in exile from our spiritual properties of connection and love.

Therefore, I do not see any special circumstance in the fact that after the war, which gave us a little shake, the so-called truce came. If we, the Jews, especially those who live here in Israel, do not change, then the world will not change. We will continue to live in a state of not even a truce but just a temporary ceasefire, and we will again be forced to fight.

Our neighbors will not leave us alone. They will continue to prepare an increasingly sophisticated war, and each time these wars will become more serious. We have a very serious enemy. And this is natural. This is as it should be because we are not fulfilling our historical role.
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From KabTV’s “Talks. Leonid Macaron and Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman ” 5/21/21

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“Jews Vs. Israel” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “Jews vs. Israel

It is nothing new that Jews are campaigning against the State of Israel. It began with various Orthodox groups that objected to the founding of the Jewish state, and is continuing now with groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, or individuals such as Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders, and others. Recently, the campaigning of Jews against Israel has even come to the corporate world when a group of 250 odd Jewish employees of Google signed a letter urging its CEO to recognize “the harm done to Palestinians by Israeli military and gang violence.” The signatories also “object to the conflation of Israel with the Jewish people,” declare that “anti-Zionism is not antisemitism,” and demand, among other things, “the termination of contracts with institutions that support Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.”

In some sense, I do agree with them, though not in the sense they would probably hope I would. Indeed, we, Israelis, are not conducting ourselves as Jews. The word Yehudi [Jew] represents two things: 1) our origin, the ancient kingdom of Yehuda [Judah], whose capital was Jerusalem. 2) Yechudi [united/unique], meaning the aspiration for unity, for oneness. This is why the Jews made the tenet “Love your neighbor as yourself” their foremost commandment. Because today, we are so far away from unity, I agree that we are not conducting ourselves as Jews.

When Abraham began to assemble people around him and form the nucleus of the Jewish nation, there were no Jews. There were Babylonians, where he lived. Abraham spoke to them and called on them to unite. He invited everyone, indiscriminately. In Mishneh Torah, Maimonides writes that Abraham “began to call out to the whole world … wandering from town to town and from kingdom to kingdom until he arrived in the land of Canaan … When [people] gathered around him and asked him about his words, he taught everyone … until he brought them to the path of truth.”

Therefore, if we are not united, we are disconnected from the heart and soul of Judaism, from the very meaning of being Jewish. And if we are not calling on the whole world to unite, as did the father of our nation, Abraham, we are not carrying out his legacy. So in what way are we Jewish? And if we aren’t really Jewish, then what is our claim on the land of Israel?

We can do more than silence our critics both within Judaism and among the nations of the world; we can bring everyone to support us, including Hamas and anyone we currently perceive as our worst enemy. But for this, we must first stop hating one another and start living up to Abraham’s legacy of unity and oneness.

And we must begin with each other. Saying we want to unite with all the nations, while at the same time vilifying, pillorying, and demonizing our own people, exposes our insincerity. When we unite with one another, above all the current divisions among us, the nations will believe our candor and gladly join our efforts.

The worst antisemites in history, such as Adolf Hitler, Henry Ford, Vasily Shulgin, and countless others, all wrote about their contempt for Jews because of their hatred of each other. Objecting to the security, and even existence of the State of Israel, sends the world a message of internal division, and the world responds accordingly—with disgust toward us. No other nation denies its own right for sovereignty, and no other nation places its own people last in the list. By doing so, we are not appeasing the nations’ anger; we are increasing it and turning it into hatred since we are proving that we are not striving for unity. Only if we return to our roots, the aspiration for unity, we will win the world’s favor and support.

Our nation was created so as to be an am segula [a virtuous nation]. Our only virtue is our unique unity, when people of diverse backgrounds, faiths, and cultures have united into a single nation, as did Abraham with his disciples. Without being a virtuous nation, there is no benefit to the world from our existence, and it wants to do away with us. This is what we are beginning to experience more vividly today, and it will continue to escalate until we understand the message and adopt the virtue of unity and oneness, or suffer the consequences that our nation has suffered so many times before.
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“Who Won The May 2021 Conflict Between Israel And Hamas, And Why?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Who won the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas, and why?

Israel might have won the battle militarily, but it is losing the war for the world’s support.

With each conflict between the two, public opinion grows stronger against Israel, making it lose face more and more on the world stage. Israel also might win future military battles, but the world has tilted in favor of the Palestinians. If Israel continues focusing primarily on its military defense while making no key changes on an ideological level, then it can expect increasing delegitimization to reach levels where the world will wish for its elimination.

How, then, can Israel win the world’s support?

Israel can win the world’s support if its people understand that their strength is in their unity, and only in their unity. When united, the people of Israel realize their roots, the foundation that made them the people of Israel to begin with. The unity of the people of Israel draws a special unifying force and example to humanity, which in turn makes humanity feel that there is a reason and benefit for Israel’s existence. However, when divided, as the country currently looks, for instance, as it cannot even form a government over multiple elections while having 120 members of parliament scattered across dozens of parties, then the division and hatred projecting from this small country causes the world to frown upon it. More and more people then latch onto an anti-Israel stance in order to justify the deeper hatred they feel toward us.

Thus, in addition to boosting Israel’s military defense systems, Israel needs to remind and educate its people that its strength is only in its unity. While, on the surface, it appears as if more and more people hate Israel because they view Israel as oppressing and abusing human rights against Palestinians, at a deeper level, the core reason for the hatred of Israel is due to today’s people of Israel failing to live up to what made them the people of Israel to begin with: they give into their divisive drives, desires and thoughts instead of uniting above them. The hatred among the people of Israel today projects subconsciously onto humanity as a whole, and as humanity feels increasing suffering and perceived injustices due to increasing division, then more and more people hate the people of Israel, and the hatred becomes expressed increasingly as hatred for the State of Israel.

The growing hatred against us is an indicator that we need to return to our roots and reason for our being here. Our nation was founded on principles of love, unity and mutual responsibility. We became a nation when we applied the law of “Love your neighbor as yourself” to our relationships above our divisive drives. Therefore, by not exercising unity above our divisions, we fail to live up to what made us the people of Israel to begin with, and as a result, people around the world increasingly feel no justification for this people holding a land of their own.

In order to validate our claim to the Land of Israel, we need to revive our unity. By doing so, we will become a positive conduit for the unifying force to spread throughout humanity, i.e., as it is written, we will become “a light unto the nations.” While divided and hateful of each other, people around the world feel that we project division and hatred to the world. They feel us as the source of all evil, of every problem in their lives. If we thus rise above our divisiveness and unite, the world will support us, including the Palestinians. If we, however, let our divisive drives run us, then the world will eventually expel us from this land.

About the people of Israel being founded on following the law of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes the following in his article, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).”

All of Israel are responsible for one another (Sanhedrin, 27b, Shavuot 39). This is to speak of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), when all of Israel became responsible for one another. Because the Torah was not given to them before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva (precept) of loving others in the full measure, expressed in the words: “Love thy friend as thyself.” This means that each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation, and to satisfy all their every needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs. And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear,” each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before.

“Full Speed In The Wrong Direction” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “Full Speed in the Wrong Direction

The Palestinians’ cheers of victory, and the hesitant sigh of relief that Israelis let out at the start of the ceasefire are both genuine. Israel won the battle but it is losing the war, and the Palestinians know it. With each campaign, our grip on the land weakens while theirs grows stronger. We may win future battles, too, but the world is with the Palestinians. If we continue battling them only on the physical level, we will eventually lose the war and the land we live in.

The only way that we can win is on the ideological level. If we grasp why we are here and what benefit our presence here brings to all of humanity, we will win the world’s support. Otherwise, the nations have no need for a country whose people hate each other so profoundly that their 120 members of parliament are splintered across dozens of parties. The sense of mutual loathing this tiny country discharges is so caustic that the whole world is troubled by what is happening in this tiny piece of land, which is roughly the size of Connecticut. We are making great efforts to strengthen and fortify ourselves, but we are going full speed in the wrong direction.

We must remind ourselves over and over that our strength lies in our unity, and only in our unity. Nothing else will hold for long. Defense systems such as the Iron Dome are good for only so long, but permanent protection comes to the people of Israel when we think of each other instead of ourselves.

Our ancestors founded our nation on the basis of mutual responsibility and love of others. We conceived the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and made it our foremost tenet. Without living it out, we are not true to our legacy, to the basis of our peoplehood, so we are not really Israel. And since we are not really Israel, we have no claim on the land of Israel. This is what the Arabs feel, as does the whole world.

For our claim on the land to be valid, we must be true to our vocation: to be “a light unto nations.” As long as we are divided, they feel that we are bringing them nothing but darkness. They feel that we are the cause of all that is wrong with the world, and it is precisely because of our hatred for each other. Therefore, if we rise above our hatred and unite, the world will be with us, including the Palestinians. If we give in to division, the world will kick us out of here.

The Book of Zohar (Aharei Mot) wrote about the significance of our unity many centuries ago. In the words of Rabbi Shimon, “‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together.’ These are the friends as they sit together and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another … then they return to being in brotherly love … and by your merit, there will be peace in the world.” May we follow the advice of our sages and avoid the punishments of our ignorance.

“Jews Are Sitting On A Powder Keg” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Jews Are Sitting on a Powder Keg

There is a sense of imaginary peace after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, but abroad, the fuse of antisemitism is again lit and flaming. Jews both in Israel and basically anywhere in the world are in a constant war for their lives, looking to their backs, keeping an eye on their surroundings because danger can arise at any given moment from both obvious and unexpected places. What else do we need to face up to in order to understand that the world has a problem with Jews? Both Israel and the Jewish people are basically standing alone. Therefore, the only place to find a solution to the hatred is between us, in our willingness and capacity to unite.

Since the beginning of Operation Guardian of the Walls launched by Israel to defend its population from thousands of missiles attacks from Gaza, there has been a sharp spike in antisemitic incidents around the world, as well as international condemnation of the Israeli military response. The perpetrators of these antisemitic attacks deliberately singled out and targeted synagogues and Jewish institutions. The incidents occurred in broad daylight and included verbal and physical aggression against Jews in the plazas, restaurants, and streets of major cities across the United States, Europe, and Latin America, among other locations.

American Jews say they fear to identify themselves publicly as Jews. Some have taken off their Star of David necklaces, some have considered removing the mezuzot from their homes, and some even hesitate to walk to their synagogues.

So one may ask why is it that Jews are taking the hit for Israel’s actions which have been judged as wrong and unjustified by the world? Very simple. People have a problem with Jews in general. Therefore, they lash out against the State of Israel, against the Jewish people, and will be happy to erase both completely.

Our enemies point out very precisely that what needs to change can be found with us, within the worldwide Jewish community. We need to reconnect to and strengthen our common identity as a people whose existence is eternal because we were given a special role to carry out in the world: to unite in love above all differences and to help others do the same.

Within this united amalgamation, our differences will remain, as they are an integral part of the fabric of who we are, but rising above them is mandatory. We can either annihilate the threats against us by establishing unbreakable connections above whatever separates us, or our enemies will annihilate us without mercy.

Foremost Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote about the tendency of the Jewish nation to draw closer together when danger lurks: “It is the common suffering that each of us suffers being a member of the nation. This has imprinted within us a national awareness and proximity, as with fellow-sufferers. This is an external cause. As long as this external cause joined and blended with our natural national awareness, an odd kind of national love emerged and sparked off this jumble, unnatural and incomprehensible” (The Nation). But now, we see that even in times of trouble we are not banding together!

Until there is a need for a connection between the factions we have built in our far flung Jewish community, and until we transcend the conflicts and arguments that incite hatred between us, the external wars will not stop. They will only become more intense.

Many Jews in the Diaspora are trying to disassociate from Israel, and by doing so, they increase the pressure on us inside Israel and cause the realization that we stand completely on our own. Each community will stand alone then if that’s what they want. They can unite and take care of themselves for their own sake. And those living in Israel will have to do the same until we reach the critical integration necessary to face our existential threats.

In the final analysis it comes down to this: The more we indulge in indifference to our only mission—the crafting of the unity subconsciously expected of us by all the nations of the world—the easier it will be for our enemies. Our enemies will not even have to fight with weapons; they will need no rockets or missiles. What for, since all of humanity is ready with its forces, systems, and fronts to fight together with Hamas against Israel? All of humanity—from America and Russia to faraway China—everyone. In every country in the world, in every government, there are enough people who will be happy to abolish the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the people sitting in it and to wipe us off the face of the earth.

It is difficult for us to hear that the source of the problem lies with us; it is difficult to realize the enormity of our role and the responsibility placed on us, the reason for all this hatred directed at us. It tends to enter one ear and exit from the other. But we must listen and act with all haste. The heart of the Jewish nation is very broken, shattered, and grounded within egoism, but there is no choice but to strive at every moment to reach the connection between us until our collective heart begins to awaken and beat. Once we realize our mission and unite in love, we will discover that sitting on a powder keg need not be our destiny. Instead, our loving unity will create a peaceful garden around us where we can calmly sit.
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“Guardian Of The Walls – The Day After” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “Guardian of the Walls – the Day After

Ceasefires are illusory in the Middle East. Everyone realizes that the hiatus in hostilities between Israel and Hamas will last only until the first provocation occurs. In the coming months, hundreds of millions of dollars will flow into the Gaza Strip, which will rebuild its military infrastructure that the IDF so skillfully destroyed with surgical precision to minimize civilian casualties after Hamas deliberately positioned its most critical assets in high-rise buildings, hospitals, and kindergartens. Israel’s hope that it will take Hamas years to rebuild its power has no grounds to stand on. With the entire world behind it, it will refurbish its arsenal and reconstruct its military infrastructure in no time, and at no cost to itself, since the world will readily finance it. And when Hamas feels strong enough, it will rain another barrage of rockets on Israel’s civilians, and no one will blame Hamas for it, but rather Israel.

I don’t know how the next round will unfold, but I know that as much as we don’t want it, we will be compelled to partake in it, since we don’t call the shots, but rather Hamas. In the eyes of the world, no reasoning justifies our presence here since reason is meaningless when it comes to feelings, and the feeling that pervades the world when it comes to Israel is hate.

The only way we can avoid future standoffs with our neighbors, and in the process turn the world’s opinion in our favor, is to understand why things go against us and how we can change it. First, we need to understand that reasonable arguments don’t convince anyone. We can employ the most eloquent speakers, the most knowledgeable pundits, and the most successful models and actors to present Israel’s case, but no one will buy our story. Since they don’t believe a word we say, it makes no difference who speaks or what they say. Second, we need to understand that appeasing the Arabs’ demands will not pacify them. On the contrary, it will only embolden them. We must understand that they do not want a piece of this land; they want all of it, but even more than that, they want us dead.

Third, in light of the first two, we should stop looking at what we can do for the world, and start looking at what we can do for each other. This is the battlefield we have neglected for too long. Among each other is where we will find our strength, and where we should have focused all the time. I understand why it made more sense to try to convince the world that we want peace, but now that this strategy has failed entirely, it’s time to reroute and see how we can build our inner strength.

Historically, our strength came from one and only source: our unity. Our ancestors did not evolve into a nation as do other nations: through natural multiplication of biologically affiliated people. Jews, on the other hand, had to weld their nationhood consciously and laboriously, since their nucleus consisted of members of just about every tribe and clan in the ancient world. These foreigners were initially so alienated from each other that unless they united, they would have slit each other’s throats, as indeed they did in times when enmity defeated unity.

However, when unity prevailed, a miracle unfolded before the eyes of the world: People from all the nations lived together in harmony, mutual responsibility, and loved their neighbors as themselves. Indeed, the ancient Jewish people was a proof of concept, a role model that presented an alternative to the bloodshed that was the everyday reality of people in antiquity.

Whenever Israel’s internal unity prevailed, the nation thrived and achieved greatness. Whenever division got the better of us, the nations tormented, persecuted, and banished us from our land or from among them.

History seems very consistent when it comes to this aspect of our history. Under Joseph in Egypt, we were united and thrived. When he died, we aspired to assimilate and the Egyptians enslaved us. When we united in the desert after fleeing from Egypt, we were declared a nation that was not only “legitimate,” but was tasked with being “a light unto nations,” namely set an example of unity and cohesion to the whole world.

While our unity prevailed, over crises and strives, we went from strength to strength. We even conquered the land of Canaan and built the First Temple. But when our unity waned, Nebuchadnezzar II banished us out and sent us out to Babylon. In Babylon, we wanted to be as the Babylonians and brought upon us Wicked Haman, the “archetypal” Hitler. But when we united, following Haman’s intention to annihilate us, we prevailed and earned the Cyrus Declaration, which sent us back to the land of Israel with gold, silver, lots of food, and the support of an empire to build a Second Temple.

When we divided, became Hellenists, and sought to become like the Greeks, war broke out among us and the Temple was burned. When the Maccabees managed to reunite the people, even if only briefly, we won the Temple back and drove out the Seleucid empire, who took the treacherous priest Menelaus and put him to death for inciting them against the Jews.

When we divided once again, the Romans came and put a siege on Jerusalem. Here, they waited for us to decide, and we opted for civil war, killed each other indiscriminately, burned each other’s food supplies, and the Romans finished the job and exiled us from here for two millennia.

History has never deviated from the correlation between our inner division or solidarity and the world’s enmity or affinity toward us. Currently, Israel’s precarious situation requires that we notice this pattern and employ our ancient tactic: unity against calamity, or as the Talmud states it: “Either friendship, or death” (Taanit 23a).

My Thoughts On Twitter 5/23/21

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

Following an attack by Islamists, #Facebook is obliterating the largest pro-Israel page. This will happen in all media across the world. #Israel will find itself completely isolated.
And the guilt for this lies on the nation of #Israel itself, which does not wish to realize that the whole correction of the world depends only on it!

All the problems in the world come only because the #Jews are not united. There are 2 kinds of unity: on the level of this world, and most importantly, on the spiritual level, in the Creator. As a result, the whole world will meet in the Creator. And this is the end of all correction. Thus we have arrived at the beginning …

Every #war destroys our nation more and more. We are given the opportunity to come closer to one another internally, but we do not use it. When will we understand that peace is created only by us, between us!
#israel
From Twitter, 5/23/21

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