Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What can be the solution/s to the Israel-Palestine conflict?“

The current Israel-Palestine crisis is another chapter in an age-old conflict dating back to our early efforts to reestablish a Jewish State.

In short, we hold the key to put an end to this crisis. Our unity or division makes the difference between our enemies subsiding or rising up against us. Also, the extent to which we are united or divided mirrors the extent to which our enemies calm down or flare up.*

Why is our unity the definitive factor in this conflict?

It is because unity, and specifically unity above division, marks our uniqueness and what made us a Jewish people to begin with some 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. When Babylon experienced a crisis of social division, with conflicts and hatred tearing apart the ancient Babylonian society, Abraham—a Babylonian priest who discovered the path to unite above the growing divisions, i.e., reaching the revelation of the single force of love and bestowal that exists in reality above the growing ego—began openly teaching this path he discovered to anyone wanting to learn.

Since division throughout society was felt as a major problem, several people gathered around Abraham and implemented the method he taught. They went on to discover the unique unifying force of love above their divisive drives, and by doing so, became known as “the people of Israel.” The word “Israel” comes from “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God,” i.e., straight to the single force of love that fills reality. Later, this group became known as “the Jews” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).

Therefore, the Jewish nation was founded on this ideological basis. People living in ancient Babylon, who felt the pressure of the divisiveness and hatred of the time, gathered under Abraham’s guidance, and they eventually united above their divisive drives. By doing so, they became known as “a light unto the nations.” That is, their attainment of nature’s unifying force above the human ego, which causes all the divisiveness and problems in society, positively affects all of “the nations,” i.e., all people in the world. A critical mass of people uniting in love above their differences and divisions spreads love, unity, mutual care, support and encouragement throughout humanity at large. And when people feel this force of unity connecting them, they feel happier, full of confidence, strength and warmth, and then they revere the source that brings them such sensations.

As it was then, so it is today, but on a much greater global scale.

The human ego, divisiveness, conflicts and hatred are all on the rise, and they lead to crises across the board. For instance, the escalation in Israel and Palestine comes during a period of mass shootings in the United States becoming almost as commonplace as eating breakfast, and more generally, despite our increasing technological and economic connections worldwide, we feel more isolated, stressed, depressed, empty and anxious than ever before. The more people feel all kinds of negative feelings and phenomena in their lives, the more feelings of discontent toward the people of Israel surface.

If we Jews function according to the original unifying inclination that brought us together, we will then spread a positive unifying force to the world, and thus experience a positive reaction from the world. If, however, as is currently the case, we fail to make moves toward our unity, then we obstruct the positive unifying force from reaching humanity, and hatred naturally stirs up against us in order to prod us to unite. It is thus my hope that we will wake up to our fateful need to unite sooner rather than later, as doing so would spare ourselves and humanity much pain and sorrow.

We simply have no clue as to what a unifying calibration of our attitudes to each other would result in. The current Israel-Palestine crisis will calm down, and moreover, crises spanning personal, social, economic and ecological levels all throughout humanity would also subside. The rampant exploitation, manipulation, hatred and abuse in humanity would invert into its positive forms of mutual support, consideration, encouragement, love and care.

That is why I put in so many efforts to spread the message about the need for Jewish unity, because its implementation or neglect will determine whether humanity shifts to a harmonious and unifying course of development, or whether we will continue declining down the current divisive path.

* See my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, for more details on this topic.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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My new article on Linkedin “Our Own Worst Enemies”

About a week ago, Amit Segal, a political commentator for Israel’s Channel 12 News, interviewed former Israeli ambassador in Washington Ron Dermer, who served from 2013 to 2021. To me, the most significant point that Dermer put across was that the support for the State of Israel among American Jews is dropping. Moreover, Dermer stressed that some of Israel’s most vociferous and venomous critics are Jews. When I look at those critics, it seems to me that they are not only hateful toward Israel, but that they take pride in their hatred.

Until we, Jews, overcome the hatred we feel for one another, there will be no healing for the hatred toward us. Throughout the centuries, we have been hated for every conceivable reason, as well as for some inconceivable ones. Hatred needs no reason or reasoning. The hatred for the State of Israel is only the latest in the series, but it is the same Jew-hatred that has tormented our people for centuries.

Indeed, the greatest antisemites are the Jews themselves. In antiquity, it was the Jew-turned-genocidal-anti-Semite Tiberius Julius Alexander who slaughtered 50,000 Jews in Alexandria, Egypt, and led the Roman army into the Temple through the Golden doors his own father had built. In the Middle-Ages, it was Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, a descendant of Jews, who initiated and oversaw the Spanish Inquisition that led to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In modern times, Jews have been acting against Jews on countless occasions, but perhaps one of the most notorious among them was Rabbi Stephen Wise, the leader of American Jewry during World War II, who helped President Roosevelt hamper the immigration of the Jews from Germany and Austria to the US while they could still save themselves from the persecution of the Nazi regime.

In order to understand how it is possible that Jews would hate Jews so vehemently, we need to understand that the root of the Jewish people is connection. We became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai when we agreed to unite “as one man with one heart,” and we lost our nationhood, along with our land, when we succumbed to unfounded hatred. Since then, and for the past two millennia, we have been in exile from each other, from our most basic tenet, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The State of Israel represents a chance we have been given to restore our nationhood, namely our unity. Jews who oppose the State of Israel are actually opposing unity. Perhaps subconsciously, they do not want to unite “as one man with one heart,” and certainly not to love their neighbors as themselves. They preach justice for others, but they exude hate for their own. In the name of equity to all, they promote prejudice and discrimination against their folk.

It will not help. Until we, Jews, overcome the hatred we feel for one another, there will be no healing for the hatred toward us. Throughout the centuries, we have been hated for every conceivable reason, as well as for some inconceivable ones. Hatred needs no reason or reasoning. The hatred for the State of Israel is only the latest in the series, but it is the same Jew-hatred that has tormented our people for centuries.

However, here, in sovereign Israel, we finally have a chance to reinstate our unity, and regain our nationhood. This is our duty to ourselves, and our onus toward the nations. Unity is the only way we can become “a light unto nations.” If we want to win the world’s favor, we must focus on internal unity. When we display hatred toward each other and sympathy for others, they see it as sycophancy, and no one likes a sycophant. I think it is time we started looking more at each other and built some inner strength, and less at others and what they might think. They will think about us what we will think about each other.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Rockets Expose the Myth of Coexistence”

The good thing about crises is that they expose the truth. After the Israeli War of Independence, Arabs remained in many places in Israel and became Israeli citizens. Over the years, it seemed as though we’ve learned to live together in peaceful coexistence. It was clear that there is no love between the two populations, and that the Israeli Arabs sympathized with the Palestinians in the West Bank, but they still chose to remain in Israel and lead a full civic life here, work alongside Israelis, trade with Israelis, and benefit from the amenities of a prosperous economy. For many years, it seemed as though the hatred that flared during the War of Independence had subsided thanks to the frequent contact with Israeli Jews. It was a myth. The rockets from Gaza and the riots in Jerusalem exposed the truth: Israeli Arabs identify themselves as Palestinians, and they only waited for a time when the Jewish society in Israel was divided and weak enough for them to expose that they, too, want the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea. For some reason, we enjoy lying to ourselves. We cannot afford this luxury; we should tell ourselves the truth: Nothing has changed since the establishment of the State of Israel. The Arabs, who supported the Nazis in World War II, are just as keen to destroy us now as they have always been.

“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which sparks of purity would flow onto the entire human race throughout the world,” to use the words of kabbalist Baal HaSulam. This purity, this unity above the ego, is the meaning of being “a light unto nations.”

We have to understand what Israel stands for in the world. The nation of Israel was “officiated” when descendants of strangers who were often hateful toward each other chose to unite above their enmity. By doing so, under the leadership of Abraham and his lineage, and finally under Moses, they set a precedent showing how people can overcome their egos and unite. “The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which sparks of purity would flow onto the entire human race throughout the world,” to use the words of kabbalist Baal HaSulam. This purity, this unity above the ego, is the meaning of being “a light unto nations.”

But since human nature is selfish to the core, or as the Torah puts it, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21), Israel’s method of achieving peace among sworn enemies has put it on a collision course with the rest of humanity. In truth, no division is greater or deeper than the division between Israel and the rest of the world, and no hatred is more intense. The chasm between Israel and the nations is a projection of the chasm between the nature of giving and unity and the nature of receiving and selfishness. There is no compromise; in the end, only one will remain.

When Israel are united, they are powerful enough to deter any enemy. In fact, a united people of Israel has no enemies since the light of unity it emits attracts the nations toward it to learn how they, too, can unite. The book Sifrey Devarim (Item 354) writes that in antiquity, in times when Israel were united, people from the nations of the world would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Alas, today we are anything but united. And when we are disunited, we are powerless, and the world feels our weakness and wishes to seize the moment and destroy us. When we are disconnected from our unity, our anchor of strength, the ego takes over the world and wishes to destroy its only enemy: the people of Israel. “Israel will be a holy congregation and one association, as one man with one heart. Then, when unity restores Israel as before, Satan will have no place in which to place error and external forces,” writes the book Shem MiShmuel. “When they are as one man with one heart,” it continues, “they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.” However, “If there is division among them,” writes the book Masechet Derech Eretz Zutah, “it is said about them (Hosea 10:2), ‘Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt.’”

This is what is happening today. We are suffering the consequences of the baseless hatred among us, and the whip is our neighbors. Our own disunity is the instigator of their violence, and the only fire extinguisher we have is our solidarity, our care for one another. If we can rise above the chasms in the Israeli society, we will prosper more than any other nation. If we do not, we will bear our guilt.

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My new article on Linkedin “Peace Begins Within”

Hundreds of rockets, fatalities, injuries, homes severely damaged, and entire cities shut down. Palestinians in the West Bank, and Israeli Arabs throughout the country, are beating and stoning Jewish civilians, attacking police officers, attempting to shoot and car-ram soldiers, and to lynch people in their cars. This is what Israel looks like today. We can complain about the biased and antisemitic reports that the press is showing, or that the Biden administration enables such things to happen and even tacitly supports them, but they aren’t the problem; they are the symptom. If at such a critical time, we allow ourselves to engage in infantile bickering and “I told you so” type arguments, then we are the ones encouraging the violence; we are the enablers.

How can we solve our security problems when we put sticks in each other’s wheels? Our own division is our haters’ fuel. If we want to be in a different place tomorrow, we have to start going there today. But when everyone points a blaming finger at others and says “Only I know the way,” then clearly no one knows the way and nothing will improve.

How can we solve our security problems when we put sticks in each other’s wheels? Our own division is our haters’ fuel. If we want to be in a different place tomorrow, we have to start going there today. But when everyone points a blaming finger at others and says “Only I know the way,” then clearly no one knows the way and nothing will improve.

The clash between Jews and Arabs is as old as our efforts to reestablish the Jewish State toward the end of the 19th century. But their level of activity against us depends on us, not on them. When we are united, they are quieter; when we are divided, they rise up with murderous intent.

If we want them to change, they need our positive influence. They need to feel that there is love within us, then they, and the whole world with them, will run to us. But when there is hatred among us, and hatred is what we project, then hatred is what we will get from them.

The book Kol Mevaser writes in this regard: “This is the mutual guarantee on which Moses worked so hard before his death: to unite the children of Israel. All of Israel are each other’s guarantors [responsible for one another], meaning that when all are together, they see only good.” Likewise, the book Bina LeItim asserts, “The foundation of the wickedness of evil Haman … is what he had begun to argue, ‘There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed,’ etc. He cast his filth saying that that nation deserves to be destroyed since separation rules among them, they are all full of strife and quarrel, and their hearts are far from one another. However, He put the healing before the blow [took preventing measures] … by hastening Israel to unite and … be one, as one man, and this is what saved them, as in the verse, ‘Go, gather together all the Jews.’”

Accordingly, when we unite, we will see the world changing its attitude toward us for the better. Moreover, we will see that our hopes for peace and for a good future are in our hands, and all we need to do is learn how to activate our secret power: internal unity. Indeed, peace begins within.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Pending Victory”

The Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II was a great victory. The recent 76th anniversary celebration of the important historic event should be also a reminder of the atrocities of the Nazi regime which acted with visceral hatred towards entire populations and especially against the Jews. Humanity overcame the rise of this pernicious force, but there is still work to be done to defeat the underlying origin of wars and conflicts: our egoistic human nature of self-benefit that causes division and hostility.

We must remember and relearn that we, the Jewish people, have a special role among the peoples of the Earth—to defeat the evil instinct that separates us from one another, and to strive tirelessly for connection that will defeat hatred forever. In this way we will fulfill our mission in the world and claim the most important victory ever: lasting peace and prosperity.

We have not learned much from history, neither the people of Israel nor all the nations. Even today Nazi parties can be found everywhere, and somehow we come to terms with the situation that antisemitism is rising again, albeit not as it was then. We should be clear that based on the growing manifestations of hatred against Jews, that there will be no problem in establishing a government today similar to what existed in Germany before. Such a scenario would not necessarily threaten just the people of Israel in the State of Israel, but Jews everywhere in the world.

Russia’s Victory Day was a huge success against the destructive Nazi regime, against the well-oiled war machine that came out of Germany, but the ideology itself was not defeated; it is alive and kicking. On May 9, 1945, the world received a beautiful lesson, that if many peoples stand together in unity against those who break all agreements and conventions of human civility—like the actions perpetrated by the German regime—then they will succeed. However, we must recognize that we are still lacking treatment of the root of the problem that is still in our midst.

The Russians are by nature a people capable of connecting in a time of need and of standing up against their haters. Hitler was a fool to try to go against them, and many advised him not to, but he thought he would succeed, that he would be the only one in history who could defeat them. He failed.

One and a half million Jews from Russia also joined the Red Army, enlisted in the struggle and fought against the Nazis. In spite of that, over the years the Russians became distinctly antisemitic. They learned from the Germans to hate Jews, and the growing hatred, together with the plethora of difficult living conditions in the former Soviet Union, built within the Jews a strong desire to leave Russia and move to Israel.

I myself was among those who immigrated—I remember well those times. It was the late 1960’s, from the Six Day War and onwards. It was already felt than that the emerging Jewish state had a solid foundation. It was felt that Israel could endure the rising challenges it faced through the determined mindset of soldiers and hard workers needed for the new nation to thrive. Many Russian Jews related to this vision and expressed a desire to join this cause and call to action. But even the establishment of the state of Israel did not help to remove the hatred that still clings within our hearts, and it continues to haunt us.

Russia’s Victory Day over Nazi Germany is a day worthy of respect for the heroes of that war who stood together and fought bravely. And at the same time, we need to ask a very important question: Why does the same hatred still stand with all its bitterness, and how do we begin to sweeten it from this day on?

We must remember and relearn that we, the Jewish people, have a special role among the peoples of the Earth—to defeat the evil instinct that separates us from one another, and to strive tirelessly for connection that will defeat hatred forever. In this way we will fulfill our mission in the world and claim the most important victory ever: lasting peace and prosperity.

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My new article on Linkedin “We Made the Bed, and We Will Lie in It”

Over the past year, I repeatedly said that if the leadership changes in Jerusalem and Washington, Israel will be in trouble. To some of my social media followers, it sounded as if I was making political commentary or promoted a political agenda, but this is not the case. I gain nothing from this or that individual being the head of the State of Israel, and certainly not from the identity of the president of the US. Rather, my one and only concern is the unity of the people of Israel, as a springboard for instigating the unity of all of humanity.

The implicit, and sometimes overt support of the Biden administration for these acts of violence are the most worrying, since they are the harbinger of far more vicious storms to come. In fact, the Palestinians are the least of our problems. Now that the US administration has opened the floodgates for antisemites around the world, we can expect onslaughts from Iran, Russia, Arab countries, and basically from everywhere. We will lose on all fronts and our situation will go from bad to worse.

The end goal for humanity is to be “as one man with one heart.” It may take us decades of unbearable torment, including a nuclear world war, to get there, or it may take a few short years and a pleasant and swift ride into a society whose members care about each other and are committed to the well-being of humanity and the planet. My concerns, therefore, are spiritual and not political, and certainly not partisan.

Yet, since it is impossible to establish unity without security, before we establish unity, we must secure the persistence of the State of Israel and the security of its people. As I see it, Benjamin Netanyahu has done a far better job at keeping Israel safe than any other prime minister. Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump has done more for Israel’s security than any other American president. Because security is the most essential requirement for establishing unity, I supported both of them.

Accordingly, even before Joe Biden took office, I warned that should he win the election, Israel’s security would be jeopardized. Sadly, as soon as he entered the White House, my prediction began to transpire. The return to the Iran deal, the growing support of the Palestinians, the tacit permission his administration has given to various organizations to attack Israel, such as the International Criminal Court, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Security Council, and countless others, all seeking to sanction, censor, weaken, and ultimately demolish the Jewish State, are only the beginning.

The riots we are seeing in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa, as well as the rockets from Jaffa on civilian population seem to stem from various reasons: The Sheikh Jarrah evictions, tensions surrounding the Temple Mount, the threats of Hamas to escalate the violence, and incitement for violence on social media, are a few of them. However, the implicit, and sometimes overt support of the Biden administration for these acts of violence are the most worrying, since they are the harbinger of far more vicious storms to come. In fact, the Palestinians are the least of our problems. Now that the US administration has opened the floodgates for antisemites around the world, we can expect onslaughts from Iran, Russia, Arab countries, and basically from everywhere. We will lose on all fronts and our situation will go from bad to worse.

However, and this is the most important point—I don’t see the Biden administration as the guilty party in this downward spiral. Rather, I think we brought this on ourselves. American Jewry, as well as much of the public here in Israel, wanted Biden to win. They wanted to unseat Trump and place Biden and his progressive administration in the White House. Well, we made the bed, and now we’ll lie in it.

As Jews, we do not understand the power we possess. I am not even talking about political clout and maneuvers that prominent Jews took in order to bring Biden to the White House; I am speaking only on the deeper level. With our desire, we seated Biden and unseated Trump, and all the Jews will pay, including the American Jewry.

The division among Jews is the malady of our people. It has brought upon us every evildoer since the onset of our nation. The division among us also prevents us from winning the world’s favor, since all that they expect from us is unity, and all we ever show them is division. That division causes us to want to see Israel haters in the White House, and makes us cloak our hatred for each other with sanctimonious outcries about justice. But where there is no love, there cannot be justice.

Let me reiterate: I do not speak from any political perspective, but from my spiritual perception of the world. If we want to see a peaceful world, where people are united, we must establish security and unity, in that order. And since the unity of the world begins with unity within the Israeli nation, there must be security in Israel so that Israel may establish unity.

In that regard, I’d like to quote the great Rav Kook, who, during World War I, outlined the connection between the world’s troubles and Israel’s unity. In his book Orot (Lights), he wrote, “The construction of the world, which is currently crumpled by the dreadful storms of a blood-filled sword, requires the construction of the Israeli nation. The construction of the nation and the revealing of its spirit are one and the same, and it is one with the construction of the world, which is crumbling in anticipation for a force full of unity and sublimity, and all of this is in the soul of the assembly of Israel.”
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My new article on Linkedin “One Name, One Nation?”

The tragedy on Mt. Meron, where 45 Orthodox Jews were crushed to death in a narrow passageway as thousands of fellow celebrants tried to squeeze their way out of a festive gathering on the festival of Lag ba Omer is a tragic and utterly redundant accident. In the wake of the disaster, a heartwarming phenomenon has emerged, which no one had expected. Many secular Jews, who are usually worlds apart from the Orthodox community, sympathized with the grieving families. Many of them expressed their sympathy online, and some of them even traveled to the mourners’ homes to comfort them. The Orthodox Jews, who are usually very cold and patronizing toward secular Jews, embraced those displays of empathy and everyone who witnessed these sights wished that we could always be like that, brethren of the same nation, without the need for tragedies to remind us of our ancestry.

In order to create a lasting connection between the two camps, they have to place unity above their current values. At the moment, they are nowhere near this and are not headed in this direction whatsoever. Unity is the thing they care about the least; the victory of their own values over the values of the other camp is all they want. Can there be unity in such a state? Can they even be regarded as one nation?

I believe their wish is honest, but regrettably, it is only a wish. When life returns to normalcy, the parties will return to enmity. Looking forward, I don’t see our future as bright, since I don’t see an inclination to unite the factions in the people of Israel. In 1940, my teacher’s father, the great kabbalist Baal HaSulam, wrote that Jews are like a bag of nuts, held together by blows. But when there are no blows, it is as though the bag is torn and the nuts disperse in every direction. Regrettably, the hatred, repulsion, and alienation in our hearts are so deep that I don’t think this event, or any tragedy, for that matter, can bring us together.

The problem is that the values of Orthodox Jews and secular Jews are so far apart that there is nothing that can bridge them. They are literally worlds apart. For the Orthodox, the ultimate goal in life is to dedicate themselves to worshipping God as they understand it. At the same time, the other faction strives to lead a Western lifestyle with secular values. This is why when the sadness over the loss subsides, only the chasm between two vastly different ways of life will remain, perceptions of reality that cannot live side by side. I am sorry to say this but no tragedy can set in motion a force that will bring those worlds together.

If you look at Orthodox weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other occasions that people celebrate, you will rarely find anyone there who isn’t an Orthodox Jew. If you do happen to see there someone who doesn’t look Orthodox, it is probably a politician looking to garner voters or clout in an untapped territory. Likewise, you will not find Orthodox Jews in celebrations of secular Israelis. The two are indeed worlds apart. The values, the most important issues to the two parties hold dear, are not only vastly different, they are opposite.

In order to create a lasting connection between the two camps, they have to place unity above their current values. At the moment, they are nowhere near this and are not headed in this direction whatsoever. Unity is the thing they care about the least; the victory of their own values over the values of the other camp is all they want. Can there be unity in such a state? Can they even be regarded as one nation?

I think that until all of us, all the parties regarded as belonging to the Jewish nation, put unity on top, or in simpler worlds, make “Love your neighbor as yourself” our prime value, we have no chance of uniting. On the contrary, the more we remain under the same political entity without building unity, the more we will increase the hatred that already exists between the factions. As things stand, the best next step should be to divide the country into two separate entities, as Abraham said to Lot: “Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left” (Gen. 13:9). Once we realize that this is not the way we want to live, probably after countless ordeals and traumas, we will be able to put unity on top of everything. Then, and only then, we will succeed.

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My new article on Linkedin “No Calamity Comes to the World but for Israel”

“No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.” These poignant words of our sages (Yevamot, 63a) capture the reason for all the tragedies that afflict us. Not only the Talmud warns about the reason for Israel’s blows. The Book of Zohar also states that when the people of Israel veer off from the right way, “with these actions they bring about the existence of poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world” (Tikkuney Zohar, No. 30).

Our nation was formed through a vow to unite “as one man with one heart,” and unity has always been our strength. “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them” writes the book Maor VaShemesh.

In the days following the Meron disaster, where 45 people, many of whom children, died in a stampede, the people of Israel proved once more that in crisis, the nation unites. For a short while, we’ve put aside the vociferous, spite-filled arguments, and united in mourning over the pointless loss of life. But tomorrow, when the headlines change and the heart-wrenching pictures give way to new fiascos, the malice will return more intense and venomous than ever. While the circumstances that allowed for this disaster to happen must be examined, we must also not miss out on the opportunity that this tragedy has given us to reconstruct our social relations in this country because this, in the end, is our real source of strength.

In his essay “The Nation,” Baal HaSulam laments our lack of internal unity and ephemeral coalitions. “We are like a pile of nuts,” he writes, “united into a single body from the outside by a sack that envelops and unites them. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body, and each movement applied to the sack produces in them tumult and separation. Thus, they consistently arrive at new unions and partial aggregations. The fault is that they lack the inner unity, and their whole force of unity comes through outside incidents. To us,” concludes Baal HaSulam, “this is very painful to the heart.”

Our nation was formed through a vow to unite “as one man with one heart,” and unity has always been our strength. “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them” writes the book Maor VaShemesh.

Moreover, when Israel unite, they are “a light unto nations,” setting an example of love and unity to the world. The Book of Zohar writes that when the people of Israel unite above their hatred, they bring peace to the world. In the portion Aharei Mot, The Zohar writes, “‘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 you, the friends who are here, as you were in fondness and love before, henceforth you will also not part from one another … and by your merit, there will be peace in the world.”

The onus of unity does not lie on one faction, but on all parts of the Israeli society. It is time we began a national reflection on our conduct as a nation. We can blame each other all we want for the disasters that land on us, but they will not stop until we realize that they reflect not our incompetence, but our division. Naturally, incompetence and recklessness are accomplices in every disaster, but these vices, too, are the results of our callousness and indifference toward each other. If we are content with finger pointing, we’d better get ready for the next blow.

Some of us openly admit their feeling that “we are not one nation.” However, if we use it to justify our alienation from each other, we will suffer more blows until we realize that we are meant to rise above our hatred, not embrace it and brag about our candor. Only when we rise above divisions are we regarded as a nation, and only then does the world welcome us. The book Sifrey Devarim details how in antiquity, people from other nations would come to Jerusalem during the pilgrimages to witness the brotherhood among Jews. They would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Indeed, as we embrace the grieving families, we should also embrace the message of unity. As our sages wrote, this is “our prime defense against calamity,” and the only way we can realize the vocation of our nation in this world.
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Scientists are trying to understand how singing affects the state of our body and soul. It has been noticed that when a person sings or listens to singing, his blood pressure and level of hormones in the blood can change. What is the secret of singing that can heal a person?

The point is that singing does not put any violent pressure on us. We do not feel it as someone else’s will wanting to subjugate us, but we connect with it and want to swim along with the pleasant melody. The song finds a response in our soul, in our inner experiences, in aspirations of the heart.

Therefore, we all love songs. Singing existed even before people started talking. Animals and birds also sing. Songs can express many more thoughts, desires, hopes, and aspirations for which there are no words and they evoke a much more correct and kind response in the hearts of people who will understand me and agree. The song is a special soft and kind language of communication.

A song is capable of generating a whole world of sensations in us because it comes from the very depths of the heart, from the innermost aspirations. I cannot sing what I totally disagree with, I cannot do it. You can say false words, but you will not be able to sing them.

People love to sing together because it leads to connection of hearts, to a common experience about which the song sings, to common hopes for the present and the future, to memories of the past, and a common history. The song can include an ocean of feelings and hopes of the entire nation or even the whole world.

Singing gives a person additional strength that was not in him before he began to sing. Singing may even be without words and it will still resonate in other people’s hearts. Everyone will present their words behind this melody.

In the tradition of many nations, there is choral singing, polyphony, which evokes the feeling of a special connection between people, a special power that is higher than us. This strength arises from the joining of hearts in song, common desires, disappointments, and hopes, that is, a common life.

Therefore, there is such a lofty piece as the “Song of Songs.” Singing is the most powerful appeal that is possible from person to person and from a person to the Creator.

In fact, a person sings all the time addressing the Creator. Any experience of a person at every moment of his existence is a song addressed to the higher force.

If all the people of Israel sang together, it would improve our relations with each other and improve the state of the country. Let’s all sit together and sing: “How nice and pleasant it is for brothers to sit together.” After all, only when we sit together as brothers can we feel good and pleasant. This singing itself will already be such a change beside which nothing would be needed.

If we want to change our country, our people, and the whole world for the better, then let’s sit down and sing about how good and pleasant it is for us to be together. This can change our destiny.

How else can we influence it? We did so much in order to correct, but the only way is to unite. If we are talking about how to achieve unity and turn to the higher force, how to exist together and spread the power of bestowal and love born of this unity to all of humanity, then this in itself is a blessing from above. The whole world would accept this power and unite in one heart.
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From KabTV’s “Look from the Inside” 3/8/21

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My new article on Linkedin “Dozens of Reasons to Unite”

“The prime defense against calamity is love and unity,” writes Rabbi Kalman Halevi Epstein in the book Maor VaShemesh. “When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them. …Even if they worship idols, but there is bonding among them, and no separation of hearts, they have peace and quiet, and no Satan or evildoer, as by this [unity], all the curses and suffering are removed.”

The Book of Zohar, the seminal book in the wisdom of Kabbalah, was written in that spirit, the spirit of love and unity. In the portion Ki Tissa, the book writes, “All those friends who do not love each other depart the world before their time. All the friends in Rashbi’s time had love of soul and love of spirit among them. …Rabbi Shimon would say, ‘All the friends who do not love each other cause themselves to stray from the right path.’ …Abraham loved Isaac; Isaac loved Abraham; and they were embraced. And they were both gripped in Jacob with love and brotherhood… The friends should be like them and not blemish them, for if love is lacking in them they will blemish their value above.”

“The prime defense against calamity is love and unity,” writes Rabbi Kalman Halevi Epstein in the book Maor VaShemesh. “When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them. …Even if they worship idols, but there is bonding among them, and no separation of hearts, they have peace and quiet, and no Satan or evildoer, as by this [unity], all the curses and suffering are removed.”

Last night, a tragedy of historic proportions struck the people of Israel, as dozens of people were crushed to death on the tomb site of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), author of The Book of Zohar. They came there because last night, some nineteen centuries ago, Rashbi and his disciples completed the writing of this book of love and unity. But there, instead of love and unity, thousands were crushed in the stampede, and dozens lost their lives.

The pain and shock are indescribable. It is a time of deep sadness for the whole nation. But when we rise from the grieving, we must take the one and only action that can prevent such tragedies from reoccurring. We must do what our sages throughout the ages have advised us: unite above all our different colors, cultures, beliefs, and opinions.

Masechet Derech Eretz Zuta (Chapter 9), written at approximately the same time as the Talmud, is one of numerous statements in that spirit: “Even when Israel worship idols and there is peace among them, the Lord says, ‘I have no wish to harm them.’ …But if they are disputed, what is it that is said about them? ‘Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt.’” Similarly, Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein writes in the book Shem MiShmuel (VaYakhel): “When they [Israel] are as one man with one heart, they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.” But perhaps the most fitting on this mournful day are the words of the Talmud (Taanit 23a): “This is what people say: ‘either friendship or death.’”

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