Medium published my new article “10 Insights on 2020, and Beyond”

2020 was an eventful year, traumatic in many ways, revolutionary in others, and certainly unpredictable. As I see it, 2020 has ushered us into a new era, where we will view things very differently going forward. So, to conclude 2020, I’d like to offer some insights on several topics that were affected by this turbulent year, and some thoughts about our future in human society.

1. Familial relations: In 2020, we learned about the importance of family, that in the end, this is our first, most intimate, and most natural circle, the one I truly should look after. We’ve done a lot of scrutiny regarding the family and I think that in the end, it will create more solid connections.

2. Food: This year, at least in Israel, we stopped eating out, since restaurants were closed much of the time, and started cooking. In my view, this can only do us good. I hope we can eliminate the supermarkets and leave only ten percent of the things they sell, only the healthy, natural things. This is all we need. Nothing is better for us than to cook our own food. And if we crave something new, we can always visit our neighbors or they can visit us.

3. Shopping: I think shopping will change drastically. It all depends on the influence of the environment but I don’t think shopping will be as it was prior to the virus. It’s just that the social environment dictates everything. If it told us to walk around in slippers, we would. If it told us that high heels were ridiculous, no woman would dare wear them.

Instead of looking for new things to buy, we will look for new insights, new relationships with people. We will want to “buy” a new approach to everyone, more welcoming and warm. We will become ashamed when we have bad thoughts about others; we will feel as though we’re walking around naked, and everyone can see who we really are, that our thoughts are exposed. The garments will be a little more spiritual, beautifying our thoughts about others rather than the skin on our flesh.

4. Health: As I said many times before, I don’t view Covid-19 as an illness. I think it is a cure that heals our society, our relationships, and in the end, our health. I think that after the pandemic, society will feel healthier than it felt prior to the pandemic, especially if we use the crisis in order to intensify our connections and mutual responsibility.

5. School: I think we must revolutionize the education system, turn it upside down. There is more to be discussed here but it’s clear that the current system is defunct and needs to change. It is simply unsuitable for the 21st century. Schools have become a place for nothing but licentiousness, drugs, and a host of other corruptions. There is no point going back to it.

6. Monitors and screens: Although we’re spending more time than ever watching our little screens on mobile phones or PCs, we haven’t learned a thing from them. What we did learn is that the people who control the mainstream and social media are so corrupt that I haven’t enough words to describe what I think about them; it is simply terrible. I would disconnect anyone who is currently creating shows on the media, and I would send them all to an institution where they can be educated about being human, if it is still possible for them.

The media are not a means of communication; they are a means of manipulation. I think a radical change is necessary here, or we will all suffer a terrible blow because of it, and only afterwards begin to recover and do things better. Before people in the media even approach their job, they must be taught what it means to treat people decently. Only after they are reformed in that way can they be permitted to work in this field.

7. Jobs and careers: It turns out that we don’t need to work that many hours. In 2020, we learned that we can work fewer hours, settle for more basic needs, but benefit ourselves and all of nature in the process.

8. Money: For now, we still worship money. However, we are moving toward an awakening from it, and I hope that soon we will begin to feel that there is no escape from revolutionizing how we value things. We will begin to search for new rewards, benefits that have to do with improved human relations, a sense of mutual esteem, equality, and mutual responsibility. When we can buy what we need through good relationships, money will become meaningless.

9. Living conditions: We’ve learned that we can live out in the country and still remain connected. This is very important. I’m sure that this trend will expand. Today, there is no reason why I shouldn’t live where I feel most comfortable yet work at almost anything.

10. Travel: I think travel has changed significantly. People are losing the desire, the craving to see new things. There was a period when humanity chased these excursions, but we seem to have grown out of it. I think we’re entering a period where people will simply not be able to satisfy themselves simply by traveling. Looking at buildings or nature will simply not do it for us anymore.

This trend is even more potent in the younger generation. Young people are completely absorbed in their mobile phones. They may be in Amsterdam, or wherever, yet text their friends back home. What they have on the monitor is what matters, and nothing else interests them.
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My new article on Linkedin “2021 – A Decisive Year for Europe”

2021 is going to be a decisive year for Europe. The Old Continent has become a cesspool of divisiveness among countries, factions, movements, and peoples. The UK, Germany, France, the Balkans, Italy, Spain, everything is so divided and splintered that unless Europeans start thinking of themselves as one entity very soon, they will suffer terribly. It will certainly not be easy, but a pan European identity is their only way out of anguish.

Europe is in many ways the cradle of human development. As such, the world will look at it and learn, and Europe should show the world what the future of the world can be like. It must show that despite all the many colors, races, nationalities, and their war-ridden history, they can rise above it and build themselves as one family, truly as one family. Otherwise, they will simply consume one another. If they do not unite, I see no future for them.

Besides their internal frictions, China, Russia, and the US will vie over control in Europe, and nothing will be left of “the Old Lady.” Even Africa will join the “party,” as is already happening with the migration of refugees, but in other ways, as well.

When you look at the world map, it’s interesting to see the unique role that each place has in bringing the world to a better place. The US is an example of a nation divided into myriad factions that are still one nation. Europe is an example of many nations that must function as one nation. Each must provide an example of unity above the differences that the world can follow. If either of them fails to carry out their role, they will suffer. I can’t say who will suffer more if they do not execute their required union, but both will certainly agonize.

Israel, too, has its unique role. In fact, Israel’s role is perhaps the most important in the process of unifying the world. Israel must provide the philosophy, the theory, the ideological infrastructure for unity: where it comes from, why unity is essential, and by which rules and regulations we are to arrange it.

The current European Union will not achieve these goals. In fact, I am all for dismantling it, and I’m happy that the UK left it. The current EU was not built in order to unite Europe. It was established in order to bolster banks, industrialists, and billionaires, but not to unite Europe. One could drive from one end of Europe to the other before the establishment of the EU, so there is no benefit in terms of open borders. The regular person does not gain anything from living in a so-called united Europe.

As I said in the beginning, a European union should be a union of the hearts, where they feel that they are in deep connection. And the more different they are, the more tightly they will unite, according to their efforts. The ones who are the farthest now will be the closest once they unite.

This union must be completely unrelated to the existing institutions of the EU. It must be a separate entity that functions whether or not the current EU survives the approaching upheavals. This union of hearts is the union they were searching for over the past thirty years or so since they established the EU.

And as for Israel and the ideology that Israel is required to provide, the level of hatred that Europeans will harbor toward Israel depends on the level of their hatred for connection. If Israel offers a way to connect—which isn’t the current situation, but presumably—and the Europeans shun it because they do not want to connect, then they will have no choice but to take some more beating from other countries or from nature until they yield and become receptive to the notion of connection.

And speaking of antisemitism, we think it is impervious to reason, and perhaps this is so, as are all hatreds. However, antisemitism is not impervious to a model of unity coming out of Israel. Even Henry Ford, whose antisemitic ideology Hitler admired, wrote in his rabid composition The International Jew—the World’s Foremost Problem, “The emergence of the Jewish Question is a part of the culmination of destiny that has come upon us, not for harm but for good. …The justification of a discussion of the Jewish Question is the good for the Jews, and the greatest present obstacle to that good is the Jews themselves. The time is here when they shall see it.”

In other words, antisemitism is not necessarily a fact of life, but something that Israel can overcome by carrying out its role, and by the nations accepting Israel’s contribution—the ideology of unity. The future of Europe hangs in the balance; if Europeans overcome their divisions soon, they will triumph. If not, they will lose bitterly. Israel, for its part, must do its duty in the healing by providing the ideology of unity above differences and by setting an example.
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My new article on Linkedin “Wake Up Humanity, Before the Waves Drown Us”

Most of the summaries of 2020 (the few who even attempted it) speak of 2020 as a tragedy, as if their lives have been stolen. In my view, this is an immature perspective. When a little boy plays outside with his friends and his mother calls him in to finish his homework, the boy thinks she is a terrible mother, but we grownups know better. We are like that boy, throwing a temper tantrum at Mother Nature’s insistence that we do what we must. Nature didn’t do anything bad to humanity; she only called us in to do our homework. And as we all know, if we don’t do our homework, we will fail the test. And when the test is about our lives, it is not one we want to fail.

While we were home, in the first lockdown that Mother Nature imposed on us, we should have started doing our homework. We should have realized that she had sent us the virus that sent us home only because we have been bad to one another, like brothers who cannot get along and fight so much that their mother has no choice but to send them to their separate rooms. She hopes that after some time alone, they will realize that they shouldn’t treat each other as they did and will resolve to find a way to get along.

After some time, the mother lets them out, since she is their mother, after all, and wants them to enjoy life. However, instead of making peace, they start fighting even worse than before. The poor mother has no choice but to punish them more severely, hoping that this time they will learn. The children know that when they are quiet, Mother is nice to them. But the brothers hate each other so fiercely that they forget what is best for them the minute they see each other, so they start bickering again.

This is where we are. Nature’s blows are like the mother’s admonition or punishment and we are the obstinate children. Instead of learning, we’re counting on the vaccines to enable us to take off our masks so we can swear at each other once again, eliminate the social distance so we can beat each other up, and hail this emotional carnage as “freedom” and “normalcy.”

Every time Nature sends another punishment, it’s like a wave that hits us and forces us to retreat. During the retreat, we are supposed to reflect on our behavior with each other. But we don’t. Finally, the water recedes and we come out of our shelters only to squabble, humiliate, and exploit each other even more than before. This makes the next wave more substantial, aiming to force us to reflect. If we don’t start reflecting soon, the waves will drown us. They might come in all sorts of ways; Nature is very creative when it comes to punishments, but there is no reason for us to experience them first hand. We can choose instead to discover her creativity in giving and in caring.

Look at the coronavirus. We haven’t even vaccinated everyone from the original strain, and we are already dealing with two new strains, from the UK and from South Africa, both of which are much more contagious, and to which we don’t know if the vaccine already approved will work. It is a sign that Nature will not let up. She will not stop until we learn.

Look at how we’re treating one another with the vaccine. Why do countries that cannot afford to buy it have to beg for it? Haven’t we learned that we are all in this together? Haven’t we seen that an infection anywhere is an infection everywhere? Dispensing the vaccine to all the countries, none excluded, is our first test in mutual responsibility. So far, we’re failing.

As I see things now, I think that we will live with the coronavirus and its mutations for many years to come. It’s come to teach us to live differently, with more care, consideration, and responsibility for one another. Until we learn, it won’t go away. The waves will come and go, but the more we stall in learning, the more poignant the waves will become. In the beginning, the virus didn’t affect children; now it does. In the beginning, it affected mainly our lungs; now it affects our brains and hearts. What more do we want it to do to us before we learn what it is trying to tell us?

Remember the mother allegory: If we don’t stop fighting, Mother Nature will send us to our separate rooms or find other ways to punish us, which will be more and more painful.
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Medium published my new article “Setting Goals in a Rapidly Changing Reality”

The world is changing at an ever increasing rate. This is a fact. But the direction in which humanity is evolving is a constant one. Many dilemmas afflict people today. A new mutation of the coronavirus suddenly arrives with new uncertainties — Will it extend the plague for an even more extended period of time? Meanwhile, we continue living from one lockdown to another. How can we set directions and goals in life in a reality that changes every moment?

The problem is that we spoil the plans for one another by wanting to impose our ways on others. The ego that grows in every person causes each to focus only on themself and to exploit others more and more to their advantage. This creates an artificial world where no one brings the other closer to balance, but rather the opposite.

Stress, loads of work, health issues, and endless concerns are some of the many aggravating factors that throw us off balance. This is modern life. So we search for a path forward that will restore calmness, a state in which we feel comfortable and enjoy the flow of life. However, by nature, everyone is built differently, and this can be seen from an early age. Some kids enjoy sitting and playing for long hours, while others are compelled to run after a ball from corner to corner.

Even in adulthood there are those who enjoy the challenge of encountering problems and improvising solutions. Without action, they fall into boredom or even depression. Others must feel in every moment a renewal in relation to achieving the goals they have set for themselves. Without change, they feel dead. Finally, of course, there are also many who are unable to tolerate change. Whichever characteristics are possessed, each one of us strives to feel enjoyment in life.

The problem is that we spoil the plans for one another by wanting to impose our ways on others. The ego that grows in every person causes each to focus only on themself and to exploit others more and more to their advantage. This creates an artificial world where no one brings the other closer to balance, but rather the opposite.

The Key to Coping Properly With Change

Feeling alone is the major source of all the stress and anxiety we experience, particularly when we are undergoing change. The solution lies in getting support from our environment.

When life summons us to confusing and difficult situations, talking to those who have been through similar situations can restore calm and balance. This provides us with new thoughts and additional perspectives that help us to build within us the best attitude to the changes we are going through. A supportive group can literally dilute the grief and pain of each and every individual.

Gradually, evolutionary forces will also turn us into components of a larger social system where each will perform integral actions towards the others out of awareness and understanding. This simply amounts to building complementary connections between us in every matter and at every level — from relationships within the family, through work and community, and to the level of the state.

Accordingly, the main capacity that will be required in the future will be skills for the arrangement of an integral lifestyle and world. This is the general direction toward which today’s reality is headed.

In the long run, professional areas, roles, and jobs will all collapse or prosper according to integral development criteria. This means that whatever leads to a mutually beneficial connection between human beings will succeed, and whatever works in the opposite direction will not survive. So already today, each of us should take this into account when setting our direction and goals.

Business owners will also have to adapt to the new demands of the times. Those businesses that will be able to direct themselves towards connection between human beings will flourish, and those that focus solely on their own technical occupation will fade away. Slowly we will see how such businesses will have no customers.

When choosing a profession, it will be important to pay attention not only to our individual preferences, but also to the relationships that prevail within the profession between people. Satisfaction and the ability to feel that one is fulfilling himself in the best way will depend on mutual help. In order to not feel lost and alone before work tasks, each one will need to feel part of a supportive team.

On the part of organizations, it will be the spirit that prevails among the employees that will determine its level of success. Therefore, it is worthwhile to seek the help of experts in creating integral relationships who know how to properly organize the workforce, giving everyone the understanding and feeling that it is through the optimal connection with others that a special atmosphere will be found that can propel the organization on a path to shared success.

Integration should reach a level where each one together with the rest will feel like one body, whose cooperation between its organs determines its level of healthy functioning. In any task wanting success, it will be clear to all that it will be worthwhile to build and keep an inclusive environment in which every opinion is valued. This is the only way to find the best possible solutions and the wisest decisions for an ideal future in our integral world.

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My new article on Linkedin “Tumultuous 2020 Is Out but We Aren’t Doing Anything to Make 2021 Less So”

2020 is almost over but we are not doing any self-scrutiny to make 2021 less tumultuous and more pleasing to live through. Usually, we introspect at the end of the year, summarize and draw conclusions. This past year has been so uncanny, unpredictable, and inexplicable that we seem to have given up on the whole idea of making sense of it. So what do we do? We sit in the corner and wait. But what are we waiting for? If we don’t do anything, 2021 will be worse than 2020, there is no doubt about it.

Wherever hatred and suspicion are increasing, if 2020 has taught us anything, it is that hatred achieves nothing. It is time we tried cooperation. It is time we matured and realized that whatever happens, we have to live together, work together, and grow together. We have to build our communities as one society. And clearly, a society that’s founded on deep hatred is not one where people want to live and raise their children.

It’s good that we already recognize that we aren’t owners of our own future. However, that does not mean that we have no obligations for the present. And if we improve the present, there is no doubt that our future will also be better. Right now, we are living in a splintered society that reeks of hatred and distrust. If we work on that, will our future improve? Right now, alienation among us, depression, and social isolation are growing wherever we look. If we do something about it now, will it not make 2021 better?

Instead of dreading the future, we must look at the present and see where we can work to make things better. And the best and most effective place to work is among ourselves, in our families and communities, in our cities, states, and all over the country. The work we need to do is acknowledge the hatred that’s erupted among us and, despite its undeniable presence, acknowledge that we are dependent on each other. Trying to separate Republicans from Democrats is harder than separating the US from China; it will not work. The only option is to learn to live together, just as it’s been for generations.

And what is true of politics, is true of everything else. Wherever hatred and suspicion are increasing, if 2020 has taught us anything, it is that hatred achieves nothing. It is time we tried cooperation. It is time we matured and realized that whatever happens, we have to live together, work together, and grow together. We have to build our communities as one society. And clearly, a society that’s founded on deep hatred is not one where people want to live and raise their children.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “A New Administration and the Prospects of Peace for Israel”

Currently, it looks as though Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. If Biden comes into office, it will be bad news for Israel. The normalization with Arab and Muslim countries that Trump worked so hard to achieve will dissolve, and the new administration will re-embolden Iran. Peace, and certainly normalization, will fly out the window.

A Biden administration will actually be run by Barack Hussein Obama and company, and Biden will be a puppet that does what it should. Just as now countries make peace with Israel because they want to please President Trump, they will shun that peace when they want to please “President” Obama, and Israel won’t be able to do anything about it. Obama, with his Muslim background, harbors profound hatred for Israel; he can’t wait to be rid of it.

Israel will also not be able to get help from Russia, since Russians will always prefer their relations with the Arab world, leaving Israel isolated, surrounded by enemies, and under fire from every direction.

Europe is even worse. Europe has already attempted to annihilate the Jewish people in the previous century, and Europeans have not changed since. When the time comes, we should not expect anything good from that direction.

However, as I once connected Israel’s good future to President Trump, since I thought that Israel would succeed in being more serious about its duty to the nations, now I hang everything on Obama and Biden since their pressure on Israel might direct us toward correction.

We need to understand that Israel’s only justification for existence is its performance of the task for which it was created—to set an example of unity. Instead of unity, it is displaying division and internal hatred that has led to a staggering frequency of elections. The coming general election will be Israel’s fourth in just two years, and according to the Israel Democracy Institute, since 1996, Israel has held general elections every 2.3 years on average, the highest rate in the OECD.

Now, toward the next election, we can see the already splintered political system in Israel disintegrating into even more parties, with everyone’s proclaimed goal being to oust the incumbent prime minister, and no one is actually proposing some truly alternative platform. If we continue to behave in this way toward each other, the nations will decide that there is no benefit in the existence of a Jewish state and will resolve to erase it from existence.

The phenomenon of airlines removing Israel from their maps of the Middle-East, as reported by The Telegraph, or CNN’s omission of Israel from its map of the Middle-East, or the German military counter-intelligence making that exact “mistake” is no coincidence; they are expressing their views through their actions. If Israel doesn’t pay attention and act accordingly, meaning become a model of unity rather than a model of division, countries will move to make their feelings an official policy, and Israel will face a world that is united in its desire to eliminate it.

Our only way to overcome the looming external pressures is through unity. And not because unity makes us strong, but mainly because unity is what the world wants to see from us.

The world needs unity. No one can unite with anyone, and soon countries will slide into all out wars. The natural desire for dominance that governs every human being is going out of control, and unless we learn to rein it in, it will overtake the world.

The only nation that can do that is the Israeli nation, as I have written in The Jewish Choice and Like a Bundle of Reeds, two books that if you haven’t read, you should. If Israelis don’t go first and rise above their egos in order to connect, no one will know how to do it. If Israel does it and thereby becomes an example to the rest of the world, everyone will know how to do it and will be able to do it. This is why when the people of Israel unite, they needn’t worry about defeating their enemies; they will simply have none.

It makes no difference whether or not these words make sense to our ego driven minds. It’s simply that if we don’t go for unity soon, we’ll have to choose between uniting against our will or perishing.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Why Israel Is Heading for Another Election”

This week, Israel’s government collapsed, triggering (yet) another general election, the fourth in just two years. From the looks of it, this election will not be the last. As long as we don’t know the reason for the crisis, it will continue to shatter our society.

The crisis we’re going through is not political; it is first and foremost a social crisis, a crisis of social division at a time when we need unity more than ever. Instead of looking for ways to heal our society, we’re looking for personal gains. This is especially evident with politics, where individuals are searching for personal political career promotion and abandon any principle they championed and were elected in order to promote.

All this is happening when we desperately need to understand that our future depends on the level of our connection. Only if we are united we will succeed; alone, we will fail. At the moment, all I see is more blows approaching precisely because of our hatred for each other.

Nevertheless, there is a truism that what the mind does not do, time will do. We can wait until we’ve suffered so much and for so long that the pain will crush our pride and we will agree to look at one another differently and might even consider unity.

If there is anything good about the current situation, it is the fact that we are recognizing the gravity of the situation, the depravity of the system. We have sobered up, and this is great. Now the question is whether or not we will have the courage to face our own egos and understand that we must elect connection. If we do this, the political parties will follow our will. They are not the leaders, we the people are; by our will, we determine their platform, and by our will, we determine their actions. If we choose unity, they will find the way to work together. If we choose separation, they will never unite and will only seek to fail one another, and everyone will suffer in the process.

The people of Israel are an assortment of different, unrelated people who united under Abraham since they believed in his tenet that mercy and love must be the guiding principles of society. The practical implementation of these principles came several centuries later when the people united “as one man with one heart” at the foot of Mt. Sinai and established mutual responsibility. Immediately afterwards, we were tasked with being “a light unto nations,” to be a model of unity for the rest of the world.

But the ego hasn’t stopped growing in us, and demanded novel ways to tackle it. Finally, we succumbed to it and became hateful of each other for no reason at all. This unfounded hatred caused our downfall and exile for two millennia.

Now that we have been given sovereignty in the land of Israel once again, it was not in order to save the Jewish people from physical extermination; it was in order to allow us to realize our task: to unite and be a model of unity for the world, a light unto nations.

We aren’t doing this. And because we are not doing this, there is no justification for our existence as an independent country. If we do not get a grip on our egos and start working on our unity, the nations will regard the present they had given us on November 29, 1947—when they resolved to establish a Jewish state in Palestine—as a mistake, and then Israel will truly be in trouble.

A woman casts her ballot as she votes in Israel’s national election at a polling station in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 2, 2020. (REUTERS/ Corinna Kern, used with permission)
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Thrive Global published my new article: “For a Good Year—Pin Your Faith on Human Connection”

Let us hope that in this new year 2021, we will discover how our reality works in total perfection.

Attendees wait for the start of presentation of wreaths as Middletown remembers September 11, 2001 World Trade Center Tragedy with a ceremony involving a moment of silence and wreath tribute to honor our Middletown friends and neighbors lost in the attack.Ack034

On the eve of a new year, the world yearns for certainty, looks for a source of security, and clings to faith that a higher power will manage and arrange everything in reality for a better future. People need to feel that there is something to hold on to, an anchor to tether to, to withstand the strong waves crashing over the planet and their personal lives. That safe harbor, the revelation of a strong force capable of restoring harmony, is attained in the connection between us.

We need to believe that we are in a world that is utterly good, and if we adjust ourselves to the qualities of bestowal of the upper force, we will feel our reality as a positive one. It all depends on the way in which we relate to it. Our entire challenge is to understand what the upper force is doing with us, and for what purpose. When we start understanding, in that same measure we also start feeling and loving the upper force, the higher power, Him.

When a year ends, a fresh new start is expected. People look to the time to come with excitement and hope that the sadness and blows of 2020 will be washed away and the sun will finally pour over the horizon. Our prospects for the future all depend only on how well we understand what is going on with us, on how we accept and process what has passed and on what we make out of what unfolds. There is nothing for us to do but to open our eyes and look a bit further ahead in a more goal-oriented manner, in complete faith that everything happens for a positive purpose.

The force of faith is a tremendous force. In fact, it can actually be divided into two ways of relating to the world around us: First, people search for the powers behind the inanimate elements of nature such as trees, mountains, sky, moon, sun, the upper force—something they do not really know or understand but have a special attitude toward something superior to them. That kind of faith is in the greatness of the unknown. A second kind of faith is where a supreme force is not perceived; there is only a sensation of fear and anxiety about things we do not know how to comprehend or handle.

In truth, we evaluate whether something is good or bad, correct or wrong, according to our egoism—our desire to receive for ourselves with no regard for what benefits others. Whether we realize it or not, we are part of a whole and perfect system of nature that is round and precise.

But a conviction in the completeness and perfection of reality does not arrive suddenly; it develops in a gradual process. Faith includes many stages. It begins as uncertainty about something higher, something we do not know how to grasp, until we develop a relationship with it, with that upper force. Special discernments are attained through that connection. We start to look at everything that happens in reality as linked to the supreme force which is perceived as good and benevolent. Then, we come to see wholeness and perfection in all the situations in every realm of life.

As a result of the pandemic and all the global problems we have endured in 2020, we have reached a new stage in our development that will propel us to a new degree of life, a new worldview of humanity as one family. The problems we face are pushing us forward, helping us to discover that the supreme power is one and is for all. Humanity is discovering the power of love that is revealed in the connection between us. When we overcome our divisions and express willingness to unite and transcend above our individual egoism—the single factor that keeps us apart—we thereby improve everyone’s fate.

We need to believe that we are in a world that is utterly good, and if we adjust ourselves to the qualities of bestowal of the upper force, we will feel our reality as a positive one. It all depends on the way in which we relate to it. Our entire challenge is to understand what the upper force is doing with us, and for what purpose. When we start understanding, in that same measure we also start feeling and loving the upper force, the higher power, Him. Let us hope that in this new year 2021, we will discover how our reality works in total perfection.
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— Published on December 25, 2020

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “On Jewish Unity and Antisemitism – Israel’s Golden Era”

Following their liberation from slavery in Babylon after King Cyrus had sent them free with “silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:4), the expats, or more accurately, two of the twelve tribes of Israel, returned to the land of Israel and to Jerusalem and built the Second Temple. The history of our people is strewn with agony. But the period between the Cyrus Declaration, in 539 BCE, and the beginning of the Hasmonean revolt, in 166 BCE, was relatively a quiet one and marked by a great achievement: being a role model of unity for the nations, even if briefly.

It isn’t that there were no squabbles among the Jews at that time. Since we were called upon to rebuild the Temple, there was much to argue about. But one way or the other, the Temple was built and quiet was restored. In fact, some of those years might even be regarded as the people of Israel’s golden era.

In terms of material life, not much is known about the lives of the people of Israel in the land of Israel during the third and fourth centuries BCE. In his book A History of the Jews, renowned historian Paul Johnson writes about that peaceful time in our history, when there was nothing to report: “The years 400-200 BC are the lost centuries of Jewish history. There were no great events or calamities they chose to record. Perhaps they were happy,” he concludes.

However, on the social and spiritual levels, much was happening. Three times a year the Jews would march up to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals of pilgrimage: Passover, Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), and Sukkot. During each pilgrimage, the sight was spectacular. The pilgrimages were intended primarily for gathering and uniting the hearts of the members of the nation. In his book The Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus writes that the pilgrims would make “acquaintance … maintained by conversing together and by seeing and talking with one another, and so renewing the recollections of this union.”

Once they entered Jerusalem, the pilgrims were greeted with open arms. The townsfolk let them into their homes and treated them as family, and there was always room for everyone.

The Mishnah relishes this rare camaraderie: “All the craftsmen in Jerusalem would stand before them and ask about their well-being: ‘Our brothers, men of so and so place, have you come in peace?’ and the flute would play before them until they arrived at Temple Mount.” Additionally, every material need of every person who came to Jerusalem was met in full. “One did not say to one’s friend, ‘I could not find an oven on which to roast offerings in Jerusalem’ … or ‘I could not find a bed to sleep in, in Jerusalem,’” writes the book Avot de Rabbi Natan.

Even better, the unity and warmth among the Hebrews projected outward and became a role-model for the neighboring nations. The philosopher Philo of Alexandria portrayed the pilgrimage as a festival: “Thousands of people from thousands of cities—some by land and some by sea, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south—would come each festival to the Temple as if to a common shelter, a safe haven protected from the storms of life. …With hearts filled with good hopes, they would take this vital vacation with sanctity and with glory to God. Also, they made friendships with people they had not met before, and in the merging of the hearts … they would find the ultimate proof of unity.”

Philo was not the only one who admired what he saw. Those festivals of bonding served as a way for Israel to be—for the first time since they were given that vocation—“a light unto nations.” The book Sifrey Devarim details how gentiles would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Some three centuries later, The Book of Zohar (Aharei Mot) described succinctly and clearly the process that Israel went through: “‘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.” Indeed, being “a light unto nations” could not have been more evident than at that time.

In fact, the renown of the Jews at that time went so far that it initiated the proliferation of their law outside of Israel. By the mid-240s BCE, the rumor of Israel’s wisdom had reached far and wide. Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, had a passion for books. This led him to aspire to possess all the books in the world, especially those containing wisdom. According to Flavius, Ptolemy told Demetrius, his librarian, that he “had been informed that there were many books of laws among the Jews worthy of inquiring, and worthy of the king’s library.” Not only did Ptolemy not have these books, but even if he did, he would not be able to read them since they were “written in characters and in a dialect of their own [Hebrew], [which] will cause no small pains to get them translated into the Greek tongue,” which Ptolemy spoke.

But Ptolemy did not give up. He wrote to the High Priest in Jerusalem, Eleazar, and asked that he would send him men who could translate the Jewish books to Greek. Seventy men were sent down to Egypt following Ptolemy’s request. But the king did not send them off to work right away. First, he wanted to learn their wisdom and absorb whatever knowledge he could from them. Therefore, “he asked every one of them a philosophical question,” which were “rather political questions and answers, tending to the good … government of mankind,” writes Flavius. For twelve straight days, the Hebrew sages sat before the king of Egypt and taught him governance according to their laws. Along with Ptolemy sat his philosopher, Menedemus, who was in awe at how “such a force of beauty was discovered in these men’s words.” This, indeed, was Israel’s heyday.

Finally, “When they had explained all the problems that had been proposed by the king about every point, he was well-pleased with their answers.” Ptolemy said that “He had gained very great advantages by their coming, for that he had received this profit from them, that he had learned how he ought to rule his subjects.”

Once Ptolemy was satisfied with the answers they had given him, he sent them off to an isolated location where they had peace and quiet and could focus on the translation. When they completed their task, writes Flavius, they handed over to the king the complete translation of the Pentateuch. Ptolemy was “delighted with hearing the Laws read to him, and was astonished at the deep meaning and wisdom of the legislator.”

Historian Paul Johnson, whom we mentioned earlier, wrote about the Jews in antiquity that “At a very early stage in their collective existence they believed they had detected a divine scheme for the human race, of which their own society was to be a pilot.” Perhaps during the third century BCE, our forefathers succeeded in that task. However, as we know from history, our brotherhood did not last, and less than a century after those wondrous events took place, Israel were engulfed in a bloody civil war. This will be the topic of the next essay.
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(Article No. 6 in a series – previous article)
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For much more on this topic, please see my latest publication, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord

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My new article on Linkedin “What Is Next for America?”

Regardless of who will be sworn in this January at the U.S. presidential inauguration, much has been said about “Trumpism” as a strong political force that will expand not only in America, but also in other parts of the world where a new style of governance has been adopted.

How will this impact the future in America? At this point, it is hard to tell about the evolution of movements and tendencies that are currently unfolding. What I know for sure is that any political powerhouse can be considered as such only if it is aimed at connecting the opposing factions, the antagonism between people. This is the ideology that should prevail and be clear to everyone from now on.

It is precisely the capitalists who know how to work, organize, promote, and earn—the ones who can advance humanity to the correct connection. Conversely, the socialistic approach of the Democrats will reveal itself to everyone as an approach that is not constructive, does not build. Such an attitude and direction was implemented in Russia and destroyed the country.

However, under the current circumstances, no single force alone will be able to govern and succeed. Neither right nor left, neither Democrats nor Republicans, but only a unifying force above both that can be drawn by enacting a positive connection above the differences.

Bridging the divide in America requires everyone feeling they are taken into consideration and are represented; not like it is in the current state where half of the country celebrates victory and the other half feels deceived and embittered.

What will make people want to rise above their divisive stances in the first place? Why can’t the sides continue trying to overpower one another to put into place their vision of how things should be run?

It is because, ultimately, the underlying division leaves everyone dissatisfied. And the longer society develops while remaining divided, the more negative and bitter America will become. In extreme cases, each player pushing his or her divisive position onto others can lead to total chaos and turmoil, to unfortunate levels of suffering that eventually force people to revise their conduct and change focus.

The cure for division can be found in a process of unity-enriching learning. People must come to the realization that nature wants us to unite. This system of learning will not demand the impossible from people, nor force anyone to do anything that they do not want to do. We simply discover how to organize our socio-cultural influences to bring the need for unity to the center of public discourse, then we will think about it more and more, and will start wanting it to happen.

The problem today is not polarization in and of itself. Rather, it is that people view the polarization exclusively from their own side. The more we develop, the more we see that our side is good and correct, and the other side is wrong and bad. Thus, we increasingly view the other side as a heavy burden on society and on ourselves, one which we would be happy to eliminate from our lives.

If we, however, could see our polarization from a broader context—that nature is polarizing us more and more in order for us to exercise our free choice to positively connect above our increasing polarization—then we would be able to size up the situation more accurately and steer a straight course toward a harmonious and balanced state.

While it is perfectly natural to hold on to our differing opinions, today we need to wake up to the fact that we are becoming increasingly interdependent. And in order to realize our interdependence harmoniously, we need to start seeing the need for building a second level of discernment above our current one: the construction of positive connection in the middle line on top of our disagreements that should be more important than letting ourselves remain at the level of our conflicts alone. Such an approach will be the key to America’s prosperity.

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