Medium published my new article “What to Expect for the New Year 2021”

We are about to finish an atypical year and humanity wonders what lies in store for the next. 2021 will be a year in which we will all feel, understand, and accept the fact that the purpose of our experience so far has been to rearrange humanity in a more positive way. The challenges we have faced worked in our favor to help us scrutinize how they advanced us to a new stage of development, a new degree of human existence.

2020 was characterized by polarization, economic crisis, natural disasters, and a global pandemic that induced a worldwide shut down. The virus came to organize us, shake us up, and fix the imbalances in society, in our human relations, and with our planet.

This is the way nature deals with us. Covid-19 is not a random virus. Behind it stands a natural system that kicked into action after we destroyed a large part of the planet. It’s as if nature said, “Enough is enough. You are destroying the world. — You have pumped the earth dry and littered the oceans, polluted the air, and made garbage heaps of the land. You have depleted Earth’s resources. Now start rebuilding the world.”

How long will we fail to realize that nature will not calm down until we do our part? We seem to be starting to recognize our guilt here and there, beginning to grasp what is really going on. If it weren’t for the media, which is constantly misleading, humanity might have long ago grasped its responsibility.

And as harsh as it may seem, the natural system has spoken to us quite gently, not nearly as harshly as with other plagues in history. It has given us time to understand what nature requires. But if we do not heed the warning and change our course toward balance, we can naturally expect a stronger reaction in the coming year.

Is the pandemic over with the advent of new vaccines? We are moving on to the next stage in human development so there will obviously be some change. Will the change be in the direction of relief for us? That is hard to determine because usually the blows of nature move from lightest to heaviest until the necessary adjustments are made. For instance, if you ask a child to perform a task and he does not do it, you probably would speak to him in a firmer tone the next time. If that did not help, you would have to toughen up your positions and present him with even stricter terms and conditions.

It is not written in the stars how the coming year will look, not even regarding vaccines. In truth, the future is up to us. It depends on how much we will try to understand what nature is telling us. The message is clear. It’s plain to see that our industry is not suitable for the new world because it is centered on the production of unnecessary things that destroy the environment. It’s clear that the current education system does not harmonize with the laws of nature because we educate ourselves to compete with one another and create division.

Therefore, the main task for the new year should be to establish an integral world, to enter into a life of human partnership, one for the other and with the whole of nature.

Humanity will have to make changes, recalculate what is really important and what is not. We must get rid of everything that is not indispensable, understand that we will have to close about 80% of our stores and businesses. Of course, there is no way that people will agree with such drastic changes without understanding where they lead and for what purpose — namely, to a more balanced world.

Meanwhile, people are finishing the current year worrying about how to make ends meet, concerned about rampant unemployment, questioning how to build a human society when so much uncertainty and social unrest exist. We should ask ourselves how to adopt a new way of thinking that takes everyone into account so all can look forward to the future with hope.

I think that 2021 will be a year of transition. Although the full transition we need will take a few years, at least we will start to understand the future conditions we need to reach. We must not create things that are not essential. We must put great emphasis on human education, on educating ourselves to aim at moving closer to each other in mutual solidarity.

If we unite, we will understand that all good is before us. We have it within our power to reach this consciousness. Everything depends on how willing we are to open our eyes, to open our minds and understand what nature (the Hebrew words for “God” and “nature” in Gematria have the same numerical value) is doing with us. Through improved connections between us we will reveal the supreme force that governs everything in reality to attain wholeness and complete fulfillment. This is the positive future that awaits us if we only think and act toward unification.
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My new article on Linkedin “Job Sharing Is a Great Idea (in Theory)”

Job sharing, when (usually) two people share the same position and split the job between them, has been around at least since the 1970s. However, in recent months, with the “encouragement” of the coronavirus and the rapid evaporation of jobs and demand for employees, it’s become a more common, and often a convenient way to secure income yet maintain functionality in other aspects of life such as family and leisure. Among the more prominent employers that incorporate job sharing are some very large ones such as Qualcomm and even the U.S. Federal Government.

To some of the people, in some companies, and for some of the time, this may be a convenient arrangement. However, recently, job sharing has been touted as a solution for the dwindling job opportunities due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a solution for mass-employment, I think this is a hopeless idea. I don’t think either employees or employers will be happy with the results of such an experiment, if employed in large numbers, and for a good reason.

The barrier that stands between companies and successful job sharing is human nature. Without developing a whole new attitude to life’s purposes and to other people, our basic instincts of competition and (mainly) envy will destroy any attempt at mass-implementation of job sharing. This kind of arrangement requires people to be able to complement one another, mutually benefit from each other’s strengths and mutually compensate for each other’s weaknesses. I don’t see how people, who are naturally hostile to each other, behind the urbane smiles, can do that without an extensive and profound educational process.

Just as children cannot share, so are adults incapable of it. The only difference is that adults hide it behind phony smiles and fake gestures of friendliness. But put them in a situation where they need to sacrifice something of themselves, even if only their opinion, and you will see right away the value of their “friendliness.”

The coronavirus is forcing us to rethink everything, including our occupation and employment paradigms, and this is great since they have been poisonous to society for over a century. However, in order to build successful paradigms, we first need to comprehend the nature of the change that the pandemic has instigated. Covid-19 isn’t merely a virus that is here today and gone when there is a vaccine. It is the beginning of a new era, a more collaborative one, where people are dependent on each other and must therefore communicate and connect.

Yet, employing connection on such a profound level as job sharing is a bit like the attempt to make all people equal in Communist Russia without educating them about the value of equality and why these values are noble (if you believe them). It made the whole Communist experiment doomed before it even started.

What we need to focus on these days is education, not occupation: education about the world we live in, our interdependency, and mutual responsibility, which exist whether we like them or not. We need to develop solidarity and mutual concern in our communities, and grow from there. Shifts such as job sharing must come naturally, as a result of people’s desire to help one another, and not as something forced by employers, the state, or even circumstances. These reasons will not sustain people’s motivation for long.

Unemployment is a big problem, but governments must resolve it through benefits that it will give to people so they can secure a decent standard of living, benefits that will be contingent on participating in courses or trainings that inform about the interdependency we just mentioned. In this way, people will understand why we need to connect and improve our social relations, and how we can achieve it. When people understand, they cooperate much more keenly and society can remain calm and stable. For this reason, I think that countries and employers that want to help their countries should focus on two things only: provision of necessities and education about interdependency and promotion of social solidarity.
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My new article on Linkedin “On to the Next Pain!”

Great! There is a vaccine for Covid-19! It’s time to move on—to the grip of the next pain…

While it does indeed look like we’re almost through with Covid-19, it’s clear that we haven’t done anything to merit getting over it. And what we haven’t done in 2020, we’ll drag along to 2021. With the additional challenges that the next stage in our development is destined to present us, there is no doubt that next year will be harder than this year.

We have changed during the past year; we need a new kind of satisfaction, deeper and more meaningful, one that relates to relationships and not to material goods and showoff.

What haven’t we done? We haven’t learned that we are interdependent; we haven’t grasped it deeply and internalized its message: that we have to take care of each other just as much, if not more than we take care of ourselves, or else we make each other sick. We also didn’t learn that the job market has changed forever, and we haven’t prepared a new one, suitable for the new era. We haven’t grasped that the most important work today is to build solidarity and mutual responsibility. All we have done is blame one another for every wrong we could detect, while regarding ourselves as blameless. In the past year, we failed to realize that blaming someone for holding other views is not only flawed; it is self-injurious since if you destroy that other, you will destroy yourself as well. We haven’t realized that we cannot be right if we think someone else is wrong for having other views. We wouldn’t be thinking what we’re thinking unless those other people thought what they are thinking. This is the truth, and we haven’t gotten any closer this year to recognizing it.

The job market we should have built, to return to our past year’s failures, should have been one where people worked at what was necessary, while the rest of the people were occupied with cultivating solidarity, since, as just said, the most important work we can do today is connect with one another.

As for income, anyone who engaged in these pro-social occupations would receive an income that would suffice for decent living. It would replace existing benefit programs, and receiving this income would be contingent upon participating in these efforts to build solidarity in the community, the country, and the world.

While it sounds like a tall order, and not something we can achieve in a single year, we haven’t even taken step one, and this is where we failed.

Now that there is a vaccine, people will want to return to the 2019 way of life. It might boom for a while, but it will soon dwindle. We have changed during the past year; we need a new kind of satisfaction, deeper and more meaningful, one that relates to relationships and not to material goods and showoff. Employers will look for employees but they will be much harder to find, and like it or not, we will have to go in the direction that Covid-19 has pointed us: connection in the hearts rather than in the bodies.

And as before, the longer we stall in 2021, the more painful the next blow, which will come for sure, will be.

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My new article on Linkedin “A Peace Treaty or a Piece Treaty?”

The new term for a peace treaty is “normalization agreement.” In recent months, Israel has signed several such “treaties,” and more are in the works. I’m all for peace, but I’m afraid that the current type really means that countries just want a piece of the pie: to benefit from each other’s economic and technological advantages. This is not real peace and will not give Israel any peace of mind.

On the surface, it seems as though Arab countries have finally realized that although Israel is a small country, it’s got a significant impact on what is happening around the world, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to disappear any time soon, as our enemies wish we would. Although Israel isn’t liked much, its influence is felt in every country and region in the world. This makes diplomatic ties with Israel instrumental to every country.

It is all part of the global process we are going through. Globalization is a train that has embarked on its way and can no longer be stopped. It is connecting us increasingly tighter, and although some of us still believe that we are in the Middle-Ages and can trample each other with horses and pierce our enemies with spears without suffering the ramifications of our misdeeds, reality proves otherwise. Nations are beginning to grasp that there are only losers in a war, and diplomacy is always more lucrative than bloodshed. Because of it, and because we are becoming increasingly connected and interdependent, even Muslim countries find it harder to slight a historic and human phenomenon such as Israel.

Yet, despite the apparent normalization in relationships and the respite in overt enmity, I don’t think that these peace treaties will benefit Israel in any meaningful way. With all due respect, I view peace differently than the press. While these normalization agreements are preferable to armed conflicts, I don’t think they are bringing us any closer to the real correction of relations that we have to make, and for Israel, this is bad news. Israel needs to sign only one peace treaty: peace within itself, among its own people.

In Hebrew, shalom (peace) comes from the word “shlemut” (completeness). It means that there can be peace only when there is completeness among all the people in the nation, when they do not try to eliminate one another but to complement one another and thereby create completeness that is greater and stronger than each of them individually, but which is built, sustained, and strengthened by all of them together.

In that sense, peace has nothing to do with Israel’s ties with other countries; diplomatic ties are irrelevant here. Shaking hands with Arab leaders is great for business, but that’s all it is, business. And like all business deals, they will last only as long as they are good business. When they are not, they will disintegrate. Almost twenty years ago, our normalization agreement with Morocco disintegrated because Morocco objected to Israel’s policy in the West Bank. Now, although Israel’s policy has not changed significantly, Morocco has reinstated normalization. In other words, when it’s good for business, there is peace; when it’s bad for business, there is no peace.

As I wrote above, Israel will find peace only when its people make peace among themselves by learning to complement one another rather than compete with one another to death. When we achieve this, the rest of the nations will come and learn, just as they did in antiquity, when, according to the book Sifrey Devraim, nations would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

The people of Israel have been given a unique method, a “trick” to overcome egoism. They learned from their forefathers that to make real peace, you must preserve the differences and simultaneously champion unity as the solution to the disputes. In this way, you create a united nation that consists of countless opposites. As long as the Jews could sustain their unity above their differences, they were undefeated; their diversity of views and emboldened unity made them insurmountable. But once they let their differing views set the tone, they disintegrated, dispersed, and became the nations’ laughing stock.

Nevertheless, the Jews still hold the method, even if they’re unaware of it. This is why wherever war breaks out, the adversaries blame it on the Jews. It is not because the rivals use Jews as easy scapegoats, as some Jews believe; it is because people really do feel that Jews are responsible for the hatred in the world. In other words, they are saying that if Jews wanted, they could bring peace to the world.

But until the Jews make peace among themselves, they will not know the paramount importance of their peace to the rest of the world. They must implement it first, and the results will come later.

Until then, we will have to settle for treaties to get pieces of the pie rather than real peace.
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My new article on Linkedin “Democracy Can’t Beat Human Nature”

2020 began with a blow and is ending in turmoil. Covid-19 landed a painful whack on the face of civilization and stopped us in our tracks. Since it struck, we’ve been living in standby mode waiting for a vaccine to arrive. But however painful, the pandemic pales in comparison to the turmoil that the United States is going through after the presidential election, and which no vaccine can cure. It is said that when Wall Street coughs, the world’s stock markets catch a cold. We can only guess how the collapse of American democracy that we are witnessing today will impact the rest of the world, but whatever it is, it won’t be pleasant.

The good news is that the bleak future of America and the world is not written in stone. At least for now, we can determine it. But doing so will require commitment, determination, and most of all, acknowledging that we have reached the end of the rope and if we don’t do what it takes to save ourselves, we are doomed.

I am a kabbalist and a scientist. Before I started to learn Kabbalah, I was a scientist and did extensive research on how organisms maintain homeostasis (balance) in dynamic conditions. When I had come across my Kabbalah teacher, Baruch Ashlag—the firstborn son and successor of Yehuda Ashlag, author of a complete commentary on the The Book of Zohar—his approach appealed to me precisely because it was so scientific. Ashlag the son continued in the footsteps of his father, who, besides being the foremost kabbalist of the 20th century, was deeply interested in social sciences and humanities, and very prolific in his writings about it. His extensive knowledge of Kabbalah, which is the science of connecting people through social cohesion, helped him tremendously when he analyzed social systems and processes he lived through in the eventful mid-20th century.

In his latter years, after World War II, Ashlag occupied himself in two colossal projects, only one of which he managed to complete. Before his death, he published the complete commentary on The Book of Zohar which we now call the Sulam [Ladder] commentary. After this enormous achievement, Ashlag is now known as Baal HaSulam [author of The Ladder]. At the same time, he was working on what could have been an extensive explanation of the structure of society that Baal HaSulam thought humanity should build in order to establish a just, sustainable, and prosperous society. He left us with only drafts and notes, but there were so many of them that it is easy to see where he was going with his ideas.

What’s more, it is fascinating to see the clarity with which Baal HaSulam saw the future events that we are now experiencing first hand. He recognized that all people are inherently self-centered and will therefore exploit, bully, and subjugate others if only they knew they could get away with it. As early as the 1930s, he wrote the following in his essay “Peace in the World”: “In simple words, we will say that the nature of each and every person is to exploit the lives of all other people in the world for his own benefit, and all that he gives to another is only out of necessity. Even then, there is exploitation of others in it, but it is done cunningly, so his neighbor would not notice it and concede willingly. …This is an unbreakable law. The only difference is in people’s choices: One chooses to exploit people by obtaining lowly lusts, and one by obtaining governance, while the third by obtaining respect. Furthermore, if one could do it without much effort, he would agree to exploit the world with all three together—wealth, governance, and respect.” This is what we are seeing today: an absolute sense of entitlement and therefore unabashed and unbridled exploitation, or at least attempts at such exploitation. And as Baal HaSulam said, “It is done cunningly, so his neighbor would not notice it and concede willingly.” A few years after his warning, the Nazis came to power.

At around the same time, Baal HaSulam wrote elaborately on the faults of Russia’s communism, explaining that it wouldn’t last because the ideals of equality and contribution to society to the best of your ability, while receiving only what you need for your sustenance, was imposed on people who weren’t educated in this way, and would therefore fail. In fact, he was so confident about his observation that he wrote about Russia’s downfall in past tense even though he did it in the 1930s, when Russia’s communism was in its prime. In the essay “The Peace” (a different essay from “Peace in the World”), he wrote, “Indeed, history itself has troubled in our favor and has prepared for us an established fact, sufficient for a full appreciation and unequivocal conclusion: Everyone can see how a large society such as that of Russia, with hundreds of millions in population, more land than the whole of Europe, second to none in wealth and raw materials, and which has already agreed to lead communal life and practically abolished private property altogether, where each worries only about the well-being of society, has seemingly acquired the full measure of the virtue of bestowal upon others in its full meaning, as far as the human mind can grasp. And yet, go and see what has become of them: Instead of rising and exceeding the achievements of the capitalist countries, they have sunk ever lower. Now, they not only fail to benefit the lives of the workers a little more than in the capitalist countries, they cannot even secure their daily bread and clothes on their flesh.”

In the 1950s, when Baal HaSulam wrote his drafts and notes detailing his views about the sustainable and just society, he projected a dismal future for democracy, again because of lack of proper education. In these pieces, published in The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Baal HaSulam explains that he sees no future for democracy precisely because of the inherent evil in human nature, which has still not been corrected. In his words, “Since the dawn of time, it has never happened that the majority of the public governed a country. Either the autocrats did … or the oligarchy, or the deceitful democrats. But a majority of the simple folk ruled only in the days of Hitler, who, in addition, promoted wickedness toward other nations. He elevated [the value of] benefitting the public to the level of complete devotion since he understood the frame of mind of sadists, who, if given room to discharge their sadism, will pay for it with their lives.”

“Indeed,” continues Baal HaSulam, “it is the absolute truth that there cannot be a good and complete society unless its majority is good because the management reflects the quality of society… If the majority is bad, the management will necessarily be bad, as well, for the wicked will not place over them rulers of whom they do not approve. We need not deduce from the modern democracies,” he explains his lack of hope for them (back in the early 1950s), “as they use various tactics to deceive the constituency. When [the voters] grow wiser and understand their cunningness, the majority will certainly elect a management according to their spirit.” Therefore, Baal HaSulam explains that in order to deceive the public, the rulers of society place “dummies” that look good but are actually powerless, and their sole purpose is to enable the rulers to keep ruling undisturbed. In his words, “Their main tactic is that they first hail people with good reputation and promote them either as wise or as righteous, and then the masses believe and elect them. But a lie does not persist forever,” he concludes.

In the end, as Baal HaSulam says, a democracy that allows a self-centered majority to decide its leader will elect a self-centered leader, according to people’s inherent nature. This cannot hold for long. In the end, self-centeredness reaches such extreme levels that the whole system becomes corrupt and falls apart. At that point, democracy becomes yet another victim of evil human nature.

Until we change who we are, we will not change our leaders or regimes, and we will not be able to build a good society for all of us. We need to start acknowledging that not only is there room for all of us on this planet, but that we need all of us, all our views and our ideas, our fancies and dislikes, our colors and races and faiths and cultures. We need them because if they weren’t around, we, too, would be incomplete. Democrats would not be Democrats were it not for the existence of Republicans, and likewise Republicans. Can you think of manhood without comparing it to womanhood, or the other way around? Without each other, we wouldn’t be anything definable at all, just pieces of flesh wandering aimlessly until their time is due.

Today, more than ever, we need all of humanity to acknowledge this, and soon, so we will understand the harm we’re causing to ourselves through our cancel-culture and abhorrence for each other. As I wrote in the beginning of this longer-than-expected piece, we can still determine our future. When violence breaks out, I’m not sure it’ll still be possible. Therefore, we must hurry, convince ourselves and share with others the notions of our interdependence, of the vulnerability of democracy, and of the only remedy that can save our society and our future: education for connection.
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Medium published my new article “Social Media and the Almighty Dollar”

Yet again money and control usurp American ideals as recent social media giants’ actions demonstrate. Instead of these new communication platforms bringing us together, diminishing distances between us and creating one global village, they are undermining America’s core values of democracy, pluralism, and freedom of speech as YouTube, Facebook, and others decide to censor political content to benefit and solidify the power of one side of the American political spectrum.

YouTube, the Google-owned channel, announced it will remove videos disputing the 2020 presidential election at a time when the legal team of the incumbent president is still contesting the results amid fraud allegations, which include video recordings supposedly proving their claims. In addition, Facebook, owner of WhatsApp and Instagram, is also in the center of yet another controversy. The U.S. government and 48 states and districts are suing the company, accusing it of abuse of power to harm smaller competitors.

Pluralism as Phony as a $3 Dollar Bill

Today, the media, and social media in particular, enjoys boundless benefits as if it were a blank check. It avails itself of widespread influence and power as never before. At any instant, public opinion can be swayed one way or another. With a bag full of billions, anyone can become a president or prime minister. It may seem as if social media has an ideological preference for one political side over the other, but in fact, it is all about the almighty dollar.

Money can buy control, and control can overwhelm and influence everything, allowing the freedom of unruly behavior and excessive power. Day after day, social platforms become places open to slander and vitriol one another, fueling the human ego which enjoys flowing over everyone until people are gradually weakened and surrender. A space with no limits gives license to complete dominance. Day in and day out, hatred for other people becomes greater like a cancer eating away at the body of human society that proliferates toward causing the body’s death.

The proper role of the media is to bring us together, to serve to connect all the organs in a single healthy body. How good it would be if all the different parts of society would sit together — the left and the right, the representatives of all the different interest groups, even those at the margins of society — and all work together for the benefit of the public.

Unification at All Costs

Every opinion should have its own space, no opinion should be subjugated, and no voice should be silenced, but that is not happening anywhere in the world at any time. We need to come to terms with the fact that the current state of affairs is unsustainable — all is rotten, and therefore, radical change is needed.

While it seems like a utopian fantasy to envision social media playing such a role of unification, it is only because we are perpetually exposed to a world of lies and misinformation harmful to society’s health and sanity. Social media, the way it works now, should be completely shut down; otherwise, it will destroy society. People have the power to change it, but only through a strong and unified demand.

A new rule should guide the work of the media and all social media platforms: publish news and content that contributes to the public’s well-being, and strive to unite human society. No one would have the right to undermine another’s opinion, but only to balance it with a different position, to guide the varying points of view toward being mutually complementary, toward completeness.

Precisely when opposites reach mutual acceptance, society reaches a new stage of development. Social media fostering these values is what our global and interconnected world needs today. The benefits to all would be priceless!
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Medium published my new article “The Worst Year Ever?”

Stephanie Zacharek, a film critic for Time magazine, wrote in its feature article that summarizes 2020, which it titled “The Worst Year Ever”: “If 2020 were a dystopian movie, you’d probably turn it off after 20 minutes. This year wasn’t doomily thrilling, like a fictional apocalypse. It was, in addition to being wrought with pain, maddeningly mundane, the routine of the everyday turned against us.” Moreover, “Our most debilitating threat this year,” she adds, “was a sense of helplessness,” and “Not since the spread of fascism in the 1930s … have we been faced with so many abnormal events.”

With all due respect to the distinguished film critic, I wholly disagree. There has been nothing abnormal about this year, since there is nothing abnormal about this pandemic. On the contrary, up until this year, we have been leading a maddening, abnormal way of life, and the “restraining order” we got from the virus has reinstated normality on Planet Earth. For the first time in more than a century, life functioned normally!

We have been pushing nature’s limits to the brink of snapping, and the virus is only the mildest way it could conjure up to make us stop before we blow ourselves up along with the rest of the planet. Nature could not be gentler with us than with Covid-19.

Besides, how can any sensible person say about forest fires, hurricanes, a pandemic, and earthquakes that they are abnormal? How can natural phenomena be abnormal? Only a warped perspective can view natural phenomena as uncanny and the artificial as normal. Not only that, for a distinguished magazine like Time to declare in its feature piece for 2020 that nature is, well, unnatural, is a testimony to our miscomprehension of the world we live in. If anything is to be regretted about this year, it is our folly.

The people at Time clearly have no clue about their role as a means of communication, about the role of the media. Instead of using their magazine for educational purposes, to teach people where we are and where we’re going, they’re using it to circulate eloquent inanity.

2020 is the best year ever! It is the first time when nature has shown us, in plain view, how it responds to the distortions we install in its system. It tells us we have crossed the line and if we continue on the road we’re going, we will extinguish ourselves. Mother Nature is doing all she can to save her ungrateful children, and we whine like spoiled brats that she isn’t giving us the candy we want.

When you don’t know what you’re doing, stick your hands deep in your pockets and keep them there until you are smarter. We have been doing the exact opposite: switching every knob and pressing every button we could find in order to somehow squeeze more fun out of nature. It is only a miracle we have survived this far. The coronavirus saved our lives by forcing us to go home and limit our abuse of our only home. It is clearly a blessing, yet foolish we curse her on the front page of one of our most acclaimed publications.

The media is our number one educational tool. We should use it to learn about ourselves and our surroundings, not to complain about nature’s teaching but to explain how we should work within the ecosystem that is our universe. It is a closed system, and any wrongdoing bears its consequences. We may not feel it right away, but it is only because we are insensitive to our surroundings and oblivious to our interconnections. If we were slightly more aware of our interdependence, we would see the negative impact of our misdeeds straight away, and wouldn’t think that when those offenses take their toll on us, it is not our fault. Because not only is it our doing that we’ve had such an “eventful” year, it is nobody else’s.

If we do not learn the lesson that Covid-19 has taught us in 2020, 2021 will teach us the same lesson even more painfully. It is not for nature’s meanness, but for our denseness. I feel sorry for Mother Nature; it is not easy rearing such obstinate children. At the same time, I’m grateful that she always chooses the least painful means to teach us what she must, and that she has finally chosen to reveal to us her ways, so we can study them and become grownups in our own world, too.
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My article in Newsmax: “Hanukkah Offers Timely Reminder of Need for Unity”

On Hanukkah, which begins tonight, Jews celebrate their victory over the Seleucid Empire, which attempted to entrench the Hellenistic culture and belief system among the Jews in the land of Israel. This is the going narrative. However, this epos is not quite what happened.

Although everyone knows that the Maccabean Revolt, whose victory we celebrate on Hanukkah, was a civil war between the Hasmonean family and their adherents against Hellenistic Jews, we conveniently tell ourselves that we fought against the Greeks (the Seleucid Empire practiced and promoted the Greek culture of Hellenism). The Seleucids joined the war on the side of the Hellenists only toward the end, but for much of the war, it was Jews against Jews.

The war among the Jews stands for much more than a struggle for power; it is a clash of ideals, of paradigms, of perceptions, of reality. Judah Maccabee, the third son in the Hasmonean family, was the commander of the rebels against the Hellenists, but his whole family participated in key positions. The Hasmoneans were staunch believers in the ancient Jewish tenet of solidarity and mutual responsibility being the foundation of the nation. They believed that it was the role of the Jews to practice ”Love your neighbor as yourself” and be ”a light unto nations” by setting an example of unity above differences. Contrary to that, the Hellenists championed the Greek culture of worship of the self. The Hellenists put the ego at the center; the Hasmoneans put serving the community at the center of their wishes.

The struggle was not an internal Jewish squabble, but a fight over the vocation of the Jewish people — to save the world through its example. If the Jews relinquish their commitment to unity, then what is the purpose of the existence of Judaism altogether? Worse yet, if there are no Jews to unite and set an example, how will the world find unity?

The Hasmoneans believed wholeheartedly in the prophecy of Isaiah 42:6, ”And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light unto nations,” and the words of King Solomon (Prov. 10:12), ”Hate stirs strife, and love will cover all crimes.” They saw it as their vocation to illustrate how love can be more important to people than hate, how they can rise above it in unity and peace.

The Hellenists, who tried to ingrain the opposite approach, that the ego is king and we should serve ourselves, were therefore not only their worst enemies, but as they saw it, the enemies of humanity. The Hasmoneans did not expect the Seleucids to adopt their faith and principles, but also they would not allow their culture to be overrun by the Greek culture, since then there would be no one to perpetuate the mission that the Jews were given at the foot of Mt. Sinai, to unite ”as one man with one heart” and thereby be ”a light unto nations.”

The Hasmoneans won the war and reinstalled their culture, and to this day, we celebrate their victory. However, their victory was short-lived. Hellenism, they learned, was not an external enemy, but a wily serpent lurking within. Soon after their victory, they, too, began to lose their moral standing and their sons became increasingly corrupt.

In the end, the Hellenistic culture took over the entire land of Israel as the Romans, whose culture derived from the Greeks, conquered the land and exiled the Jews for two millennia. In fact, even today, although Jews are purportedly the sovereign in Israel once more, the culture of the land is still Hellenism, and there is no trace of mutual responsibility or solidarity. If the people of Israel remain this way, they will lose the land once more since there is no need for them if not for the purpose of the creation: to be a light of unity to the nations.

Israel does not need the patronage of any country. Its strength lies not in its army or economy, but in its unity. If it lacks unity, the backing of powers will sustain it only for so long. But if the people unite, they will not need anyone’s protection since they will have no enemies.

Today, no commodity is more required than unity, yet no commodity is more scarce. Its sole producers are the people of Israel, and they are busy fighting among themselves both in Israel and around the world. As the world looks desperately for solutions to its escalating conflicts, it will turn its eyes to the Jews and ask, ”Why are you making us fight?”

Then, if the Jews do not remember their covenant, to be a light unto nations, they will be crushed once more. But if they do unite, they will shine the light of unity throughout the world, and all of humanity will celebrate the victory of the Maccabees, the joy of solidarity, over the Greeks, the reign of egoism.
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My new article on Linkedin “2020- An Odd, Yet Wonderful Year”

As a kabbalist, I think that 2020 has been the best year in all the years that I recall. It is the year when humanity began to shake off and get rid of everything it had in the former life: chasing after money, excessive self-indulgence, and other forms of taking where our only thought was about reception, and nothing else. In this year, nature came and slapped us, commanded us to stop, and we had no choice but to go home and quarantine ourselves. The pandemic forced us to think about life, or at least get rid of the previous life, and this is why it’s been so good.

For humanity, I think that 2020 will be remembered as an odd year, “the year of the blow.” It is a year that stopped everyone’s regular life, when people went to work, entertained themselves, traveled, and so forth. I think people will remember that all of a sudden, this blow came, the special virus that forbade them to come out of the house, run around wherever they want, shut down movie theatres, even parks, occasionally, restaurants, and bars. In other words, the virus shut down the rat race that forced us to look at others and want to do the same.

The drive to go to bars, movies, travel, and so forth is not inherent in us. What is inherent in us is the drive to be like everyone else. If I see that others are doing something and they tell me that it’s good, I am compelled to do the same. We are a herd.

But who is the shepherd? The shepherds are the people with money and power who want to manipulate us into going to movie theatres, bars, and restaurants, to travel and engage in various activities that are lucrative for them, and which give them power.
This way of life is over, thankfully. We will not be as before. Even if we see people trying to return to the previous way of life, it won’t work. It won’t be the same, won’t feel the same, and even if we travel, dine out, and do everything we did before, we won’t be able to enjoy it like we did. It will seem pathetic, empty, lame.

Nature is teaching us to change our relation to our lives, to natural treasures, and to human society. Bit by bit, we will see that the Covid-19 pandemic is changing us. The year 2020 is indeed a very special year; it is the year of the birth of the new humanity.

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My new article on Linkedin “Is Hanukkah a Jewish Holiday?”

On Hanukkah, which will begin this coming Thursday, Jews celebrate their victory over the Seleucid Empire, which attempted to entrench the Hellenistic culture and belief system among the Jews in the land of Israel. This is the going narrative. However, this epos is not quite what happened. Although everyone knows that the Maccabean War, whose victory we celebrate on Hanukkah, was a civil war between the Hasmonean family and their adherents against Hellenistic Jews, we conveniently tell ourselves that we fought against the Greeks (the Seleucid Empire practiced and promoted the Greek culture of Hellenism). The Seleucids joined the war on the side of the Hellenists only toward the end, but for much of the war, it was Jews against Jews.

The war among the Jews stands for much more than a struggle for power; it is a clash of ideals, of paradigms, of perceptions of reality. Judah Maccabee, the third son in the Hasmonean family, was the commander of the rebels against the Hellenists, but his whole family participated in key positions.

The struggle was not an internal Jewish squabble, but a fight over the vocation of the Jewish people—to save the world through its example. If the Jews relinquish their commitment to unity, then what is the purpose of the existence of Judaism altogether? Worse yet, if there are no Jews to unite and set an example, how will the world find unity? The Hasmoneans believed wholeheartedly in the prophecy of Isaiah (42:6), “And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light unto nations,” and the words of King Solomon (Prov. 10:12), “Hate stirs strife, and love will cover all crimes.” They saw it as their vocation to illustrate how love can be more important to people than hate, how they can rise above it in unity and peace. The Hellenists, who tried to ingrain the opposite approach, that the ego is king and we should serve ourselves, were therefore not only their worst enemies, but as they saw it, the enemies of humanity. The Hasmoneans did not expect the Seleucids to adopt their faith and principles, but they would also not allow their culture to be overrun by the Greek culture, since then there would be no one to perpetuate the mission that the Jews were given at the foot of Mt. Sinai, to unite “as one man with one heart” and thereby be “a light unto nations.”

The Hasmoneans won the war and reinstalled their culture, and to this day, we celebrate their victory. However, their victory was short lived. Hellenism, they learned, was not an external enemy, but a wily serpent lurking within. Soon after their victory, they, too, began to lose their moral standing and their sons became increasingly corrupt.

In the end, the Hellenistic culture took over the entire land of Israel as the Romans, whose culture derived from the Greeks, conquered the land and exiled the Jews for two millennia. In fact, even today, although Jews are purportedly the sovereign in Israel once more, the culture of the land is still Hellenism, and there is no trace of mutual responsibility or solidarity. If the people of Israel remain this way, they will lose the land once more since there is no need for them if not for the purpose of the creation: to be a light of unity to the nations.

Israel does not need the patronage of any country. Its strength lies not in its army or economy, but in its unity. If it lacks unity, the backing of powers will sustain it only for so long. But if the people unite, they will not need anyone’s protection since they will have no enemies.

Today, no commodity is more required than unity, yet no commodity is more scarce. Its sole producers are the people of Israel, and they are busy fighting among themselves both in Israel and around the world. As the world looks desperately for solutions to its escalating conflicts, it will turn its eyes to the Jews and ask, “Why are you making us fight?” Then, if the Jews do not remember their covenant, to be a light unto nations, they will be crushed once more. But if they do unite, they will shine the light of unity throughout the world, and all of humanity will celebrate the victory of the Maccabees, the joy of solidarity, over the Greeks, the reign of egoism.
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