My new article on Linkedin “How Can Connection Fix Our Problems?”

Social unrest, natural disasters, a pandemic, economic crisis, polarization—falling upon us all at once in America and the rest of the world alike. This is the first time in history in which the blows are coming at such a global scale, regardless of background or nationality, gender or status. And the problems will only increase until we use this unique opportunity to realize that we navigate these troubled waters together for a reason, that only through our connection will we be able to stay afloat in this storm.

If we move toward positive connection above our divisive inclinations—prioritizing values of unity throughout human society—then we will ensure good health for the entire planet and a whole new harmonious level of existence will open up for us.

Hunger, wars, and natural disasters are in the forecast and no one is promising the worst is already behind us. On the contrary, all the indicators show that the world is nowhere close to being healed. In the midst of the current crisis and the gloomy predictions, there is a sense of fatigue in people. Just when we begin to expect to recover from the wide-ranging repercussions of Covid-19, a second wave erupts with new lockdowns on the horizon, the economy shrinks further, and putting food on the table becomes harder than ever.

As if all this were not enough, extreme weather conditions have become the new normal. For the second time in history, the hurricane season in America has been so active that the 21 storm names selected to cover this season have already been used up and the National Hurricane Center has had to put together a new list with name options using the Greek alphabet.

All the troubles, all the imbalances the world is experiencing are in fact the result of a struggle between two forces in nature: the force of separation and the force of connection. But what kind of connection is it that we are referring to here? We are referring to an indivisible link that should take place between individuals at the human level, the highest level in nature, above the flora and fauna. It is crucial because human beings, and specifically the relationships between us, have the most profound influence on the lower levels of nature.

Screening a Positive Force

When humans connect correctly, it creates a sort of magnetic field that permeates the rest of nature. Until now humanity has been driven by negative thoughts and reckless, oppressive behavior toward one another, affecting the ecosystem negatively by this. The viruses we pass to each other are the biological expression of our harmful and negative relationships. Thus, if we don’t correct our mutual connection, future pandemics will be standing in line waiting to be revealed.

It’s not the matter of what will burst out next or where it will happen; the entire world is in a state of constant agitation, and the amplitude of the calamities is growing day by day. We are witnesses to the snowballing speed and the magnitude of these shocks.

We exist in a global, holistic, and complete system in which all the elements are perfectly integrated, with the exception of people. But there is no way out for us, no possibility of escape, because even though we are not fully aware of our absolute interdependence, we are ruled by the law of the global integral system in which everybody influences everybody as well as every other part of nature. So, if we continue being ruled by our egos—which direct us to look out for ourselves, secretly pleased by the misfortunes and hardships of others—we will bring ourselves to the point of destruction of planet earth and the “crown of creation,” the human race.

Do we have an alternative? Yes, we do. We need to cultivate mutual consideration and responsibility—the positive force—today more than ever before to balance our egoistic lifestyle—the negative force—and spare ourselves from untold amounts of unnecessary suffering. We must start by actively surrounding ourselves with an environment that inspires us to care for one another, to cooperate and connect positively.

In a nutshell, nature constantly evolves through a series of crises, and the ultimate result of these is to activate us to reach greater cooperation and unity. Precisely at this time of universal crisis, we are being prepared to make a global-scale shift to full integration with nature.

If we move toward positive connection above our divisive inclinations—prioritizing values of unity throughout human society—then we will ensure good health for the entire planet and a whole new harmonious level of existence will open up for us.

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My new article on Linkedin “The End of the Closure, But No End in Sight”

Jam-packed with anger, frustration, and mutual abhorrence avidly cultivated over weeks of closure, the residents of the State of Israel are beginning to resume life, if you can call it that. No one is hopeful. Everyone knows that the next closure is just around the corner since everyone knows that now that the closure has been eased, the number of new confirmed cases will spike again, sparking a third wave of Covid-19 outbreak and a third lockdown, with no end in sight. After all, if no one’s going to stick by the simple rules of social distancing and wearing masks, there’s nothing to stop the virus from returning.

As I have been warning from the beginning of the outbreak, Covid-19 is not only here to stay, but will become increasingly sinister in sync with our reluctance to change our attitude to one another.

We only have ourselves to blame for the outbreak, but we blame everyone else. You don’t need to read the pandemic statistics to know that Israel is a sick society, but Covid-19 isn’t its worst, or even real illness. The country is riddled with internal loathing on levels we’ve never seen before. It doesn’t even matter if a vaccine or a cure for the coronavirus is found; it’s already clear that such hatred is bound to produce more punishments on all of society.

As I have been warning from the beginning of the outbreak, Covid-19 is not only here to stay, but will become increasingly sinister in sync with our reluctance to change our attitude to one another. In the first wave, it struck mainly the sick and elderly. In the second wave, as I had warned, it is already striking healthy and younger people, as well as children. In the third wave, it will hit even harder, much harder.

If we don’t change our attitude and start complying with health instructions out of consideration of each other, we will face mortality rates that will rattle all of society. There will be critically ill patients and deceased relatives in every family. We are in for a trauma inflicted upon us at our own hate-filled hands.

We Israelis think we are above the system, or at least that we can beat it. But hubris doesn’t make you strong; it blinds you. We’re blind to the fact that the virus is defeating us, that we have lost the second round against the virus, yet we’re ignoring it as if the third round will go any better for us. It won’t; it’ll end in tears.

When we surrender, we will understand that all we needed to do to make the virus leave was look out for each other. If we don’t surrender and start looking out for each other, the virus will kill us, or we will kill each other, or some other violent conclusion to our lives will find us. One way or the other, the “play nice” time is over. Either we all act together in concert and unite in order to defeat the invisible bug, or that spiky little thing will give us a final knockout.
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My new article on Linkedin “Envy- a Friend We Didn’t Know We Had”

One of the most curious articles written by my teacher’s father, the great 20th century kabbalist Baal HaSulam, is a short piece titled “The Thought Is an Upshot of the Desire.” When I read it for the first time, and the second, it struck a chord deep within me. In just 200 words, Baal HaSulam explained how reality is built, how it operates, what needs to be fixed, and how we can fix it. I was awestruck, and very envious of his wisdom.

In today’s volatile atmosphere, when the country is on the brink of civil war, I’m sure you will agree that nothing is more required than a change of heart—toward kindness.
The logic in the article is very simple, like all truths. It states that when we want something, we think about it, and after we think about it, we act accordingly. In other words, the world we live in is a result of our desires. Or even more concisely, our desires create our world. If we don’t like the world we live in, there’s a sure way to fix it: We can change our desires, which will change our world.

But can we control our desires? Can we decide to want one thing and not another? Indeed we can, and more easily than we might think. All we need is to make good use of our worst trait: envy.

To put it simply, envy means we want what others have. If we can’t take what others have, then we want to at least have more of it than they do. When I envied Baal HaSulam for his wisdom, it didn’t make me want him not to be wise; it made me want to be as wise as him, if not wiser.

Now here’s the trick to using envy positively: Because we’re envious beings, we want what people value. If we have what they value, they will envy us and not the other way around. In other words, public opinion determines what is enviable. For example, we value wealth. For this reason, we’re envious of wealthy people.

And now think about kindness. Who wants to be kind these days? Practically no one. Why? Because public opinion doesn’t value kindness. When the public doesn’t reward kind people with approval and popularity, people don’t want to be kind. If, on the other hand, the public venerated kindness the way it venerates wealth, people would spend their last cent on acts of kindness in order to “buy” themselves a public image of benevolence.

That insight, that we can control what we want through other people’s opinions, was to me the most striking revelation in Baal HaSulam’s article:. I realized that we don’t need to change ourselves but to change the social values. If we surround ourselves with family, friends, media personnel, education systems, and politicians (I know it’s a long shot) who hail kindness, caring, solidarity, and mutual concern, then we, and everyone around us would become that way as well. It would be effortless, and it would work.

Clearly, we can’t change all of society at once, but we can start. Wherever we can, wherever we are, we can do our little part. And hopefully, little by little, a new and positive mindset will take root. In today’s volatile atmosphere, when the country is on the brink of civil war, I’m sure you will agree that nothing is more required than a change of heart—toward kindness.

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Medium published my new article “The Power of Thought — More Powerful than We Thought”

Did you think that your thoughts build or ruin the world around you? They do; they are our desire’s “brain” that designs the world we live in.

We’ve known for decades that humanity is destroying the planet, that our way of life is unsustainable, and that we are living on borrowed time at the expense of our children. We’ve known it, we’ve tried to stop ourselves, but we couldn’t. Only Covid stopped our reckless conduct. If it goes away, we will destroy whatever’s left of our planet and leave nothing for prosperity. We can’t help it since our actions are offshoots of our thoughts, and as long as our thoughts are negative, so will be our actions.

We are looking for a cure to Covid-19 but we’re forgetting that it comes from the same source that creates all our “sicknesses,” from viruses to hurricanes. Just as we don’t need to work on fixing our behavior toward the environment, but on fixing our thoughts, which make us mistreat the environment, we don’t need to focus on curing the virus but on curing its cause — our iniquitous thoughts.

Kabbalists don’t deal so much with restricting CO2 emissions, recycling waste, or saving endangered species, not because they don’t care about our world. On the contrary, they care about all of life and all of nature a great deal! This is why they focus on the core problem, the malfunction that generates all that is negative in our world: our thoughts. If we change our thoughts, we will change the world around us. If we change our thoughts from negative to positive, not a single problem will remain unsolved.

We could argue that we can’t control our thoughts, that they pop up in our brain without asking “permission.” It’s true that thoughts don’t “ask permission” before they emerge, but we can tweak the “factory” that creates them: the social environment we live in.

If we are born into an environment that says you’re only as good as your last conquest, then we will have no choice but to become ruthlessly competitive until we exhaust ourselves to death. In the process, we will destroy everything around us: people, animals, plants, and minerals. Currently, this is more or less the way we all behave, which is why the world is such a mess.

We can change our world. If we start nurturing a different culture — embracing diversity, encouraging originality, supporting cooperation, and rewarding displays of solidarity — our world will instantly change from bad to good. We won’t need to worry about what we should or shouldn’t do; we will need to worry only about what to think or not to think.

We can change our world. If we start nurturing a different culture — embracing diversity, encouraging originality, supporting cooperation, and rewarding displays of solidarity — our world will instantly change from bad to good. We won’t need to worry about what we should or shouldn’t do; we will need to worry only about what to think or not to think.

We cannot change our thoughts by ourselves. But together, there is nothing we can’t achieve. We can even transform our very nature from the negative attitude we are born with to a positive attitude that we will all have created together.

We are looking for a cure to Covid-19 but we’re forgetting that it comes from the same source that creates all our “sicknesses,” from viruses to hurricanes. Just as we don’t need to work on fixing our behavior toward the environment, but on fixing our thoughts, which make us mistreat the environment, we don’t need to focus on curing the virus but on curing its cause — our iniquitous thoughts. It would be great if we could find a vaccine for Covid-19, but unless we solve its root cause, more, and worse menaces will come in its wake, so we might as well work on a systemic solution right now and truly transform our lives to what they can be instead of staying stuck neck-deep in the quagmire that our lives have become.
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The Times of Israel published my new article “The Social Media Giants Campaign against Anti-Semitism Is Mere Pretense”

A Times of Israel story recently reported festively, “YouTube removes Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam channel.” According to the story, YouTube announced that it has “strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and [will] terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies.” Two lines later, however, you read that “Some individual accounts of Nation of Islam members are still up, with tens of thousands of followers.” It would be interesting to know YouTube’s definition of “strict policies.”

Another festive headline, this time on CNN Business, announced that “Facebook will ban Holocaust denial posts under hate speech policy.” According to the report, Facebook decided on the ban because of “the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust.” I wonder what set off this policy U-turn because as recently as two months ago, The Guardian reported that the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) had found that “Facebook’s algorithm ‘actively promotes’ Holocaust denial content.”

Clearly, this “concern about antisemitism” tune isn’t credible. Three weeks before the election, the only reason that would make social media platforms proclaim to take steps to curb antisemitism is their desire to play it safe. In my estimate, they feel that President Trump has a real chance of being reelected and are adjusting their policies to that scenario. In short, their campaign against antisemitism is nothing but lip-service.

For Jews, however, social media policies make no difference. They don’t abate antisemitism whatsoever. Antisemitism stems from the core of human nature, from a deep-seated feeling of non-Jews that Jews are unlike any other nation. Their accusations that Jews control the media, the banks, the government, and manipulate them to their advantage and against other faiths speaks volumes about the power that non-Jews attribute to Jews. Their accusation that Jews cause all the wars and all the troubles in the world is in fact an admission that they believe that the Jews have the power to end the wars and troubles in the world.

And while the Jews don’t know it, they do have the key to ending all the troubles. Jews don’t need social media bans to curb Jew-hatred. All they need is to stop hating one another and the world will stop hating them.

Jews are always at the center of attention. The world envies Israel for its military power and technological advancement, and it envies Diaspora Jews for being wealthier than other communities. Money, arms, and high-tech don’t earn the Jews any points in the eyes of the world. On the contrary, they only increase Jew-hatred since this is not what the world expects.

The world looks at the Jews so carefully because it needs a way to connect, to end conflicts, to rise above hatred, to save itself from self-destruction. And only the Jews, who coined the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself,” can show the way—by personal example.

There are three Jews among this year’s Nobel Prize laureates. No one will be grateful to Jews for this. But if Jews made peace among themselves, between Democrats and Republican Jews, between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, between Orthodox and secular Jews, now that would be something that the world would appreciate.

Jewish leaders throughout the ages have avowed that Jewish unity is our only way to escape persecution. So far, their words have found no listeners, and hate increases both among Jews and toward Jews. If we, the Jewish people, want to avoid another Holocaust, we should start paying attention to our sages throughout the ages, and to the world’s call for peace, first among ourselves, and then throughout the world.

*For a more elaborate explanation on the root and solution to antisemitism, refer to my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism
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Medium published my new article “From Starvation to a Revolution”

Even before the outburst of Covid-19, millions of people were already on the brink of starvation. Food stamps are no solution, and neither is subsidized housing. The coronavirus has made things far worse, and from day to day, the situation is growing more and more precarious. Society is on the edge, and no administration will be able to restore order to the streets if all hell breaks loose.

We can have peace, abundance, health, and security. But we must remember that if not all of us have it, none of us will have it. This is the law of every ecosystem, and it applies just as rigidly to each of us.

There is also no point looking for a scapegoat; if we really want to blame anyone, we should look in the mirror. We, and our parents, have ruined the world for ourselves and for our children. Look at us: Half the world is overweight, the other half is starving. It is an accurate reflection of our egoism, alienation, and reckless sense of entitlement.

This egoism, this baseless sense of entitlement, is the root of all our troubles. Worse yet, egoism hides from us the fact that it is our biggest, and in fact our only problem. It tricks us into thinking that other people are the cause of our misfortunes, and selfishly, we fall for the convenient lie. But if we recklessly try to gain more and accumulate more, and judge what we have not by how much we need, but by how much we have more than others, then we will deplete and ruin our planet completely. We are already very close to it, and the outburst of the virus is just a symptom of a collapsing world that’s slipped off balance and can no longer sustain its inhabitants: humankind.

According to Sally Davis, former chief medical officer for England, “there will be a next [pandemic]. Covid-19 is neither the first nor the last health emergency we will face. My fellow scientists estimate that we will face a pandemic or health emergency at least once every five years from here on. There is a chance that this is the optimistic scenario. The reality could be far worse.” This is why we have to change course now before it’s too late.

Since egoism is the root of our problems, we must tackle it and rein it in if we are to leave anything for the next generation. We have to understand that we are dependent on each other. If one person is sick, everyone is sick. If one person behaves irresponsibly, everyone suffers. The only “right” we really have is to behave responsibly, to be considerate toward each other so we can continue to live on a bearable level, first, and from there begin to improve it.

But since we’re egoists, and egoists are considerate only toward people they care about, we have no choice but to learn how to care for each other. At the very least, we have to start looking for ways to change how we feel about each other — from the current negative to a more neutral feeling, and eventually to a positive feeling toward each other. Again, this is not a utopian fantasy; it is an existential stipulation!

We have to revolutionize our entire perception of humanity. We cannot afford to keep thinking of ourselves as a collection of separate individuals; we have to start perceiving ourselves as a single entity that’s caring for all its organs. If we don’t, the individuals we see around us will soon start occupying themselves with killing all the other individuals around them.

We shouldn’t think that we are too weak or small to make a difference. Each of us can make a difference in our closest circles, and the accumulated impact will be strong enough to pull the wagon out of the mud and start moving in the right direction.

We are at a tipping point. If we start using firearms against each other, we will collapse into a civil war. But if we get a grip on our raging egos and understand that we are dependent on each other (as much as we dislike the thought), then perhaps, if we cherish life, we will want to learn how to care for one another. From that point on, the road will open for us to reverse the trend and start lifting humanity, and our personal lives, to the levels they can achieve.

We can have peace, abundance, health, and security. But we must remember that if not all of us have it, none of us will have it. This is the law of every ecosystem, and it applies just as rigidly to each of us.
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The Times of Israel published my new article “Jewish Nobel Prize Winners—Does It Matter?”

A matter of pride to some and a source of envy to others, the fact is that Jews have traditionally stood out as Nobel Prize recipients, and this year is no exception as Jews have dominated basically all the areas covered by the prestigious awards. As much as our distinctions may inflate our egos, we also see how these achievements have done nothing to erase the hatred against Jews. The world expects something different from us—for Jews to actually deliver connection and peace to the world, which we currently are not succeeding at. This is the reason the animosity won’t go away.

2020 has been remarkably successful for American Jewish laureates. Harvey Alter shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Paul Milgrom shared the award in Economic Sciences, and Louise Glück won the Literature award. Some publications have written that the three recipients of the Physics award are also of Jewish heritage. People highlight the fact that out of the 900 Nobel Prize recipients since 1901 when it was first awarded, more than 200 have been Jewish, a disproportionate number for a group that represents only 0.2% of the global population.

The capabilities of Jews in countless areas are no secret and if we were to award the highest prizes and recognitions based on accomplishments in all fields, Jews would receive even more awards than we already do. However, I do not think getting medals or trophies should be a reason for Jewish pride. I do not spend time counting the number of awards because it is not what we need to stand out for. We need to be prominent for fulfilling the role that the world truly expects from us.

Jews have a mission that is deeply rooted in the basis of creation, to be a “light unto the nations.” What exactly does this mean? It means to serve humanity as an example of corrected relationships of connection and love for others, of positive mutual connection.

We Jews, by virtue of our unique development as a people, once had the ability to examine everything from two opposite forces, reception and bestowal, which gave us a deeper and broader view of reality. Since the ruin of the Temple, we lost our spiritual consciousness, but due to our previous attainment of the unique singular force of nature, this matchless spark illuminated in us and left an eternal seal.

This spark gave us a significant advantage over others. This is what has enabled us to succeed and stand out, because this spark is part of the general creative force that develops the entirety of nature. It is what motivated us to invent and innovate, and thus to advance humanity as a whole. As it was written by the greatest Kabbalist of our generation, Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam),

“It is the wisdom of faith, justice and peace which most nations learn from us, and this wisdom is ascribed to us alone.” (The Writings of the Last Generation)

Today, the world is in urgent need of unity to overcome its perils and the suffocating crisis that exists at all levels of experience, but humanity has no idea how to connect. However, we Jews were once connected and lived in brotherly love. The society that the Jewish nation innovated was based on the great rule of the Torah, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Therefore, we people of Israel must now revive that love between us and offer it to the world. This is what the world requires, and when we do not provide this example—instead remaining immersed in growing alienation, mistrust, and self-centeredness—the pressures against us manifest as vicious antisemitism.

Therefore, we Jews must begin connecting between us, since we possess the latent “memory” of unity, and we also must welcome anyone from any nation who shares this view. If we accomplish this, we will be able to fulfill the ancient prophecy that says that the nations of the earth will be blessed through us. When we achieve this, we will deserve the ultimate prize of all, peace and goodness in the world.
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Medium published my new article “A Reality of Uncertainty”

All over the world, countries are feeling the toll of the second wave of Covid-19. Infections are rising and cities and countries are reinstating lockdown orders. The most pervasive feelings at this point seem to be uncertainty and despair. In the first wave, we thought we’d stay at home for a few weeks and wake up from the coronavirus nightmare. Now, in the second wave, we are beginning to realize it is not going away.

While all of nature functions as an integral system whose elements are connected and dependent on each other, we act as if we are separate beings, apart from the rest of humanity and the rest of nature, when the truth is the exact opposite. And because we feel this way, we are wrecking our home.

The only way to (hopefully) avoid it is to avoid contact with people, but how long can we do that? After all, we are social beings and other people’s company is an existential need for us. It seems as though we’re being forced to choose between suffocation from being locked up in our homes and suffocation from the virus. On top of that, the tension between those who choose to get out and enjoy other people’s company, and those who want to stay indoors and protect themselves and their loved ones is adding to the already mounting tensions in society. The prognosis for society in such a state is not good, to say the least.

There is, however, a way out of the catch. We haven’t been willing to try it, but a way out does exist. Since our conflict with nature has brought upon us this virus, ending the conflict is the way to eliminate it.

I like to watch TV shows about nature. When you look at how animals behave, you see that although their whole lives revolve around eating other animals or escaping other animals that want to eat them, there is perfect balance. There is no hatred among them; there is simply a natural mechanism that makes nature work in perfect harmony and life thrives.

Humans, however, are devoid of balance. We eat too much, accumulate stuff we don’t need, throw out perfectly good stuff, and litter the planet. While half the world is overweight, the other half is starving.

And worst of all, we are killing one another, abusing one another, tormenting one another, and taking pleasure in humiliating other people. We are hateful beings, the only hateful beings in all of nature. And in this, we are in conflict with nature, completely opposite from it.

While all of nature functions as an integral system whose elements are connected and dependent on each other, we act as if we are separate beings, apart from the rest of humanity and the rest of nature, when the truth is the exact opposite. And because we feel this way, we are wrecking our home.

The coronavirus is forcing us to behave more responsibly. It is forcing us to stay apart, restrict our consumption, limit our exploitation, and diminish the damages we’re inflicting on the planet. If we stopped doing these damages voluntarily, we wouldn’t need the virus to limit us. We would limit ourselves, which would preclude the appearance of the virus from the get go.

Think about it, the measures we are required to take in order to defeat the virus are the same measures we are required to take in order to save the planet and stop exploitation of others. It turns out that if we changed the way we treat each other and the planet, we would eliminate the virus without even trying.

In all likelihood, there will be no vaccine to Covid-19. Even if one is found, epidemiologists already warn that we are bound to see more and more of these bugs infecting humanity in the coming years, so fighting it is a lost cause. Our only way out of the maze is through changing our attitude from exploitative to cooperative, from alienation to connection. Today, it is clearer than ever.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “A Noble Ideal for Peace Beyond the Nobel Prize”

Hunger could be used as a weapon of war and conflict in these challenging times. That is the concern over which the Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to an organization that fights famine globally: The UN World Food Programme. In response to the announcement, the organization stated, “Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.” Regardless of why these “peace” prizes are given and to whom, we should first ask, “What is peace?” The essence of peace is the optimal connection between opposite things, opinions, people, and movements. I see no organization or person in the world acting to fulfill such a goal.

The number of people facing hunger worldwide will double from 135 million to 265 million this year—the particular result of the Covid-19 pandemic—according to UN estimates. Predictions forewarn of starvation of “biblical proportions” as a result of the economic and food crises caused by the spread of the virus. Even if the work of The UN World Food Programme and other organizations is important, I do not see anyone in the global arena who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, no person or organization that strives for real peace and whose actions focus on bearing fruit in uniting people.

The peace agreements between the Arab Emirates, and Bahrain with Israel this year under the umbrella of the US was spoken of as a historical event that deserves the international prize. However, I’ve noticed that the recent trend has been to move away from political actions toward peace and to give the award to global organizations instead of individuals.

Why, despite so many efforts, does humanity repeatedly fail in its attempts to make true peace? The reason is that we do not know how to rise above our egoistic human nature which obstructs any possibility to attain tranquility. Every action we make is for our own benefit. We manipulate ourselves and others into believing that we act in their favor, while deep down, self-interest guides our every move.

The essence of the term “peace” (in Hebrew, Shalom), means “wholeness” (Shalem). Is the mere absence of war a sufficient enough achievement to claim that we experience wholeness? Certainly not. A deeper analysis of the term “peace” brings us to the need to understand the forces acting in reality and how to balance them properly to achieve true peace.

Two forces coexist in nature: the negative force of self-interest, and a positive force that promotes mutuality, consideration, and thinking about the common good. Ecosystems naturally balance these two forces so they complement one another. The apparent competition we observe in nature actually generates homeostasis, a harmonious coexistence that fosters life and development.

In humans, the negative force creates a crippled society which needs to enforce binding restrictions to stop us from destroying one another at the first opportunity. Worse yet, we see how the negative force within us keeps growing and intensifying. We are quickly nearing a point where the tensions will be unbearable.

Today we number billions of people. We each perceive ourselves as separate from the other, and are often not even at peace with ourselves. This lack of understanding of how to arrive at peace is humanity’s central problem.

We humans are the sole violators of the delicate balance of nature on the planet with our narrow egoism, i.e., the desire to benefit ourselves at the expense of others. And in precisely this, we harm humanity, the world, and nature. Therefore, only by changing our viewpoint from being self-centered to an interconnected and rounded perspective will we bring peace to the world.

As our sages observed:

“Do not be surprised if I mix together the well-being of a particular collective with the well-being of the whole world, because indeed, we have already come to such a degree that the whole world is considered one collective and one society.” (Yehuda Ashlag, “Peace in the World”)

Kabul, afghanistan.- In the photos, WFP authorities work to deliver food to the most vulnerable families. The UN World Food Program (WFP) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this Friday (9), announced the Nobel Committee in Oslo, underlining that the need for multilateral solutions to major problems such as hunger is “more evident never”.
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My new article on Linkedin “Pandemic Fatigue – A Symptom of the Virus or a Proof of Senselessness?”

The more time passes without a vaccine or a sure cure in sight, the more impatient people are growing. They are refusing lockdown and curfew orders, congregating recklessly as if there is no virus, protesting without maintaining social distance or wearing masks, and filling up restaurants, bars, and other places of recreation.

Changing the center of our attention from the “me” to the “we” changes everything: our behavior, our caution with ourselves and with others, our attitude toward others, and even our feelings toward others. There is nothing we can’t do today that we did before; the only thing preventing us from doing it is our attitude toward others. If we change it from negative to positive, we will guarantee the health of everyone around us, and they will guarantee our own health, and then there will be nothing that we won’t be able to do. So the bottom line is this: Let’s think about each other; it’s healthy!

But the virus has not changed. If people behave recklessly, contagion increases. And indeed, all over the world, where countries and cities relax closures, infections rise again. As the tension rises between understanding that there is no end to the virus in sight, and the inability to remain in permanent lockdown, people are driven toward the breakdown point of hopelessness and helplessness. At that point, social order will collapse and mayhem will take over the streets.

Without a medical cure in sight, the only cure we have is each other. This is also the one cure we haven’t tried. It’s not that we should disobey orders to keep 6 feet apart. On the contrary, we should be very strict with our observance of health regulations, but we should also remember that this will not kill the virus. If we stay apart, infections will decrease; if we resume our connections, infections will increase. This is what’s happening now and people won’t be able to sustain this in-and-out mode much longer. In fact, they already can’t.

But what this pattern does show us is that the problem lies—in our connections. Staying apart for good is no solution, so we have to find a way to connect in a way that does not resume infections. To do that, we must reverse our thinking. Instead of thinking, “How can I protect myself from catching the virus,” we should start thinking, “How can I prevent from passing the virus to someone else.”

Changing the center of our attention from the “me” to the “we” changes everything: our behavior, our caution with ourselves and with others, our attitude toward others, and even our feelings toward others. There is nothing we can’t do today that we did before; the only thing preventing us from doing it is our attitude toward others. If we change it from negative to positive, we will guarantee the health of everyone around us, and they will guarantee our own health, and then there will be nothing that we won’t be able to do. So the bottom line is this: Let’s think about each other; it’s healthy!
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