The Times of Israel published my new article “The Solidarity Israel Needs to Offer to Lebanon”

The human impact of the recent massive explosion in a port warehouse district in Beirut cannot leave anyone indifferent. It has left a gaping wound among the already maimed Lebanese population, which has suffered a prolonged existential economic crisis. The international community is questioning how the aggravated crisis in Lebanon will affect a region as volatile as the Middle East. The answer will depend entirely on Israel, on its ability to deliver what the world expects from it: to become the light to the nations and radiate that light to the region and the entire world.

Some analysts consider the deadly explosion beneficial to Israel since the terrorist group Hezbollah—to whom Lebanese protesters point as the prime suspect in the blast—could be forced to enter a period of restraint. I do not agree. I do not think a disaster harming the citizens in one country can possibly benefit another country. Therefore, this human catastrophe will not influence the Middle East for the better or for the worse.

Israel offered humanitarian aid and support to the disaster-stricken country, and Lebanon’s flag was displayed on Tel Aviv’s City Hall, but both gestures were perceived by many as mockery. We need to express sympathy, but not forcefully and persistently reach out. We can learn from our attempts to build a close alliance with our neighboring countries Egypt and Jordan: Despite our efforts to get closer and invest in cooperative projects, relations remain cold.

Israel, in fact, can provide the invaluable assistance that Lebanon (and the entire world) needs, as it holds the key to a better future. But we first need to understand precisely what the nations truly demand from us to carry out.

The Help No One Will Reject

Throughout history up to current times, the Jewish people have presented the nations with remarkable accomplishments in scientific and academic skills, in life-saving inventions and breakthrough discoveries. But while developing all those, we overlooked the one tenet that the world needs most today and which is altogether absent on our entire planet: unity. This does not refer to the kind of unity necessary for defeating an adversary. Rather, it is the kind of connection that can provide an example to be shared with whoever has interest in embracing it.

As foremost Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag wrote,

“It is upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and all the people of the world … to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of the love of others, which is the ladder to the purpose of Creation.” (The Arvut, Mutual Guarantee)

By engaging in this mutual venture to build a new, positive society based on love and connection above differences, Israel will be able to make giant strides toward realizing the destiny that our forefathers dreamed of: to be “light unto the nations.” As a result, the world will happily absorb the spirit that we will spread, and the animosity toward Israel will disappear.

As Rav Kook elaborated about the role of the Jewish nation to a global positive change,

“The construction of the world, which is currently crumpled by the dreadful storms of a blood-filled sword requires the construction of the Israeli nation … in anticipation of a force full of unity … that is found in Israel.” (Orot [Lights])

Indeed, if the nations of the world want to find peace, the only thing that they need to do is invert their hostility toward Israel into pressure upon this nation to unite, which will open the pipe to tranquility and security in the world. At that time, Israel will be a beacon of hope for all the nations to live in peace, brotherhood, and unity with our neighbors and the entire world.
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Medium published my new article “Aliens on Our Own Planet”

With every passing day, it’s becoming clearer that we’re moving into a new era. The protests against wearing masks are the rebellion of our egos against a compulsory change. Big tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook have already told their employees to keep working from home for at least another year. Everything will change: jobs, banks, industry, education, commerce, human relations, international relations, our whole civilization will turn on its head, and so will we. Only then, the virus will leave.

The exploitative, excessively competitive system where one had to destroy the other in order to survive has exhausted itself.

Both WHO Secretary General António Guterres and White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci have stated that an effective vaccine is unlikely in the foreseeable future, if ever. In simple words, our lives have changed forever.

Moreover, the more we try to return to the previous “normal,” the more we will inflame recurring waves of Covid. If every time the contagion rate declines we will insist on reopening businesses, we will experience a third, fourth, and who knows how many waves of the pandemic until we realize we cannot beat it. Nature has landed us a knockout, and every time we try to get up and fight, it lands another blow.

But nature isn’t out to kill us; it is out to teach us how to be a part of it, rather than hostile aliens on our own planet. And being part of nature means first and foremost to unite among us, to feel close to our fellow human beings, and in this way learn how to be close to nature. The world we live in is one complete and integral system. To feel its integrality, we need to make ourselves similar to it: integral and complete. And the journey toward it begins at home: with us people.

The exploitative, excessively competitive system where one had to destroy the other in order to survive has exhausted itself. The mindset of survival of the fittest runs contrary to the whole of nature, which operates on the completely opposite principle: survival of the friendliest (Google it). Now it is upon us to build this type of society, and in the process, begin to understand the true nature of the world around us.

No one will help us. As a society, we are egoists and don’t know how to truly care for one another. But we can fake it till we make it, and if we keep in mind that our goal is to build a united, integral system where everyone shares the benefits, we will succeed.

Although deep down we all wish we could go back to our old way of life, even if there were no coronavirus, it would be very unwise to do so. There is already so much hatred in the country that a social collapse, if not an all-out civil war, is imminent. In many ways, it has already begun but it is not yet bloody, and it seems like someone has forgotten to make an official declaration.

But it is not too late to reroute. We can look around us and see that everything consists of opposites that complement each other. Only people think that opposites should annihilate one another, oblivious to the fact that just as in nature, opposites allow each other to exist, so it is with us.

We see the world as flat, a two-dimensional image, not realizing that the same human nature operates all parties, all factions of human society. When we insist on seeing the world only through one perspective, we miss the chance to use the other perspective as a “second eye” and get a three-dimensional view. This is the only way that we can see the full depth and scope of reality, and find what operates the whole picture that we see before us. Only when you can look at the world through both prisms can you see it, so instead of trying to abolish the other viewpoint, we should cherish it, thank it for existing, while keeping our separate perspective.

Unity is not created when two opposites become the same. It is created when two opposites complete each other’s different viewpoints to create the full picture, which neither can see alone.
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My new article on Linkedin “Our Childhood Is Over”

We can get all teary-eyed over it, but it won’t help. The world we knew until the beginning of this year is over and will not return. And with it, it took our childhood. Until Covid-19, we were like kids wrecking up the house doing whatever they want while the parents are out on business. But Covid showed us that they’re not gone; they’re just invisible. And instead of showing up and yelling at us, they sent an invisible force with the odd name, SARS-CoV-2, aka, the novel coronavirus, which sent us home and told us to stay home. And every time we come out, it returns and lands another blow until we learn we must obey.

The virus has come to teach us how to be grownups, responsible for our common home, and accountable to one another. It has come to turn us from unruly children into caring adults, who tend to one another and to the world around them.

We don’t like it; we want to get rid of it, but we are gradually realizing that we can’t, and probably will never be able to, at least until we do what it tells us: “Stay apart and stop infecting one another.”

We already know that Covid-19 is affecting our brains, but what we haven’t realized is that it is affecting our hearts. It will change our hearts from alienation to connection. For now, it only increases our loneliness, but at some point, we will realize that to connect and not be lonely, we have to connect in our hearts before we connect in our bodies. Only then we will overcome seclusion, the negative influence we have projected on each other will be reversed, and this will be our healing.

The virus has come to teach us how to be grownups, responsible for our common home, and accountable to one another. It has come to turn us from unruly children into caring adults, who tend to one another and to the world around them.

Just as children do not notice as they grow until they are already adults, we will see what we have become only after the fact. And probably, only then will we be thankful to the virus, without which we wouldn’t be able to disconnect from our previous, infantile, and destructive little selves, and become mature, responsible, and caring humanity.

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My new article on Linkedin “If I Don’t Take Over, No One Will Take Over”

Imagine yourself out on the street in the middle of a protest. On the road are the demonstrators, protesting against this or that injustice. Across from them are the police, representatives of the hated government. In a street corner near the protestors are the “others,” those who side with the government, who feel that the protest has no merit. The air is thick with hatred; the tension is about to snap. Neither side will concede, neither will compromise; it is either me and my view or no one and no view. If I don’t take over, no one will take over.

At times, the hatred is more overt, at times more covert, but it is growing, bubbling under the surface. We cannot tame the hatred, but we can learn how to work with it, how to funnel it constructively. Today, it’s at a boiling point; if we don’t learn to channel it soon, it will erupt and destroy everything in its path.

This is where we stand today. At times, the hatred is more overt, at times more covert, but it is growing, bubbling under the surface. We cannot tame the hatred, but we can learn how to work with it, how to funnel it constructively. Today, it’s at a boiling point; if we don’t learn to channel it soon, it will erupt and destroy everything in its path.

There has always been hatred because there have always been opposite sides. Our fatal mistake has been that we have tried to demolish the other party instead of uniting over the disparities. We didn’t realize that destroying the other party meant destroying ourselves. We didn’t notice that everything in reality has its opposite because we can only discern and define anything against its backdrop, its opposite. For this reason, whenever we waged war against our opposite, we either lost the war and perished, or won the war and perished still because we didn’t have an opposite, so we, too, could not exist.

The only way we can exist is if we maintain balance with our other side. Unless we make room for all views in existence, there will be no room for any view.

The purpose of the contradicting views is not to determine who is right. They all come from the same source, from human nature, so how can one have merit if it denies the merit of the other one?

The benefit of having opposite views is that the conflict between them forces both parties to search for their cause, and then they realize their common root. Only then can they unite.

And when they do, they find that this is how all of reality works, and in that, they find the unity that pervades all of nature. And that discovery of unity is the reason for the initial oppositeness and hatred.

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Medium published my new article “Mask Wearing, Freedom vs. Love of Others?”

Life saver to some and symbol of tyranny to others — the requirement to wear a mask in public to prevent further contagion of COVID-19 has split societies around the globe. In America, the rebellious and visceral reactions of significant numbers of customers in shops and offices, where wearing a mask is mandatory, have even surprised mental health experts. People’s outrage has been expressed in the streets of the US and also in big cities such as Berlin and London where thousands protested the measure. But are we clear on what true freedom means? Clarity can only be grasped when we are considerate of one another.

Nature is like a loving parent giving his tender child a bitter medicine, while we behave like the child who is kicking and crying and refusing to swallow. Nature has a clear purpose: to bring all of humanity to unity. Thus, we will not be able to escape the plague until we realize that we are in one boat, all of humanity.

Despite vast scientific support for the efficacy of mask-wearing to prevent a wider spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the debate about their effectiveness refuses to die among those who defy face coverings and social distancing as preventative measures. But there is a deeper reason for their refusal: human nature. People are willing to risk the lives of others and their own to preserve what they consider their personal liberties. They ask themselves, “Why should an order from the government be imposed to restrict me? What is it that puts a bridle on my mouth like a horse? I am a free person!

Why the Anti-Mask Sentiment?

As someone who has studied human nature for more than forty years, I can understand them. They feel masks and the limitations that they symbolize are oppressive and demeaning. Some virus comes and suddenly they are obliged to wear masks, while governments look helpless to handle the situation. Of course they will shout in the streets. Countries that thought they had handled the Covid-19 crisis successfully find themselves falling again. The virus never ends; it simply does not go away and nothing seems to help.

People’s defiance against the mask requirement is evidence of our inability, failure, and even indifference to educating our societies correctly. People have not been educated about how to take care of themselves and be considerate of one another. There isn’t a government in the world that can set an example to anyone in this, and also not among those in charge of the health system — all follow their own specific and particular interests. We are witnessing a total collapse of the human system. There is basically nothing from among the existing societal structures that we can present to people as an example to be respected and listened to — everything is corrupt.

It is the virus itself which has taken our education into hand. Nature is law-bound to behave in every way to bring man into alignment with its system, to the knowledge of his “evil inclination.” Until man attains a higher consciousness, nature must show him that the destruction in his life stems from the destruction in his relationship with others.

Nature is like a loving parent giving his tender child a bitter medicine, while we behave like the child who is kicking and crying and refusing to swallow. Nature has a clear purpose: to bring all of humanity to unity. Thus, we will not be able to escape the plague until we realize that we are in one boat, all of humanity.

We influence and depend on one another. Therefore, each must act accordingly by developing the conviction and intention to avoid transmitting the virus and harming others. When we view our situation from this perspective, we will not view the mandatory measures like mask wearing as coercion but as a gesture of love and care for others, implemented with a blessing.

The world is circular and functions in that same fashion, as a unit. In the current state, that circle is being hit by crises from every direction. So, what to do? We must first realize that we are immersed in an interrelated system of connections. This means that every single action will affect the whole. Therefore, the only way to overcome the state of crisis is to think and behave as one, in mutual responsibility. That is our true freedom of choice.
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The Times of Israel published my new article “From Political Bickering to a Policy of Unity”

A few years ago, an Israeli TV documentary told the story of a small village in Israel that had a population of 120 families, and six(!) shuls. Why six shuls if there are only 120 families? Because the families—all of whom from the same cultural background and daven the same way—can’t stand each other. When the interviewer asked a resident if, having so few people, it occasionally happens that there aren’t even ten people at the shul (the minimum number for service) to conduct a proper service, the man admitted that it happens. And what do you do then? asked the interviewer, “I drive to the nearby settlement and daven there,” said the man. Why go to another settlement to daven, who use different prayer books and songs than the ones you’re used to, if you have five shuls right here in your own village to pick from, and that daven exactly like you do? asked the interviewer. “I won’t go in any of them,” said the man resolutely.

A few days ago, a famous Arab-Israeli woman was interviewed on Israel TV and told an interesting story. She was invited to partake in a panel of several people at a Jewish town to discuss hatred and political tensions. The timing for the discussion was perfect since it was the 9th of Av, the date when the Temple was ruined 2,000 years ago because Jews hatred their own brethren. At the height of the debate, she finally said to her hosts, “You hate each other! Jews are hating Jews! You are discussing the ruin of the Temple on the 9th of Av, and still a Jew hates a Jew and wishes him death (reference to online death threats and death wishes to Israeli politicians)! If you hate each other, how will you love me?”

We’ve always been a nation of many views. And if you look at our history, you’ll find that when we succeeded in maintaining unity above differences, we thrived, and when we let the differences become unbridled hatred, we suffered.

Today’s Israel is at a crossroads. The differences among the various factions of the nation are gaining traction, and voices of unity are hardly heard. As always, divergence is our springboard for growth, but only if we unite above it. It is always a thin line to walk, and if we’re unaware of it, we’ll trip, and the very existence of Israel will be at risk.

Our motto has always been that hate stirs strife, and love will cover all the hatred (Proverbs 10:12). It is not an easy model to follow, but today we have no choice. Our international status will continue to deteriorate and our internal strength will continue to decline until we realize we have no other choice but to choose unity above all differences.

If we stall, the world will decide that the League of Nations’ declaration of a Jewish state in 1947 was a mistake. If we hurry and unite, the world will understand why Israel attracts so much attention—since it was meant to show how opposites can unite and cover their hate with love.

What we need right now is to shift from political bickering to a policy of unity among all factions. This is our most urgent need, especially today when hatred scares us even more than Covid, and is certainly more dangerous.
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Medium published my new article “A Generational Catastrophe in Education”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that we’re experiencing a “generational catastrophe” in education because of school closures during the coronavirus pandemic. On the one hand, I understand why this is sad. On the other hand, if we look at how people turn out after spending their entire childhood and adolescence in the educational system, I’m not so sure we should regret its closure. In my opinion, it is actually the disconnection from the old system that will allow us to examine it from aside, criticize it, and build a new and better one.

The correct education system should put the emphasis on human connection, not on inculcation of information. It should teach children that people with different views are not enemies.

The violence on the streets and within homes, the crime rate, substance abuse, prostitution, depression rates, suicides, all those are results of the education we give to our children. So one can lament the closure of the education system, but judging by the results, it hasn’t been a success story.

The deterioration hasn’t started with the emergence of Covid-19. It has been going on for decades.
The educational system was built during the Industrial Revolution, and its purpose was to give farmers who had migrated into cities the required knowledge to become machine operators. Over time, we added more and more fields of knowledge to the schooling system but we didn’t change the basic principle: Memorize the material your teachers tell you and that’s all you need in order to do a good job.

Somewhere along the way, we have forgotten that schooling gives children knowledge but does not improve them as human beings. That part, the one that teaches them how to communicate with other people, how to care for one another, how to be a positive element in society, has been forgotten altogether. Parents no longer teach it since the children aren’t at home, and schools don’t teach it since they weren’t made for it in the first place, so the result is that eighteen years after they are born, the sweet children on whom we pinned our hopes have become fully grown, incorrigible savages. This is why it is just as well that the schools have closed; it is yet another benefit of Covid-19 to society.

The correct education system should put the emphasis on human connection, not on inculcation of information. It should teach children that people with different views are not enemies. On the contrary, they show us perspectives that we might have otherwise missed. Even if we disagree with other people, we would not know why we think what we think were it not for the need to articulate our views.

Moreover, in a world so full of opposites, it is easy to see that just as nothing in nature is complete without its opposite, so it is with people. When we hold different views, it may feel like we are arguing over whose opinion is correct, but in truth, we are advancing the whole world to a higher level of existence.

Similarly, when we look at our feet as we walk, it seems as though they are competing. But we, who see them from above, know that the apparent competition is really an advancement of the whole body toward the next place we want to go. Were it not for the apparent competition, we wouldn’t advance at all, we would be standing still.

But children do not learn all that at school; they only memorize. This is why I am so happy that we’ve finally come to a point where we can truly educate ourselves, become human beings, not human computers. Now, perhaps, there is hope for our species.
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Medium published my new article “Contagious Contraction — The Global Economy Has Changed For Good”

Many pundits expressed alarm when the economic data regarding the contraction of the global economy in the second quarter began to pour out. One by one, the biggest economies in the world reported unprecedented contractions that dwarfed the already frightening contractions of Q1. As if they’ve all been struck by a virus, contagious contraction seems to have gripped them all. The U.S. contracted by 9.5% compared to Q1 (33% compared to the same quarter last year). Canada did even worse and contracted by 12% compared to Q1, and the Eurozone trailed even that with 12.1%. A country by country examination of the Eurozone exposes the grim reality with Germany falling by 10.1%, Italy by 12.4%, France by 13.8%, and Spain contracting by a whopping 18.5% in a single quarter compared to just three months earlier.

We’re headed for a good future of an orderly life of mutual responsibility. So the sooner humankind sobers up from the hangover left after the demise of the American Dream, the better it is for everyone.
The only country to boast significant economic growth was China, as one might expect, but with the global economy shrinking faster than the mercury in a thermometer placed in the freezer, the manufacturing colossus is unlikely to find export markets that will keep its growth positive going forward.

And since, as World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said about the prospect of finding a vaccine for Covid-19, “there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be,” the bottom line is clear: The economy we had is gone for good.

But the fact that the past will not return is not a sign of troubles to come. In fact, our only problem right now is that we want it to come back. We mustn’t even dream about it; it only delays our recovery and makes it needlessly painful.

We have to change our whole approach. The future economy will allow for only one provider per family. The government will make up for the drop in income. Healthcare, social security, pension, education, public transportation, all those will be free of charge. Staples will not be sold; they will be given according to a quota per capita. Each grownup and child will be entitled for certain staples, and these will guarantee that no one goes hungry. The same will apply to housing, power, gas, and water. No one will be homeless, cold, or hungry.

The “American Dream,” which everyone around the world has shared for decades, has by now become a nightmare. Now it will be replaced by a reality of orderly life.

In fact, “orderly” is the word to keep in mind. Everyone will have enough, no material deficiencies, but also no excess.

I know it sounds socialistic, if not communistic, but it isn’t; it is realistic. If we do not construct an orderly life for all of humanity, we will have no life at all; it’s that simple.

Alongside the benefits that the state will provide, and in order to adjust more quickly, people will learn about the new reality that’s been imposed on us against our will. Since we cannot beat it, we might as well join it. But to do that, we need to learn what’s happened, why the world has tumbled down on us, and what we can do to establish the new “normal” of orderly life as quickly as possible.

People will learn what it means to be part of an integral system whose parts are interrelated and interdependent. They will develop new thought patterns where competition is good only if it is intended to benefit everyone. Role models will change; the new ones will be people who help cultivate solidarity and mutual concern. Habits will change; everyone will feel more accountable to their communities and to each other. We will be able to trust not only our friends — already a rare commodity — but even complete strangers.

These good things will happen not because Covid and the crash of the economy have turned us into angels, but because they have left us no choice. Once we realize that either we all swim or we all sink, the vast majority will make the right choice. As society changes and the mindset becomes pro-social, even the most obstinate will find themselves nurturing good thoughts about others quite naturally.

We’re headed for a good future of an orderly life of mutual responsibility. So the sooner humankind sobers up from the hangover left after the demise of the American Dream, the better it is for everyone.
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Medium published my new article “COVID-19 and the Futile Race for a Vaccine”

Throughout the world, companies are racing to find a vaccine for COVID-19. They are hoping to be able to abolish the pandemic, restore the capitalistic, over-consumerist way of life we’d had before the virus took over the world, and make billions of dollars in profit in the process. It is a hopeless pursuit. There will probably be no vaccine and no cure for the virus. Even if one is found, soon after, another, stronger pestilence will ravage humankind.

We are positioning ourselves against the whole of existence, claiming entitlement that we are not entitled to claim, and feel deprived when we don’t get what we weren’t supposed to get in the first place.

If we want to cure the coronavirus, we have to do it where it begins. The appearance of the virus is itself a symptom; it is not the illness. The illness is our bad relations with each other. Our relationships with one another are sick, and that sickness manifests in various ways, such as divorce rates, depression rates, substance abuse, obesity, violence, and recently, a pandemic.

We cannot treat the virus as a stand-alone crisis because everything in reality is tied and connected to everything else. We already know that about the rest of nature, and even about our own bodies, but we conveniently exclude our psyches from the rule. We shouldn’t; it is destroying our lives, our livelihoods, and now our entire civilization.

In fact, it makes no sense to think that our ill spiritual state, namely our ill-will toward each other, has no bearing on our bodies. If we can treat depression with antidepressants, or take pills that make us feel friendly, why do we think that a bad disposition will not have a negative impact on our health?

Moreover, since our bodies, minds, and spirits are one system, and since we are a part of all of nature, our ill-spirit negatively affects all of nature, again, because it is all one system. And when all of humanity suffers from ill spirits, the impact on the rest of the world becomes massive.

Wherever you look at nature, it is a balanced and harmonious system. On the mineral, plant, and animal levels, animals and plants feed on one another and thereby preserve the health and balance of the ecosystem. Within our bodies, too, homeostasis is maintained as the body continually generates new and robust cells and kills old and weak ones. This keeps us healthy and strong.

The only part where nature does not run on autopilot is our psyche. Our spirits are free to choose whether to be united as one system or run solo. So far, we have chosen to go solo, but we see the costs. We are positioning ourselves against the whole of existence, claiming entitlement that we are not entitled to claim, and feel deprived when we don’t get what we weren’t supposed to get in the first place.

If we want to be healthy, strong, and happy, we first need to learn how all of nature works. We need to recognize that the whole system is integral and interconnected, that all parts support one another in an interdependent network of pieces that promote each other’s well-being. The apparent competition in nature is only a misinterpretation of our self-centered mindsets. Species support one another and strengthen one another since they are all interdependent.

Once we know that, we will understand how we can become similar to nature, and therefore truly happy. We will realize that people who hold different views are not our foes, since without them we wouldn’t be able to define ourselves, our views, our thoughts. It is exactly the conflicts and contradictions in our lives, the things we disagree with, that make us think, grow, articulate, and become more complete human beings.

In the end, the human ecosystem should resemble the rest of nature, create a network of different and opposing views, colors, races, religions, nations, personalities, and cultures that together make a beautiful whole, as diverse as nature itself. We all love and appreciate nature’s diversity, so why not love and appreciate our own? Just as we love nature because all the pieces in it make a beautiful whole, we should learn to love humanity because all the different pieces of us make a beautiful whole, of which we are all equally important parts.

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Medium published my new article “Covid-19, Light at the End of the Tunnel”

People’s will to weather the coronavirus storm and get back to normal life has vied with the surge of record-breaking infection rates around the globe. People are tired of hearing about the pandemic but it grips and does not let go, spreading and striking. Yet, we can find the stamina to navigate the crisis when we realize that the solution is in our hands.

If we help each other take on the mindset of the good of all, our hearts will be cleansed of egoistic and alienating attitudes and all the parts of nature will recover balance. The common concern for the well-being of others will create solutions for every possible situation, building a shield that will protect us from all predicaments.

“For the first time in history, nearly every scientist in the world is focused on the same problem… this is starting to pay real dividends,” say academics from Harvard who highlight the new era of cooperation we have entered to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on every realm of our lives: the economy, health, education, culture. Millions of people worldwide are stressed out over the variables that predict what awaits us in the future. What will happen in the upcoming winter in terms of COVID cases? How many more people will be unemployed?

The uncertainty shapes our collective consciousness and prepares it for a sharp turn. Precisely this kind of change of perspective — from a narrow-minded, egoistic perspective to a comprehensive, broad approach to solving our common challenges — is what will help us to reach a solution to the crisis at the deepest root of the problem: our dysfunctional human relations, rather than approaching it only from a scientific, economic or political perspective.

The Silver Lining Is Between Us

From a world where a person sees only himself, we need to transition to a world where people consider one another. From a world where we no longer stop to consider whether or not to wear a mask or keep social distance to avoid the transmission of a harmful virus to those near us, we need to attain a reality in which we consciously do whatever it takes to protect others, in the same way as we would like others to take care of the health of our children.

Our current sense of helplessness is making us more sensitive to the relationships between us. Without improving our human relations, we will be unable to secure a good future. Instead, we will only waste precious energy and resources on wars and conflicts of interest. Even if a cure for COVID-19 is found, it will not cure the social phenomenon of excessive egoism, the state that causes people not to feel the needs of others but only their own selfish demands.

The ultimate vaccine against all pathogens targets the healing of the hearts, neutralizes venomous criticism and corrects our exploitative attitude towards others. Nature is not blind and nothing happens by chance. The engine of evolution produces what we perceive as negative events so we will react and make connections that move us in the opposite direction toward alignment with nature. This is the formula for the evolution of life, and the times require everyone to realize this. The world we have built is completely interconnected, but our hearts remain far apart. This incompatibility is exactly what we are required to fix so we will function as an integral system in mutual consideration and harmony.

If we help each other take on the mindset of the good of all, our hearts will be cleansed of egoistic and alienating attitudes and all the parts of nature will recover balance. The common concern for the well-being of others will create solutions for every possible situation, building a shield that will protect us from all predicaments. Then we will discover that there is nothing threatening in nature, and that the coronavirus was just the means for curing the world from hatred and excessive consumerism.

The bottom line of this formula for security and prosperity is simple: without connection of the hearts we will all suffer, but mutual support will build a sensation of paradise. We are like a family stuck together in a tunnel. We will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel only with the power of love.
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