My article in Newsmax: “Coronavirus and Emergency Economy”

At the moment, governments are trying to inject businesses and businesspeople with financial oxygen until the pandemic passes. But it won’t pass so quickly. In my estimate, we’re looking at 12-18 months before it fades away. But more importantly, when it’s over, people will have changed dramatically; they will not want to revert to the old way of life.

Graffiti in Hong Kong reads: “We can’t return to normal because our normal was the problem in the first place.” How very true. Some business will return, but a great many will not because they were redundant to begin with so resuscitating them is nothing but a waste of taxpayers’ money. Instead of wasting, governments should declare an “emergency economy” and freeze everything until the dust settles. After several months it will be easier to see what to keep and to what we should bid farewell.

So the first thing that governments need to do is make sure that everyone has food and shelter. Every family should get the same per capita, and this will alleviate the need for cash. Guaranteeing food and shelter for each person is much less costly than transferring money to people’s accounts, and guarantees that they will not waste it on unessential needs.

In the meantime, the business and finance sectors should be put on hold: All transactions, lending and paying of loans, everything and everyone should simply take a break.

The more obstinate we are recognizing the onset of the new phase in humanity, the more painfully that phase will impose itself on us. If you think of social changes like a train ride, then the train has left the dock on its way to a new station, and it will not stop until we’re there.

Alleviating the Transition

My intention in writing this article is not to intimidate anyone. On the contrary, I want the necessary transition we all have to undergo to be as smooth, quick and pleasant as possible. Humanity has suffered enough; there’s no need to add unnecessary agony.

To help us alleviate the shift, we should supplement the provision of food and shelter with information about the process unfolding the world over. Many people already feel that nature is rejuvenating quickly since we’ve been told to stay at home. They realize that we have done too much harm and that we cannot go on this way.

Now we should extend this realization to the relationships between us. Our ill-will toward each other has cost us far more pain and ill-health than the coronavirus. Worse yet, it has made us uncaring for each other no less than we are uncaring for nature. When we rear people in a dog-eat-dog mentality, is it a wonder that this is how they also treat nature?

Therefore, the healing must begin with us. Once we learn how dependent we are on each other, we will stop treating one another like enemies. We will realize that by seeing to each other’s well being we will be seeing to our own well being, and nothing teaches us this lesson better than COVID-19.

Our compulsory slowdown is not aimless; it is for us to reflect on our lives and their meaning. Now that consumerism has been stopped by force majeure, we have time to ask why we needed it in the first place, what we gained by it, and who gained from it. Certainly not us.

We are living in the twilight of one era and the dawn of another. It has not risen yet, but if we teach ourselves about it work shoulder-to-shoulder to embrace it, it will rise and shine on a new humanity: ready to welcome the new epoch with open arms that are joined together.
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Medium published my new article “Social Distancing: a Call For a Deeper Level of Connection”

We are in the midst of a very unique time. Humans are social animals, but in the COVID-19 era, the difference between being healthy or sick could be determined by our physical proximity to others. Thus, social distancing is encouraged by the experts to avoid a ripple effect of the virus. But staying away from each other at the corporeal level could also help us to reshape and improve our relations.

How? We can achieve such a goal by nearing our hearts, the ultimate purpose for which the pandemic unfolds.
From non-mandatory stay at home recommendations to imposed quarantines, an unprecedented lockdown is observed across the globe. With a naked eye it would seem as if life is throwing us in all directions mercilessly, imposing new rules on us, leaving us with very little time to grasp the rapid changes and get used to the new reality. So, humanity awaits its defeat impatiently, expecting to overcome the small invisible yet stronger than any flesh and blood enemy that disrupts normal life.

But there is another hidden adversary we have to defeat, which is dangerously moving freely among us. COVID-19 is just a byproduct, a reflection of what happens inside our society. It is not the disease per se. It came to ring a bell and warn us about an even more dangerous pest: the ego that has taken over the world and alienates us. By the ego, we mean the intention for self-benefit at the expense of others’ misfortune.

Getting Separate, Growing Closer

Humanity is in a battle against the coronavirus, but the most important struggle takes place within humanity itself. We are running after the virus and extract revenge over what it says, shooting the messenger. Let the doctors heal, let the scientists research, let the experts fulfil their role and find a vaccination. Even then, neither a vaccine nor social distancing and total lockdowns will defeat the plague, but our new attitude.

We need only accept what the virus is communicating to us. If it is understood, we can all turn and be victorious over ourselves, namely over the hooliganism that we have developed among us: clashes, hatred, friction and intrigue. Any attempt on our behalf to improve our attitudes to each other, to develop relations of mutual consideration and responsibility, will be considered a wonderful triumph.

Building an Internal Bridge Between Us

In this period, we would be wise to take a look at the big picture and not at the small virus. We are integral parts of nature. Therefore, the nearer we become to each other, as we balance negative forces with positive ones, as we bridge the gaps among us, overcoming distances that separate us, we will defeat the separation with the power of connection.

We will then feel that the world is less of a combat arena, and that it has become softer and friendlier. It will not happen in one shot. We will heal slowly. It is like a patient who recovers one day after the next, until becoming strong enough to finally be healthy again.

Connection is our remedy, social cohesion is our healer. If instead of selfish struggles and control over others, we get along among each other and develop relations of mutual responsibility and cooperation, we will certainly be able not only to get over the coronavirus outbreak, but we will also break the walls that separate us.

We will then realize that the only distance is the one between our hearts.
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We will all leave quarantine and enter a new world with a different economy, with different priorities and prospects, with other limitations and opportunities. The better we understand it now, the easier our acclimation will be.

Despite the drama that the media love so much when adequate experts and sober-minded people reflect on the current stage of development, they do not regret the past and face the future with hope.

Their common denominator is undeniable: scientific and technological progress as we knew it, slowed down a long time ago and placed the world before global threats, which are its integral side effects. Simply put, on the previous path, we destroyed ourselves by mercilessly wasting resources and instilling the paradigm of consumer degradation in people’s minds.

The Guardian columnist Denny Dorling believes that the coronavirus has become an emergency alarm, a pressed emergency-brake-button that will help humanity wake up and move on to other tracks. It is time to break the stupor.

We were told that we are moving toward a bright, enlightened, cultural, civilized world, but at the same time, we were led into the dark reality of international corporations, international capital, endless work, hopeless unemployment, constant environmental crises, and a total dullness.

However, trends are breaking down whether we want it or not. The future is knocking on the door, and it is not what we have seen in the past. If we reject and ignore it, the world runs the risk of falling into turbulence compared to which the coronavirus will appear as child’s play. And therefore, it is necessary to respond to this alarm call right now.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, each new stage includes five steps. First, it is implicitly born, then it actually appears, then we begin to pay attention to it, then we resist the changes we face,  and finally we accept them for lack of another way out.

In this maturation algorithm, the coronavirus itself will not be a decisive trigger. To some extent, it wears us out of the old, but it does not allow us to get used to the new, and does not reveal or clarify itself in our minds so far.

Nevertheless, the process has started, and with time, it will occur to us that forgetting about it as a nightmare will not work. Then we will think about how to build our future lives, and we will inevitably have to float above the fog.

The essence of the current situation is that it requires changing socio-economic relations and adopting a new approach to budget allocation. Since 2008, it has become clear that in times of crisis, people will have to be provided with a decent life.

Now we are beginning to understand: life should not only be tolerable but generally procured for on the economical level, and meaningful, integral, mutually enriching on the human level

This is what the period of self-isolation brings us to, and the world cannot wait for the end of it. Now, out of hopelessness, we are depriving ourselves of our former joys because we understand that everyone is responsible for each other. But we are responsible for each other even without the virus!

This is the key lesson, and you must not miss it! The contours of a future society emerge as more uniform, caring, and interconnected; everything needs to be gradually restructured for it: schools, professions, systems, and views.

At first, all this will seem artificial, raw, and awkward. What can you do? Shoes need to be worn, fruits must be grown, children must be educated. But this will allow the world to enter an inevitable, new era without excesses caused by its total rejection.

And here, we, the people of Israel, have a decisive role to play. Why? Because we have always been open to the new. We did not just accept it, we brought it closer and shaped it. Surprisingly, two opposites live in us: a steadfast commitment to our original foundations and a fantastic readiness for change, unprecedented adaptability, eternal search, and eternal impulse.

Unfortunately, we do not want to understand ourselves, where it comes from, and what it means. But time does not wait; it clearly demonstrates to the world that these qualities of ours are now becoming critically important. We are able to understand and accept the new by showing a good example to everyone.

In the meantime, while we sleep in quarantine, other nations of the world hate us more and more. They do not recognize the true causes of this hatred, but they feel that we are harming them. Today, of course, we are accused of this pandemic, and at the same time, vaccines are expected from us.

In reality, the world indiscriminately expects from the Jews a cure for the main ailment—selfishness. And until people get it, anti-Semitism will flourish. After all, it is imbued in humanity ever since the Jews became a nation at the foot of Mount Sinai.

Therefore, only one thing will help us and the world in the end: the awakening of Israel from hibernation. This is another lesson of the coronavirus. No matter how much we shrug it off, it will not help. They still expect help from us even when we are being stigmatized and accused of completely delusional sins.

What can we give the world? What will it accept from us with sincere gratitude and recognize as “paying off debts”?

Communication. We can give the world a human connection that will solve all problems. We can form a society that meets the challenges of the times.

In our century, this is called by the pejorative term “socialism,” but I am not afraid of this word. Yes, socialism is also our offspring. And although on it stands the ignominy of the Soviet experiment, it is only because you must not pluck an unripe fruit, it is impossible to forcefully impose relationships for which neither people nor circumstances have ripened.

This was best described by Mark Golansky, Doctor of Economics, who in 1987 spoke of the impending collapse of the USSR as if he had seen it with his own eyes: “The time of capitalism,” he writes, “is the modern period of development, and the time of socialism is the future period of maturity. These two systems are actually two successive stages of the existence of mankind, and it is better for them not to intersect in time.

Capitalism will not be fit for a mature society. To maintain the achieved standard of living, society needs a system that is more resistant to environmental turmoil and less sensitive to profitability. Such a conclusion is unequivocally led by forecasts predicting at the time of the transformation of capitalism into socialism such a high level of integration of the world capitalist system that it becomes one and indivisible.”

We are approaching this milestone now. And the coronavirus is in fact a part of the environmental problems that humanity is facing.

Kabbalah adds to this another layer that links everything together: today, we are faced not with nature but with ourselves. Nature is not spontaneous, it is our mother, and it always meets our level of development. And today, the pressure on nature is caused by the fact that the time has come for us to grow and change. The world is almost ripe. And who will help it realize what is happening if not us?
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Related Material:
What Will The World Be Like After The Epidemic?
After The Pandemic
Coronavirus—A Consequence Of The Imbalance Of Nature

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My article in Newsmax: “If We Take Care of Ourselves First, We’ll Aid Nature”

A little while ago, The Guardian interviewed the U.N.’s environment chief, Inger Andersen. According to the paper, Andersen said that nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic, that humanity was placing too many pressures on the natural world with damaging consequences. Andersen warned that failing to take care of the planet meant not taking care of ourselves.

It is true that we are placing too many pressures on nature. It is also true that these pressures are destroying our environment and harming ourselves. But in my view, Ms. Andersen’s words embody our biggest mistake: Saying that failing to take care of the planet means not taking care of ourselves puts the cart before the horse. It is ourselves, our relationships with one another that we should tend to first. Only when we learn to care for one another will we learn to care for nature. Only when we learn the meaning of social responsibility will we be able to practice global responsibility. As long as we exploit one another, we will exploit nature just as much.

The coronavirus is sending us more than one message. Stay home and keep away from one another is only the beginning. This is stage one, where nature speaks to us like a reproving parent: “You’ve been bad to one another so go to your separate rooms.” Now that we have been forced to practice social distancing, it is time to take the next lesson: getting closer correctly.

The Big Cleanup

To “clean us up” from occupations that revert us to our previous ties, nature, via its faithful messenger COVID-19, will make certain that we cannot return to our past engagements. It will continue to haunt us until we accept the new reality, admit that we were wrong, and ask how nature wants us to behave.

When we accept that the problem is with us, we will see that replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy will not solve a thing. Indeed, we are ruining the planet through exaggerated use of fossil fuels, wood, pollution of fresh water bodies and oceans, depletion of natural resources, extinction of animals and destruction of wildlife habitats.

But we do all that not because we’re unaware of the harm that we are doing; we do it because we do not care. We do not need to help nature; we need to change our own nature. If we don’t want to change, nature will compel us to in its own way. COVID-19 is but the prelude, not a standalone opera. If we don’t understand the message it is sending us, this opera will become a very sad tragedy.

So now that we have been separated, let us learn how to connect properly. The first rule of thumb is that if it’s more than you really need, it is too much, and it’s exploitative to nature and to other people. The second rule of thumb is that whatever I do, whether it’s giving or receiving, I do in order to benefit all of society.

Just as nature is one inclusive system, we must develop an inclusive worldview that takes into account all people. Society knows what it needs and rewards those who contribute to it with respect and praise. Gradually, these accolades will replace the prevailing self-centered tokens of success such as extravagant wealth, power and a false sense of superiority.

By carefully planning our steps toward a world of positive connections, we will build a world that is in every sense higher than our grim reality. By cultivating ties of friendship and mutual responsibility toward each other, we will be able to bid farewell to the old world.

Indeed, it is infinitely more satisfying to feel the whole of society, and through it, the whole of reality, rather than limit the world to the reality perceived when all I have in mind is me.

Nature, aka reality, is ushering us into a world where we can choose to be good students and learn easily and pleasantly, or rebellious children who learn against their will, but still thank their teacher in the end. Whichever the case, nature will not ease up on us until we learn.
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/11/20

We are about to live in a new world, a very different world from the one we’ve known. We will change many of our engagements. We will come to like staying more at home and will do our business over the internet. Many of our current businesses and activities will become obsolete or profoundly different after COVID-19.

It will be many more months before the coronavirus is gone, if not more. When we return to normalcy, it will be a different normal: our engagements and preferences will be different and we will live in a different world because we ourselves will be different people. But it will be a better life.

Life is about more than getting to know what restaurants or culture each country and city has to offer. We were going with the flow, but I think the flow will change. It will be a more relaxed world and people will be more contemplative and calm.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/10/20

COVID-19 is not just another blow. It is the first time in history that a crisis simultaneously strikes the whole world: every country, continent, and island. The virus has tied all of us together with an invisible thread, all the nations and all the people. It has proven to us that we are all not only connected, but are dependent on one another. As we try to emerge from the crisis, we will discover that no one can become virus free unless we all become virus free. We are in a state of global mutual responsibility. I am grateful for this revelation because realizing this interdependence allows us to begin to tilt all of humanity toward unity and love of others. Now everyone will understand that it’s all of us or none of us at all.

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelLaitman/photos/a.236229419813674/2279905275446068/?type=1&theater

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/9/20

The European Union was born in sin and will die in agony. It was forged in order to give Europe a competitive edge against the US and the strengthening China and Russia. It focused almost exclusively on creating a common market and a common currency, but it gave no thought to the social implications of a union of peoples that have been on and off at war with one another for centuries.

The monetary union created a powerful currency but impoverished many of its member states and left them dependent, despondent, and denigrated. It did not create union; it created even more hatred. Monetary union without solidarity, a sense of national pan-European patriotism, is unsustainable. The migrant crisis almost took it apart as it pushed the UK out of the EU but it managed to persist. The coronavirus crisis, however, seems to be a blow that the EU will not survive. In my view, it is for the best.

Globalization – a Great Idea Done Wrong

In principle, union is a great idea. It’s the right way to go because all of reality is evolving toward greater unity and collaboration. Evolution went from the simplest particles to compositions of particles that created atoms, which created molecules, which created organisms, and so forth. Likewise, human society evolved from clans to settlements that grew into cities, counties, countries, and empires.

However, there is a fundamental difference between the way nature evolves and the way human society evolves. As nature evolves, it maintains balance and harmony. A concept of overconsumption doesn’t exist in nature because every animal takes only what it needs for its survival. With humans, where the ego rules, overconsumption is the kernel of our existence. The more we have compared to others, the more we value ourselves. Therefore, any alliance has, by default, an ulterior motive to hurt someone else—an enemy of the alliance, one of the members of the alliance, or both. This is human nature, but it contradicts nature’s core principle of evolution that it must be based on balance and harmony.

In order to create lasting monetary globalization, the people in the participating member states must first choose to do so. This is a profound and extended process that requires adopting a pan-national identity that is stronger than the national identity. Only when people sympathize with the multinational entity more than with their own nation state will they agree to such a transformation.

No such preparation was done in Europe. As a result, the stronger countries, following their inherent nature to exploit, plundered the smaller, weaker economies and left them destitute and dishonored. Now that the coronavirus has struck, the enmity and distrust among them is surfacing and proves that they cannot rely on one another. They need to put the EU to rest and start over. And the first step in that direction is to return to nurturing their local economies.

It is not that countries should not forge unions. On the contrary, I believe that in the end, when we have overcome our selfishness, we will not need borders and the notion of the nation state will evaporate. But we are nowhere near there yet. Instead, we must be sensible, acknowledge our self-centeredness, and try to agree on rules and boundaries that will keep our savageness in check and allow all of us to live in relative peace and stability.

Subsequently, we should begin to teach ourselves about the unity that exists in nature, where every part contributes its skills and receives from the collective everything it needs in order to thrive. When we gradually come to see that a collective existence is not only safer than individualistic competition, but also much more rewarding, we will be able to cautiously, slowly, and wisely build a common entity. But this will not be a European, American, Russian or Chinese entity, but a global human race.

Until then, we must accept and respect our differences.

(Image: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holds a news conference detailing EU efforts to limit economic impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/Pool)

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Ma Nishtana? A Passover Unlike Any Other”

The Passover holiday this year is expected to be the most unique in modern history. For the first time, the Jewish people, regardless of their location, will celebrate not only around the table but inside the Web. It is a special occurrence as physical restrictions have been imposed to celebrate with extended family—particularly to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly, from potentially contracting the COVID-19. This new situation is also an opportunity to zoom out and look at the bigger picture: the connection between the exit from Egypt and the exit from this pandemic.

On Passover night, everyone sits with their loved ones at a festive table to read about freedom and the sufferings of slavery and plagues, and the desire for liberation. We ask ourselves, Ma nishtana? (what has changed), which is an inner reflection on what makes this night different from all other nights. This year, that traditional question adopts a deeper dimension, demanding from us a meaningful and thorough scrutiny.

Passing Over All Calamities

Passover (Pesach) means “passage” or “transition” from the egoistic state of self-love to love for the neighbor, where you think of others, even if just a little. This transformation is similar to completely replacing a computer’s operating program. Likewise, we have to replace our current inner program of a selfish and egoistic approach with one of mutual consideration.

The coronavirus pandemic surged throughout the world precisely to serve that purpose: to make us realize that the whole of humanity is a single unit, where any element in nature, even as minuscule as a virus, can affect the whole system in the blink of an eye. The pandemic is telling us: “Stay home; you will be locked-down until you begin to realize how internally locked-down you are inside your ego.” Our current circumstances indicate that nature is interconnected and humans are the ones who are isolated, an internal isolation from each other.

The phrase, “we were slaves,” that we recite as part of the Seder tradition, refers to the great ego that rules everything, that we are slaves of Pharaoh, of our egoism—our lack of consideration for others. In the modern world, we seem to have raised Pharaoh’s power to such an elevated height that it batters us with its immensity. Unrestrained egoism pits us against the others, provoking rejection, quarrels, and struggles.

COVID-19, Not a Plague but an Opportunity

All human beings and all parts of nature are linked within one closed system, and if one individual thinks only of himself, he is harmful to everyone else. Furthermore, such harm reproduces and spreads widely and rapidly like an epidemic. Just like a healthy body requires complete integration between all its organs and systems, integration is also the only formula for a healthy society that will ensure that no damage is done to either mankind or the rest of nature. Through the coronavirus, nature is trying to bring us to the awareness that mutual guarantee, becoming as one man with one heart, is a necessity for our survival.

Therefore, COVID-19 cannot be considered a malevolent plague that has appeared for no reason or purpose, just like the plagues in the Haggadah we traditionally read about during the Passover Seder (ceremonial meal). The virus is actually an opportunity for humanity, this year like no other, to break free from the clutches of self-destruction and slavery. These challenging times are placing a mirror before us, raising awareness of what we need to correct in order to be in balance with nature, which is our intention to consider the well-being of others. If the purpose behind our connection with the world is to exploit everything around us only for personal gain, the time comes when these bad connections become so unbearable that nature breaks them apart by manifesting itself as a calamity.

When we fix our disruptive and destructive human relations and unite above our differences, we are saved from our enemies and come out from exile to freedom. The exit from egoistic thoughts and actions to those of bestowal is the deeper meaning of coming out of Egypt.

Each unification of our hearts and good intentions with another is a realization of the principle “love thy friend as thyself,” the great rule of the Torah.

All of the commandments, meaning the actions toward these corrections, are included within that one great rule until we finally reach the complete correct connection and enter the Land (Eretz, from the word Ratzon [desire]) of Israel (Yashar-El, meaning straight to the Creator). In other words, our desire becomes similar to and unites with the force of nature that controls everything—the Upper Force that brings about freedom, health, and all goodness in life. Happy Passover!
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The Times of Israel published my new article “A Virus as a Crown in the Kingdom of Anti-Semites”

Besides COVID-19, there is another kind of ruthless contagion around the planet: anti-Semitism.

Conspiracy theories and blood libels against Jews are the new, and yet old, epidemic as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The fact that Israel is working around the clock to develop a new vaccine against the deadly virus—which should be a reason for complements in a normal world—is surprisingly fueling hatred against Jews, accused of intentionally creating and spreading the virus to profit from its cure.

And when anti-Semites take aim to extensively spread their vicious agenda, tentacles of the far-right and the far-left intertwine forces to fight their common enemy: the Jews. Voices in Turkey and Iran, among other countries, blame Israel for what they call a pandemic that “serves Zionist’s interests.” BDS (the boycott movement against Israel, IfNotNow [left-wing Jewish activists], and White Supremacist groups have contributed their own share of bigotry and hatred to fuel the flames of a new wave of anti-Semitism, pointing their fingers at Jews for the Black Death plague that killed almost 50 million people worldwide, wiping out over half of Europe’s residents, a blood libel that was revived again in 1918 when the Spanish Flu pandemic ravaged the planet.

Same Hatred, A New Flare-Up

The current anti-Semitic wave indicates that the dark days when Jewish people were described as conniving and abusing elements of society are not over. The days in which we were accused of being responsible for all of the world’s problems are not behind us, quite the contrary. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that there is one way anti-Semitism can be totally erased. Until certain measures are taken, anti-Semitism will not disappear since it is embedded in the very foundation of the world. It will continue to resurface, particularly in times of peril, with swift vengeance.

Why is this so? It is because, instinctively, people feel that Jews hold the keys to solve the world’s problems. By attacking Jews, they in fact raise the Jewish nation to the highest pedestal, holding them both responsible for the problems and, at the same time, acknowledging them as those who repair a broken planet.

A Gradual Development toward a New World

The wisdom of Kabbalah delineates the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, which will increasingly unfold until a new reality is created, in four developmental stages that are similar in many ways to the progression of a pandemic like the coronavirus.

During the first stage, the present one, we identify the appearance of a crisis, we recognize a disruption in the communication between us and our way of life. This realization provides a new perception of our situation and what is required of us. We want to rid ourselves of the problem that halts our lives, but we understand that we cannot escape it easily.

At the second stage, we begin to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and begin to ask deep questions about how to live side by side with the “virus,” the disruption: How should we manage society, the country, the changing economy, employment, family and education?

At the third stage, we understand that there is a need to make changes in society. Although it is still early to describe exactly how, the problematic disruption, just like the coronavirus, moves us toward social change, toward a more egalitarian society. The target of the trajectory of change is a society where everyone earns and receives what is essential for each person, the basic needs for their existence, while the rest of society’s energy and power is invested in the collective benefit. Such change does not happen overnight, but is a continuous process and one that will cause a lot of opposition. However, gradually positive changes will expand to all institutions and systems in society.

The fourth and last stage will be marked by the realization that we can gain tremendously from these changes, particularly in the area of new human communication of a higher and more spiritual type, and its importance will push us even further. At last, looking back at our journey in retrospect, we will be able to appreciate the fact that all the former stages, as difficult as they were, through which we passed, were precisely and only for our benefit.

How Can Jews Cure an Ill World

One might ask, what is the role of Jews in this equation? It is precisely the role of the Jewish nation, founded upon the tenet of “love your neighbor as yourself,” to lead the way to the attainment of unity and toward recovery of the balance in nature that has been lost as a result of our unruly, egoistic and self-centered human relations. Jews were the first people to identify and understand the laws of nature, the need to live in a society based on mutual responsibility.

The first time that a portion of humanity experienced itself as a society based on the principle of mutual sharing was in ancient Babylon some 3500 years ago with Abraham the Patriarch. He discovered a method for rising above the human ego to unite and discover the single force of nature through the process of unification. Abraham called for people to rise above their conflicts to unite and made his teachings available to whoever wanted to join in this process. Those who followed him were called by Abraham, “Israel,” which translates to “Yashar Kel” (“straight to God”). Since that time, the uniqueness of the Jewish people is their capacity to connect directly to the upper force in nature which controls and manages all reality. Only with this force, explain the Kabbalists, is there the possibility for the world to exchange its ruinous direction for a positive one.

Therefore, as soon as Jews begin to learn and implement this method of connection—the wisdom of Kabbalah to attain unity and begin to deliver it to the rest of the world, feelings of family and community will prevail between Jews and the rest of humanity. This accomplishment will produce a sensation like that of a protective and secure womb that will neutralize all of the person’s harmful preoccupations and eliminate uncertainty about the future. In this new reality, Jews will be appreciated as the promoters of warm relations based on love, bonds that provide calm and tranquility for the whole world.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism: The Virus Break Is Over”

Before COVID-19 took over the world by storm, the newspapers were very often focused on the spreading global anti-Semitism. The coronavirus put people on survival mode, and when you’re busy saving your life and the lives of your loved ones, there is little energy to hate.

But now, it seems, the hiatus from anti-Semitism is almost over and Jew-hatred is returning. It was obvious from the get go that Jews shouldn’t pin their hopes on the superbug to spare them the wrath of the nations, but seeing the return of anti-Semitism even before the peak of the pandemic, is certainly cause for concern.

As pundits and environmentalists around the world have been asserting day and night, the outbreak is a product of our egoism. Our greed, profiteering, and exploitation of nature and each other have depleted Earth’s resources, driven animals from their natural habitats and into unhealthy proximity to humans, and pushed tens of millions of people below the income threshold that allows for maintaining proper health. This is a breeding ground for germs of all sorts, a biological bomb waiting to explode.

In simple terms, our ego has depleted the planet, pushed it off balance, and now the planet is taking back the helm and restoring balance, at our expense. It is not revenge, but an act of restoring balance.

Blame the CEO

If the coronavirus taught us anything, it is that we cannot keep dancing only to the tune of our egos; we have got to balance it. Yet, how do we do that?

I elaborated extensively on answering this question in my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour and in my latest publication, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord. Succinctly, anti-Semites blame us for all that’s wrong with the world since they feel that we control the world, so anything that’s wrong with it, it is because of us. In the same way you blame the CEO of a company when it does not perform well, anti-Semites blame the Jews when the world does not perform well. Today, according to the ADL and many other NGOs monitoring Jew-hatred, a great, and growing number of people in the world are anti-Semitic. Couple that with the fact that the world has thrown a pandemic on humanity and you have a perfect storm threatening to explode on the heads of the Jews worldwide.

The odd voices on the fringes of the Left and the Right shrieking that the Jews are to blame for everything are the droplets that come before the rain. But the clouds in the very near horizon are dark, heavy, and truly menacing.

Finding Shelter in Each Other

The Jews have not run out of time. The hiatus isn’t over yet. Their shelter, as always, is in their unity. This is, always has been, and always will be their canopy, their shelter from the storm. Every Jewish leader since the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has urged Jews to unite in order to avert affliction.

However, especially today, our unity cannot be for our own sake. We are not the only ones who need unity; the whole world needs it. We, Israel, are blamed for the destruction of the world by egoism; therefore, we are the ones who must show the way out of it by uniting above our own. If we unite and become a role model of unity, we will be the modern version of “a light unto nations,” the exemplar that the world needs today.

With the world’s enslavement to egoism, who better than us can lead the way to freedom in the days of Passover? If we unite in order to help each other rise above our egos, this is the only example that the world needs to see. This is why unity is so precious to us and why it is our only hope.
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