The Times of Israel published my new article “The Nation Of Israel Is The Only Nation With No Biological Root“

The nation of Israel is the only nation in the world with no biological root.

Unlike other nations, which emerged from shared parents and a small group, the nation of Israel has no biological parentage. Instead, it emerges from ancient Babylon, where Abraham the Patriarch connected people from different nations based on a spiritual idea: the need to love and unite above all differences.

If the people who make up the nation of Israel unite based on this spiritual idea, then they can be considered as a nation. Likewise, there is no basis for them to be called a nation if they fail to aim themselves at love and unity. Especially today, the nation of Israel is visibly not a united people. From those who want to completely disidentify with being Jewish, to those who are against the existence of the State of Israel, as well as sharp divisions in views across various political, religious and secular factions, they can be compared to nuts in a bag: if there is pressure on the bag, then they are forced to come together, but if that pressure goes away, then they disperse in different directions.

Therefore, in our present reality, the nation of Israel is only a nation in potential. It is a group that has the potential to unite based on the spiritual idea of “love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and to be a positive example of such unity to humanity (“a light unto the nations” [Isaiah 49:6]). In other words, the group that emerged in ancient Babylon, which comprised of representatives from different nations who had a desire to unite above their inborn differences and achieve a positive and complete form of unity, received the method of how to unite from Abraham.

Why?

It was in order for them to pass the method and example of unity on to humanity at a time when humanity would need it. Today is such a time. Today, the human ego, characterized by the desire to enjoy at other people’s expense, has grown to overblown proportions. It sparks increasing divisions in societies and spurs conflicts between peoples and nations. Therefore, the need for unity, and a method and example of how to unite above any and all differences, rises in parallel with the increasing ruptures in human society.

Until the unifying potential of the nation of Israel becomes actualized, anti-Semitism will increasingly surface to pressure the Jewish people to actualize unity above their differences, and then pass this example onto humanity.
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My article “Beware! These Hanukkah Insights Require Some Mental and Emotional Effort” published in The Times of Israel. 

As we light candles, eat soufganiyot and spin dreidels this Hanukkah, here’s an infographic to give us deeper insights into the holiday’s customs and concepts. Since Hanukkah discusses the initial entrance into a new, vast reality of positive connection among people, then in addition to the points in the infographic, here are some further elaborations…

Hanukkah, the Festival of Light = the Festival of Positive Connection

The inner meaning of “light” means positive connections among people. It has nothing to do with the light of the sun, or candlelight, or even the light of contentment we feel upon resolving some great doubt. To bring connection among people is the role of the Jewish people, i.e. to be “a light for the nations.”

We Jews need to first realize positive connection among each other, via connection-enriching education, and by doing so, be a conduit for this light to flow through to the world. Hanukkah is a special time when we Jews can contemplate what it means, for us and for the world, if we realized our role of being “a light for the nations” in today’s turbulent times.

Hanukkah = the First Parking Spot on a Roadtrip to Love

By connecting in a positive way, we mend our shattered, egoistic connections. It’s a process, and Hanukkah is its first stop (Hanu [park/stop], Koh [here]). It symbolizes not doing to others what we hate. This process of correction continues until we reach “love your friend as yourself.”

We Jews both have the mission and the means to pioneer and pass this correction process onto the rest of the world. At Hanukkah, we stop at this juncture where we connect by “not doing to others what we hate.” It’s not yet love, but it’s a significant step in that direction.

The Greeks = The Ego

The Greeks are a specific discernment of our ego, where we rationally justify why we don’t need to put in efforts to connect with each other. It has nothing to do with Greek nationality or culture.

If we, on the contrary, awaken the Jewish tendency to unite, trying to connect above the ego that tells us otherwise (the Greeks), we’ll start feeling the light of positive connection shine in the world, an extraordinary sensation of a much fuller reality than we’ve ever experienced in our daily lives. It’s that special reality, which is locked behind our efforts to connect to each other, that we Jews have the key to unlock for ourselves and for the world.

The Miracle of Hanukkah = The Awakening of the Desire to Connect

While the Greeks, our egos, tell us every good reason why we don’t need to try and connect with each other, if we put in efforts above its rationale, finding even the smallest will to connect to each other, that connective desire is considered the miracle of Hanukkah. It’s miraculous because it doesn’t exist in the egoistic human nature. It’s a spark of desire that awakens in us, and if we cherish it like a precious candlelight that we want to protect from wind and anything else that could put it out, then we can let that candlelight last, and ignite the process of fixing our connections.

Beyond the rather childlike customs and stories, Hanukkah marks a very serious initial stage in the process of fixing our connections: “Don’t do to others what you hate.” While going through the motions of the Hanukkah customs and songs, why not also pay attention to our attitudes to each other? Are we making an effort to connect to each other positively, above any differences between us?

Let us use this Hanukkah to realize the significant step it represents toward our becoming “a light for the nations,” i.e. becoming an example of positive connection for the world.
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The Times of Israel published my new article “Jewish Wisdom And The Next Renaissance In Europe”

Today’s humanity doesn’t necessarily recognize that the foundations shaping its culture were born in Europe: philosophy, science, art, politics, economics, and language. All of these transformed man from a barbaric creature to an enlightened human.

However, day by day, Europe is sinking. Just this week, after two years of political discussions and crises, leaders of 27 countries gathered in Brussels to finalize Britain’s exit from the European Union. The Brexit is yet another jolt to the common market, which joins the decline in political stability, the loss of European identity, the rise of the extreme right and the waves of mass immigration, all threatening to sink the European ship.

Thus, the human culture that formed in Europe over two millennia, the culture that became rooted in humanity’s DNA and shaped the patterns of thinking that characterize modern society, is now disintegrating. And while it is not yet clear how the future will play out, through the prism of Kabbalah one thing is certain: Once again, the world will set its sight on the Jewish people.

Two thousand years ago, when the Second Temple was at the height of its glory, many from the nations of the world came to visit, to learn from the sages of Israel about the secret of the Jewish people – about the wisdom that brought the Jewish people together as one man in one heart, the wisdom that had the power to weave differences between people into a harmonious humanity based on the laws of nature.

Those students were introduced to the profound wisdom that invigorated the Jewish people. However, based on a limited understanding of it, they created their own distorted versions of the wisdom. Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, a.k.a. Baal HaSulam, describes this as follows:

“The sages of Kabbalah observe philosophic theology and denounce that they have stolen the superficial shell of their wisdom, which Plato and his Greek predecessors had acquired while studying with the disciples of the prophets in Israel. They have stolen basic elements from the wisdom of Israel and wore a cloak that is not their own.

Some of the successors of those who studied with the Jewish sages write about it as well.

“The preeminence of Pythagoras was not derived from the Greeks, but again from the Jews. …He himself was the first to convert the name ‘Kabbalah,’ unknown to the Greeks, into the Greek name philosophy,” writes German philosopher Johannes Reuchlin in “De Arte Cabbalistica.

The 13th-century writer Raimundus Lullus wrote the following:

“Sciences such as theology, philosophy and mathematics take their principles and origins from the teachings of Kabbalah. These sciences are inferior to the laws and principles of Kabbalah, hence their arguments are lacking without it.

Founders of the Renaissance movement were also influenced by Kabbalah. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, an Italian philosopher and scientist who lived in the 15th century, studied Hebrew and became fascinated with the wisdom of Kabbalah.

In his essay “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” Mirandola wrote that “the true interpretation of the law given to Moses is called ‘Kabbalah,’” and noted that “the books of Kabbalah hold the fountains of knowledge and wisdom – the most solid philosophy that explains nature.

His seminal essay later became a manifesto of the Renaissance movement, which has reshaped all of Europe through art, religion, philosophy, literature, education, and more. The Renaissance brought about a dramatic change of worldview, which also led to the scientific revolution in Europe.

The physical presence of the Jews across Europe also brought about many changes throughout two thousand years of exile. In the economic sphere, for instance, the Jews had a significant foothold. Werner Sombart, one of the most prominent figures in social science at the beginning of the 20th century, described how the Jews managed to establish the capitalist system which took root in Europe:

“The people of Israel were like a sun, wherever it shone – new life emerged from the ground; wherever they left – destruction ensued.

But both the indirect influence Europe absorbed from the wisdom of Kabbalah and the direct impact of the presence of Jews who settled in Europe were an expression of a deeper and more significant process. Beneath the surface, an internal bond was forming between the Jewish people and the European peoples. Gradually, a dependence was woven between the evolution of human culture and the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Today, about two thousand years later, this process of connection is reaching a new stage. Human culture is becoming interconnected across the globe. Borders are becoming blurred, the Internet funnels humanity into a single shared virtual space, and humans need a wisdom of connection that is adapted to our generation to unify above their differences.

Since Europe constitutes the foundation of human culture, the need is felt there first and foremost. As the European continent declines, the demand for the wisdom of connection that is rooted in the Jewish people begins to bubble within, and on the outside, it appears as powerful waves of anti-Semitism.

The internal and external pressures directed at Jews in Europe, and all around the world, will push them to rediscover the unifying power of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

“To rediscover and rekindle the natural love within us, to revive and revitalize those nationhood muscles that have not been active within us for two thousand years” (Baal HaSulam).

Once the Jewish people begin to rise to a higher level of human connection, the nations of the world will also replace their hostile attitude toward them with a friendly attitude. As a result, a new Renaissance will emerge – in Europe and across the world.
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Medium published my new article “Younger people are less sexually active today. Why is that?”

The young generation lives in the most permissive era: They use apps where they can find casual sex, they have the morning after pill, sexting has become a normal behavior, and our culture has never been more open to sexual relations among young adults. And yet, sex is on the decline mostly among the younger generation.

The Atlantic magazine calls this a “Sex Recession” and has devoted the coming December 2018 issue to explore the topic. A 12,665-word article tries to understand the main reasons for the phenomenon, such as an overload of online entertainment that caused a decline in the desire for sexual intimacy, the frequent use of dating apps, which made flirting in public spaces less acceptable, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and sleep deprivation have all been suggested as reasons for suppressing the desire to have sex.

Add to this the high viewing rates of porn, the #metoo movement that made men more anxious and less spontaneous about approaching women, women’s growing fear of being exploited, the blurring of gender differences, the social acceptance of getting married towards the age of forty, the trend of living with one’s parents for economic convenience and avoid having children — and there you have a range of conditions that contributed to a major drop in sexual activity over the last two decades.

But rather than seeing the decline in sexual activity as a mere problem, we should see it as an evolutionary phenomenon that is now occurring in the human race.

Drifting with the Growth of Our Ego

The ego is the driving force of human evolution. It is the natural inclination that differentiates the human from the animal world. As the human ego evolves, it drives humans to focus more on their individual needs and desires, demanding a greater and greater benefit in order for an individual to form connections with others. Today, the human ego has reached a peak where it aims to minimize any commitment to others, even when it comes to sexual activity.

The growth of the ego is the fundamental reason behind the decline in sexual activity, and it has major implications on human society. While the decline in sex is evident on the surface, the less apparent decline is happening in the basic drive for courting between the sexes. The urge to please the other, to show our affection towards the other, and to create genuine interest in the other towards us have all lost their importance. As a result, we are losing a very fundamental passion for life and a significant fuel for human activity.

Every human being has a strong need for attention. Men, for instance, instinctively want to impress women, and that shapes a lot of their thoughts and actions, with or without their awareness. Women, on the other hand, need direct attention from men, which can be expressed through a compliment or a certain act for their sake.

However, since our egoism has grown and broadened the gaps between us, human culture also adapts itself, making it easier for the sexes to avoid courting each other, and “get straight to the point.” But not only do we end up being less sexually active, we’re also numbing the reciprocal interplay between the sexes.

Male and Female Are Complementary Forces of Nature

If “courting” would be the first course to reteach our children at school, then “dance” would be the first lesson in the course.

The whole of nature exists in a harmonious dance between its male and female elements of nature — whether it’s plus and minus, sperm and egg, electron and proton, ebb and flow — the two opposite parts of creation are continuously taking on new forms and creating new levels of life.

The reciprocal movement between male and female is where the mind of nature lies. If we acquire this mind, we will recognize the unique and natural roles of both male and female, which are deeply rooted in our biology, occurring in our physiology and expressed in our psychology. While it’s certainly possible to blur the differences between the sexes, it’s impossible to eliminate them.

Moreover, blurring the differences between male and female on the sociocultural level disrupts our perception of reality. Just as the contrasts between darkness and light, hunger and satiation, bitter and sweet, etc. create meaning in our lives and build our cognition, the contrast between the sexes on the human level is critically important to our analytical ability and the way in which we decipher reality.

If we continue to drift with the growth of our ego, without consciously working on human connection, we may find ourselves in a future where babies are mainly created in the laboratory, people develop relationships primarily with robots, and human connection will gradually fade away.

The decline in sexual activity points to an evolutionary crisis designed to lead us towards the next move in our dance with nature. The male and female components of mankind have to evolve in their connection to find a new, deeper, spiritual bond that’s needed to maintain balance in human society, not just between people, but with the whole of nature as well.

While animals maintain their balance by instinct, we humans have to do it consciously. Therefore, we need education to support and drive our spiritual transformation.

As we begin to rise to a new level of human connection, we won’t need to blur our differences because we will see how they merge to create harmony, how our unique qualities complement each other, just as it happens throughout the rest of nature.

This is the connection that’s missing for all of us. Women tend to be naturally more sensitive to this, but men also have the same internal need for the spiritual union that nature has in store for us. As the Book of Zohar writes: “The human is the inclusion of male and female, and the world cannot be built, if male and female are not both present.” Discovering our spiritual connection will restore the balance between male and female at all levels — including sexual activity.
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Medium published my new article “Fitness in the 21st Century: The Birth of a New Religion”

Who doesn’t want to be fit these days? Trying to stay in good shape has become a noble quest in modern life, and an expensive one. Does the effort actually yield a more fulfilling life? The end result feels more like we’ve been tilting at windmills because something is missing.

Whether your daily schedule includes preparing superfoods, working out at the gym or outdoors, taking supplements, getting state-of-the-art gadgets to measure your training performance and body levels, we invest in anything and everything necessary to be in shape and healthy at any price.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad about being fit. Regular exercise can help reduce stress and improve health. The problem arises when devotion to staying in shape becomes an obsession.

It is precisely this Western fixation on the cult of the body that feeds a $32 billion fitness industry. Instead of delivering, our preoccupation just adds pressure to our already heavyweight lives. How can we lift the weight off our shoulders and experience true satisfaction?

As far back as the 1950s, anthropologist Horace Miner wrote about a strange people called the “Nacirema” who were excessively focused on their physical appearance. Through various ceremonies and rituals, they tried to improve their condition at the ultimate expense of their peace of mind. “It is hard to understand how they have managed to exist so long under the burdens which they have imposed upon themselves,” Miner wrote in his journal.

As it turns out, the Nacirema were neither a lost tribe nor inhabitants of a far-off land. “Nacirema” is “American” spelled backwards, and Miner’s work is a critical review of the American worship of the body in current society. People are ready and willing to do anything to delay aging: undergo cosmetic treatments, consume what is marketed as optimal nutrition, follow rigorous and unconventional workout regimes, and whatever it takes to live up to 150 years if it were possible.

The characteristics of our generation have swung full-circle back to the days of Hellenistic Greek culture with its worship of the “I” and quest for perfection, personal achievement and competition. Our fitness infatuation has made us forget the essential truth of our existence: at the end of the day, the body will be buried six feet under and gradually rot. This distressing truth underscores the importance chasing an ageless and worthy goal.

We are not to be blamed for our folly because there is an instinctive desire to cultivate and preserve the body at the root of every human being. We have within us a yearning to reach eternity. We are just misguided and squander our strength on our passion for corporeal goals.

There is a way to achieve ultimate wholeness and eternity. When we aim ourselves above the limitations of our temporary lives at the soul’s development, we discover the feeling of attaining a supreme power that encompasses nature. This is the force that gives life to everything in nature, the force that allows for eternal life — the power of love and bestowal. A person imbued with this power begins to perceive a different reality, a life of balance and fulfillment.

How is it possible to live in this new reality? We enter it by focusing our “work outs” on our spiritual body, our inner self. Although we may continue our engagement in physical activities and take care of our health, our main concern becomes directed toward spiritual growth, which is achieved through human connection, i.e. by building and nurturing strong, meaningful relationships.

As we switch self-concern with concern for others, aging and the body’s expiration date are no longer the main focus of our lives. We invest in building meaningful connections instead of spending fortunes on phony fixes, we grab onto our inextinguishable soul. Then the loss of the body to death is no more painful to us than removing a shirt because we have risen above corporeal existence. By investing in our internal body, our inner temple, we will experience a life full of vitality, eternally beautiful and fit.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “I Too Have a Dream… A World Free of Anti-Semitism.”

Rekindling Black-Jewish Relations in America through Jewish connection

Early in the afternoon, walking in a busy area of Brooklyn, New York, a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was punched in the face and kicked in an unprovoked attack by a young black man as caught on camera. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident, but only one of the latest in an upward spiral of anti-Semitic attacks in America perpetrated by African Americans. We explore in this article the basis of this widespread hatred and the source of its unique solution.

Just recently, a 26-year-old black man was arrested, suspected of being responsible for seven fires set outside Jewish facilities in New York, and for writing anti-Semitic graffiti “Kill all Jews” and “Die Jew rats, we are here,” on a Brooklyn synagogue. Days before, another black man was charged with a hate crime after smashing a Jewish man with a stick in a New York neighborhood, in another unprovoked attack.

Just days after a number of synagogues and yeshivas were attacked in the area, the New York Police Department arrested a group of black teens who carried out a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Brooklyn, including pushing a 10-year-old Hasidic girl to the ground, knocking the hat off a 14-year-old Hasidic boy, and throwing a metal pipe through the window of a synagogue during Shabbat prayers in the Williamsburg neighborhood.

Black anti-Semitism has also emerged in the form of vicious hate speech targeting Jews and Israel. Earlier this year, an African-American city councilman in Washington, DC accused the Rothchilds of being responsible for climate change. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter endorsed the BDS boycott of Israel, accusing it of being an “apartheid state” perpetrating “genocide.”

However, the vociferous and virulent anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakahn, who makes no effort to hide his inflammatory thoughts, overshadows all other African-American Jew-hatred. He recently compared Jews with termites, preached from his pulpit that contemporary Jews are “not really Jews but are in fact Satan,” and constantly incriminates Jews as evil conspirators.

Why have Black-Jewish tensions escalated?

Blacks and Jews, as minorities in the US, have a long history of fruitful cooperation dating back to the Civil Rights movement when they worked hand in hand to advance the ideal of a more pluralistic society. American human rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also had a special bond with Jews and Israel, as he expressed in the late 1960s: “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs.”

What has soured relations between the African American and Jewish communities since then? From the moment Jews began to establish their status in American society through hard work and taking full advantage of every window of opportunity, the relationship between Jews and African Americans began to change. Blacks felt left behind and grew increasingly frustrated.

Within many American circles there is insidious anti-Semitism, and Jews are portrayed as the oppressors of the unprivileged, among them blacks, accused of being rich at the expense of the disadvantaged. Such claims have thrown fuel on the flames of frustration and resentment from the black community, inciting anti-Semitic sentiments.

However, we must take care not to generalize about the tensions between the Jewish and African American communities. It is also true that a black-Jewish alliance has been established to fight racism and anti-Semitism in light of the revival of the White Supremacists movement in America. The real problem is that nothing ever seems to palliate the ogre of anti-Semitism. The truth is that, while the underlying root of anti-Semitism has caught some American blacks in its branches (along with many others), to eradicate the hatred, we must grasp its root.

The greatest Kabbalist of this generation, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, understood exactly why anti-Semitism obstinately persists and explained it sixty years ago: “It is a fact that Israel is hated by all nations, whether for religious reasons, racial reasons, capitalistic reasons, communistic reasons, or cosmopolitan reasons. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each [person] merely resolves one’s loathing according to one’s own psychology,” (Yehuda Ashlag, “The Writings of The Last Generation”)

The wisdom of Kabbalah studies the fundamental forces of nature and explains that there is an ironclad law within nature that cannot be changed. One can only study this absolute rule and learn how to act upon it, but never attempt to violate it without extreme consequences. What is this supreme law of nature?

Kabbalists throughout the ages explain that all of humanity is contained within one harmonious system of inter-relations in which two opposite forces operate: positive and negative. The negative force is the same rejecting egoism that distinguishes and separates people, the same urge that causes racism and hatred of the other. Against this repelling force within each of us stands the positive force that encloses, connects and unifies all the various parts of the system.

Opening the Pipeline of Harmony in the World

Since receiving the law of human interaction within this system at Mt. Sinai, it is as if Jews hold the microphone for communication within the system like a kind of microprocessor that reverberates to all humanity. In their hands is the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah. Once the Jews unite, the same positive force radiates outward to the entire world. But, as soon as the Jews let the egoistic force within nature manage them, the irrational-seeming hatred of anti-Semitism is aroused in all the organs of the system, in all countries, forms, and skin colors.

Like a body involuntarily gasping for breath, the world unconsciously pressures the Jews to deliver the solution to humanity’s problems. Tragically for all, instead of drawing down the breath of life for them, Jews obstruct the airway that carries the goodness to the world with their swollen pride, choking infighting, and self-centered disregard for the health of the body of humanity.

Black anti-Semitism in the US is one unpleasant symptom of a much more invasive disease. Therefore, before the disease enters its acute phase where cases of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism erupt in full force everywhere, pushing Jews to unite, it is imperative that Jews fulfill their duty to humanity and open the conduit of fulfillment for all.

Within this act, Jews will bring peoples of all kinds and colors closer. There will be no Jewish-African American divide. At that time, anti-Semitism will disappear throughout the world and our shared dream will become a tangible reality. As Rabbi Eliyahu Ki Tov wrote, “We are commanded at each generation to strengthen the unity among us so our enemies do not rule over us.” (The Book of Consciousness).
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The Times of Israel published my new article: “Why Israel Must Fight on Two Fronts”

Residents of southern Israel are right to protest. They demand quiet, and I agree with their harsh criticism against Israel’s leadership. Their willingness to stay in their shelters in order to allow for a temporary attack that will bring their normal life back testifies to how fed up they are.

Israel must give a decisive blow to the infrastructure of terror in the Gaza Strip: demand that Hamas dismantle its weapons and stop its rule on the ground. To crush the terror completely, and prevent it from rearing its head. This way, at the very least, we will obtain relative quiet in the coming years, and allow the children in the south to go to sleep without fear.

Unfortunately, the current round of rockets has once again proven to us what we have learned throughout history: a jihadist terrorist organization understands only force. They are not interested in reaching an agreement or reconciliation with us. It doesn’t matter if we lift the siege, open the border, enable infrastructure, push for international aid or inject millions of dollars in cash. Thus, we have no choice but to respond with such force that will paralyze Hamas’ ability to harm us.

I do not call for war, and certainly not for harming the innocent Gazan population. But as long as we’re in the midst of an ongoing battle, we must respond with all severity and maintain the upper hand; as it is written, “he who comes to kill you, get up early to kill him first.”

The weakness of our leadership reveals the extent to which its view has been distorted by continuously trying to convince the world that Israel is moral and righteous. The world, however, is not impressed. On the contrary, the international media continues to paint a false picture of the reality in Israel. One only needs to glance at the European press, for example, to notice headlines that portray Israel as the aggressor, after a day with almost 500 rockets fired at Israeli civilians. Therefore, what the world thinks cannot be taken into consideration by our leaders.

There is no doubt that the next round will be more painful. We took a serious step backwards, against ourselves and against the safety of our children. Hamas, on the other hand, is celebrating their success in sparking a political earthquake in Israel, after the resignation of the defense minister. They — and the entire world — have concluded that Israel is weak.

However, I relate our weakness to a single factor: the lack of spiritual foundation in the people of Israel. Unlike any other people or nation in the world, we are required to fight on two fronts: the physical and the spiritual. We have to protect the safety of our residents and defend our borders with great fervor; and at the very same time, we must attack our division at all costs. This is the real war for Israel.

We all take part on the spiritual front, and right now we have been caught off guard. We must reach a cease-fire between us. This is the fire that invites our enemies to enter our house and do as they wish.

All of us without exception — leaders and soldiers, politicians and citizens, rightists and leftists, religious and secular — must be vigilant against the enemy within us, the snake that separates us from each other. Only when we join forces against our own division will we reawaken the spiritual foundation of our people.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the spiritual connection between us is our only salvation. It will build a wall against enemies. And the whole world is subconsciously waiting for the power that lies in Israel’s unity. Even Hamas.

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My article in Newsmax: “To Thoughtfully Govern Leaders Must Rediscover the Family”

On Nov. 11, 1918, World War I ended.

One hundred years later, bells rang at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as leaders of some 70 countries marched shoulder to shoulder on the plaza, marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice that brought the war to an end.

Leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu walked on the battleground where fierce battles took place, millions of soldiers were killed, and much blood was spilled as a result of the cruel war between nations.

But does this impressive demonstration indicate that we are at last close to true peace?

Are we on the verge of extending an umbrella of peace and unity that will cover all the European nations?

As long as economic inequality continues to escalate in most countries and waves of immigrants continue to shake the demographic-cultural fabric of Europe, true unity is not in sight. These crises are the result of an ultra-liberal ideology that has gained strength and spread throughout the continent.

Every day, these two crises deepen the social and political polarization.

The rich become richer, the poor become poorer, and immigrants bring with them religion and customs that incite the local Europeans. As a result, the extreme right is strengthening throughout Europe, and as long as the public within European countries is divided, unity across Europe should not be expected.

Such a spectacular ceremony only widens the gap between the idyllic façade put forward by the leadership and the daily reality in Europe. European leaders are making an attempt that doesn’t account for the selfish, alienating nature of the human ego; the attempt to welcome everyone into their borders and create a common market where everyone wins requires a solid educational foundation to form genuine integration between people.

The way European leaders think and make decisions might also have to do with an interesting fact that is common to many of them — they don’t have biological children. Take a look at the following list:

Germany’s Angela Merkel
France’s Emmanuel Macron
Britain’s Theresa May
Italy’s Paolo Gentiloni
Lithuania’s Dalia Grybauskaitė
Holland’s Mark Rutte
Sweden’s Stefan Lofven
Ireland’s Leo Varadkar
Luxemburg’s Xavier Bettel
Switzerland’s Simonetta Sommaruga
Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon
President of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker
Whether by choice or lack thereof, all of the above leaders are childless.

People who dan’t have children see the world differently than those who do. They have a different outlook on life, they analyze the past, present, and future differently. In contrast, any person who has children lives with a certain sense of responsibility for his or her family, which accompanies and influences their decision-making processes.

Some commentators have already made a link between European leaders’ lack of thought about the future and the fact that they are childless. However, it doesn’t end with thinking about the future. More than a social status, being a parent is a natural status.

A childless leader lacks instincts that he or she cannot acquire in any other way. They could be highly intellectual, incredibly skilled and gifted in many different ways, and yet, they lack a natural drive that exists in any average parent—to care for and protect their children. And their decisions will be affected by that lack.

But perhaps even more interesting is: what does the public think about this phenomenon?

The answer is that they mostly don’t.

The general public is not interested and many are not even aware of this particular aspect of their leaders’ personal lives. Ask yourselves: were you fully aware of all the childless leaders in the above list?

The public indifference to this phenomenon characterizes our time and our generation. A generation that is losing touch with basic human values. A generation that is clearly going through an identity crisis.

That being said, there’s no point in condemning anyone. Neither the childless leaders nor their indifferent citizens. We’re all in the same boat of human development, and human society is going through a unique phase, where the human ego is reaching its peak.

This explains why the individual has become more important than ever. The importance of the family unit has declined, and thus, today even a childless leader can be a mother and father to millions of people.

But human evolution doesn’t end there.

The human ego will continue to grow and drive us apart until it leads us to realize that we have to rise above it, and cultivate a higher level of human connection. Then, we will see the importance of rebuilding our connections on all levels — from the family unit, through the community, to the rest of society.

The aspiration for a common future that liberal European leaders envision can become realistic when humans cultivate a deeper sense of connection. As long as the ego drives the moves on the ground, the attempts of European leaders will do more harm than good.

Only when leaders make education towards unity their highest priority and aim to bring citizens together above all differences, the common sense of human connection will guide Europe towards a better future.
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My article in Medium: “Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s Apology to German Jews Comes at Height of Anti-Semitism in U.S. and Canada”

Canada’s PM Trudeau meets with MS St. Louis survivor Ana Maria Gordon in Ottawa (Reuters)
Trying to escape the atrocities of Nazi Germany, around 900 Jewish refugees aboard the St. Louis ship were denied entry to Canada on June 7, 1939. It was one of the many rejected requests to obtain asylum in the North American continent, before the liner returned those on board to safe harbor in four European countries. Unfortunately, 254 of its passengers later perished in the Holocaust.

It was precisely the prosecution they were running away from, prompted by a series of events in Germany that put the lives of Jews in peril: the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, discriminatory laws targeting Jewish citizens, the Nuremberg Laws and the Kristallnacht riots by the Nazis in 1938. During the pogroms in Germany and Austria, more than 90 Jews were killed, hundreds of synagogues were torched, and roughly 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to death camps.

The St. Louis set sail on May 13, 1939 when the luxury liner departed Hamburg, Germany and arrived to Cuba as a stopover to the United States. But the Cuban government did not let the passengers disembark and kept the ship in port for days. The authorities refused to accept the foreign refugees despite the fact that they held legal visas previously acquired. Increased anti-Semitism and recent changes to immigration regulations in Cuba restricted their entry.

After the refusal, the boat sailed to the Florida coastline looking for American asylum, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt denied the appeal. The government argued that the refugees aboard the ship had to wait their turn as anybody else in a long line of asylum seekers. After the rejection, St. Louis started returning to Europe.

Aware of the humanitarian emergency, a group of Canadians unsuccessfully tried to convince their government to provide sanctuary for the refugees. The official response was that “no country could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe.”

The ship then continued on its course for the Old Continent and docked in Belgium, and from there the passengers were dispersed to France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. But during WWII, many of them fell under Nazi control, putting the refugees back in harm’s way. Many survived, but hundreds were sent to concentration camps and died.

“We apologize to the 907 German Jews aboard the MS. St. Louis, as well as their families,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said recently in the House of Commons. “We used our laws to mask our anti-Semitism, our antipathy and our resentment.” He added, “We are sorry for the callousness of Canada’s response. And we are sorry for not apologizing sooner.”

Trudeau’s mea culpa comes at the time when anti-Semitism is globally on the rise, with Canada and the United States being no exception. The deadly attack to the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg was not an isolated incident in the US. Anti-Semitism on campuses, on the Internet, continuous physical, unprovoked attacks in cities like New York, vandalism to synagogues and private homes are only some of the manifestations of the increasingly rampant hatred in America toward Jews.

With the establishment of the State of Israel, the Jewish people can feel that there is a safe haven. Indeed, on the verge of an unbearable crisis, no country, not even the US or Canada, will be unconditional to us, defend our interests, and protect us from anti-Semitic existential threats. The waves of modern anti-Semitism that now plague the Jews in Europe should serve as a reminder of our mission: to unite. That is our only life insurance.

We have no one to rely on but ourselves. Everything depends on us. The Jews are responsible for everything that happens in the world, whether for good or bad. As it is written, “There is no calamity that comes into the world but for Israel” (Tractate Yevamot 62a).

In the meantime, we do not feel that way, but the wisdom of Kabbalah explains that is how the human communication system is built from within. The Book of Zohar compares the connection between Israel and the world to the organs of the human body: “Israel among the other nations, like a heart among the organs, and as the organs of the body could not exist in the world even one moment without the heart, so all the nations cannot exist in the world without Israel.” All the accusations, every persecution, every rejection, every rage and threat expresses the world’s demand that the Jewish people, wherever they are, should fulfill its role and lead humanity to happiness and a meaningful life.

Unconsciously, humanity feels that the Jews have the solution to all its problems and the key to its happiness. Global pressure on Israel is guided by the program of human development defined in nature, as Rav Kook wrote in the early 1900s: “In Israel is the secret to the unity of the world.” If so, sooner rather than later the Jewish nation must fulfill its role toward humanity and be a “light unto the nations” — to serve as a good example of a civilized society in which everyone lives in mutual solidarity and brotherly love above all differences. Only then will we sail to a new and good world. As our sages said, “If I am not for me, who is for me; and if I am (only) for myself, what am I. And if not now, when?” — Hillel, Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14

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Basic Income Earth Network published my new article “Basic Income Should Join Forces With A ‘Social Network’ Revolution“:

It’s the start of a new month. You wake up in the morning feeling a rush of energy. The air is thick with a positive warmth. You’re immediately motivated and inspired with a thought that is, as if, circulating around everybody’s mind:

“How can I best contribute myself to society today?”

You immediately do what you need to do: go to the bathroom, put your clothes on, get something to eat, and check your bank account. You see your monthly basic income allowance came in. You get through all these necessities as quickly as possible because you want to start connecting to the means where you draw this positive energy.

That means is a social network.

It is unlike the social networks we use today. Ad-free. Conflict-free.

It is a social network thriving with friendliness and enthusiasm. Everyone feels equally important and responsible for creating it. Everybody actively expresses their opinion in discussions with no fear of judgment, criticism or argument. Everybody listens to everybody and does not simply interject with their opinions.

In exchange for the basic income allowance that entered your bank account a little earlier, you need to answer a few questions in this network. As soon as you see the first question, you understand why you had that thought earlier. The question is:

“How can I best contribute myself to society today?”

You click “Agree” on the network’s conditions, which state a few guidelines that all participants need to follow in this network. They ultimately boil down to one main condition: Leave your ego outside.

You agree to everyone being equally important; everyone actively answering the questions (which are made with everyone’s ability to answer them in mind); no arguing with, criticizing or judging others; focusing on the topic at hand, i.e., not veering it into unrelated directions; and listening to others speak as if it is you who is speaking.

These conditions are founded on a synergic principle where humans and nature are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. They aim at guiding us so that we don’t fall victim to our involuntary, egoistic impulses when we participate in creating a well-connected social atmosphere.

You connect to a video conference with a few other people, and you each state your answers to the questions. In addition to the first question—“How can I best contribute myself to society today?”—there are a couple more:

“What is one positive example that inspired me yesterday of someone contributing to society?”

“How can we help each other not fall victim to our automatic egoistic impulses that make us want to criticize, judge and harm others, and support each other in the construction of a positively connected atmosphere above our self-centeredness?”

Halfway into the discussion, you feel a new wave of energy stream through you. It is an energy latent in nature, which becomes revealed when people come together, regardless of their differences, and act, think and desire in a way that is adapted to nature’s integrality. We do not feel this in our current world of relationships.

After finishing the discussion, some people go to work, others stay in the network to participate in other activities, whether they be discussions, lessons or courses either to deepen their knowledge of nature, human development, psychology, or to improve life skills, relationships, parenting, health, personal finance, time management, or participating in support groups for a wide range of interests and life situations. You choose to participate in this network online, but the same activities also take place at local community centers for anyone who wants to participate in a more physical way.

All the activities in the network aim at both supplying what people need, so that they do not have any problems supplying themselves with life’s necessities, and beyond that, improving people’s connections and social skills. You meet new people all the time, and the atmosphere is always enlivening, supportive and constructive.

The tendency to support, benefit and connect with other people above our egoistic drives, is continually encouraged in this network. Likewise, values we currently hold become viewed from a new, unified vantage point. For example, competition in this network is based not on money, but on how much we can help and serve others.

Success in this network is not seen as building a personal empire despite, and on account of, other people. Instead, success is seen as a social construct, that we succeed together as a society, by connecting above our egoistic, divisive drives. By doing so, we get positive feedback from nature, a new surge of energy and motivation, by aligning ourselves with nature’s constant unifying motion.

This is how I envision a correctly functioning universal basic income. That is, UBI cannot work on its own. Simply giving people allowances without any incentives to succeed would stagnate society. In order for UBI to work, it needs to be provided in exchange for prosocial, connection-enriching participation, learning and development. People need tools, education, and encouragement to build a positively-functioning society in exchange for basic income. The idea of the “prosocial network” above is one direction the connection-enriching educational programs could take.

A Much Deeper and Wider Source of Motivation

In today’s capitalistic economy, people contribute to society with money as a leading motivator. Other drives, like respect, honor, fame, control, and knowledge are interwoven with money. That is, there is a price tag attached to every kind of social contribution.

However, considering a future where automation and robots will be given much of the workload, and where people get basic income allowances regardless of any work, we’re left to ponder serious questions:

What would people want to contribute to that society?

Why would they want to contribute to that society?

This is where the concept of universal basic income enters to support and propel the value shift necessary not only for UBI to work in the long term, but also for the foundation of a prosperous, connected society of happy and confident individuals, each motivated to contribute to the creation of a new thriving culture.

A prosocial resurgence combined with UBI has the power to make a significant gear shift in society. In order for that to happen, human relations, usually viewed as a byproduct of people’s professions and education, now need to be placed at the center of our attention. The motivation to contribute to society would need to change, from a monetary motivation to a purely prosocial, pro-connective motivation: one where we would regularly vitalize each other with examples of how we rise above our egoistic tendencies, thinking about, connecting to and benefiting other members of society. This would serve as a source of constant motivation, encouragement and ultimately, pave the way to a society of united, happy and confident individuals.

Today, there are thousands of people worldwide from all walks of life who feel the importance of jumpstarting the connection-enriching process in society, pioneering it even before the widespread launch of basic income. They are already engaged in learning, implementing and experimenting with the principle of positive connection above differences as the most valuable means to improve human society.

Anyone who is attracted to this idea of bettering the world by bettering human relations, and who wishes to participate in the learning and creation of a new prosocial, pro-connective culture, is welcome to learn its fundamental principles and basic concepts.
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