Russian Canadian: “I’ll Find You On The Edge Of The Earth”
Posted on August 6th, 2017
The Toronto newspaper The Russian Canadian published my article “I’ll find you on the edge of the Earth“ (page 15):
[211255]
The Toronto newspaper The Russian Canadian published my article “I’ll find you on the edge of the Earth“ (page 15):
[211255]
On the largest portal Walla published my article “Who Owns the Temple Mount? For causeless hatred we pay dearly“:
[211219]
The Jerusalem Post published my new article “When A Debate Turns Into Hate, We Are Sealing Our Fate”
No emperor on earth has ever defeated us, but when we forgot that all Jews are responsible for one another, we sometimes defeated ourselves. Now, another such defeat is within sight.
Following the removal of the metal detectors from the entrances to Temple Mount, Rami Hamdallah, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, said, “Our nation showed that through steadfastness, national unity, and peaceful struggle, Jerusalem will remain our eternal capital city, and the crown of the identity uniting us.”
All over the Arab world, nations are uniting against what Jordan’s King, Abdullah II, called the “Judaization of holy sites” in Jerusalem. In downtown Amman, the crowd called on the Arab and Islamic worlds to unify in support of Islam’s third holiest site. In Turkey, protests were held in Ankara and Istanbul in solidarity with Al-Aqsa. Even in Kuala Lumpur, thousands of Malaysian Muslims participated Friday in a demonstration to “save Al-Aqsa,” according to al-Jazeeranet.
At the same time in Israel, politicians are playing the usual blame-game over who made the poor decision to remove the detectors, or who made the poor decision to place them there in the first place. Just as the Arab world uses every opportunity to unite against us, we use every opportunity to split further apart.
Just this Tuesday, we commemorated the ruin of both Temples on the 9th of Av. Former Chief Rabbi of the UK, Lord Jonathan Sacks, said in a video he posted in memory of the ruin of the Temple: “We are ferocious arguers and that’s part of our strength. But, when it allows us to split apart, then it becomes terribly dangerous. Because no emperor on earth has ever been able to defeat us, but we have on occasion been able to defeat ourselves. …Remember the ultimate basis of Jewish peoplehood. All Jews are responsible for one another.”
These days, it seems we have completely forgotten this ultimate basis. It is therefore no surprise that there are clear indications that yet another defeat is approaching. And once again, it is because of our hatred for each other.
Why is it that the Arabs can unite and we cannot? What makes us loathe each other so profoundly that many of us prefer to ally with our enemies rather than so much as talk to another Jew who holds a different view?
Peace between Two Opposites
Rabbi Sacks said that arguing is “part of our strength.” But arguing is more than that. Our entire peoplehood was based on arguments that we conquered with love. King Solomon wrote (Proverbs, 12:10), “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes.” The Book of Zohar writes (Aharei Mot) that when the friends “sit together, first they seem like men at war, wishing to kill one another. Then, they return to being in brotherly love.” “And,” continues The Zohar, “by your merit, there will be peace in the world.”
The book Likutey Etzot (Assorted Counsels) adds another aspect to connection that transcends disputes: “The essence of peace is to connect two opposites. Hence, do not be alarmed if you see a person whose view is the complete opposite of yours and you think that you will never be able to make peace with him. Also, when you see two people who are completely opposite to each other, do not say that it is impossible to make peace between them. On the contrary, the essence of peace is to try to make peace [above] two opposites.”
Indeed, we Jews were declared a nation only when we committed to rise above the disunity that was our share in Egypt and unite “as one man with one heart.”
Our unity did not come easily. Abraham’s first disciples came from different clans all over Babylon and the Near East. The only thing that held them together was the belief that Abraham’s tenet of mercy and love of others was the right way to live. But Abraham’s descendants did not keep their unity and ended up in Egypt, where Joseph united them once more.
After his death, the Israelites abandoned their unity yet again and said, “Let us be as the Egyptians” (Midrash Rabbah, Shemot). As a result, “the Lord turned the love that the Egyptians held for them into hatred.” Had the Hebrews kept their unity in Egypt, they would not have been enslaved.
Moses, realizing that the absence of unity was the source of the Israelites’ plight, cemented their unity with the pledge to love one another as they loved themselves. This is why Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your neighbor as yourself is the great rule of the Torah.”(Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim, Chapter 9).
By repeatedly overcoming their hatred, the Israeli people developed a unique method of bonding that to this day exists nowhere else. All other nations rely on a minimal level of affinity to forge their peoplehood, be it kinship or geographical proximity. Jews, however, have nothing in common unless they submit themselves to the idea that the value of unity transcends all other values. In the absence thereof, the Jews return to being people from different, often hostile clans with nothing but suspicion and enmity among them, unless an outside force compels them to unite.
These unique circumstances are, in a way, a double-edged sword. When Jews are united, they are far more united than any nation on earth, since their adhesive is the belief that the value of unity transcends all other values. But when Jews are disputed, they are so hateful of each other that they can come to the atrocities they committed on each other two millennia ago before the Romans stormed the tormented city and massacred the remnants of its inhabitants.
Ending the Blame-Game
Because the unity that forged the Jewish nation is so unique, immediately upon achieving it, the Hebrews were commanded to share it, to be “a light unto nations” by setting an example of unity above conflicts. This is why as long as we maintain our unity, we are safe and we flourish. But the minute we abandon it, we become redundant in the eyes of the world and the rage we call “antisemitism” resurfaces. This is also why the book Maor VaShemesh writes, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity.”
Today, the Jewish nation is divided both within Israel and in the Diaspora. In such a state, we are not “a light unto nations”; we radiate internal divisiveness and mutual loathing. This is why the nations, all the nations, want to see the end of the State of Israel and the extinction of the people of Israel.
In his “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam mentions the famous Tikkun No. 30 from The Book of Zohar, which states that when we Jews are not united, we “bring about the existence of poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world.” This is precisely what the anti-Semites claim we bring. When Prof. of Quranic studies Imad Hamato stated, “Even when fish fight in the sea, the Jews are behind it,” he inadvertently reflected the very words of The Zohar.
Our current division is inflicting pain not only on ourselves, but on the entire world, and the entire world resents us for it. Our separation unites the Arabs against us and pushes the entire world to support them. If we had unity, we would not need innovative ways to justify our country. The world would feel the benefit it would derive from the State of Israel and the Jewish people, just as today it feels the opposite. “The success of our nation depends only on our brotherly love, on connecting to one another as members of a single family,” wrote Shmuel David Luzzatto.
In much the same way, in Jonathan Sacks’ video we mentioned earlier, he talks about the Jewish people being an extended family: “We may not agree on anything, but we remain one extended family. And the thing about that is if you disagree with a friend, tomorrow he may no longer be your friend. But if you disagree with your family, tomorrow they are still your family.”
If we could be as Sacks described toward each other, we would be “a light unto nations.” Because we are not, we are bringing on ourselves the exact same atrocities that our disunity has brought upon us throughout the ages. It will not take long before the world finds some “reasonable” explanation as to why the establishment of the State of Israel was a mistake and will revoke that UN resolution, leaving the Jews in Israel and throughout the world defenseless and persecuted once again, but this time, the world over.
Only we the Jews can stop this downward spiral, for as the book Shem MiShmuel writes, “When Israel are ‘as one man with one heart,’ they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.”
We have ended the days of lamentation over the ruin of the Temple, and we are approaching the 15th of Av, the festival of love. Let us merit the festival, and let us be what we are meant to be—a role-model nation that shows how to raise unity over disunity, cohesion over separation, and love over hate. Let us be “a light [of love] unto nations.”
[211327]
In San Francisco, the Russian newspaper 24 Hours published my article “Money ‘For Nothing'”:
[211143]
The Jerusalem Post published my new article “UNESCO Reflects Not The Nations’ Antisemitism, But Our Own Self-Hatred”
It is quite symbolic that UNESCO, the organization in charge of world heritage, is denying our historic right to Israel. Without a present that justifies our claim, our history is meaningless.
In April 2016, when UNESCO adopted a resolution denying Jewish history on Temple Mount, I wrote that this was only the beginning of a campaign to deny the history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, a campaign whose final purpose is the elimination of the Jewish state. In December last year, the campaign accelerated when the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that opened the door to indiscriminate sanctions and boycotts against Israel over its settlement policy in the West Bank and Jerusalem. A few days ago, UNESCO took yet another step in its campaign to deny Jewish rights to Israel, denying the nearly 4,000-year history of the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Everyone, including those who voted in favor of the resolution, knows that there are no historic or scientific grounds to the Palestinian claim for connection to the site. But facts, we all know, are the least important factor in this story. All that matters is that the campaign to eliminate the State of Israel and revoke UN Resolution 181—which warranted the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel—is gaining momentum.
This latest resolution is a warning sign to the entire Jewish people, and especially to those living in Israel. It tells us that we must reassess who we are as a nation, what we currently stand for, what we would like to stand for, and how we can accomplish this.
A Cesspool of Hatred
Some two weeks ago, in his first public address, US ambassador to Israel, Mr. David Friedman, said, “I have a great speech prepared about the breadth and the depth of the relationship between the United States and the State of Israel. But I’m not going to give it tonight.” Instead, Ambassador Friedman dedicated his entire speech to Jewish unity, or more to the point, the lack thereof.
However we look at it, the current level of division among Jews is unsustainable. We are poisoning our relationships with so much hatred that the world never sees anything good emerging from the Jewish people. We are vying over the Western Wall prayer areas and blacklisting certified rabbis’ decisions on determining the Jewishness of people who need their Jewishness confirmed. We are campaigning against our own country through the UN, BDS, the academia, and in myriad other ways. We segregate Jews based on ethnic background and culture, and we associate only with politically and religiously like-minded people.
Israel, which was supposed to be a role model melting pot, has become a cesspool that emits nothing but hatred of our coreligionists. This is the exact opposite of the essence of our faith, and contradicts what we are meant to project to the world.
Why the Ceaseless Persecution of the Jews?
Throughout the generations, the leaders of the Jewish people—from the most orthodox to the most secular—have stressed that our redemption, salvation, and even survival depend only on our unity.
“All of Israel are responsible for one another … only where there are people who are responsible for one another there is Israel,” wrote Zionist thinker A.D. Gordon. “We are called upon to unite the world. But before we unite the material world, we are called upon to reveal the spiritual unity. This is our innermost secret,” stated Rav Kook (Letters of the Raiah), the first Chief Rabbi of Israel. “Everything depends on the children of Israel. As they correct themselves, all of Creation follows them,” asserted the book Sefat Emet. “We have yet to open our eyes and see that only unity can save us. Only if we all unite … to work in favor of the entire nation, our labor will not be in vain,” mused Eliezer Ben Yehuda, reviver of the Hebrew language. “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus, 19:18) is the superior commandment in Judaism. With these few words, the eternal, human law of Judaism has been formed… The state of Israel will merit its name only if its social, economic, political, and judicial structure are based upon these three eternal words,” concluded David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel.
Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, author of the complete Sulam (Ladder)commentary on The Book of Zohar, wrote in his composition, The Writings of the Last Generation: “Judaism must present something new to the nations. This is what they expect from the return of Israel to the land!” Indeed, continued Ashlag, “It is the wisdom of bestowal, justice, and peace.”
Despite these oft-repeated statements, we have not listened. Since the ruin of the Temple and the exile we have inflicted on ourselves through our unfounded hatred of each other, we have not learned how to overcome our loathing and unite. As a result, the persecution of our nation has not stopped since. “When Israel are ‘as one man with one heart,’ they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil,” stated the book Shem MiShmuel. But when was the last time we were “as one man with one heart”?
We Rise and Fall by the Power of Our Unity
According to the Rav Kook, “The purpose of Israel is to unite the entire world into a single family” (Whisper to Me the Secret of Existence). When a man asked Old Hillel to teach him Torah, the sage replied, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat, 31a). Just as explicitly, Rabbi Akiva stated, “Love your neighbor as yourself is the great rule of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim, Chapter 9, p 30b).
Similar to those giants, the book Shem MiShmuel writes, “The intention of Creation was for everyone to become one bundle … but because of the sin [evil inclination/egoism], the matter was corrupted to the point where even the best in those generations could not unite. The correction of this matter began in the generation of Babylon, when Abraham and his descendants gathered people together into a joint assembly. …Thus, the matter continued and grew until the congregation of Israel was made. But the end of the correction will come when everyone becomes one bundle.”
Israel became a nation when all its members committed to unite “as one man with one heart.” Immediately thereafter, Israel was commanded to be “a light unto nations,” to pass on that solid unity. For this reason, when we are united, there is merit to our existence as a nation. When we are apart, there is no justification for our existence as a nation because we cannot be “a light unto nations.” In consequence, the nations reclaim the land and disperse the Jews, who are not true to their vocation. This is why the book Maor VaShemesh asserts, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship within Israel, no calamity can come over them.”
Our Fate Is in Our Hands
In his book The Art of Loving, renowned psychoanalyst and sociologist Erich Fromm wrote, “Man—of all ages and cultures—is confronted with the solution of one and the same question: the question of how to overcome separateness, how to achieve union.” Moreover, Fromm stresses, the more humanity “separates itself from the natural world, the more intense becomes the need to find new ways of escaping separateness.”
Indeed, today’s society is so narcissistic that people overdose by the tens of thousands each year simply out of loneliness. Neuroscientist Marc Lewis candidly summed up humanity’s bane with the title to his sobering piece, “Why are so many people dying from opiate overdoses? It’s our broken society.”
The Book of Zohar writes very clearly in the famous Tikkun No. 30 that when Israel are not united, they “bring about poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world.” In other words, we should not be surprised when humanity blames the Jews for their woes. In his seminal essay “Mutual Guarantee,” Rav Ashlag wrote, “It is upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and all the people of the world to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of love of others, which is the ladder to the purpose of Creation.” Why? Because, continues Ashlag, the Israeli nation was fashioned as “a sort of gateway by which the sparks of love of others would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.”
Even if people are not consciously aware that Jews have been fashioned as a gateway for humanity’s better future, this gut feeling dictates their thoughts and actions. This latent expectation causes academics such as British journalist and historian Paul Johnson to write, “At a very early stage in their collective existence the Jews believed they had detected a divine scheme for the human race, of which their own society was to be a pilot.” This expectation also causes antisemites to cover Holocaust memorial sites with sheets carrying the inscription, “Heebs [Hebrews] will not divide us.”
Indeed, we rise and fall by our willingness to be a light of unity unto nations. As a result, we are the only nation whose fate is in its own hands. If we decide to “take upon ourselves that sublime work of love of others” and thus become “a light unto nations,” our sovereignty, prosperity, and peace in Israel are secured. But if we hand over the reins to our selfish egos as we have been doing for the past two millennia, it is likely that we will see yet another round of ruin in the Land of Israel. Unless we wake up to our task soon, rise above our egos and unite, it just might be too late.
[210340]
Israeli TV’s Channel 9 website published an article “Kabbalah Conquers Rome” about the Bnei Baruch international Kabbalah Congress “All As One” that took place in Rome July 28 – 30, 2017.
[211008]
The largest portal United with Israel published my new article: “The Only Way To Peace Is Jewish Unity”
Just as we once lost the Temple and our land because of our own hatred for one another, we must now come together if we wish for some peace and quiet.
As the Temple Mount crisis continues, many are concerned that we are facing yet another round of the violence and bloodshed of which we have become so weary. Again and again Israel faces the reality of conflict and strife, and the road to some peace and quiet seems as blockaded as ever. It is time to ask some very deep questions, to get to the root of our existential uncertainty, because, as a famous Jew named Einstein once said, “We can only solve this problem with a higher level of thinking.”
Our history is not easily grasped by the rational mind: Exiled numerous times from our land, dispersed amongst all other nations for millennia, survived countless persecutions and a most enigmatically terrible holocaust, only to return to our homeland once more and rebuild it from desert land into a thriving modern country. Even as the state of Israel was declared, a war broke out. Five different armies of surrounding Arab countries attacked the fledgling state, that had no army, no resources, just a group of refugees who had recently escaped the greatest genocide in history, fighting for their lives. That victory against all odds was just one in a series of miraculous victories the Israeli state managed to achieve against its perpetrators, to this day.
But this magic is once again dissipating. Are we on the way to another great exile? Some of our greatest sages say that we are. Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag wrote that “our entire reality in the State of Israel is in danger… few will be able to withstand the hardships of our land whilst they have the option to immigrate… Gradually, they will escape this suffering until the population left will not be enough to call it an independent state, and they shall, God forbid, be immersed among the Arabs” (Writings of the Last Generation).
Such an unfavorable turnout is indeed possible, unless we awaken to the real causality behind this seesaw effect, where Jews are both enigmatically persecuted as well as miraculously saved. Our woes and our triumphs are equally beyond understanding. What can explain such an irrational tale? What is the real reason behind our peculiarity?
The Enigma of the Jews
Many have pondered the enigma of the Jews. Leo Tolstoy, for one, wrote of them:
“What is the Jew? … What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish?”
The answer is that we are a people with a unique higher purpose. As Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes: “Judaism must give something new to the nations, and that is what they expect from the return of the people of Israel to their land, and it cannot be found in other wisdoms, for we have never been able to add to those and are not their students. It is the wisdom of faith, justice and peace which most nations learn from us, and this wisdom is ascribed to us alone”(The Writings of the Last Generation).
Indeed this is no ordinary nation, but one which carries a great role and responsibility. Although we shirk and repress it, the nations of the world still hold us accountable, directly or indirectly. The wisdom of how to reach true harmony and peace exists within us, and is waiting for us to remember it and use it for the sake of all. When we unite amongst ourselves and advance towards our higher purpose our fate smiles upon us, but when we tarry, we face pressures that signal to us that we have strayed.
The last time the Temple Mount was ours was around 2000 years ago, when we lost it as well as our hold of the land of Israel because of the separation and hatred that existed in our hearts. To regain our strength and security this is what we must tend to. Politics and security measures will never be enough. We can only solve this conflict and all others, by going to the root of who we are, and what it is that we have inside us that everyone is expecting of us to realize.
Our role is to create a model society, where “love covers all crimes,” (Proverbs 10:12), where connection and contribution are valued above wealth, power and personal success. Instead of basing our society upon the laws of the British mandate or other foreign systems, they need to be based upon the values of Israel- that derive from the equality, love and compassion that is in our roots. Not the divided, imbalanced and indifferent society of today, but a real nation, united by love and mutual care, with a responsibility to share it with the whole world.
Fulfilling the Promise
In his speech for the completion of the Zohar, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag wrote that the land of Israel was given to us and yet we have not received it, for it was given only as an opportunity to return to our higher purpose and rebuild the infrastructure not of cement buildings, but of love and connection between us. This opportunity, he explains is not without expiration, and time is running out. Israel was given a chance to achieve its goal and the world praised and supported it for a while. However, since 1967 international support of the state of Israel drastically declined. We have reached a point where UNESCO is determining Israel’s most holy Jewish sites, such as the Kotel and the cave of the Patriarchs, as Palestinian heritage sites. If the very existence of Israel were brought to a vote today, there is a great doubt whether the nations of the world would support it.
This pressure will not end until we come together, until we see through the seemingly irrational reality of our lives, and understand that the solution too is unordinary. When we are bonded together, we succeed. When we forget who we are and fall into separation and hate- our enemies come upon us. Our unity is our strength, and when the love of Israel is revived between us, above all differences, no enemy can harm us, and we will find that the road to peace is open.
As it is written “When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come upon them” (from the book Maor VaShemesh).
[210879]
The Jerusalem Post published my new article “Who Is The Sovereign On Temple Mount?“
This Tuesday, we will mark the 9th of Av, when the Temple was destroyed. The Temple represents our unity. When we restore our union, we will not need bricks to prove our place is here in Israel.
It is no secret that the Arab smear campaign in the media and the organized “popular” protests against the placement of metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount have nothing to do with security measures. From the perspective of the Wakf (the Islamic organization controlling and managing the Temple Mount), and the rest of the Arab world, the resistance to the detectors represents the resistance to Israel’s sovereignty on Temple Mount in particular, in the city of Jerusalem, and in all of Israel. The longer this campaign lasts, the more the Arabs will gain the favor of the world, and Israel will increasingly be seen as the bully in the neighborhood.
By now, hardly anyone remembers that the detectors were placed at the entrances because three terrorists opened fire on Israeli police, killing two officers and wounding a third. All that everyone sees now is that Israel is not letting Muslims pray in their holy site, when in fact, the only people keeping worshippers outside the Temple Mount are the Wakf, who are telling worshippers not to enter in protest of the placement of detectors.
The Temple—the Unity of Israel
Not only the Wakf objects to Israel’s authority on Temple Mount. The resolutions of UNESCO denying the Jewish history on Temple Mount, Jerusalem, and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron represent the view of the entire world that we do not belong here. If the UN were to vote today on the establishment of a Jewish state, who would vote “Yes”? Probably not even America.
To be a sovereign in the land of Israel, and particularly on Temple Mount, you must understand what the Temple represents and lead your life accordingly. The book Netzah Israel (Chapter 4) writes, “The House was ruined due to unfounded hatred, for their hearts divided and they parted and were unworthy of a Temple, which is the unity of Israel.”
If we honestly reflect on our society, on what we project to the world, it is clear that we are deeply divided and project disunity and discord everywhere. The Maharal of Prague writes in Hidushey Avot (Gittin 55b): “The Temple should be the wholeness of the entire world, not of Israel alone. …Since the Temple is the wholeness of the entire world, the nations included, it was not ruined by the nations, but only by unfounded hatred and division, when Israel divided.”
In other words, the Temple does not belong to any one nation or faith; it represents the unification of the world. Therefore, only those who advocate and execute unity merit being there. The Hebrew word Yehudi (Jew) comes from the word yihudi, meaning united (Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2). When we, Jews, united “as one man with one heart,” it was the first and only time in history when people of different, often rival clans from all over Babylon and the Near East united and forged a nation. Our unity, therefore, was a model for the entire world to follow. As a result, immediately following the establishment of our peoplehood, we were commanded to be “a light unto nations,” to take our method of unity to the rest of humanity.
The book Sefat Emet (Shemot, Yitro) describes what it means to be “a light unto nations”: “The children of Israel are guarantors in that they received the Torah [the light of unity] in order to correct the entire world.” But if we are not united, and therefore do not project unity to the rest of the world, can we truly regard ourselves as the “children of Israel”? And if we are not truly the children of Israel, united like the children of Israel are meant to be, can we claim sovereignty over the land?
The Sedition Conquered the City, and the Romans Conquered the Sedition
Jewish-Roman historian Josephus Flavius lived at the time of the ruin and witnessed many of the events first hand. He wrote very clearly about the causes of the ruin of the Temple and the exile (The Wars of the Jews, Book IV, Chapter 6): “The sedition [among the Jews] conquered the city, and the Romans conquered the sedition.” In the days of the Temple, Flavius details, “The attribute the [Jews] lacked most was mercy. …They transferred their rage from the living to the slain, and from the slain to the living [of their own people]. The terror was so great that the survivors called the dead ‘happy,’ as they were already at rest. … These men trampled upon all the laws of men [love of others], and ridiculed the words of the prophets. Yet, these prophets foretell … that the city should be taken and the sanctuary burnt by war when a sedition invades the Jews, and their own hand should pollute the Temple. Now these zealots … made themselves the instruments of the fulfillment [of the prophecies].”
When you think of the current hatred between the two sides of the political map in Israel, or between the two sides of the political map among US Jews, the similarities to the enmity among our ancestors are too striking to ignore. “At the end of the period of the Second Temple,” writes the book A Letter from Elijah (Part 3), “strife and hatred intensified in Israel, and pride was the root of the desire for absolute dominance. This brought them into hatred of their fellow person until they could not stand the very existence of the other. From that root of pride also emerged the audacity to sin shamelessly, for they did not perceive the contradiction between their actions and their views, and their conscience did not cause them to conceal their actions. And if they do not care about the conflict between their views and their actions, then they are regarded as ‘all sin.’ These are the things that caused the ruin of the House.”
A Land Without a Sovereign
Today, we have a state, and we seemingly have sovereignty. But the name, “The State of Israel,” is still devoid of content. Our intolerance toward each other, our disdain toward our own people is skyrocketing. If we do not realize that we are repeating the same crime of unfounded hatred we committed two millennia ago, we will be banished from this land again until we are ready to unite above our differences as did our forefathers in the desert.
This Monday evening, we will mark the ninth of Av, the date when the Temple was destroyed. But it was destroyed in our hearts long before the bricks were set ablaze. With these compelling words, The Hida describes this inner ruin (Devarim Achadim, Tractate no. 6): “What can we say when we regret all day the ruin of the House and the [absence of] redemption? …It was all ruined because of unfounded hatred, and if we are disunited now and there is unfounded hatred, how can the House be built, since the cause of our ruin has not ceased from us? How can we say that we await Your salvation all the day while there is still unfounded hatred in our midst? Woe, how can man do good deeds as long as his impurity of baseless hatred is still in him?”
To be the landlords in the land of Israel, we must become once more the people of Israel, yehudim [Jews] from the word, “yihudi” [united]. Unless we reconstruct our unity and reassume our commitment to be a beacon of unity unto nations, the world will not support our being here and we will be expelled once more.
Sovereignty in the land of Israel is unlike the sovereignty in any other land—acquired by military might. This land has no sovereign; its dwellers are people who are willing to connect, to unite above their hatred, just like our forefathers. If we can learn the lesson from the horrors of our ancestors and transcend our selfish egos, we will merit staying here, and the entire world will be behind us. But if we opt once more for enmity, then we will suffer the hostility of the entire world, but not before we scuffle with each other once again.
For more information on antisemitism and the role of the people of Israel, please visit Why Do People Hate Jews.
[210905]
The Toronto newspaper the Russian Canadian published my article “Declaration: the World is Mine!“:
[210461]
The largest portal Breaking Israel News published my new article “UNESCO Reflects Not the Nations’ Antisemitism, But Our Own Self-Hatred“:
In April 2016, when UNESCO adopted a resolution denying Jewish history on Temple Mount, I wrote that this was only the beginning of a campaign to deny the history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, a campaign whose final purpose is the elimination of the Jewish state. In December last year, the campaign accelerated when the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that opened the door to indiscriminate sanctions and boycotts against Israel over its settlement policy in the West Bank and Jerusalem. A few days ago, UNESCO took yet another step in its campaign to deny Jewish rights to Israel, denying the nearly 4,000-year history of the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Everyone, including those who voted in favor of the resolution, knows that there are no historic or scientific grounds to the Palestinian claim for connection to the site. But facts, we all know, are the least important factor in this story. All that matters is that the campaign to eliminate the State of Israel and revoke UN Resolution 181—which warranted the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel—is gaining momentum.
This latest resolution is a warning sign to the entire Jewish people, and especially to those living in Israel. It tells us that we must reassess who we are as a nation, what we currently stand for, what we would like to stand for, and how we can accomplish this.
A Cesspool of Hatred
Some two weeks ago, in his first public address, US ambassador to Israel, Mr. David Friedman, said, “I have a great speech prepared about the breadth and the depth of the relationship between the United States and the State of Israel. But I’m not going to give it tonight.” Instead, Ambassador Friedman dedicated his entire speech to Jewish unity, or more to the point, the lack thereof.
However we look at it, the current level of division among Jews is unsustainable. We are poisoning our relationships with so much hatred that the world never sees anything good emerging from the Jewish people. We are vying over the Western Wall prayer areas and blacklisting certified rabbis’ decisions on determining the Jewishness of people who need their Jewishness confirmed. We are campaigning against our own country through the UN, BDS, the academia, and in myriad other ways. We segregate Jews based on ethnic background and culture, and we associate only with politically and religiously like-minded people.
Israel, which was supposed to be a role model melting pot, has become a cesspool that emits nothing but hatred of our coreligionists. This is the exact opposite of the essence of our faith, and contradicts what we are meant to project to the world.
Why the Ceaseless Persecution of the Jews?
Throughout the generations, the leaders of the Jewish people—from the most orthodox to the most secular—have stressed that our redemption, salvation, and even survival depend only on our unity.
“All of Israel is responsible for one another … only where there are people who are responsible for one another there is Israel,” wrote Zionist thinker A.D. Gordon. “We are called upon to unite the world. But before we unite the material world, we are called upon to reveal the spiritual unity. This is our innermost secret,” stated Rav Kook (Letters of the Raiah), the first Chief Rabbi of Israel. “Everything depends on the children of Israel. As they correct themselves, all of Creation follows them,” asserted the book Sefat Emet. “We have yet to open our eyes and see that only unity can save us. Only if we all unite … to work in favor of the entire nation, our labor will not be in vain,” mused Eliezer Ben Yehuda, reviver of the Hebrew language. “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus, 19:18) is the superior commandment in Judaism. With these few words, the eternal, human law of Judaism has been formed… The state of Israel will merit its name only if its social, economic, political, and judicial structure is based upon these three eternal words,” concluded David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel.
Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, author of the complete Sulam (Ladder)commentary on The Book of Zohar, wrote in his composition, The Writings of the Last Generation: “Judaism must present something new to the nations. This is what they expect from the return of Israel to the land!” Indeed, continued Ashlag, “It is the wisdom of bestowal, justice, and peace.”
Despite these oft-repeated statements, we have not listened. Since the ruin of the Temple and the exile we have inflicted on ourselves through our unfounded hatred of each other, we have not learned how to overcome our loathing and unite. As a result, the persecution of our nation has not stopped since. “When Israel is ‘as one man with one heart,’ they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil,” stated the book Shem MiShmuel. But when was the last time we were “as one man with one heart”?
We Rise and Fall by the Power of Our Unity
According to the Rav Kook, “The purpose of Israel is to unite the entire world into a single family” (Whisper to Me the Secret of Existence). When a man asked Old Hillel to teach him Torah, the sage replied, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat, 31a). Just as explicitly, Rabbi Akiva stated, “Love your neighbor as yourself is the great rule of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim, Chapter 9, p 30b).
Similar to those giants, the book Shem MiShmuel writes, “The intention of Creation was for everyone to become one bundle … but because of the sin [evil inclination/egoism], the matter was corrupted to the point where even the best in those generations could not unite. The correction of this matter began in the generation of Babylon, when Abraham and his descendants gathered people together into a joint assembly. …Thus, the matter continued and grew until the congregation of Israel was made. But the end of the correction will come when everyone becomes one bundle.”
Israel became a nation when all its members committed to unite “as one man with one heart.” Immediately thereafter, Israel was commanded to be “a light unto nations,” to pass on that solid unity. For this reason, when we are united, there is merit to our existence as a nation. When we are apart, there is no justification for our existence as a nation because we cannot be “a light unto nations.” In consequence, the nations reclaim the land and disperse the Jews, who are not true to their vocation. This is why the book Maor VaShemesh asserts, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship within Israel, no calamity can come over them.”
Our Fate Is in Our Hands
In his book The Art of Loving, renowned psychoanalyst and sociologist Erich Fromm wrote, “Man—of all ages and cultures—is confronted with the solution of one and the same question: the question of how to overcome separateness, how to achieve union.” Moreover, Fromm stresses, the more humanity “separates itself from the natural world, the more intense becomes the need to find new ways of escaping separateness.”
Indeed, today’s society is so narcissistic that people overdose by the tens of thousands each year simply out of loneliness. Neuroscientist Marc Lewis candidly summed up humanity’s bane with the title to his sobering piece, “Why are so many people dying from opiate overdoses? It’s our broken society.”
The Book of Zohar writes very clearly in the famous Tikkun No. 30 that when Israel is not united, they “bring about poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world.” In other words, we should not be surprised when humanity blames the Jews for their woes. In his seminal essay “Mutual Guarantee,” Rav Ashlag wrote, “It is upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and all the people of the world to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of love of others, which is the ladder to the purpose of Creation.” Why? Because, continues Ashlag, the Israeli nation was fashioned as “a sort of gateway by which the sparks of love of others would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.”
Even if people are not consciously aware that Jews have been fashioned as a gateway for humanity’s better future, this gut feeling dictates their thoughts and actions. This latent expectation causes academics such as British journalist and historian Paul Johnson to write, “At a very early stage in their collective existence the Jews believed they had detected a divine scheme for the human race, of which their own society was to be a pilot.” This expectation also causes antisemites to cover Holocaust memorial sites with sheets carrying the inscription, “Heebs [Hebrews] will not divide us.”
Indeed, we rise and fall by our willingness to be a light of unity unto nations. As a result, we are the only nation whose fate is in its own hands. If we decide to “take upon ourselves that sublime work of love of others” and thus become “a light unto nations,” our sovereignty, prosperity, and peace in Israel are secured. But if we hand over the reins to our selfish egos as we have been doing for the past two millennia, it is likely that we will see yet another round of ruin in the Land of Israel. Unless we wake up to our task soon, rise above our egos and unite, it just might be too late.
Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post
[210461]
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
