In my column in The Jerusalem Post: “Fake News And The Truth About Human Nature”

Depression, violence, substance abuse, alienation and isolation are symptoms of the self-entitlement epidemic. Humanity’s final frontier is not to conquer space, but to conquer the space between us.

Earlier this month, an unsubstantiated BuzzFeed dossier claiming to contain compromising information about the President-elect, Donald Trump, was picked up and treated as real news by CNN. The news had turned out to be false, and in his first news conference in months, Trump grilled the CNN reporter, called his network “fake news,” and prevented him from asking questions. Since November 9, when the stunning results of the US elections came in, there has been a growing buzz around the question of whether or not fake news was used to promote candidates.

Fake news is nothing new. It is an oft-used means to mislead people for financial, political, or other purposes. Governments, political parties, and even public relations professionals often misreport in order to accentuate their side of a debate, or simply fabricate stories just to pull the public to their side. In fact, the news today is so plagued with bias that it can either be fake or misleading, but it is always bent.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics states that a journalist must “Never deliberately distort facts or context.” In today’s world of journalism, such a statement could easily count as fake news. When every news outlet clearly states its political position, we can only expect news outlets to deliberately distort facts and context in order to manipulate public discourse and public opinion. The interest of media is to serve their shareholders, not to inform the public.

Here is a classic case of a media outlet using news to manipulate the public’s view. In recent months, terrorists carried out three deadly attacks in a very similar fashion—driving trucks into a crowd of unsuspecting pedestrians. The first attack took place in Nice, France, the second happened in Berlin, Germany, and the third ramming occurred in Jerusalem, Israel. Despite the similarity of events, and despite the fact that in all three incidents there were casualties, and the driver was clearly a terrorist deliberately plowing with his truck through the crowd, BBC News reported the third incident, in Israel, very differently from the first two. Here are the headlines that BBC gave to each of the attacks: France: At least 84 killed by lorry at Bastille Day celebrations. Germany: Lorry kills 12 at Christmas market. Israel: Driver of lorry shot in Jerusalem after allegedly ramming pedestrians, injuring at least 15, Israeli media report.

Remember the SPJ Code of Ethics item that journalists must “never deliberately distort facts or context”? Indeed, how very far we are from the days when we considered the press the “watchdog of democracy.” The only thing they watch today is their shareholders’ interests. Yet, there is a reason for this sad state.

The Ego Is King

We may be eyeing journalists these days, but to be honest, bias is all over the place. Take polls, for instance. We used to put them on a pedestal and regard them as the bastion of objectivity. Following their two flops—to predict the outcomes of the Brexit vote and the US elections—polling companies have lost the public’s trust. Now, even the influential French newspaper, Le Parisien, has decided to abandon opinion polls in the run-up to the general elections, and to “shift focus from ‘horse race’ journalism to on-the-ground reporting.”

Another major issue of trust is with the US Judicial System. Since the president nominates the Supreme Court justices, and Senate must approve them, it means that by definition, the US justice system is politically bent from the top down. If the Supreme Court is subject to the influence of political interests, can we even expect objectivity anywhere in the judicial system?

Wherever you turn, personal, sectarian, financial, or political interests determine the way the country is run. This is true for the United States, as it is true for every single country in the world. Yet, as sad as this is, knowing the truth is the first step toward correction. In Kabbalah, realizing the negativity of human nature and its adverse impact on our world is called, “recognition of evil.”

Indeed, today the ego is king. Sociologists have written about our culture of narcissism since the late 1970s, but since the turn of the century they have begun to think that our selfishness has become an epidemic. Spiraling depression, skyrocketing divorce rates, escalating violence, ideological and religious radicalism, an explosion of substance abuse, growing alienation and isolation, escalating political disputes, all these are symptoms of the self-entitlement epidemic that is threatening our well-being and our very existence.

To Correct Human Society, Correct Human Nature

Describing the entire correction process for human society is a bit of a tall order for a newspaper column. I detailed this in several of my books, including Self-Interest vs. Altruism in the Global Era: How society can turn self-interests into mutual benefit, and Completing the Circle: An empirically proven method for finding peace and harmony in life, which also includes examples of practical implementation of the correction process. Yet, I would like to highlight the basic principles for constructing a healthy society.

The Engine of Development

You cannot suppress or crush the ego. Humanity has been trying to do so for centuries, and has failed miserably. Our egos are not stagnant; they are constantly growing, so every defense we erect against them crumbles as soon as more intense egoism appears. The pressure released when such outbursts occur causes violence and disorder throughout society. In fact, the world we see today—where the ego is destroying everything of value on the planet—is precisely the result of our failed attempts at crushing the ego.

Also, the ego is the engine of our development. Humanity’s greatest achievements emerged from man’s egoistic search for fame, fortune, and knowledge. If we crush the ego, we will crush progress.

Humanity’s Final Frontier

The New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, said recently in an interview with Tucker Carlson on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show: “Connecting people to people will be a huge job. …I think that the best jobs will be people-to-people jobs. We’re going to see a whole new set of jobs and industries around the heart, around connecting people to people.”

Indeed, humanity’s final frontier is not to conquer space; it is to conquer the space between us. In this perilous time, humanity’s single most important task is to rise above the ego and unite. This may sound utopian or unrealistic, but it is feasible if we employ the right approach and use the right means.

Almost 4,000 years ago, Abraham the Patriarch discovered that life exists on the balance between giving and receiving. As is today, Abraham’s society in Babylon was shattered by alienation and by aspirations for human achievement. The ancient Hebrews came from multiple tribes and nationalities. Escaping the alienation in their own tribes, they flocked to Abraham, who taught them how to love one another, the trait that eventually made us into a nation. Today, after two millennia of abandonment of this most valuable asset, we must not only return to our roots and restore our unity, but also share the method for achieving it with the rest of the tormented world.

Abraham and his descendants developed a connection method that enabled their disciples to transcend the egoism that stood between them and bridge it with love. The higher the threshold of egoism became, the higher the bridge they built above it. The book, Likutey Etzot (Assorted Counsels), writes, “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 between two opposites.” King Solomon aptly summarized this approach in his proverb (Prov 10:12): “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes.”

Until now, we have enshrined receiving and we have totally abandoned the element of giving. We have warped society and made it selfish to the core. Now we must reintroduce the element of giving into our communities, so that the positive force of connection will offset the negative force of separation.

In previous columns, I wrote about Connection Circles and other techniques we can apply in order to install the positive force into society. But before we can employ any of them, we must decide that we no longer want to live in an egoistic world where the press is misreporting, the justice system is politicized, and the economy benefits only the ruling elite while the rest of us are slowly sliding into poverty. Just as physicians need a diagnosis in order to prescribe an effective cure, we need “recognition of evil” in order to start healing our society. This is where we are right now; it is the first step toward recovery.
[200760]

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From my weekly column in Ynet: “The Right In Europe—A Ticking Time Bomb”

The last referendum in Italy and the resignation of Prime Minister Renzi announce the strengthening of fascist movements and prove that it is time for Europeans to unite. Currently, the winds of nationalistic protests are targeted at the establishment, but they might soon be targeted against millions of immigrants, and later, as has happened in the past, against the Jews. Rav Laitman explains how to defuse the ticking nationalistic bomb that threatens the fate of the Jewish people.

In my latest articles, I have gone into great detail discussing the current global changes and have explained that it all stems from the laws of nature, which the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches. The world is changing, the economy is taking on a new form, regimes are changing before our very eyes, and the voice of the British people who chose to leave the EU and the voice of the Americans who lead Trump to the White House were echoed in the voice of the Italian people who said no to the referendum and strongly opposed reforms in the Italian constitution, a real rebellion in the faltering EU.

The winds of nationalistic protest in Italy are now targeted at the political establishment, but they may change direction and target the millions of foreign immigrants and later, as always, the Jews. This dangerous fascist, anti-Semitic trend could affect the fate of Europe, the fate of the Jewish people, and the fate of humanity as a whole.

The Collective Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Fascism is part of the Italian DNA. In 1919, about a year after WWI, fascism as a world view led to the emergence of a dictatorial regime in Italy, which replaced liberal democracy. Italian fascism attributed great significance to the idea of the eternal state and demanded the mortal individual to sacrifice himself, his aspirations, and his goals for the greater good: there are no social classes, there are no individuals, and the nation is a live and breathing body.

Through coherent nationalistic ideology emphasizing hatred of foreigners, the purported founder of fascism Benito Mussolini rallied his countrymen to extricate them from poverty, social problems, and unemployment—the same issues Italy faces today.

Mussolini himself came up with the term “fascism,” which stems from the Italian world “fascio,” meaning bundle or unity. It is an ancient Roman symbol of a bundle of wooden rods as a representation of strength through unity in contrast to the weakness of the individual. It is an egoistic and exploitative connection whose sole purpose is to gain power and control, and it eventually lead to the destruction of the “united nation.”

A hundred years after it faded away, the nationalistic parties are reawakening and indicate the real need for unity. It is perfectly clear that the unity that stems from narrow egoism is concerned only about its own nation. The question is whether there is another option. Is it possible to lead the growing need for unity onto a new track and, if so, how?

The Jewish Logo

Unlike the fascist logo, hundreds of years ago, the large Israeli force unity of the Jewish people was likened to a bundle of reeds: “If someone takes a bundle of reeds, can he break them all at once? If taking them one by one, even a baby can break them” (Tanchuma). The story of the unity of Israel goes back to ancient Babylon about 3,500 years ago. In those days, the primitive society was like one family where everyone understood each other “Now the entire earth was of one language and uniform words” (Genesis 11:1). Suddenly, man’s egoistic nature erupted. The same desire to receive pleasure which motivates us through pleasure or suffering demanded greater pleasures at the expense of others. The mutual exploitation led to a deep social crisis that split the Babylonians and led to a civil war.

The frustrated Babylonians looked for a way out of the thicket of the social crisis, and salvation appeared in the form of Abraham, the great Babylonian priest of the time who gathered them around him, taught them the wisdom of Kabbalah and how to be connected and love each other. A group of once-estranged Babylonians connected as one man in one heart and were called Israel because of their desire to resemble the Creator, “Yashar El,” to attribute everything to the one force of nature that is whole and eternal. From the moment the nation of Israel was established, it had one goal only: to serve as an example of unity for the other parts of divided humanity, to be a Light of the nations of the world.

The Jewish nation has undergone many changes. After the destruction of the Second Temple, egoism grew and unfounded hatred intensified. Brotherly love and the sublime value of unity ceased to illuminate the spiritual vision, and the nation dispersed all over the world for two thousand years of exile.

The Jews cannot wander all over the world and assimilate with the other nations forever because they have a great responsibility and an obligation to bring to the world the method of connection. Every time the Jews tried to deny their role, they soon were reminded of it in the form of anti-Semitism, which is the law of nature.

Anti-Semitism in Brief

At the beginning of the 20^th century, Henry Ford, a great anti-Semite, published a series of booklets called “The International Jew” in which he wrote, “The Jew has gotten used to thinking that he is the only proprietor of society’s humanism for too long. Society has a great demand from the Jew, that he should cease to be aloof, that he should stop his abuse of the world, that he should stop relating to Jewish groups as the goal of all his profits, and that he should start fulfilling the ancient prophecy, since it is by that that all the nations on earth will be blessed.”

Ford is one of many examples. In 1364, Polish King Casimir III said that the Jews were always scheming, wanting to harm the Christians, to exploit them, and impoverish them financially. In 1885, German philosopher Paul de Lagarde offered the German people a detailed plan as to how to get rid of the loathsome Jewish race living among them. He said that one doesn’t negotiate with “pests and parasites” and one doesn’t educate them, but they should be destroyed “as speedily and thoroughly as possible.” Adolf Hitler, the odious, wrote “For the Jewish spirit is the product of the Jewish person. Unless we expel the Jewish people soon, they will have judaized our people within a very short time.” We all know how his words were made into actions.

But even after the Holocaust that hit European Jews hard, the winds of hatred are blowing again. The French writer and diplomat Jean Giraudoux wrote “that the French racial stock was being threatened by hordes of Eastern and Central European ghetto Jews descending upon France. These Jewish barbarians inclined toward lawlessness, and their corruption undermined the native artisanal traits of precision, perfection, and trust.”

Unity Heals the Wounds of Humanity

Hitler, Ford, and many anti-Semites throughout history have subconsciously felt that the Jewish nation has a meaningful role in the world, and that it doesn’t fulfill it. When unity among the people of Israel weakens, fascism and Nazism grow stronger, so it is no wonder that in this generation all the destroyers among the nations of the world are raising their heads and mainly wanting to destroy and kill the children of Israel. As the sages said, “no calamity comes to the world unless it is for Israel since, as it says in Tikunei HaZohar, Israel are the cause of poverty, killing, robbery, and destruction all over the world” (The Writings of Baal HaSulam).

On the other hand, if we act responsibly and unite as one man in one heart, as the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us, we use our egoistic nature correctly, spurring the positive force of connection in nature and radiating it through the network between us to the entire world. Baal HaSulam wrote, “the Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over … until they develop to such an extent that they can understand the pleasantness and tranquility that are found in the kernel of love of others” (Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut“). The unity that spreads through us to the global network softens the hearts of mankind and brings them closer to each other and defuses the evil thoughts they have as to how to harm themselves through fascist regimes and, all the more so, how to harm the Jews.

“When there is love, unity, and friendship, there is no room for any calamity” (Maor VaShemesh). In other words, the choice is ours. We only have to show the world how to properly connect. A loose connection between us will bring the rise of fascism, whereas a tight connection will lead to its fall.
[199219]
 Ynet 12/8/16

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From my weekly column in Ynet: “2017: An Optimistic Prediction”

Terrorism, waves of immigration, Brexit, Donald Trump, jingoism, ISIS, the legalization of soft drugs, climate crises, raging social networking, and a host of negative dramatic events plagued us in the past year. Summarizing the year is the easy part; the wisdom is in understanding what must change so that next year’s summary will be better. Rav Laitman with an optimistic prediction for the year 2017

2016 was a year of many upheavals in the entire world. It was a complex, intense year full of sharp turns that ultimately permeated the public consciousness with the recognition that we are in a problematic social, economic, and security situation. This recognition is also the best thing that has happened to humanity, and it also grants an opening to great hope.

It turns out that we can succeed in anything or at least prevent deterioration if we just change our way of thinking. The secret of success lies in identifying the connection between the various negative events, locating the factor that motivates them, neutralizing it, and in this way, balancing the course of events in 2017.

The End of the Era of Egoism

According to Kabbalah, the factor that links a variety of events,  both positive and negative, is the egoistic nature of humans—the desire to receive pleasure and delight—the attempt to benefit maximally and succeed in all areas of life, even if we trample others on the way there.

What is surprising about the year 2016 is that there already are clearly recognizable signs of the end of egoistic development after the thousands of years of the existence of the human species. The wars, crises, and great disappointments that we experienced this year are a sign that the egoistic system in its exploitative form doesn’t work anymore.

The egoistic fuel has run out. There is no more drive to enter into financial, commercial, political, military, and cultural competition because the end is in sight. In this way, no one wins; all of us lose. Combine the processes of globalization, advanced technology, and three-dimensional printers in the equation occupying the world, and the conclusion is that the future in the labor market starting from the year 2017 will be very different than what we have been familiar with up to now. In such a situation, even more severe events are liable to happen than what we were exposed to in the past year.

A Time for Renewal

Egoism will not disappear. It is inherent in us from birth. But the moment the understanding becomes more clear in the consciousness of humanity that if we continue to operate only from our egoistic nature, we will fall into an abyss, only then can the need for an essential change be awakened, and from it, we can begin to search for a new method that will transcend the negative power of the ego for somewhere new and positive.

The desire for profit, the drive to succeed, and mutual competition that have motivated us up to now—the characteristics and inclinations of human nature—will not blur or become extinct. We need to learn to use them wisely and beneficially, instead of for an individual’s personal benefit, directed  toward the benefit of all of society.

The wisdom of Kabbalah exactly fits the transition from the old world to the new world, from 2016 to 2017. It has the power to guide a person and all of humanity in a positive way, stimulating the right questions and providing a wide and deep perspective for understanding the processes that are visiting the world. The method of connection that the ancient wisdom of Kabbalah offers provides a way that can change our attitude toward others, treat each other correctly, and make a living from each other, but with respect. With the help of a process that integrates study and experiential workshops, the ability to connect with each other is developed. We become closer to each other emotionally, and we transcend our innate egoistic nature to a broad, eternal, and higher reality.

Symbolically, the end of the year is celebrated with the end of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights. From the darkness, the Light breaks through; from the crack in the ground, the plant sprouts, and from the crisis, life is born. I have never been so optimistic toward a new year in which the two components required for achieving a good and happy life have been placed together before our eyes: despair in the results that we have achieved so far, and in contrast, the wisdom of Kabbalah is available to everyone who desires it; it provides the right direction toward the royal road. The future is in our hands. 2017 can be optimistic.
[199695]
From Ynet article 12/29/16

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In my regular column in Haaretz, my new article: “Obama’s Legacy of Incompetence, and a New Hope Arising“

Following Obama’s eight years from hell, his would be successor, Hillary Clinton, didn’t stand a chance.

On December 26, Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece titled “Obama’s Fitting Finish” lambasting not only Obama’s final weeks in office, but his entire presidency. According to Stephens, in just eight years, Obama has entangled the US military in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Pakistan, dissolved the US alliances with Egypt and Turkey, empowered Iran, reignited the Cold War with Russia, sent millions of Muslim migrants into the heart of Europe, and shredded the US alliance with Israel. During his term, the US national debt has doubled, the middle class has diminished significantly, mostly due to downward mobilization, and healthcare has become ineffective and expensive. On the home front, racial tensions have risen to levels not seen since the 1960s, gun violence has skyrocketed, anti-Semitism has become mainstream, and Muslim terrorism has become an oft-seen incident on American soil. When you look at all the damage that this one president has done, you understand that his ideological successor, Hillary Clinton, didn’t stand a chance. People have had enough.

The pretense of the liberal Left has been exposed: a dictatorship of the financial elite. People will not be fooled anymore; their checking accounts are telling them the truth about the economy and the policy that has engendered their hardships. Political correctness (a key weapon in the liberalism mass-manipulation campaign) may have stifled people’s free speech, but it did not deter them from expressing their views at the ballot box. Their message is, “The time of unhinged exploitation of the masses by the ruling elite is over.”

The End of the Ego Era

As long as capitalism was based on a reasonable level of egoism, where people worked to sustain themselves and their families, the economy was moving forward. But the ego is like cancer; it doesn’t stop growing and spreading until it kills its host. Today’s level of egoism has become noxious narcissism. Women are marrying themselves, children are changing their sexes before they reach their teens, yet if someone dares to suggest that there is something unusual about these phenomena, the guardians of political correctness will label them as backward/chauvinist/bigot, or all the above and then some. On the altar of our self-absorption, we are sacrificing our happiness.

Why have so many studies concluded that the single most important thing we can do for our happiness is to connect with other people? Why did the Talmud state, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah” (Masechet Shabbat, 31a), and why did Rabbi Akiva add, “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the great rule of the Torah? Also, why did both offshoots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, adopt Rabbi Akiva’s tenet as their own, and why have so many belief systems adopted the Golden Rule, which requires that we treat others the way we would like to be treated? The single answer to all of these questions is that human connection, loving other people and being loved by them are the things that make us happy. This is human nature. When you focus solely on yourself, you end up marrying yourself. Then, by default, you are unhappy because you have gone against your own nature, but political correctness won’t let you admit it even to yourself. When this is the state of society, can we be surprised that immediately after being forced to sit with their families during Christmas, youths across the US turned malls into war zones?

If we stay on this route, governments, which are currently settling for sedating people by doping them through legalized marijuana, will feel compelled to cull people like farmers cull sick poultry and cattle. Humanity’s only sustainable alternative to this morass is to end the Ego Era and relearn how to connect.

Basics First

One of the most trending topics in Silicon Valley and other places where people are concerned with the future of humanity is Universal Basic Income (UBI). UBI means that if you are alive, you deserve to receive enough money to sustain yourself with dignity. In the US, academics and opinion leaders such as hi-tech mogul Elon Musk, co-founder of Facebook Chris Hughes, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, acclaimed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking have not only expressed their support of the idea that people will not have to work to secure their daily bread, but even engage in finding practical solutions to implement this.

Around the world, governments are taking interest in UBI, possibly as a means to avoid social unrest. Canada is about to launch a pilot in Prince Edward Island Province, and Fife Council in Scotland is currently considering a trial UBI scheme. Next year, the Netherlands will launch what The Atlantic dubbed, the “money-for-nothing experiment,” which guarantees residents in Utrecht and surrounding cities “a flat sum of €960 per month.”

I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of UBI. However, if we settle for giving people money to live, without helping them find meaning in connection, which we determined was the basis for happiness, then what happened in the US malls after Christmas will look like ripples in a bathtub compared to a tsunami.

Back to the Golden Rule

In order to secure our personal future and the future of society, we need to shake off alienation and reteach ourselves the joy of caring for each other. We can do this easily by providing people with a Universal Basic Income, on condition that they partake in connection trainings where they will learn how to communicate positively with one another, how to reestablish trust with family and friends, how to channel aggression away from violence and toward creativity, and other such topics.

I have seen many examples of people who were previously suspicious and antagonistic warm up to one another on a very deep level. An organization whose work I cherish has done wonders to help communities come together through nurturing their social cohesion. Liberated from economic concerns for themselves and for their families, people will happily partake in such trainings because of the immediate benefit from improving social ties.

People who will still work, in order to keep the chain of provision running, will also benefit from the social transformation because the atmosphere in their neighborhoods and homes will improve. In addition, employed people will not be left out of the trainings altogether. They will partake in trainings on a limited basis and will understand the basic concepts of the social shift that society is undergoing. In this way, they will voluntarily partake in it, and should they become jobless, they will easily find their way in the new social ambience.

Over time, senior students at the connection trainings will themselves become teachers, expanding the reach of the transformation to more and more communities. As the positive effect of the transformation ripples out, the social benefits of the spirit of connection will reduce hostility, allowing municipalities and states to reduce expenditures on policing and social services. Since depression is caused largely by social disconnection, people’s higher spirits and renewed sense of purpose will improve their health and depression related illnesses will drastically decline. This, in turn, will save billions of dollars to the country’s struggling healthcare system. Along with depression, substance abuse will drop, as people will have no need to escape from an undesirable reality. As people learn new and meaningful ways to connect and communicate, hopelessness will transform into hopefulness.

A Paradigm Shift

The transformation we are seeing is not a “blooper” of history; it is part of a paradigm shift that will see us all rejoicing in affinity and closeness. Human nature will eventually force us to adjust ourselves and our societies to its requirement that we will thrive through positive connections. Since we already know this, we can avoid the unforgiving consequences of compulsory transformation. We can and should initiate the transformation by ourselves, and usher humanity into a new era of Universal Basic Income for all, coupled with thriving social life and a peaceful international arena.

Assuming Obama does not inflict irreparable damage on the US before he leaves office, it is my sincere hope that in the coming months America will take its first, bold steps toward a brighter future of togetherness, connectedness, and friendship. The American people will benefit from this, as will the entire world.
[199636]

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From my weekly column in Ynet: “How Do We Change the Next UN Resolution?”

Chanukah symbolizes the victory of the few over the many; the victory of the Maccabees’ choice of the force of unity over the forces of separation. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah we can change the balance of power for the better only if we unite, so we could prevent the UN from voting against us. Just before the next anti-Israeli resolution comes up, Rav Laitman explains how we succeeded in the past and how we can succeed today.

If the UN Security Council had to vote on the establishment of the State of Israel today, chances are that most of members in the UN would vote against it and some countries would abstain. It is time we acknowledge that the Jewish State does not have many true friends among the 193 members of the UN

It is true that Barak Obama, the American president, is the one who initiated, led, and cooked up the last scandalous anti-Israeli resolution, choosing to end his administration this way. Even Britain, headed by the pro-Israeli Theresa May voted against Israel, just like Russia headed by Putin, Israel’s “friend”; every country according to considerations of expediency, as it is in politics. But Obama’s “revenge” is only a symptom. The problem is much greater.

If we put interests aside, we will discover that there is no state or nation today which truly supports Israel. Somehow, sooner or later, they condemn us. In some countries they actually hate us and in most countries they would simply be happy if we disappeared from the globe. This has been the attitude toward the state of Israel since the days of Ben Gurion and Golda Meir. You cannot connect it to the ongoing conflict with our cousins the Arabs since many nations like them even less than they like us. Could it be that the hatred stems from our geographical location? But we are also rejected abroad… and as for Israel, the hatred raged even before we settled here. The culprits may change each time, but the phenomenon remains.

When we face such significant moments in which the waves of hatred are growing threatening to wash us away, we should stop for a moment and try to understand why we are so hated and unworthy in the eyes of the world. Is there a root to the deep hatred that the other nations have been feeling toward us since the dawn of humanity?

The Law of Anti-Semitism

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, anti-Semitism, or anti-Israelism in its modern name, is not a passing phenomenon but a law of nature that can be measured. When we unite above our conflicts and disagreements, the positive force that can do wonders spreads in the world. On the other hand, when we are separated and divided, we invoke the negative force in the world, which boomerangs and hits us with a burst of anti-Semitism.

The irrational hatred that is gaining strength today reminds us the hard way that we have a role, and although we would be glad to avoid it, it is impossible. Even if we assimilate or blur our Israeli identity, we will forever remain Jews. We are the nation that carries the idea, the social ideal of love of man, the nation, and of the world. We became a nation on the basis of love of others that is expressed in the rule “love thy friend as thyself.” Only if we return to fulfill this love can we defuse the hatred the world feels toward us. Kabbalists tell us that we, the Jews, determine the fate of the world. The Book of Zohar says that just as the organs of the body cannot exist even for a moment without the heart, the nations of the world cannot exist in the world without Israel.

By uniting, we compel the world to unite and great abundance begins to flow. However, the division between us divides the other nations of the world and clogs the pipes of the abundance and invokes wars and hatred in humanity. The direct and the indirect outcome of this process pushes the nations of the world to harm the spiritual root called Israel and to try to annihilate us, since we are perceived as the root of all the evil in the world.

Baal HaSulam, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, the greatest Kabbalists of the 20^th century, said that the nation of Israel is a kind of a transmitter and to the extent that Israel are united, they can convey their power to the other nations of the world. He says that “we are the sons of the ideal” and only when we fulfill it and unite will we find peace.

Nowhere to Run

The UN Security Council resolution takes us back decades. It is enough to look around and see how countries, which just yesterday were considered to be stable, are crumbling and being destroyed. If international pressure is put on the State of Israel for a long time, it may make our life very difficult and take us back to the time when whole communities in enlightened Europe were destroyed. Although it seems that the Jewish nation has a stable home in the land of Israel, its success and its existence depend on the fulfillment of our role, as Baal HaSulam said, to build a model society in Israel based on the principles of connection and to convey this method to the world, since otherwise the whole Zionist movement will be disintegrated.

The cry of Baal HaSulam, who warned people of the anti-Semitic events of the past century and who knew the laws of nature that operate in reality, still echoes today and is more relevant today than ever. The UN Security Council resolution 2334 should be a reminder of our role: to unite and to be Light unto the nations of the world—to set a good example of a corrected society in which everyone lives in brotherly love above all differences.

Even the vain attempts to find shelter in the shade of the new administration headed by President-elect Donald
Trump and to expect him to save us will not rid us of our duty. We may feel short-term relief regarding our security, but eventually we will once again advance toward our fatal choice, just as we did when we first became a nation at the gathering before Mt. Sinai.

Then, at the foot of the mountain, we managed to overcome the mountain of hatred and connected as one man in one heart. If we connect as one bundle today, we will be able to harness the hatred the world feels toward to our favor. As long as we continue to treat each other cruelly, the world will be cruel to us. So as it says in our sources: “the main thing that protects Israel from calamity is love and unity, and when there is love and unity and friendship among the people of Israel, no calamity can harm them.” (“Maor VaShemesh“)
[199456]
Ynet 12/27/16

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In my regular column in the Jerusalem Post, my new article: “Israel’s best response to the UN resolution“

Predictably, Obama is using his last weeks in office to accomplish his anti-Israel goals. But how should Israel respond?

Even as Israel rightfully decries the UN resolution, it must also see that this unanimous vote of hate and anger against it bears a strong message. The world is expecting Israel to lead the way to a solution, and fast. But it is up to Israel to figure out what that solution must be.

What the World Doesn’t Know

As I wrote in my last column, the resolution is but the culmination of Obama’s eight years of efforts to force his destructive neoliberal policies upon the world. I have already written of the error inherent to liberalism, that its high and lofty aims may be correct, but it lacks the path to achieve them.

At the end of this year of terror, which world leaders have not known how to prevent, and as the world witnesses Europe suffering the deadly results of its neoliberal open border approach towards Muslim immigrants, these leaders have the audacity to try and force the same liberal mistakes upon Israel without the least concern of the security implications it would have on such a tiny state. For what actual solution to the conflict is the UN offering? How can Obama, European leaders, and the leaders of countries such as crime torn Venezuela teach Israel anything about resolving the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians?

Just as world leaders recklessly thought that simply letting in millions of people of completely different cultures into their land, with no prior preparation for this assimilation on the human, psychological level, would magically result in a peaceful heaven, they are now pushing for an artificial two-state solution that may bear the title of mutual “independence”, and calm the liberal conscience, but will do nothing to achieve peaceful coexistence between the two nations.

Israel has learned from its mistakes. The withdrawal from the Gaza Strip ended in the further escalation of violence toward Israel. The agricultural lands of Jewish settlers were turned into rocket launching platforms with underground terror tunnels beneath them, inciting an inevitable war that brought about so many casualties, especially on the Palestinian side. Nothing can assure us that the same will not happen with a withdrawal to all other pre-1967 borders.

What the World Does Know

However ineffective the efforts, there is good reason that world leaders push to see this conflict resolved. The amount of pressure and attention that this conflict has received along the way is not only indicative of the huge bias against Israel. Outgoing UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon himself admitted the bias, with 223 UN resolutions passed in the last decade condemning Israel, but only 6 condemning Syria–the location for the past six years of the most horrifying humanitarian crisis since WWII. It is also indicative of how the world somehow feels that THIS crisis is the source of all others, that solving this conflict will model for the world the remedy for all its other ills.

The enigma of this attitude towards Israel is rooted deep in Israel’s past and future. At present it is clear to see that subconsciously, the world expects Israel to solve its problems; it just doesn’t understand how.

Above Right and Left

It is up to Israel to find the answers. However, though Israel is right to refuse to repeat the mistakes of the past, which will endanger its safety, it does not mean that it is heading in the right direction. As Israel tightens its security measures and avoids contact with the other side, the problem is not actually treated, assuring that war and strife will continue.

New solutions are needed that go beyond what has been tried so far. The typical leftist approach calls for conciliations that irresponsibly overlook the culture gaps, hatred, and religious ideologies; while the typical approach of the political Right is the maintenance of security and furthering Israel’s goals, living forever upon our sword, without taking real steps to achieve the coexistence that will bring the conflict to its solution. Neither approach on its own can yield the desired results. What I believe CAN work is something completely different.

Israel Holds the Key

What must first be acknowledged is that coexistence when such deeply rooted hate is present is not born of decisions made on paper or by swapping land, but from true change of relations and attitudes between the two sides. Without such a change in the reality of the animosity between the nations, they will continue to fight each other in a zero sum war until one side is completely erased.

Secondly, complete separation is not possible. Evacuating Jews from all settlements and creating a “Jew free zone” will not cure the hate and the danger to Israel, with Hamas’ charter stating its intent to destroy it, and children being educated to murder every Jew. Moreover, Israel is not “Muslim free”; it is a society embedded with many religions and cultures. Thus, achieving a breakthrough in the quality of the relationships between Israelis and Palestinians is crucial for all.

Some might say it is impossible to achieve such unity, but they must know that it is not so. For millennia Jews have been unknowingly carrying within them the one method that can connect people above all differences.

Abraham’s Discovery

Thousands of years ago Abraham, the father of all Abrahamic religions and the common father of Jews and Palestinians, discovered the secret of the oneness of all life. He taught his disciples the method of achieving harmony between human beings. This deep wisdom which the world has come to know of, ever so superficially, by the precepts of “love thy neighbor as thyself” and “do not do to others what you hate”- was forgotten by most. But it was not lost. It was carried onwards for generations and elaborated by Jewish sages of Kabbalah in many texts such as the Book of Zohar and more recently, the writings of Baal Hasulam. Today, as it receives modern day practical forms, it is succeeding in bringing together Jews and Muslims in every opportunity that it is applied to the task.

The method of Abraham comes from the root of both nations and so it is the only way to move towards the healing of this ancient family strife. Rabbi Kook wrote of the future of these relations that “the brotherly love of Esau and Jacob, of Isaac and Ishmael, will raise them above all calamity, caused by evil, and turn them into light and mercy” (Igrot Haraia 1, 142).

I have had the privilege and responsibility to carry forward this wisdom and pass it on to my many students, who already implement it in discussion circles throughout Israel.

They have succeeded greatly in bringing together Jews and Arabs as you can see here, time and time again. This success can be replicated and must be the basis for any peace process; because peace begins with the people, with education, with changing mindsets and predispositions. Only by carefully constructing such peace in our societies can we expect the decisions made by leaders to last and bring good results into our lives.
We mustn’t give away the land or compromise security without first making sure that a process of education towards peace has actually changed the landscape of people’s hearts and minds. Those should be the settlements we fight for- the establishments of love and friendship between us, the building of bridges between our hearts. Only then will we be able to live our lives in happiness and security. Yes, Israel must defend itself, but also strive for this sort of change to take place.

Forecast For 2017

I predict that the world will continue to blindly pressure Israel to take the initiative. Though Trump may make things easier for Israel, it mustn’t think that it may rest on its laurels. It must continue to strive to create the coexistence between Jews and Arabs that only Israel can achieve, that will give the desperately needed example to the world of how to create peace in conflicted societies.

If Israel manages to pressure itself into finding this root solution to the conflict, it will gain immensely. Ultimately, a united Israel will bring an end to the war and to the great hatred the nations share toward it, as it finally assumes its destined position as the spiritual leader of the world, paving the way towards lasting peace. To the nations I say, pressure Israel to unite, not to withdraw. To Jews I say, don’t be tempted to take sides; unite above your differences. Only when you realize you hold the key, and find the way to create peace within you, will this conflict and all others be healed.
[199556]
  Jerusalem Post 12/29/16

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In my regular column in Haaretz, my new article: “Obama’s Hypocrisy Reveals the World’s Honest Opinion“

The UNSC unanimous decision indicates that had a vote on establishing a Jewish State been made today, Israel wouldn’t exist.
Just over two weeks ago, UK Premier Theresa May declared, “I couldn’t be clearer: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is wrong, it is unacceptable, and this party and this government will have no truck with those who subscribe to it.” Less than two weeks later, the UK government made a U-turn and voted in favor of a US initiated UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that opens the door to indiscriminate sanctions and boycotts against Israel.

Since his inauguration in 2009, Barack Obama has placed more and more “light” between the US and Israel, as he termed his policy of distancing the US from Israel. His latest, poorly covered maneuver to expose Israel to sanctions by the UNSC, is probably not the last we’ve seen of him, not if he can help it.

Yet, Obama is not Israel’s biggest problem. Surprisingly, Israel’s worst, and only true problem is Israel itself. The unanimous decision at the UNSC indicates that the entire world, almost every single one of the 193 member states of the UN, has a negative view of Israel. No other country, not even Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or any other despot-governed country has managed such a “remarkable feat”—to unite the entire world against it. Had the vote on the establishment of the Jewish state been made today, Israel would never have come into existence.

Moreover, if a vote to revoke the establishment of the state of Israel were brought before the UN General Assembly today, it would be approved by the same majority that approved the recent UNSC resolution, and to the sound of the same cheers by the member states.

Why the Hatred?

First, it must be clearly stated that the US government’s initiative to stymie Israel’s building in the West Bank does not stem from the efforts of the Obama-Kerry duo to promote peace in the region. It is part of the current administration’s effort to eliminate the Jewish state. The Palestinians, as Obama knows perfectly well, have never been partners for peace because they have never aspired for it. Since the 1921 Jaffa Riots, they have launched periodic waves of murderous attacks against Jews in Israel and around the world, and have formed alliances with anyone who promised to help them exterminate or drive the Jews from Israel, including an alliance with Nazi Germany. When the “primogenitor” of Arab terrorism—the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)—was founded in 1964, there were no “occupied territories” to return; they were only taken three years later in the 1967 Six Day War. Even more, the captured territory never belonged to the Palestinians; it was Jordanian territory.

The current US administration knows all this, as do more than 100 states that recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Simply put, the vast majority of countries agree with the Arab position that Israel should not exist. The Obama administration has set out to begin to put this position into practice, and will do everything it can to realize its agenda in the time remaining until the inauguration of Donald Trump, and even beyond. I previously warned that the UNESCO resolution denying the Jewish history on Temple Mount was only the canary in the mine. Now that Obama is untroubled by election results, we are seeing the realization of the threat to end the existence of the State of Israel.

In 2013, I published the book, Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour. I warned that the catastrophes of the Holocaust and the Spanish Inquisition were not isolated events, but part of a process that must be completed. Now we are seeing the beginning of the unfolding of the next stage in the process. However, as I wrote in “Why Do People Hate Jews,” we have control over the current stage. This does not have to be a traumatic process. If we focus on why we are hated and what we need to do about it, rather than bemoaning the fact that the world hates us, we will go through this stage quickly and pleasantly, and in the process eliminate the hatred toward Israel and eradicate anti-Semitism.

Israel—the Jew among the Nations

Abraham Foxman, former national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said that Israel has become “the Jew among the nations.” How very true. There is no fundamental difference between the accusations that Israel is facing, and the allegations that Jews have faced throughout history. The difference is that now there is a target—the State of Israel—the Jew among the nations. Now everyone can target their hatred toward a clear entity and make up blood libels and false accusations just as they had previously done toward Jews. But as we often see in BDS demonstrations, the anger at Israel is merely a thinly veiled pretext for venting anti-Semitism.

When trying to understand the roots of the deepest, most lasting hatred in the history of humankind, we have to go back to our roots, since this is where it all began. We Jews are unlike any other nation. We are the only nation in the history of humankind to be given the task to save the world by setting an example for it. We are the only nation whose birth was declared by God, but not before we met the condition of uniting “as one man with one heart.”

We were declared as chosen by the God that all three Abrahamic religions worship, and that God tasked us with being “a light unto nations.” It does not matter what people say; it is a fact that the darker the world becomes, the more it points the blaming finger at us.

The Talmud writes (Masechet Shabbat, 31a) that when a gentile came to Hillel and asked him to explain Jewish law to him, Hillel replied, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah.” This law was supposed to be the light to the nations, but if the progenitors of the law, its intended harbingers, do not implement it among themselves and do not set an example that others can follow, how can we blame the world for hating us? How can we not understand the world when it says that we are to blame for all the wars, when we are not making the slightest effort to overcome our mutual hatred and unite?

The most fundamental law of our ancient society was mutual responsibility. How is this implemented among us today? In what way are we responsible for one another? We have adopted the competitive and egocentric Hellenistic culture, the very culture to which we were intended to offer an alternative, yet we are offended when the world tells us we are redundant.

The Windsor Star quoted the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, as saying, “It matters not what the nations say, but what the Jews do.” This is true. The nations’ hatred stems from our inaction toward unity, toward mutual responsibility, toward rekindling the bond that had made us a nation in the first place. Without our example, the nations will not be able to make peace among themselves, and they will blame us for it. The process that I mentioned earlier is one of development from disconnection to connection, from separation to mutual concern. Yet, without our lighting the way for the nations by setting an example, they will not be able to achieve connection and will therefore have no need for us.

When the nations switch from words against Jews to actions, as they have done so many times in history, it will be too late for us to do what we must. We must unite before words become actions. Now is the time to act.

When discussing the fierce disputes among Jews, Baal HaSulam wrote back in the 1930s: “I know that even if we tie them together in one basket, one will not surrender to the other even a little, and no danger will interrupt anyone from carrying out his ambition.” He was trying to warn us about the impending Holocaust.

I am trying to do the same. I don’t enjoy being the wet blanket in the party celebrating the victory of Donald Trump, whom I had hoped would win. Yet, if we do not unite above our differences soon, our future will be bleak. The world is already taking concerted action against us; we must not wait, or it will be too late.

Our forefathers, the Maccabees, succeeded in overcoming the separation among them, thereby defeating the forces of separation. Through their unity, they drove the enemy out from the land of Israel, though they were few against many. Let us learn from their example what unity can achieve if we truly aim for it.
[199546]
From Ynet article 12/29/16

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In my regular column in Haaretz, my new article: “Hanukkah, or Why We Celebrate a Civil War“

Unity is how we defeat the Hellenistic separatism within us, and become modern-day Maccabees, warriors of the light.

Next week we (Jews who observe Jewish festivals) will celebrate Hanukkah, a.k.a., the Festival of Lights. But the miracle of finding a tiny jar of oil that should have held just enough oil to light the menorah for only one day, yet it lit for eight, is only the end of the story. Its beginning was much grimmer and bloodier, yet it also underscores the eternal battle of the Jew—to preserve the values of brotherhood and mutual responsibility above all else.

Our mission, the legacy of our ancestors to bring the light of unity to the world

In the year 167 BC, a Hellenized Jew stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in the worship place of the priest, Mattathias the Hasmonean. This was a routine procedure, part of an orchestrated campaign run by the Seleucid Empire to force the Hellenistic culture and belief system on the Jewish people. To their aid, the Seleucids used Jews who were taken by the charm of the Greek culture and philosophy to infuse the Hellenistic culture into Jewish life and force it on those who did not want it. But the Seleucids and their accomplices had not met Mattathias before. As the Hellenized Jew stepped forward in an attempt to carry out the government official’s order, Mattathias rose and slew both the Jew and the official.

Fearing the government’s retribution, Mattathias took his five sons and together they fled to the mountains surrounding their city, Modiin. There they could protect themselves while inflicting more casualties on the Hellenists.

Hearing of Mattathias’ act of defiance, Jewish dissidents began to stream toward the mountains to join Mattathias and his sons in their struggle over the fate of Judaism. Thus began the revolt of the Hasmoneans.

The Jewish Civil War

We may not like to think of our joyous Hanukkah festival in such dismal terms, but the revolt of the Maccabees was not against the Greeks, as Hanukkah children songs describe, but against our own rogue brothers. It was a civil war. For at least the first year of the revolt, the fighting hardly targeted Seleucid soldiers. The majority of fighting took place between the Maccabees, as the Hasmoneans and their troops were called, and the Mityavnim—Jews who espoused the Hellenistic culture or converted into the pagan Greek belief system. Only much later, after the Mityavnim were defeated, did the Seleucid armies join them in an attempt to crush the Maccabees.

Why a Jew Would Fight a Jew

Contrary to what many in our tribe like to think, our nation is not like any other. Maimonides tells us (Mishneh Torah, Chapter 1) that when Abraham fled from Babylon, he did so because he realized that brotherhood was the only remedy to mend the ruptures in his homeland, yet Nimrod, King of Babylon, persecuted him for his conviction.

Centuries later, Moses officially united us into a nation when we committed to love each other as ourselves and be “as one man with one heart.” Without this commitment, we are not Jews; we return to being the individualistic outcasts who fled their home tribes and have not yet found the uniting principles of mercy and love of others that will turn them into a nation. Without these tenets, we become each other’s enemies.

The war between the Maccabees and the Hellenized Jews is never ending. Within every Jew there is a Hellenist.

Yet, love of others is unnatural. The Torah tells us that “Sin crouches at the door” (Gen 4:7). Since our inception, we have had to fight the evil inclination in our midst. There have always been members of our nation who renounced the way of brotherhood and opted for the path of selfishness. Still, if we abandon the legacy of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, who will be a light unto nations? Who will show the world that when egoism reigns, as it does today, the only remedy for our society is to cover it with love of others?

We must remember that the whole of our Torah, as Rabbi Akiva taught us, is “love your neighbor as yourself.” The Talmud also writes (Masechet Shabbat, 31a) that when a proselyte came to Hillel and asked to be taught Torah, Hillel replied, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah.”

Therefore, the war between the Maccabees and the Hellenists was not over land. It was about maintaining the Jewish adherence to the Torah—the law of brotherhood. The Jews who chose Hellenism abandoned that law in favor of worshipping the ego, competition, and power, and wanted to impose their dogma on the Jews who remained authentic.

Had the Jews succumbed to the agenda of the Mityavnim, there would have been no one left to show the world the path of mutual responsibility and care. This, in turn, would have denied the world of an example that it is possible to transcend the ego and unite, and the world would have been doomed to destruction by ego-driven wars.

For this reason, the Hasmoneans had no choice but to destroy those Jews who wished to prevent their brethren from fulfilling their task—to be “a light unto nations” and to show the way to unity. The victory we celebrate on Hanukkah is not over the land we reclaimed from the Seleucids. We celebrate our victory over those among us who wished to deny the world of a shot at unity, a shot at lasting happiness and peace.

The Hellenist Within Us

The war between the Maccabees and the Mityavnim is never ending. Within every Jew there is a Hellenist whispering that it is better not to unite and be like everyone else, chasing egoistic pleasures. After all, isn’t this the way of nature?

Hanukkah reminds us we must never stop fighting our internal Hellenists. The history of our people proves that if we give up on unity, hatred will prevail. The victory of the Hasmoneans did not give Israel a lasting peace. Less than two centuries after their heroic triumph, unfounded hatred conquered even the best of us and inflicted the ruin of the Temple and our exile from our land.

Yet, our mission, the legacy of our ancestors to bring the light of unity to the world, has not changed or waned over the years. As I have shown in many of my writings, the nations sense that their inability to be at peace with one another is our fault. They hate us for their hatred of each other, and even the most flawless reasoning will not convince them otherwise. You cannot reason with a gut feeling.

Today’s world needs unity more than it needs clean air, and it really needs clean air. The more people’s relationships deteriorate on all levels of human interaction, the more they will blame us for it. We have been, are, and always will be the chosen people—not to dominate the world in any condescending way, but to lovingly introduce it to the method of connection through our personal example.

The changes in our world are accelerating exponentially. We are growing more vicious and violent by the minute. No one knows when an all-out war will erupt, but the risk of an eruption is growing ever more imminent. This Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, we must remind ourselves that the light the world needs now is unity, and that we are the ones called upon to light it.

In these days of high political tensions, our tribe is more separated than ever. Yet, this is also our chance to choose whether we want to become selfish Hellenists or caring Maccabees. We are the ones who must light the flame of unity among us and put it on our windowsills for all to see and follow suit.

Brotherhood is how we defeat the Hellenistic separatism within us and among us. This is also how we learn to love our neighbors as ourselves, and how we become modern-day Maccabees, warriors of the light.

May we have a happy and united Hanukkah!
[199244]
From Ynet article 12/22/16

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From my column in Ynet: “Who Is Running ISIS?”

Daesh [ISIS] stands at the head of the list of threatening phenomena at the conclusion of 2015. Who is really running the murderous terrorist organization, and what is the connection between the shaming on social networks of a former prime minister who was sentenced to prison and lecturers who were sent with ministers?

The rising world star of 2015 is undoubtedly Daesh—an organization that was crowned with the strongest and most sweeping brand name for this year, thanks to its widespread outbreak into the depth of international consciousness. Throughout the entire past year, hideous snuff films were posted on the social networks including: beheadings, rapes and murders of women, showcase attacks throughout the world, and stabbing and trampling attacks in the streets.

Daesh, the extremist terrorist organization, is indeed presenting the most brutal terrorist performance on the world stage, but if we take a deeper look, we will discover that we are also connected and we have a responsibility in this story (1).

Daesh is Here

The Book of Zohar indicates that we are all networked in a system of invisible connections. Imagine a network that closely links each one of us to every other person, a kind of network of thoughts and emotions that flow between us and dictate decisions and what we do in our lives.

Similar to a person, this network of connections is divided into two main parts: head and body. Each organ in this system has a defined role (2). The people of Israel serve as the “Rosh – head” (“Israel” = “Li-Rosh” – “I have a head”), and the world functions as the “body” (3).

When an ordinary person wakes up a bad thought, violence against another Jew, or even just an uncontrollable urge to “kill” or to “stab,” this thought within the “head of the system” necessarily transforms into a command in the “body of the system.”

It is not only extreme acts such as murder, stabbing, or severe violence toward others, even when I curse a driver who passes me wildly on the highway or I erupt at a clerk at the NII [government agency] or at the neighborhood children who are disturbing my rest, even then I am arousing evil.

The problem with thoughts is that they are immediately realized in the blink of an eye. Somewhere in another place, someone already goes to act out “my thought” in action against another person. As is written in The Book of Zohar (VaYehi): “Israel causes the rest of the peoples to lift their heads in the world.”

According to that perception, when a terrorist stabs a Jew in the streets of Israel—the root for this abominable deed is the direct result of those countless negative thoughts that pass through our minds and are also expressed in our negative attitudes toward each other (4).

The Hidden Connection Between the Relationships Between Us and the State of the World

These days we are dealing with increasing waves of global hatred toward the nation of Israel (5). Recognizing the fact that specifically here, in the system of relationships that we build between us in the nation of Israel, the fate of humanity is decided, and when hatred breaks out between us, it “awakens” hatred throughout the world through that hidden system of connections.
Were the enemy not so cruel, we would continue to fight and quarrel with each other.

Suddenly a terrorist murders hundreds of people in Paris. The enlightened world blames us as being responsible for the deed—an example is Sweden, which marches at the head of the haters camp, it is not ashamed to point an accusing finger at the nation of Israel as being responsible for world terror. A Daesh leader contending with many war fronts turns specifically to threaten the Jews and anti-Israeli organizations call from every stage possible to boycott us.

We must understand that things are decided for the good or for the bad on a more internal stratum. Bad thoughts and negative attitudes between us invite a hostile attitude and anti-Semitic actions toward us because “No calamity comes into the world except on account of Israel” (Yebamot 63a) (6).

Connection Is Our DNA

By virtue of our role as the “head of the system,” we must inject the power of connection, the power of vitality, into the rest of the peoples (7). This connection is our essence as the chosen people even from the days of our father Abraham who gathered us into a single nation from a jumble of foreign tribes in ancient Babylon (8).

In a sense, we must admit that Daesh are our “friends”—not because of the destruction and cruelty they bring into the world, but for the necessary uncovering that has been imposed upon us to change the basis of the relationships between us, and first and foremost, the thoughts that we scatter around the world (9). A change like this will lead us from brotherly hatred to love of Israel.

As strange as it all sounds, it is up to us to “thank” Daesh, because were it not for such a cruel enemy, we would continue to fight and quarrel with each other. Daesh grants us an opportunity to actualize our function as a people—to connect between us as one person with one heart and to restore the force of positive connection to the world. The beauty is that when we connect between us, the threat of Daesh will dissipate. This terrorist organization is “activated” by us like a puppet on strings; so when we unite—Daesh is afraid! (10).

The Real Enemy Is Us

The most important task before us is to unite against our real enemy – the separation, polarization, and division between us. We are guilty of making it possible for terrorism and all the evil in the world to run wild. The way to contend with the growing hatred is to apply the wisdom of connection—the wisdom of Kabbalah, by means of which we can elevate the value of unity above the growing egoism and self-concern (11).

The separation between us makes it possible for the ideology of Daesh to occupy the center of the world stage. It is an ideology that is based on the false unity of hatred. In contrast to it stands the ideology of unity of love for others, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18); only through its power can we neutralize every enemy from the evil power that nourishes
it and win the affection of the world (12).

So what will happen in 2016? It depends on our thoughts!

References:

1.“The Holy One Blessed be He made Israel the heart of the whole world. And that is how Israel among all the nations of the world, as a heart among the organs. And just as the organs of the body cannot exist in the world for even a moment without the heart, so all the nations cannot exist in the world without Israel” (Zohar for the People, Parshat Pinhas, 152)

“There is an intermediary phase between the totality of the world and the Creator, and it is the Israeli soul, which is very exalted in its root, and it is really a part of the divine, and it is the intermediary that connects between the totality of the world and the Creator. And through it the abundance and vitality and the existence of all the worlds is drawn; and so everything depends on Israel” (“Likkutei Halachot”, Birchat HaReiach and Birchat Hodah”, Halacha 4).

“The peace of the worlds dwells within this nation” (Bereshit Rabba, Parshah 66).

“Israel brings its light to the world, as it is said (Isaiah 60:3), ‘And nations shall walk at thy light’” (Midrash Rabba, Shir HaShirim, Parshat 4, Paska 2).

2.“You have no organ found in a person that doesn’t have a person correspondent to it in the world. For just as the human body is divided into organs and all of them stand on different levels, each one correcting the other, and all of them are one body, it is the same with the world, all of these people in the world are all various organs, and stand on different levels. And when all are corrected, they will really be a single body” (Zohar for the People, Parshat Toldot, 3).

3.“The word “Ysar-El” (Israel) are the letters of “Li Rosh” (the head (mind) is mine). This means that he believes he has a mind of Kedusha (Sanctity)” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag, Baal HaSulam, the article, “Shamati” 143).

“Israel are the first and foremost receivers of all the abundance, and from them it is distributed to the whole world. And so Israel is called ‘Li Rosh’, meaning that they are the head phase, receiving the blessing first, and after that coming to the world” (“Be’er Mayim Chayim”, Parshat Trumah, Chapter 25).

“…a branch that extends from the internality is the people of Israel, which has been chosen as an operator of the general purpose and correction. It contains the preparation required for growing and developing until it moves the nations of the worlds, too, to achieve the common goal. The branch that extends from the externality is the nations of the world. They have not been imparted the qualities that make them worthy of receiving the development of the purpose one at a time. Rather, they are fit to receive the correction at once and to the fullest, according to their Higher Root” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag – Baal HaSulam, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”).

4.“…this is why the world was created filled with so many people, each with his own thoughts and opinions, and all are present in a single world. It is so deliberately, so that each and every one….is incorporated in all the alien notions and thoughts of the entire world.” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag – Baal HaSulam, Shamati 33).

“Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon said, ‘Because the world is judged according to the majority, an individual is judged by the majority of his deeds. So if he performs one good deed, happy is he for tipping the scale for himself and the world to the side of merit; if he commits one transgression, woe to him for he has tipped the scale and for himself and the whole world to the side of guilt’” (Kiddushin 40b).

“The essence of the creation, choice, correction and destruction of the world, all of these depend upon Israel” (“Siach Yitzhak,” Part 2, Likkutim 1).

5.“How many troubles upon troubles there will be for Israel, and all the nations and their kings will testify against them together, and many evil decrees will be aroused. And all of them will come against them with one testimony, bringing troubles upon troubles, and the last will make the first forgotten” (Zohar for the People, Parshat Shemot, 96-98).

“It is a fact that Israel is hated by all the nations, whether for religious, racial, capitalist, communist, or for cosmopolitan reasons, etc. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each merely resolves its loathing according to its own psychology” (Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag – Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation, Part One, Section Nine).

6.“Were Israel to store up good deeds before the Holy One, Blessed be He, no people in the world would stand against them. But Israel causes the rest of the nations to raise their heads in the world. Because if Israel were not sinners before the Holy One, Blessed be He, the rest of the nations would surrender to them” (Zohar for the People, Parshat VaYehi, 412-413).
“When Israel sins, God forbid, then the Other Side truly has power to overcome the power of Israel” (Likkutei Halachot, Hilchot Tisha B’Av and Fasts, Halacha 4).

7.“Kedusha (the Sacred) extends from Israel to the whole world” (Zohar for the People, Parshat Emor, 92).
“…the Israeli nation was to be a ‘transition.’ This means that to the extent that Israel cleanse themselves by keeping the Torah, so they pass their power on to the rest of the nations” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag – Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”).

8.“At the age of 40 Abraham became aware of his Creator…and he began to stand up and proclaimed with a loud voice to all of the people, and informed them that there is one God for the whole world that should be served. And he went and called and gathered people from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom…until thousands and myriads gathered to him, and they were the people of the House of Abraham. And he planted in their hearts this great principle, and he wrote books…and this increased among the children of Jacob and those who accompanied them, and a nation was made in the world which knew the Creator” (Maimonides, “Mishnah Torah”, Sefer HaMeda, Hilchot Avodah Zarah, Chapter 1).

“The secret of the unity of the world dwells in Israel” (Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, “Ohrot HaKodesh 2” 415).

9.If it is impossible to blow a Shofar suitable for redemption, the enemies of Israel will come and trumpet for the redemption in our ears. They will trumpet and make noise in our ears and will not let us rest. Amalek, Hitler,may their names be erased, and so forth, awaken the redemption. This national scourge of the ‘Jewish problem’ there is a kind of redemption even in that, however one should not bless this Shofar” (Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, “Ma’amrei HaRaiah”, Volume 11).

“This Zionism therefore sees the Jews – as separate people united against their will by a ‘common enemy’. But it will not see the Judaism – the single block which aspires to exist in its unity even without any external compulsion. This is the main deficiency, which is discovered in all of its ways and deeds” (Ahad Ha’am, “The Congress and its Creator”)
“We are a people. The enemy involuntarily consolidates us into a people, as it always has been in history” (Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl, “The Jewish Nation”).

“All of the global noise…primarily only comes for Israel. They are calling us now for a great and sacred role, fulfilling it willingly and consciously, building ourselves and the whole ruined world together with us” (Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, “Igorot HaRaiah” 2, page 324).

10.“Every king or leader, although we see him rule for a long time, and it is in his hand to kill and to give life, enrich and impoverish, is nevertheless not a true king, because he does not himself have dominion or will because (Mareh Yehezkel Bamidbar Parshat Naso) ‘The heart of kings and princes is in the hands of the Creator’” (“Yismach Moshe”, Parshat Nitzavim).
“When there is love, unity and friendship between each other in Israel, there is no place for any calamity to fall upon them” (Meor VeShemesh, Parshat Nitzavim).

11.”The wisdom of truth teaches us about world unity, the side of equality that is to be found in all of existence to the highest, the image of the form that is created and how to go in the way of this light without an obstacle” (Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, “Ohrot HaKodesh 2”, 393).

12.“Reduction of the bad qualities in Israel, which provides the vitality of the idolaters, gradually reduces the idolaters. And everything depends on Israel” (“Arvei Nahal”, Parshat Lech Lecha).
“When Israel are like one person with one heart, they are like a wall against the forces of evil” (Shem MiShmuel, Parshat VaYikahel).

“The children of Israel were made as a guarantee for correcting the whole world with the power of Torah because everything depends on the children of Israel. Just as they correct themselves, all of creation is drawn after them” (“Sphat Emet”, Sefer Shemot, Parshat Yitro).

“Building the world, which is presently collapsing at the feet of the terrible storms of swords filled with blood, requires building the Israeli nation. Building the nation and the discovery of its spirit is one thing, and it is entirely united with building the world, which is crumbling and waiting for the full power of unity and elevation. And all of this is found in the soul of the congregation of Israel” (Rav Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, “Ohrot”, 70, 16).

“And all the nations will acknowledge and recognize Israel’s merit over them, until the realization of the words, ‘And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord’ (Isaiah 14:2), and also “Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my standard to the peoples: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders” (Isaiah 49:22).” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag, Baal HaSulam, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, 69).
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From Ynet article 12/30/15

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World, New Publications - No Comments →

In my regular column in Haaretz newspaper published my new article: “The Real Reason Why Aleppo Matters”

Money will not save Aleppo’s children, but true love will. Yet, they will have none until we nurture it among us.

In the last few months, the horrid humanitarian crisis in Aleppo has surpassed the worst atrocities we have seen coming out of Syria since the inception of the civil war there in 2011. It is true that “Aleppo’s fall is Obama’s failure,” as Leon Wieseltier wrote in The Washington Post. It is also true, as even chairwoman of Meretz, Zehava Gal-On, admitted on her Facebook page, that “We should give credit to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his insistence not to become involved in this war.” However, there is an inseparable connection between Israel and the tragedy in Aleppo.

In the last few months, the horrid humanitarian crisis in Aleppo has surpassed the worst atrocities we have seen coming out of Syria since the inception of the civil war there in 2011

Today in Israel, thousands of people are rushing to aid the stranded civilians of Aleppo. In just two days, Israelis have donated more than $100,000 to help the Syrian children whose lives have been devastated as they were used as pawns in the tug-of-war between Assad and the rebels, Russia and the US. Unable to flee, they have been sitting ducks waiting to become another harrowing image on the pages of newspapers and social media.

Yoav Yeivin, one of the lead organizers of the donation campaign, told The Times of Israel, “As an Israeli child I grew up asking where the world was when we needed them most [during the Holocaust]. As a Jew, I always knew that I was expected to be there, to help and lend a hand. There is no nation that knows better than us how lethal apathy can be.” I sympathize with Yeivin’s compassion and I understand how the memory of the Holocaust makes us more sensitive to other people’s suffering.

Yet, no amount of money can change what is happening in Syria. Even worse, no amount of compassion can alleviate the suffering or prevent it from worsening until its cause—the evil in human nature—has been uprooted. This task—transforming human nature from wickedness to kindness—is the sole task of the Jewish people. If anything positive should have emerged from the terror of the death camps, it is the commitment of our nation to transform human nature. As long as we stall, we are inadvertently inflicting suffering upon the world. This is why it hates us.

The preeminent 20th Century luminary of Kabbalah, Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam (Author of The Ladder), for his Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, understood this responsibility well and tried to awaken Jews to their task. In The Writings of the Last Generation & The Nation, he stated, “I have already conveyed the rudiments of my perception in 1933. I have also spoken to the leaders of the generation. Alas, it made no impression. Now, however, after the atom and hydrogen bombs, I think the world will believe me.” David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, expressed his appreciation of Baal HaSulam’s commitment to the goal of transforming society and human nature in a letter to his son, who was also my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag, who continued his father’s work. Ben Gurion wrote, “I wanted to talk to him about Kabbalah, and he with me—about socialism” (Diaries, August 11, 1958). Another time, Ben Gurion wrote (January 6, 1960), “I view with tremendous importance the completion of the works of Rav Ashlag (Baal HaSulam).”

Baal HaSulam did not settle for meetings with only the Prime Minister. He met with many leaders and social activists in the Jewish state. Among them were Zalman Shazar, Moshe Sharet, Chaim Arlozorov, Moshe Aram, Meir Yaari, Yaakov Hazan, Dov Sadan, and the acclaimed poet, Chaim Nachman Bialik. His intention was to convince these opinion leaders to build the state of Israel as a society that endorses unity and promotes the transformation of human nature. Had he succeeded, the Jewish people would have become the light unto nations we are intended to be and the massacre in Aleppo, as well as all the other atrocities that our world has seen since the end of World War II, would not have happened.

If we had shown the light of unity to the world, people would have known how to transcend their egos and unite. In the absence of this ability, they have invented neoliberalism.

Why Specifically Us?

There are two reasons why Israel and the Jewish people are the involuntary messengers of the necessity to modify human nature. The first, and most obvious one, is what Yoav Yeivin and Baal HaSulam mentioned earlier—the Holocaust. In The Writings of the Last Generation & The Nation, Baal HaSulam writes, “Because we suffered from tyranny more than all other nations, we are better prepared to seek counsel that will eradicate tyranny from the land.”

However, there is a deeper reason, on which I have elaborated several times before. Wherever you look in nature, there is perfect harmony. All of reality runs on the balanced interaction between two forces—positive and negative. These forces create distinct atoms whose particles are nevertheless connected, distinct molecules whose atoms are nevertheless connected, distinct cells whose molecules are nevertheless connected, and distinct organisms, such as human beings, whose cells are nevertheless connected. The harmonious balance between connection and distinction enables life to evolve toward greater unity and at the same time greater distinction, and enables people to become more unique the more they are connected.

In his article, “The Peace,” Baal HaSulam defines the evolutionary process just described as the “Law of Development,” which describes the interaction between the two forces just mentioned. Notably, this law also determines that humanity, too, will consist of distinct individuals who are nevertheless connected.

But we are not there yet. Instead, we are trying as hard as we can to justify the words of the Torah: “The inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21), and “Every inclination of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil” (Gen 6:5). In other words, our bodies exist through the same balance between the positive and negative forces, but our psyches seem to operate almost solely on the negative force. The revelation of the atrocities in Syria should warn us that we have stretched the system to the brink of collapse. If we do not add the positive force of our own volition, the Law of Development will soon do it for us.
In fact, the system is already stretched so thin that it is beginning to snap. The results of the US election, Brexit, and the referendum in Italy, all point to the fact that people can no longer tolerate the façade of political correctness and liberalism.

They need real connection.

This is where we Jews come in. We may not like it, but the world thinks that their problems are our fault. This is why since its inception in 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Council resolved more resolutions condemning Israel than on the rest of the world combined. Even retiring United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admitted in his departing speech that there is a “disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel.”

We Are in a Unique Position to Succeed, or Fail

On the one hand, it is very uncomfortable to be blamed for everything that is wrong with the world. On the other hand, this puts us in a unique position to help the world heal from the hatred that is ruining it. Since we are already under constant scrutiny, if we prevail over our division and hatred we have for one another, the world will notice instantaneously. Moreover, if we were not divided, we would not have anything to overcome, and therefore would not be able to serve as an example of how to prevail over divisions.

Since ancient times, our forefathers have known that the Law of Development leads toward ultimate connection. For this purpose, they developed methods to overcome hatred and create a unified body. Abraham did so through the quality of mercy, which he and his wife, Sarah, taught, as the Midrash tells us (Beresheet Rabah). Moses knew this, too, and took us out of Egypt where we united “as one man with one heart” and thereby became a nation. King Solomon wrote about it when he said, “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12), and Rabbi Akiva said that if you love your neighbor as yourself, this is the whole of the Torah.

Over the centuries of exile, our sages and leaders have written about the power of our nation to heal the world through unity. In Revolution of the Spirit, David Ben Gurion wrote, VeAhavta lere’acha kamocha (Love your neighbor as yourself) is the utmost commandment of Judaism. With these three words, the humane, eternal law of Judaism has been formed, and all of the literature on ethics and morals in the world could not say more. The State of Israel will merit its name only if its social, economic, domestic, and foreign policies are based on these three eternal words.”

In his essay, “A Speech for the completion of The Zohar,” Baal HaSulam writes that we have been given the land of Israel, “but we have not received the land into our own authority.” The only way the world will recognize the value of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people is if we embrace unity above all differences.

If we choose to do so, the world will see that there is a way to triumph over hatred. This will truly be our contribution to the suffering people in Aleppo, Yemen, Sudan, and the depressed and the oppressed the world over. As The Book of Zohar tells us (Aharei Mot): “And you, the friends who are here, as you were in fondness and love before, henceforth you will also not part, and by your merit there will be peace in the world.”

And speaking of peace, this morning I was delighted to see that Donald Trump easily surpassed the necessary 270 votes in the Electoral College and has been officially declared as the next President of the United States. I wish him the best of success in carrying out all of his plans. Speaking from the perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah, with its thousands of years of antiquity, and error-free record of predictions throughout Jewish history, I highly recommend that the President-elect help the people of Israel unite. By doing so, he will induce a monumental positive transformation throughout the world. Helping Israel unite is the greatest gift that the United States can give to the people of Israel.
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From Haaretz : “The Real Reason Why Aleppo Matters” 12/20/16

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