From my column on Ynet: “What Is Important For Our Children at School?”

If we don’t want to wake up one morning and discover that we have lost a whole generation, we have to change the education system that prepares our children for life as soon as possible. But while all the surveys indicate the need for urgent change the Ministry of Education is focused on conveying knowledge and on grades only. What is the solution?

If you were one of the decision makers in the country, which public service would you improve first? The medical care services, the National Security institute, the courts, or the education system? Hundreds of Israelis answered this question in a poll conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics and the results were published this week.

If you are the excited parents of children who are starting a new school year this week, you probably know the answer to this question. More than 30% of the public believe that the Israeli education system needs improvement: 48% of the parents in Israel are disappointed with the way it operates; 60% look for alternatives, and 81% of the parents complain that the education system doesn’t prepare the children for adult life in the 21^st century.

The customer is always right, and in this case it is the parents. What tools to manage in society will our children have after 12 years of school? What values will they learn in school? Racism is growing, the division in the nation is widening, and the discourse in social networks is becoming more violent. Who is preparing our children to cope with these real problems and many more?

Parents, do you care?

This week school will once again become the central institution that influences your child’s life and future. The public education system was established as the 19^th century industrial revolution accelerated with the intention of training many workers for the assembly lines. It has not changed much since then… It thus turns out that the main focus is on teaching professional skills that will serve the economic system better and will help it develop. As long as schools continue to be a factory for producing good and competitive citizens and the achievement test is the only criterion for measuring success, there is no point sending our children to school.

The school system should first focus on teaching values and not information. Improving the core subjects and increasing the number of students who take five point English and math final exams (the highest level) and rewriting phrases in social studies is important, but this is the role of the Ministry of Information and not of the Ministry of Education.

Profound Re-education

In the meantime, there is a sharp decline in the number of youth that want to serve in the army. Many young people think about leaving the country and we are becoming increasingly more indifferent to one another every day. In a state that is coping with a national problem called unfounded hatred, the seeds of which were planted with the destruction of the Temple, we have to take action and teach the national idea of “love thy friend as thyself.”

“The one concerned with days, plants wheat; with years, plants trees; with generations, educates people” (Janusz Korczak). Every parent worries about the future of his children and does his best so that they will learn to keep the family relations between them. This is how we together should also worry about the future of the next generation. We should encourage the improvement of interpersonal relations so that we can discover the power of unity and the wellness and security it offers, not as a result of the false spirit of mutual guarantee which emerges at times of trouble. “Our only hope is to profoundly rearrange the education of our children, to discover and to reignite the natural love that is flickering in us and to revive the national muscles in us which have been inactive for two thousand years” (The Writings of Baal HaSulam).

A Lesson in Connection

If we don’t want to wake up one morning and discover that we have lost a whole generation, I suggest that we start the school day as Baal HaSulam says in his article, with at least one hour of consolidating unity activity. We mustn’t miss the moment; we have to sit on the school bench again. “We, the nation should lead to an interaction that will create a micro society among the students in which everyone cares about everyone else like a small family. This will prepare the children to establish a warm friendly connection on top of all the tension and the natural conflicts among them, and bring out all the creativity and potential in them. (“Education doesn’t create anything new but brings out what is already in a person” Rav Kook).

During the “connection hour,” the teachers will provide the basic tools for building a strong and healthy connection between the students, bring examples of positive mutual dependence and consideration, and will guide the students in how to better cope with the global world, which affects every aspect of our life. The children will sit in a circle in which everyone is equal and can see and hear each other, not behind desks arranged in a row. Everyone will learn to listen to each other without imposing their opinion until they reach a general understanding. Gradually they will learn to overcome their egoistic nature, and finally they will feel a partnership, connection, and love as it is written: “love will cover all our transgressions.”

A Teacher forLife

The teacher will also be part of the circle and will sit with the children and talk with them on the same level. He will replace his authority and superiority with the art of asking leading questions that help the children discover the information by themselves by communicating and speaking among them. This is how information is assimilated in a much more meaningful, qualitative manner.

A child who grows up in an environment that measures his success according to his consideration of others and according to his contribution to the whole society is guaranteed to flourish and to be educated. As an adult he will undoubtedly face life with a much wider perspective of the world and with a feeling of responsibility and care regarding the building of a considerate egalitarian society, just like the environment he grew up in.

“It is a shame to admit” says Baal HaSulam in the same article that “one of the most precious and important qualities which we have lost during our time in exile, is our national awareness, which means the natural feeling that connects and sustains every nation. It is because the strings of love that tie the Israeli nation together have deteriorated and have been cut from our hearts and are lost and gone.” Our nation has a great wisdom of connection, an ideology that has been established for generations. All we have to do is to implement the method of connection that is rooted in the love of mercy of Abraham among our dear children. It isn’t a dream, in is right here in the relations between us.
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From Ynet article 8/31/16

Filed under: Children, Education, New Publications - No Comments →

Tisha B’Av [the 9^th of Av] is the direct and closest expression of the clear connection between the unfounded hatred among the nation of Israel and the destruction, but it is not the only thing. As long as hatred exists, destruction will continue to haunt us. On the eve of the 9^th of Av let’s take a minute and stop our daily chase and convene in a joint stock-taking. Using Kabbalah books and the guidance provided by our spiritual teachers—the Kabbalists, we can learn to love again.

“Five things happened on the 9^th of Av: our forefathers first heard that they will not enter the Land of Israel; the first and the second Temples were destroyed and the city of Beitar was conquered and plowed. When Av arrives we diminish joy.” (Talmud Bavli, Masechet Ta’anit).

The eve of the 9^thof Av is the end of the three weeks of the days of Bein Hameitzarim (the days between the 17^th of Tamuz and the 9^th of Av). It is a symbol of the destruction of the second Temple for many, but a brief look at our history books reveals the startling truth that the Temple and its destruction does not matter as much as the immense unfounded hatred among the Jews in Jerusalem at the time. The hatred was so profound that it is the root of all the destructions and the suffering of the nation of Israel throughout history.

Not only did the destruction of the first and the second Temples occur on the 9^th of Av, many other disasters did as well: the tables of the Ten Commandments were broken on this date, Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Romans, and Bar-Kochba and tens of thousands of his followers were killed in the city. In later times, the Jews England were expelled from England in 1290, the Jews of France in 1306, the Jews Spain were expelled in 1492, and during the Holocaust massive deportation of Jews to the death camps took place on this date.

What is the root of unfounded hatred?

Unfounded hatred is a natural part of the development of mankind. According to Kabbalah, “man’s heart is evil from his youth,” and the negative egoistic force continuously grows and separates us. To prevent additional destructive events and to build brotherly love, we have to add the positive force to this process that will balance the negative force of the ego. The positive force is the force of connection, a force that exists in nature, although it is hidden. However different from the force of the ego that develops naturally, the positive force is created only by our efforts. Once we begin to make efforts in order to bridge the gap between us and get closer to each other, to tighten the connections between us by rising above all our differences, not by trying to blur them, we will spur the positive force that is hidden in nature.

As long as we neglect to treat our ego, it will only keep growing until it erupts in the form of mutual rejection and bitter hatred that will bring another disaster upon us, so that we will wake up and get back on track. This is what happened to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. The egoism grew to new dimensions and swept them to unfounded hate, to futile internal conflicts, and to endless personal accounts. Under the attack of thoughts of hatred stemming from the root of Mount Sinai, the children of Israel were required to unite as one man in one heart. The condition they were faced with at the foot of the mountain was clear: You either unite or this will be your burial place. The great tension between the mutual rejections they felt and the need for mutual guarantee generated the need for the right method of connection.

It was Moses, the leader of the nation, who was faced with the people’s demand to connect. He climbed to the top of the mountain and received the Torah: the means by which to spur the force of connection between people. But the nation of Israel chose separation and hatred instead of preparing for the sublime moment of the receiving of the Torah.

“While Moses was with them, he united and connected them while the assembly of Israel below were as one man in one heart. They were as a strong wall against the external forces, which could not penetrate into the whole of Israel, but only when there is a crack in the wall of Israel (“Shem Shmuel“).

The children of Israel used the small crack in the relations between them and preferred to build the golden calf, a symbol of the worship of the ego, which cultivates competition and the brutal chase of achievements at the expense of others. When Moses came down and returned to the people, he was surprised to discover how far the people drew away from the goal for which they were made, and broke the tables, the values of unity and mutual guarantee, as an expression of his feelings.

“After the event with the calf, the children of Israel lost the level of connection they were on and needed to reconnect (“Shem Shmuel“). Only when they agreed to make a covenant and to accept unity as the uppermost value were they worthy of receiving the Torah.

“The main idea the Torah is based on is unity and so when they received the Torah they immediately felt responsible for each other, of course (Likutei Halachot). Thanks to that, the second tablets of the Ten Commandments were not broken. Having the method of connection, we continued to conquer the land of Israel with greater connection and love and then built the two Temples. “It is by the Temple that we became one nation and when we were divided, the place of the unity of Israel was destroyed, and so it was because of unfounded hatred that the city and the Temple were destroyed.” (The Maharal from Prague).

The Destruction Has Never Ended

The 9^th of Av as a reminder of our mistaken preference to develop along the narrow egoistic path instead of love of others is becoming increasingly more relevant. As long as the ego continues to grow and swell, it nourishes unfounded hatred and destroys the relations between us, and so “we were commanded to reinforce the unity between us in each and every generation (Sefer Hatoda’a).

The world today is in a deep crisis in every aspect of life and the uncertainty regarding the future is so great that a third world war may break out, and so we have to carry on from the point from which we have stopped. The golden calf is now revealed to all and the disappointment it brings with it leads us to the verge of an abyss. “All the troubles and their purpose is to provide a person with mental reasons so that he will feel sorry about the destruction of the spiritual Temple in his heart, which is the path to redemption” (Michtav Me’Eliyahu). Despite the moments of success we had throughout the two thousand years of exile, we are still facing a mountain of hatred and are required to make a decision and choose the good.

We have to recognize egoism as a disease that is gnawing us from inside and prepare ourselves for receiving the Light of the Torah. “Just as the sages said (Masechet Kiddushin): ‘I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice,’ which refers to the Light in the Torah that Reforms” as Baal HaSulam says. The force of connection in the Torah can illuminate all the dark and hidden places in our relationships, patch up the connections that were broken, and give us a good feeling of wholeness and eternity. Only then will “a great Light come out of the darkness, the curse itself will turn into a blessing and the destruction of the Temple will turn into its construction” (The Holy SHEL”A).

Thus, it is specifically in our times that the best remedy is revealed, the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah. It explains why our egoistic nature and helplessness dominates us, and at the same time enables us to evoke the positive force hidden in the right connection between us and can thus help us avoid the troubles lurking around the corner. “The depth of evil is a good depth, the depth of hatred is the depth of love and if we were destroyed by unfounded hate, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love (“Orot HaKodesh“).
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From Ynet article 8/11/16

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

From my column in Ynet: “The Man Who Paved The Spiritual Way Of The Nation Of Israel”

At the age of 35 he appeared in Safed, mysterious and majestic, and during the two and half years before his sudden death he changed the course of history and brought about a tremendous change. Thanks to him the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed to anyone who wished to study it and not just a chosen few. The ARI, Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, the greatest Kabbalist of Safed passed away on the 5^th of Av 444 years ago. He left behinda method of study and a relevant message, which were adapted to our times by Baal HaSulam, Rav Yehuda Ashlag.

 “If I had found even one righteous among you, I would not have been taken away from this world before my time,” said the ARI sorrowfully to his students a few moments before he passed away

Rav Isaac Cohen, who was by his side, sobbed bitterly and said “What shall we do now?” and the ARI answered: “Tell the friends on my behalf that from now on they will not engage in the wisdom that I have taught them at all, since they did not understand it properly and only Rav Chaim Vital will engage in it in hiding and by whispering.” Rav Isaac Cohen was very upset and asked “Is there any hope?” “If you are rewarded I will come and teach you,” the ARI answered. “How will you come and teach us after you pass away?!” asked Isaac Cohen again. “You have no business inquiring what is hidden,” answered the ARI and passed away at the age of only 38! (Shaar HaGilgulim)

The Zohar: The ARI’s Whole World

The ARI was the greatest Kabbalist in 16^th century Safed and one of the central and most significant figure in the history of the nation of Israel and the wisdom of Kabbalah. He was born in Jerusalem in 1534. His father died when he was eight and the family encountered many hardships as a result. In order to improve their situation, his mother decided to move to Egypt to live with her brother. There the ARI lived most of his life, and delved into the study of The Zohar.

After attaining tremendous spiritual levels and by his special concealed understanding of the development of humanity, he felt that the time had come to reveal it. He moved to Israel and settled in Safed. The ARI knew that he would meet Rabbi Chaim Vital, his loyal student, who would later write his teachings and spread his wisdom in the world.

Thus in 1570, at the age of 36 the ARI moved to Israel and settled in Safed, the city of the Kabbalists. It was centuries after the time of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) and the Zohar group, years during which humanity had waited for the right teacher who would open the next spiritual level of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The ARI’s arrival to Israel and the publication of The Book of Zohar were clear signs that the time had come.

The Spark of Rashbi

Once he reached Safed, the ARI began to study with the great Kabbalist of the time, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (the Ramak). But shortly afterward the two exchanged roles, the ARI began to teach the group of Kabbalists and the Ramak learned from him.

Rabbi Moshe Cordovero was to first to acknowledge the young Kabbalist’s greatness and as his friend and student he used to say: “You should know that one man who sits here will rise after me and enlighten the generation with the wisdom of Kabbalah. If the pipes were clogged in my time, the pipes will be revealed in his times. You should know that he is a great man, the spark of Rashbi.”

At that time humanity was in an unprecedented turmoil: the Middle Ages were over; the Renaissance began and brought about revolutionary changes in technology and in industry. The human ego erupted and pushed the world to an accelerated evolution and to many storms. Two hundred years later humanity was about to undergo fierce radical changes in Europe, especially bloody revolutions and civil wars.

The ARI who had foreseen the changes in human nature realized that he had to develop an alternative path of spiritual development that would balance the eruption of the ego in order to avoid the terrible suffering. He thus adapted the wisdom of Kabbalah and turned it into a scientific, practical academic method, instead of the method of connection, which until then was allowed only to very few special people. According to his method, if his instructions are followed correctly, people would be able to and the masses would engage in it. The method of correction, which he developed (and is still studied today) lead to an unprecedented shift in the spiritual development of humanity and totally changed history.

The Baton Is Given to Rabbi Chaim Vital

Only two and a half years were enough for the ARI to leave his significant hallmark on the history of Kabbalah. At the same time he never wrote any of his teachings. His whole Kabbalistic theory is known to us only from the writings of his students and the most prominent one and his follower Rabbi Chaim Vital (Harav).

Just as Rabbi Aba served by Rabbi Shimon’s (Rashbi’s) side to write down his teachings, which were to be published in The Book of Zohar, so did the Harav write down the whole wisdom from the mouth of his teacher, which today is known as the ARI’s Kabbalah.

“First a person should arrange his prayers and accept the commandment of love thy friend as thyself and tune his heart to love all of the children of Israel as his own soul, since by that his prayer that includes all of the prayers of Israel rises and will be fruitful. Everyone should include himself as an organ of his friends. If a friend is in trouble, everyone should share his sorrow, and pray for him, and thus he should share all his prayers and his actions and his words with his friend, and my teacher greatly warned me regarding the matter of our love of friends.” (Shaar HaKavanot)

The Harav didn’t add anything to the words of the ARI, and when he wasn’t sure whether he understood his teacher, he specifically said so. One of the major works of the ARI is the book Etz HaChaim (The Tree of Life), which describes all the systems of the upper worlds and the laws of the creation as a clear scientific method, and also the Eight Gates, a series of books, which also includes explanations about reincarnations.

His Successors

“The Holy ARI was Messiah Ben Yoseph, and so he could reveal such a great wisdom,” said Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. His great wisdom symbolizes the point between the end of the period of exile, which was characterized by a great division between people and the beginning of the redemption, characterized by wonderful unity between all of mankind. “If I could say words of praise I would praise him every day and say that his wisdom is being revealed every day just like the day the Torah was given to Israel.”

Baal HaSulam was the first in the 20^th century to reach the spiritual level of the ARI and could therefore interpret his writings for our generation. He wrote a wonderful connection called The Study of the Ten Sefirot and in the introduction he wrote that the book was meant for anyone in our days who wishes to find the answer to the question of “What am I living for?”

This question has not disappeared and is hidden in every person’s heart. Just as terrible crises erupted in the time of the ARI, which shook humanity and spurred many into asking this questions, so do such crises occur today: a series of terrorist attacks all over the world, the rise of radical Islam, the fading of the EU, the growing polarization between different sectors and communities, and so on. It is actually by studying and reading the special method developed by the ARI with the commentary of Baal HaSulam , his follower, that we can find an answer to the meaning of life. They immediately raise a person to spirituality and enable him to feel the unity on top of the separation that rules us and leads to global destruction.

“If my people listened to me at times when the evil grows strong, they would spend all their time studying The Book of Zohar and the writings of the ARI and thus annul all the afflictions and draw an abundance of Light (Notzar Hesed). It is enough to study from these two great Kabbalists who have paved the way for us to the attainment of happiness, wholeness and eternity in order to build the right connections between us for a good life and to climb up the spiritual ladder, which they have placed for us, a ladder that reaches the sky.
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From Ynet article 8/8/16

Filed under: New Publications - 1 Comment →

From my column in Ynet: “School for Emotions: Hatred Becomes Love”

The religious and secular in Israel can’t stand each other. Secular Jews in Israel would rather their child marry a Christian spouse than an Orthodox partner. That is what came up according to the latest survey published by the Pew Foundation, and it reveals what all of us already know. Is there a way to bridge the separation and hatred?  Rav Laitman teaches how love will cover all crimes.

Israel has an impressive list of achievements: a strong military, economic stability, advanced agriculture, first place in Nobel Prizes, and we are thriving in almost every aspect, except for one thing which is precisely the most important: the relationships between us. In all the years of our existence, we have not succeeded in building ourselves as one connected nation, and if we don’t learn to do this, we may soon be erased from the map.

Last week, the results of a comprehensive survey conducted by the American Pew Foundation were published. The survey conducted over six months involved in-depth interviews of 5,600 Israelis, and presented a disturbing picture about the crisis in our society. According to the study, relationships of alienation and separation exist among the four main groups in Israel: secular, traditional, religious and ultra-Orthodox. Members of the groups rarely connect, almost never marry each other, and are divided in their positions on a wide range of subjects from religious and national issues to their political positions.

The survey results are hardly surprising. The extreme tensions and disunity, the implicit and explicit hatred, the trampling of anyone who thinks differently, and the exploitation of others are egoistic expressions that are leading to the destruction of our society, and respectively, also to the denial of our right to the land and the destruction of the nation of Israel (1).

The Ego and its Punishment

The main factor dividing us and destroying every good relationship is our egoistic nature. The negative force burns in all of us and makes us reject and even hate anything that is different and foreign to us. The ego dominates us so strongly that it hides from our eyes the tight link that exists between us in spite of all the differences.

We can create countless agreements and compromises that apparently will assure us of social order, but the experience of many years proves, and is also expressed well in the latest survey, that we only are going and dividing into many factions and sectors.

We could dismiss all of this by saying, “This is sad, but not really that bad. There are more serious problems than these,” but according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, all of nature has a plan that differs from ours which causes all of its various organs, meaning us, to act as a perfectly harmonious body. In contrast to the still, vegetative, and animate levels that function in a perfectly coordinated manner with the laws of nature, the human species is the only one that is motivated by pure egoism, pushing every person to provide himself with the most pleasure at any price, even at the expense of others (2), and this, as was said, is against the laws of nature. We can wait for nature to urge us and push us toward the desired unity, but it would be better for us to march forward on our own initiative and flow with it according to the same lawfulness and in the same direction (3).

Unity, not Uniformity

The first time we worked together with nature was about 3,500 years ago in the days of ancient Babylon. We shared a common destiny then. When the negative power of the ego suddenly broke out, it divided the Babylonian empire into a collection of tribes who were strangers to each other (4). Those divided groups rarely intermarried and were divided in their opinions, as is happening with us today. However, some of them were smart enough to gather around the Babylonian priest Abraham. That is how we managed even then to receive from the mouth of the father of the nation the method that eventually connected us as one people, the wisdom of connection between people—the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Abraham did not try to hide or blur the differences or the gaps. By virtue of his attainment of the depths of the laws of nature, it was clear to him that the matter was impossible. Every sector, community, or group in a unified and rich society is significant and must be protected and nurtured. What must be done is to bridge all of the gaps that hurl society into the abyss (5).

The unique position in nature that makes it possible for two opposites to coexist and live in peace with each other is called “Love covers all transgressions” (6) in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It means that it is up to us to maintain two floors simultaneously. On the first floor are the gaps between us that divide us with severe hatred, whereas on the second floor, we cover them with love. No feelings disappear. Rather, specifically within the gap that intensifies between the plane of hatred and the plane of love, a new space is discovered, a place in which the Higher Power connects and includes both of them as one (7).

The Wisdom of Kabbalah – The Way from Hatred to Love

Today, we are “separate people united against their will by a ‘common enemy’” as Achad Ha’Am said in his time (8). Since then, we immigrated to the land, remained a group of exiles, and have not succeeded in becoming a people (9). The only thing that does succeed in uniting us is that blazing hatred from the side of our enemies, whether it is the Intifada that is raging in the streets or the winds of anti-Semitism that are blowing through the enlightened world in our direction. However, the script just keeps getting worse. The moment that the hatred of our enemies weakens, the contempt among us increases, and it will not be long until the fires of hatred will reignite and spread to depths we have never known. It is even liable to develop to extreme points and lead to civil war (10).

This is precisely the reason for the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah in our time (11). Kabbalah doesn’t come to preach to us to be good to each other. Rather, it is a special method of connection for the people of Israel, and it is the only thing that can unite us to rise above the gaping rifts between us.

The goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to stabilize human society so that it will be able to continue to maintain unique and separate parts and simultaneously be connected like organs in a single body. The power of the wisdom of Kabbalah is in strengthening the unity between us until we feel the general power of connection, the Higher Power (12). When we connect among us, we gradually will be able to radiate this power to all of the nations of the world, serving as an example and model for them and becoming “a light of nations” (13).
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From Ynet article 3/14/16

References:

(1) “Most of the people have lost their ancient spiritual form, and a few have even sunken into a pursuit of all the vanities of life, fake factions and false Kabbalists, brawls and squabbles and unfounded hatreds, and their spiritual form is even worn externally without any internal Light” (Hillel Zeitlin, Safran shel Yechidim).

“And here is the main sign of the illness of the hour—the terrible internal disintegration, the disputes between factions, the hatred of brothers that are consuming all of us here, destructive acts and the internal destruction and ruin of the extremist parties” (Hayim Nachman Bialik).

(2) “But the equal side in all the people of the world is that each of us stands ready to abuse and exploit all the people for his own private benefit with every means possible, without taking into any consideration that he is going to build himself on the ruin of his friend” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Peace in the World”).

(3) “…nature, like a skillful judge, punishes us according to our development. For we can see that to the extent that humankind develops, the pains and torments surrounding our sustenance and existence also multiply.

“Thus you have a scientific, empirical basis that His Providence has commanded us to keep with all our might the Mitzva of bestowal upon others in utter precision, in such a way that no member from among us would work any less than the measure required to secure the happiness of society and its success. And as long as we are idle performing it to the fullest, nature will not stop punishing us and take its revenge.

“And besides the blows we suffer today, we must also consider the drawn sword for the future. The right conclusion must be drawn—that nature will ultimately defeat us and we will all be compelled to join hands in following its Mitzvot with all the measure required of us.”(Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Peace”).

(4) And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth.” And the Lord descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. And the Lord said, “Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion.” And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth (Genesis 11:4-9).

(5) “There has never been any kindness as there was with Abraham…and he brought peace between one person and his fellow, for after all he was the father of many nations, because of this he unified and made peace among all the created beings” (Gevurot HaShem, Chapter 6).

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” That charge implies that whatever you would like other people to do for you, you should do for your comrade in the Torah and mitzvot.

“The reward one receives for accompanying guests is greater than all of the others. This is a statute which Abraham our Patriarch instituted and the path of kindness which he would follow. He would feed wayfarers, provide them with drink, and accompany them.” (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon [Rambam], Mishnah Torah, Sefer Shoftim, Hilchot Avel, Chapter 14:1-2).

“Now Abraham was forty years old when he comprehended his Creator.
“…and [he] began to stand up and to proclaim with a loud voice to the whole world, and to reveal to them, that there was but One God of the whole Universe, and that Him only it was right to serve; and so he continued preaching and assembling the people from city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom…

“…and so thousands and myriads assembled around him, who constituted the men of the house of Abraham; and (Abraham) planted this great and radical principle in their hearts, and also composed books…

“And thus the thing was continually gaining strength among the children of Jacob, and among those that joined them, so that there grew up in this world a nation who knew the Lord…” (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon [Rambam], Mishneh Torah, Sefer HaMeda, Hilchot Avodah Zarah, Chapter 1).

(6) “Hatred arouses quarrels, but love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12).

“…the heart of the vitality, persistence, and correction of the whole of creation, by people of differing views being included together in love, unity and peace” (Rabbi Nathan Sternhertz, Likutey Halachot [Assorted Rules], “Rules of Tefilat Arvit [Evening Prayer],” Rule no. 4).

(7) “The essence of peace is connecting two opposites, so don’t be afraid of your ideas if you see a person who has opinions that are the complete opposite of yours, and it seems to you that it is impossible in any way to maintain peace with him; and also when you see two people who are really opposites, don’t say that it is impossible to make peace between them, for on the contrary, this is essentially the whole of peace, to try to have peace between two opposites” (Likutei Etzot, The Value of Peace).

“We are not neutral when we claim that for consolidation, there must be consolidation of common responsibility, of mutual responsibility, of mutual influence. We claim that we must not blur the boundaries between the unions, circles and parties, rather a shared recognition of the common reality and a common position in a test of common responsibility. Separation between hearts is a disease that afflicts the peoples in our time and following its cure by way of coerced union is nothing but a mistake. Unity is lacking in the organizational structure. At the moment there is no remedy for this except that there will be people from different circles of opinion who need one another with a pure heart and take the trouble together to discover the common foundation” (Martin Buber, “Education and Examining the World”).

(8) “This Zionism sees where the Jews are – separated people who are united against their will by the ‘common enemy’, but it does not see Judaism – a single unit that aspires to exist in its unity even without all of the external compulsion. This is its main deficiency, revealed in all of its ways and deeds” (Ahad Ha’Am, “The Congress and its Creator”).

“Historically we are a group of people who belong to each other with clearly recognized relevance and whose consolidation is firmly maintained by the existence of a common enemy” (Theodor [Binyamin Ze’ev] Herzl, The Jewish State).

(9) “In the end, all we have here is a gathering of strangers, descendents of cultures of seventy nations, each building a stage for oneself, one’s spirit, and one’s leanings. There is no elemental thing here that unites us all from within into a single mass.” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Nation”).

(10) “It is a shame to admit that one of the most precious merits we have lost during the exile, and the most important of them, is the loss of the awareness of the nationality, meaning that natural feeling that connects and sustains each and every nation. The threads of love that connect the nation, which are so natural and primitive in all the nations, have become degenerated and detached from our hearts, and they are gone.

“And worst of all, even the little we have left of the national love…exists within us on a negative basis: It is the common suffering that each of us suffers being a member of the nation. This has imprinted within us a national awareness and proximity, as with fellow-sufferers.

“This is an external cause…

“And most important, it is completely unfit for its task. Its measure of warmth suffices only to an ephemeral excitement, but without the power and strength with which we can be rebuilt as a nation that carries itself. This is because a union that exists due to an outside cause is not at all a national union.

“In that sense, we are like a pile of nuts, united into a single body from the outside by a sack that envelops and unites them. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body… The fault is that they lack the inner unity…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Nation”).

(11) “I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth. And should you ask, ‘How do I know that it is permitted?’ I will reply that I have been given permission to disclose…

“…and this is what the Creator has given me to the fullest extent. We deem it as dependent not on the greatness of the sage, but on the state of the generation…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam]), “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

“Turning the hearts and occupying the minds with noble thoughts, whose origin is the secrets of the Torah, has become an utter necessity in the last generation” (Rav Raiah Kook, Mist of Purity, p. 65).

(12) “The wisdom of the truth teaches us about the global unity, the side of equality to be found in the whole of existence through the very top, at the parity of the form with this Maker, and how to walk without obstacles by the path of this Light” (Rav Raiah Kook, Orot HaKodesh [The Lights of Sanctity],” 2 p. 393).

(13) “Israel brings Light to the world as it is said, (Isaiah 60:3) ‘And nations shall walk at thy light’” (Midrash Rabbah, Shir HaShirim, Section 4, Verse 2).

“…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.

“And these sparks multiply daily, like one who gives to the treasurer, until they are filled sufficiently, that is, 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. For then they will know how to shift the balance to the right, and will place themselves under His burden, and the scale of sin will be eradicated from the world” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee],” Item 24).

“When the Children of Israel are complemented with the complete knowledge, the fountains of intelligence and knowledge shall flow beyond the boundaries of Israel and water all the nations of the world…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 4).

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

An article from my column in Ynet: “Forever Following the Book”

Through sentences, words, and letters encoded in Kabbalah books, Kabbalists have opened the passage to a new dimension for us through which we can enter the story of our life and positively affect the events. The Hebrew Book Week held recently is a good opportunity to go on a magical journey following the books that have shaped our nation.

It is not without reason that the nation of Israel is called “The Nation of the Book.” Forever —books have been an integral part of our way of life, a key means accompanying our lives throughout the years of our development as a nation, as  a society,  and a country.

There does not refer to literature that burst on the scene just hundreds of years, and is dying out as technological developments penetrated our lives, but to different kind of books – books of Kabbalah, Holy books, also called “the language of the distinct, different, special.”

Holy books such as the Bible, the Talmud, The Book of Zohar, and the Midrash do not deal with rules of ethics and are not folk tales. They tell us about a special spiritual world. In addition to the great wisdom that flows from them these books, they also contain a special force, a real treasure, which can fulfill everything we desire, answer every question we have, and especially give meaning to our lives. But very few know how to discover this treasure. Those who do are the Kabbalists.

Kabbalists are ordinary people who have a great desire to discover the reasons for what is happening in our life and what our fate has in store for us, and they were the first to penetrate behind the scenes of our world. They discovered that there is a force of love and giving in reality whose only goal is to bring us to this sublime state, to be united in love and bestowal like this force itself.

They described the way to attain this in their books, the detailed guidance and the wonderful feelings they had, so that we can use it. Thus we too can read about this sublime force, about the “author” who writes the story of our lives, and learn how to change our lives for the better.

The Book of Human History

The first to feel the two worlds together, the nature of the world around us and the nature of the upper world, was Adam HaRishon (the first man), who described it in the first Kabbalah book he wrote called The Angel Raziel, “Raz” the secret language, that is, the revelation of the secrets of creation.

The book includes interesting drawings, and a person who reads it in depth immediately perceives that it isn’t a primitive man who hunted mammoths that wrote this book, but a great Kabbalist who tells us about the united soul called Adam, about its shattering into thousands of individual souls of all of humanity, and about its future connection in which they will reunite into one soul.

Dozens of books have been written by hundreds of Kabbalists, but the most outstanding book since Adam’s book is attributed to Abraham. Abraham did not intend to write a textbook but the Book of Yetzirah (Book of Creation) was basically a list of the major laws of how the spiritual world operates. Although the Book of Yetzirah is very special, it is still very hard to understand and light years away from us. It is thanks to the Book of Yetzirah and the method of connection between people, which he developed, that the nation of Israel grew and began to aspire for spirituality. Several generations later, Moses, the great Kabbalist, continued to lead the nation.

The Book of Books

Moses’ spiritual revelation gave him the power to take the children of Israel out of Egypt, and to lead them in the desert for forty years until they reached the borders of the Promised Land of Israel.

He describes the updated method for his generation in his book called the Torah, as in Light [Ohr]. In other words,  it teaches how to enter the spiritual world with the Light, the divine force. By using this book, every person can reveal the image of creation and build his life toward the ultimate goal.

Although the Torah is written as a historical narrative about the exodus of the nation of Israel from Egypt, it is in fact is a description of a person’s exit from his lowly corporeal state called Egypt, and his ascent to a spiritual state called the “Land of Israel.” Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said, “Woe to the man who says that the Torah was meant to tell a simple story and a folk tale. If the Torah was meant to tell a historical story, even the leaders of the world are better at that. Everything that is in the Torah is actually upper events and upper secrets” (The Book of Zohar). Moses used the language called the “language of the branches”—the names of objects, feelings, and actions of our world, but by that he referred to the roots of the upper world, to the concealed upper forces, to the entrances and exits of the forces of nature and even to their destructive effects.

If we look at the Torah not through it’s external shell, we will see a totally different picture, detached from the reality of this world. Instead of human figures like Moses and Pharaoh, animals, and different people, we will see the spiritual forces that operate on us, and will gradually be able to use them in order to ascend spiritually. The key to deciphering the Torah is actually in the books of Kabbalah, in The Book of Zohar.

The Book

The Book of Zohar or as Kabbalists call it “The Book” explains the five books of the Torah and tells us exactly what Moses meant. It is the basic and most important book in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Rashbi, the author of the Zohar, was the first Kabbalist who described how our thoughts and our reactions to the force that operates on us from Above rise back to the upper world, operate in it, and thus affect all the future events that will descend unto us.

Before writing The Book, Rashbi gathered a group of ten students around him, “a ten” since “the Torah can only be acquired in a group,” (Babylonian Talmud). The soul of every student matched a certain spiritual attribute in the upper world. When they connected into one soul, they were fully compatible with the Ten Sefirot, the whole structure that exists in the spiritual world. The true connection between these attributes has led to the revelation of the Light of the upper Zohar among the ten students.

“And Rabbi Shimon used to reveal the secrets of the Torah and the friends listened to his voice and responded to him in a connection each replying his share,” (Ramchal, “Adir Ba Meromim“). Because each of the friends represents an attribute of the spiritual world, their story which the whole Book of Zohar tells, is actually the description of the way these spiritual attributes descend into our world; how these ten forces lead this world; how every person can use these forces for his own sake and for the sake of others.

The Tree of Life

1,300 years later, the ARI received The Book of Zohar. He was given permission to renew the method that existed since the days of Adam. He absorbed all the Kabbalistic information since the time of Adam, processed it, and rewrote it so that the method for individuals became a method suitable for the masses. All the sources he absorbed and taught in Safed were later published as The Tree of Life, a book that teaches the way to the spiritual world and explains how we can ascend and attain eternity and wholeness. It also talks about what many are fascinated by, reincarnations. Reading and studying the ARI’s books immediately raises a person above the level of our world.

In addition to the Tree of Life, the ARI wrote twenty other books in which he presents all the laws of the creation using a clear innovative scientific method. In the introduction to his book he says that since the method was established, anyone can study Kabbalah, that the desire itself is the only criterion of whether a person can enter the spiritual world, and so with the science of Kabbalah, which he developed for his generation, anyone who has the desire to attain the goal of creation, regardless of age, gender, or nationality, can do so. Indeed after the ARI’s time many began to open up to Kabbalah and to climb the spiritual ladder to the upper world.

The Ladder

Eventually both The Book of Zohar and the ARI’s books were not intended for the systematic study of Kabbalah for the masses. Although Kabbalah is a science, there was no suitable textbook to study it until our century. The greatest Kabbalist of the 20^th century, called Baal HaSulam after the Sulam Commentary he wrote to The Book of Zohar, emerged in order to fill the gap in Kabbalistic literature. He also explained all of the ARI’s books and compiled them in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, which is the major Kabbalah textbook of our time.

The Study of the Ten Sefirot includes everything all the Kabbalists who preceded him wrote throughout thousands of generations: Adam, Abraham, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and the ARI. He included many Hasidic writings and writings of contemporary Kabbalists and even referred to the views of the great philosophers of the world like Marx, Nietzsche, Locke, Darwin, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and many others.

All we need to learn about how to create the future we desire is in the writings of Rav Yehuda Ashlag. “I am happy that I was born in a generation in which it is allowed to publicize the wisdom of truth,” says Baal HaSulam. “If you ask me how I know that it is allowed, I will reply that I was given permission to reveal and to explain every single word. This has nothing to do with the ingenuity of the sage himself but with the situation of the generation, and therefore I have said that I was awarded with the revelation of the wisdom because of my generation.”

A Call for a Change

At the end of the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Baal HaSulam rightly asks whether the language of Kabbalah books is not quite understood, “Therefore we must ask, why then, did the Kabbalists obligate each person to study the wisdom of Kabbalah? Indeed, there is a great thing in it, worthy of being publicized: “There is a wonderful, invaluable remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls…Hence, even when he does not have the vessels, when he engages in this wisdom, mentioning the names of the Lights and the vessels related to his soul, they immediately shine upon him to a certain extent.”

However, they shine for him without clothing the interior of his soul, for lack of able vessels to receive them.
“Yet, the illumination one receives time after time during the engagement draws upon him grace from Above, imparting him with abundance of sanctity and purity, which bring him much closer to achieving perfection” (The Letters of Baal HaSulam).
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From Ynet article 6/16/16

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World, New Publications - 1 Comment →

What makes us choose a spouse or a certain profession? Do we have any choice or is everything predetermined?

Professor Marcus du Sautoy from the University of Oxford conducted a study that examined how long it takes from the brain making a decision to it going into effect. Brain wave scans showed, to his surprise, that the decision to perform a certain action was made in the brain six seconds before the awareness of the decision, and he made the decision! One of the questions that concern modern scientists is: Do we have free will or are we the result of predetermined neurological reactions.

How we look at it, is that it seems that man is not free at all. We did not choose which family we are born into or the skills and characteristics we have. Our parents and teachers, whom we have not chosen, dictate our values of the world and the education we receive. The media shape our opinions and standards for beauty, and society dictates the codes of conduct, speech, and in fact—everything! Sometimes it seems that a person is like empty computer hardware on which any selected software could be installed through which he will function and realize “himself.”

Bound by the Forces of Nature

In fact, a person does not choose to live his life but navigates according to a system of rules set for him, and incessantly tries to please the society that surrounds him. Over the years, a person’s decision-making system becomes increasingly more complex and this complexity creates the illusion of free choice.

On a more internal level, none of us chose to be born into a system that has an embedded mechanism that drives us to achieve maximum pleasure with minimum effort. This desire manages us every single moment to do the simple arithmetic: chase pleasures of life and escape pain. Even if a person pursues pain, it is only because doing so will bring him greater pleasure.

Therefore, great doubt arises about having free choice. “Yet, this concept, expressed in that word, ‘freedom,’ remains unclear, and if we delve into the meaning of that word, there will be almost nothing left. For before you seek the freedom of the individual, you must assume that any individual, in and of itself, has that quality called ‘freedom,’ meaning that one can act according to one’s own free choice” (Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”). And still free choice must apply to some extent since, otherwise is the purpose in all this mayhem called life?! Surely it cannot be that we are doomed to be puppets on a string.

Tell Me who Your Friends Are and I Will Tell You who You Are

Although a person cannot choose his attributes or the environment he is born into, he can adjust himself to a scale of values of good and evil. How? Through his environment.

Baal HaSulam explains that human society is like soil for a grain of wheat. Just as the grain of wheat contains all the properties of a wheat plant and the soil that nourishes it determines the pace, form, and manner in which it will grow, so does a person’s genetic material contain all the features and tendencies of a person, and the social environment, through the scale of its values, determines how he those attributes will be developed For example, a person with an inclination to draw, that is born into a society that doesn’t respect artists probably will not grow up to be a painter.

Thus, when determining standards of good and evil, a person has no free choice; rather, the society he lives in dictates these values. “For example: I sit, I dress, I speak, and I eat. I do all these not because I want to sit that way, or talk that way, or dress that way, or eat that way, but because others want me to sit, dress, talk, and eat that way. It all follows the desire and fancy of society, not my own free will. Furthermore, in most cases, I do all these against my will. For I would be a lot more comfortable behaving simply, without any burden. But I am chained with iron shackles, in all my movements, to the fancies and manners of others, which make up the society” (Baal HaSulam,”The Freedom”).

Like a School of Fish

In their book Connected, Professor Nicholas Christakis and Professor James Fowler, senior researchers from Harvard University and from the University of California, reveal that it is highly probable that a person will gain weight if a close friend does. The decision of a friend of friend, a person he doesn’t know at all, to start smoking increases the chances that he will begin to smoke by more than ten percent. And there are also positive sides to this phenomenon. Another study showed that happiness is contagious. When a person is around people who are happy, his happiness increases.

The researchers examined networks of millions of people and concluded as seen in the animal world: humanity behaves like a social network, a kind of super-organism, growing and developing in which different content flows and affects all the members of the network. Scientifically, it turns out that our environment has a decisive influence on our development and on our decision-making.

If Everything Is Predetermined, Who Has the Ability to Choose?

“The point where the wisdom of scientists comes to an end is where the wisdom of Kabbalah begins” (Rabbi Nachman of Breslav, Likutey Moharan). According to Kabbalah, the whole creation, including our world, is part of one thought that generated creation, the Thought of Creation. Every creature, thought, or event created or which happened in the past, that exist at present, or which will be in the future, are derived and descend from the thought of creation as part of its implementation.

The Creator, the upper force, unlike us, does not need time in order to fulfill His plans so when the thought of creation was made, it was realized immediately. In fact, we are already in the final phase of the operating plan of creation, and not only does that phase exist, but also all the stages to reach its fulfillment. All we have to do is to reveal it. “We don’t innovate anything. Our only work is to illuminate what is concealed inside a person” (Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk).

We all think that our parents met, got married, decided to have children, and here we are. But according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, our birth in this world with our specific parents existed in potential prior to our actual birth, and because it had yet to be realized, it resulted in our father and mother meeting, marrying, and bringing us into the world.

“Against your will you are born, against your will do you live, and against your will you will die” (Ethics of the Fathers). If according to science and the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person is pre-programmed and has no free choice in life, then what is the point in living? Why should nature, such a perfect and sophisticated system, create this reality and sustain it? If reward and punishment for every action we have ever performed do not apply, then what is the point? Don’t be discouraged! According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person has free choice in one place only…
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From Ynet article 6/23/16

Filed under: Free Will, New Publications - No Comments →

My article, “Breaking Out From the Straights” was published in The Jerusalem Post on July 28, 2016.

The Three Weeks, or Bein ha-Metzarim (“Between the Straits”), that begins on the 17th of Tammuz (commemorated last Sunday) and ends on the 9th of Av (commemorated this year on Sunday, August 14) mark a very dark time in our past. In the days of Candy Crush and Pokémon Go, no one really wants to know about it, but we really should because the ailment that devastated our nation 2,000 years ago has never been cured. Today, just as it did then, it is causing all our problems.

The Sad Story about Kamtza and Bar Kamtza

The Talmud (Masechet Gitin) tells us that once, when the Temple still stood, a wealthy Jew in Jerusalem had a friend named Kamtza, and an enemy named Bar Kamtza. One day the wealthy Jew decided to make a feast. He sent his servant to invite his friend, Kamtza, to the feast, but the servant mistakenly invited his enemy, Bar Kamtza. The surprised Bar Kamtza took this as a gesture of reconciliation and accepted the invitation. He put on his best clothes and went to the home of the man who he thought was no longer his enemy.

When the host noticed that Bar Kamtza was there, he was infuriated and demanded that he leave at once. The mortified Bar Kamtza pleaded with the host to let him stay. He even offered to pay for his own food and drink, and for everyone else’s, too. The host not only refused him mercilessly, but even had Bar Kamtza dragged out of his house and thrown into the street.

Humiliated and disgraced, Bar Kamtza pledged vengeance not only against his host, but also against the guests, who supported the host. “I’ll slander them before the Emperor,” he decided.

Bar Kamtza went to Emperor Nero and told him that the Jews were planning to rebel against him. After some cunning persuasion, the emperor was convinced that Bar Kamtza was telling the truth, and sent his army to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.

Over the generations, this famous story has symbolized the unfounded hatred that led to our social and moral decline and to our subsequent exile. In today’s social climate, it could not be more pertinent. As we can see, read and hear each day, conflicts, manipulations, and dishonesty have never been more prevalent among us. The sarcasm and derision we use against each other point not to our wit, but to our dislike of one another.

Time to Reconnect Our Threads of Love

The Three Weeks marks the time between the shattering of the walls of Jerusalem and the ruin of the Temple. The Holy Shlah wrote that “unfounded hatred caused the ruin of the Temple.” Indeed, as Baal HaSulam noted, “It is a shame to admit that one of the most precious merits we have lost is the natural feeling that connects and sustains each and every nation. The threads of love that connect the nation, which are so natural and primitive in all the nations, have become degenerated and detached from our hearts, and they are gone.” As a result, the only thing that keeps us together as a nation is the world’s hatred toward us.

Today’s Western world still offers Jews freedom of speech and freedom of movement. We must use this freedom to reestablish brotherly love above our alienation and rebuild our peoplehood. Now, before the door of freedom closes once again, our nation must work tirelessly to rebuild itself from the ruins of unfounded hatred and realize our people’s vocation—to become a role model of a truly united nation, one that all the nations will want to emulate so that they, too, can benefit from that unique power of unity.

Building the Temple Within

As we reflect on the ruin of the Temple, we should also consider the future. When The Book of Zohar describes the building of the Third Temple, it does not speak of bricks and arches; it speaks of our connections. It describes the mending of our shattered hearts, which suffer from the sickness of unfounded hatred. The Zohar explains how the whole world will come to embrace the connectedness beaming from the united people of Israel. Building the Third Temple is therefore done within us and between us, mending our broken ties and covering our hate with love, or as King Solomon wrote, “Love covers all crimes.”

Just as we invoke a negative force when we separate from one another, we invoke a positive force when we connect with one another. This force inverts our mutual suspicion into mutual concern, and our isolation into mutual responsibility. The beauty of this power is that we maintain our individuality and fulfill our personal traits while contributing to society and collecting benefits from others’ contributions. In this way, we weave a “blanket” of connection that covers our separation.

The Gene of Unity

Today’s Judaism is fractured and fragmented into more pieces than probably anyone can count. But the “gene” of unity lies latent within each of us, and we can bring it back to life if we so choose. If, despite our bursting egos, we will strive to join forces toward our common goal as a Jewish nation—to provide humanity with an example of unity at a time when it so badly needs it—we will accomplish our vocation.

Now is the time to be proactive. The world is spiraling downward, and it is plainly visible that ego has at least a large stake in this descent. But no one knows how to stop our collective suicidal conduct. We, the Jews, the bearers of the tenet, “love your neighbor as yourself,” must rise to the challenge, put down our egos, and unite above them. This is the true and positive message we should take from The Three Weeks, and it is the one thing that will guarantee our safety and happiness in Israel and the world over.
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From The Jerusalem Post 7/31/16

Filed under: Holidays, Israel, Israel Today, New Publications - 1 Comment →

During the first few weeks in July, my articles were published in the following publications:

The Jerusalem Post:

Beyond black and white in America
Opinion: Is America heading toward a clash of civilizations?
Brexit — Britain did itself and the world a favor
Understanding the piece process

The Huffington Post:

Istanbul Airport Attack: a Reflection of Our Thirst for Blood

Jewish Business News:

Istanbul Airport Attack: A Reflection Of Our Thirst For Blood
Michael Laitman: My Take on the LGBT Issue
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Filed under: New Publications - No Comments →

My article recently published in the Jerusalem Post and Ynet.

Civilians Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota; Dallas police officers Michael Smith, Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Patrick Zamarripa, and Brent Thompson; civilian Delrawn Small in Brooklyn, New York; Michigan courthouse bailiffs Joseph Zangaro and Ron Kienzle have all died this week (at the time of writing this column) in encounters between law enforcement and civilians. Many more have been wounded. Is it not time for a social Marshall Plan to heal the American society?

“We’re hurting… we are heartbroken,” said David Brown, Dallas Chief of Police “All I know is that this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.” Brown, who has become the “face” of the tragedy of the clash between law enforcement and civilians in America, knows what he is saying. He has lost his only son, brother, and partner to violent incidents involving police officers and civilians.

In many ways, Brown’s pain stricken face reflects what many Americans feel these days. Since the beginning of the year, 509 people have been killed by police. The American society is growing increasingly violent, and mounting racial tensions, primarily between African-Americans and law enforcement personnel, have reflected that trend with painful clarity.

An Interracial Volcano

Fifty-two years ago this month, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act, and stated that “those who are equal before God shall now also be equal in the polling booths, in the classrooms, in the factories, and in hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, and other places that provide service to the public.” And yet, the racial tensions never fully healed, and today have resurfaced with new ferocity.

Officially, all people—of all races, religions or sexes—are equal in the eyes of the US government. There is even an African-American president. But if you venture away from where tour guides would normally take you, you will discover a different America. Poverty, crime and drug abuse can be seen in broad daylight, and gang wars are routine. In these “hoods,” a sense of insecurity and oblivion take over. This can hardly be the equality that Lyndon Johnson had envisioned when he signed the Civil Rights Act into law.

And yet, the sense of discrimination and injustice within the African-American communities expresses a much deeper process than the government’s attitude toward people based on the color of their skin. All over the world, people are becoming increasingly isolated and self-centered, to the point that today the majority of the population shows at least several symptoms of pathological narcissism. This trend is separating people and communities, and causes hatred and sectarianism. In recent years, intensifying clannishness has erupted and its violent gushes claim ever more victims who fall prey to hatred. If we do not reverse this trend, it can easily result in the outbreak of some form of civil war. America already tasted civil war on the grounds of civil rights for blacks; it should be wise enough to avoid another such trauma.

Nature vs. Nurture

Numerous indicators point to the fact that the self-centeredness rooted in human nature has become too intense and uninhibited to contain. Racism and anti-Semitism are on the rise, social inequality is increasing, economic gaps are widening, and violence and terrorism are spreading throughout the world. Man’s inclination, which is evidently “evil from his youth,” is quickly destroying the foundations of human society.

The solution to this crisis lies not in waiting for the government to sign more laws, but in tapping into the forces that create our evil tendencies toward each other, and changing them at the core. If we look at our education system we will find that it is geared toward unabashed competition. It indoctrinates us into the “survival of the fittest” mindset. But nature does not work this way. Since all parts of nature are dependent on each other for their sustenance, unrestrained competitiveness is, by default, an unsustainable approach.

In nature, the emphasis is on harmony; in humans, the emphasis is on hegemony. If hegemony wins, all of us will lose.

Just as there is a force that separates us from each other, there is a force that connects all parts of nature, including humans. The goal of education should therefore be to introduce the connecting force into the human society. If the separating and connecting forces can exist harmoniously within humanity, we will find peace in our lives. And since our ill-will toward each other is already rooted within us, we need to focus on nurturing the force of connection.

There are many ways to go about introducing this force into the human society, but the key element in building positive connections over our alienation is simply the efforts that we make toward it. In a way, we need to introduce a sort of “positive discrimination.”

Just like violence induces violence, kindness induces kindness. Positive actions invoke the positive force that already exists within us and stir it into action. And just as the separating force makes us see the world as hostile and fragmented, if we activate the connecting force, we will see the world as amiable and connected.

If these words seem unrealistic or naïve, it shows how compelled we are to see the world through our own ill-will.

All the More Reason to Hurry

In 2008, African-Americans had high hopes that the first black president would make things better for them. He didn’t. He couldn’t have. A government can make laws and attempt to enforce them, but it cannot change human nature. This is why the solution to all forms of racism is education and not tougher law enforcement, especially when eradicating racism is not among its goals.

Since the Obama administration came into office, and especially during its second term, the President has engaged extensively in admitting immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East into the US. Unlike African American communities, which are predominantly Christian, the new arrivals are by and large devout Muslims who have no wish to Americanize their way of life and values, which they consider an abomination. Without an intention to assimilate, it will be impossible to integrate them into the local society. In all likelihood, the Muslim migration into the US will ignite even worse religion-based conflicts than we have already seen.

Therefore, alongside the three branches of government—legislative, judicial, and executive—there needs to be a fourth entity, whose purpose is to establish a sound social basis for mutual connection. Such a system should incorporate educators and facilitators of all religions, denominations, cultures and races, who will help facilitate a multicultural society whose highest value is unity above differences.

Even a short-term educational campaign to increase people’s awareness of our inherent connectedness will help us see that we must learn to unite. This effort will invoke our sense of connectedness and will help us see the world through connected eyes, rather than our current, self-absorbed perspective.

The battle against racism is raging everywhere. We have not yet lost, but we have got to act fast, and with resolve, before the rifts grow too deep and wide to bridge.
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From The Jerusalem Post – Israel News 7/11/16

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, New Publications, News - 1 Comment →

Millions of Britons answered the question of whether the UK should remain part of the EU, or whether it should leave the EU. If I were a Briton, I would choose the second option since, when the ship is sinking, it is better to leave it as soon as possible.

Last week, Jo Cox, a British member of parliament, was murdered in Britain, her only sin being her support of Britain’s remaining in the EU. Her shocking murder and the economic implications of this move have brought the issue to the center of world media attention.

The world leaders, economists, and leading commentators are very worried about this decision and warn that the Brexit may have serious political implications. Britain may be isolated and its world status may seriously weaken, and this may be a blow to the world economy. At the moment, opinions in Britain differ.

In order to understand the debate, it is important to recognize the perception and the psychology that captures most British people. The British have a special character that is different from the other European countries and which makes them less tolerant toward change. Despite the many attempts throughout history to invade and control it, the kingdom remained a strong and independent economic superpower. The English Channel surrounds it like a strong wall and contributes greatly to their feeling of separation. The other members of the EU also feel that Britain is less dependent on them and sometimes even feel that it is a foreign element in Europe.

 Brexit Crime and Punishment

Even if the British do decide to leave, it will not be easy. Although Britain has its own currency, the pound and not the euro, there are agreements, treaties, and different pacts that have an impact on many government plans and national systems. According to experts, the Brexit process may take at least two or three years before endless tight connections are dissolved and no less than a decade before there is a significant Brexit of social connections.

From an economic perspective, there are differences of opinion, but most experts see the Brexit as a unique opportunity for Britain to pull itself out of the European mud before it is too late. The Brexit will enable Britain to strengthen its business sector, lower the cost of living, and avoid the mountain of debts that is threatening to bury Europe. On the other hand, it is expected that Britain will continue to export half of its production. The Europeans need it no less than Britain does. This is also the reason that economists don’t think that Europe will punish Britain and impose taxes on its exports to Europe.

It seems that the distorted connections between the states of the EU prevent them from enjoying the natural benefits that there are in a true qualitative synergy and have turned the EU into an economic and social burden from which it is better to be detached.

The Sinking of the EU

The world also will be better off if Britain leaves the EU. The USA, whose attempts to dominate the world ignited the Arab Spring in 2010 that until today has mainly brought the collapse of many countries in the Arab world, is responsible for the millions of refugees who have immigrated and are living in Europe, and are expected to be a burden on the economy, significantly increasing public expenses for education, welfare, and health, and to weaken the European market. Why is this good for the Americans? US domination of the continent and the world will increase.

Israel may be indirectly affected by that. When the changes in Europe lead to internal disorder, the European countries will be busy dealing with their internal problems, and will no longer initiate and promote regional peace committees whose benefits are questionable.

Even without the American intervention in the process, Britain will remain forever an inseparable part of Europe for better or worse—at the moment, mainly for the worse. Europe is very ill, an old continent that is declining in every aspect of life. The EU market is failing, the economy is collapsing, waves of immigrants are flooding it, radical Islam is growing, the birthrate is low, and unemployment is growing; its afflictions are spreading from Europe to the entire world. Therefore, as long as it is possible to amputate an organ from the continent and heal it separately, it is better to do so. If the British still decide to remain an integral part of the EU, the rate of deterioration in every aspect of life will be very fast. The decay will lead to the quick death of the body.

Re-Route the Computers

In order to maintain a healthy, correct connection between countries and between people in general, we should make sure that it is alive and breathing, and sometimes we must give it a new form of life in order to keep it alive. The EU, which was established as common market, had aspirations for political and military cooperation, and even the building of a common army. It set off in the 90’s with an extensive public relations campaign and was a rosy dream for many of the elimination of borders, building a great economy, and uniting around a common currency. But eventually, the common feeling of prosperity disappeared and was replaced by political struggles.

The European Council, seated in Brussels and empowered to regulate between the different nations, has interpreted trade cooperation. The Portuguese banned fishing, Spaniards and Italians banned selling cheese, Lithuanians banned the production of dairy products, and Greeks olive oil. These measures have weakened nations that already were weak and increased their dependency on the strong nations, who in the meantime, have grown stronger.

The failing EU is like a married couple who have accumulated great wealth through the years and have the same bank account, but keep quarreling all of the time. Every side is imposing the policy that is better for itself, and the other side opposes and uses its sovereign authority to object. After several unsuccessful attempts to restore the relationship, it seems that there is no more room for a partnership. Under these problematic circumstances, it would be better for the couple to get divorced. The question is how to divide their property, which is usually the spark that ignites a world war.

“When the wicked connect, it is bad for them and bad for the world”

A real union is when the desires of the each nation are accepted in every nation as if it were their own desire. On the other hand, if every nation continues to care only about itself, the connection between the nations becomes worse and harms everyone. Only when the entire European continent is united into one desire will there be a true opportunity to consolidate a union such that it can be the basis for a healthy, balanced economic system and can lead to equality in the standard of living. No more strong and weak, abusers and abused. Instead of egoistic competition, a system based on international social justice and strong social unity will be established, and at the same time, each country will be allowed to live according to its specific, unique characteristics.

“…social unity, which can be the source of every joy and success…” (Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”). The EU can be saved and get on a new track only when every citizen in the EU realizes that unity begins in the corrected relations between people. It isn’t a common currency that will bridge the differences, the huge gaps that have been created throughout history between the Germans, the French, the Italians, or the Greeks, but unity will connect them.

Such a change requires the building of ties of mutual guarantee between countries, taking into account the needs of every country and the entire international system, and is expressed in extensive cooperation, in integration and solidarity between the nations. This change of values is vital both in the relations between the nations and on the level of the individual who can influence his leaders.

Unity Based on Connection, Not on Currency

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom of connection. It explores the connections between people and in nature as a whole since the beginning of time. According to this wisdom, we can build relationships of interdependence only if we know the laws of the global human system. All of the systems of our lives are included in this system, including the financial markets.

In the past, we did not need these laws, so the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed and only very few engaged in it. The need for this wisdom and this knowledge became relevant from the moment the world became global and our mutual interdependence was completed. Today, the connection between us is growing stronger, and it is forcing us to learn the laws of the new global, integral world. We have no other choice. Learning the laws according to the method of connection will enable us to establish the right order in human society as a whole.

“The idea of an equal and right distribution is more real, since the earth is rich enough to provide for all of us, so why do we need the tragic war of life that has been destroying our life for ages? Let’s divide the work and its fruits equally between us and the end of all our troubles!” (“The Writings of Baal HaSulam”).

The solution for Britain, for the EU crisis, and for the impending future crises is not the traditional economic and political means, but in creating good, balanced, and corrected connections between us. We must learn to build the right, balanced relations through the wisdom of connection, and thus we will lead a good and peaceful life.
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From ynet article 6/21/16

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