Medium published my new article “What the US Stands to Gain”

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressed the United States Congress. Zelenskyy “pleaded with the United States to ‘do more’ by implementing a no-fly zone, providing additional aircraft and air defense systems, and creating a new security alliance.” Shortly after the speech, President Biden pledged “$800 million in security assistance,” including “800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 100 drones,” and other weapons and ammunition.

The Americans are very cautious. So far, they have not given fighter jets to Ukraine, and prevented Poland from giving it 28 MIG-29 jets, arguing that it might push the war toward a global conflict since Poland is a full member of NATO. Despite Zelenskyy’s request, the US did not declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine in order to avoid a direct conflict with Russia.

Judging by the results, I think that the US has so far conducted itself correctly. Their intelligence regarding Putin’s intentions seems to have been correct, and their analyses of the unfolding situation seem to prove themselves. They deserve credit for this.

Currently, the US is definitely gaining from the situation. Along with its allies in NATO, it is wearing Russia out, exhausting its military strength, and depleting its resources in a war it cannot win. America’s goal is simple: to empty Russia of arms, ammunition, and supplies, and silence it for a long, long time.

I do not think that the US or NATO have any plans to invade Russia or occupy any of its territories. It is more of a preventative measure than a strategy of offense.

The US already controls NATO. Once Russia is out of the global power game, it will leave only China to deal with, and in my view, America does not regard China as a military threat.

It is not as though China does not want to dominate the world, because it does. However, the Chinese do not have an inherently aggressive approach. They want to dominate through their labor power and purchasing power rather than through military occupation. In my opinion, they will succeed.

The saddest part of the story, however, is the Ukrainian people. No one cares about them; they are the cannon fodder in this war. The US is using them to exhaust Russia and drain its power, the Russians are destroying Ukraine in an effort to prove their strength until none of it is left, and in between, the Ukrainians are being killed in droves and their country devastated.

At the moment, the US has no interest in ending the war, not before it has achieved its goal: Russia’s depletion. Therefore, in all likelihood, it will continue to support Ukraine just as much as is needed for it to keep fighting, but not to win. If Ukraine defeats Russia before the Russian army has been eliminated, then the US will not have achieved its goal. Therefore, the grim conclusion is that the longer the war continues, the better it is for the US and NATO, and the worse it is for Russia and Ukraine.

This war is terrible, as is any war. Regrettably, humanity does not learn any other way. All the lessons we have learned, we’ve learned through pain. Now, too, humanity is learning a painful lesson: military power does not win wars.

Despite their inconceivable inferiority in soldiers, weapons, training, resources, and every military aspect one can think of, the Ukrainians are not only hanging in there, but are gradually moving on the offense. They are fighting for their country, and Russia’s warplanes, tanks, and warships are no match to their unity and determination. The lesson we should all learn from this war is that in the end, solidarity and mutual responsibility will triumph; these are tomorrow’s tools for success. What a shame it is that the tuition comes in the form of human lives and misery.
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Medium published my new article “The Price of Freedom”

As the battles in Ukraine escalate and the pressure on civilians intensifies, it is becoming clear that a compromise or a “reasonable” solution are both out of reach. Not only is the misery on the ground escalating, but the enmity between the two nations is deepening as the suffering of people intensifies. Today, overpowering other nations with military force is impractical. Therefore, the parties will eventually have to put down their arms. If at that moment, the adversaries understand the need to give each other freedom, they will be able to advance constructively. If, however, they insist on trying to dominate each other, the price of freedom will soar, though freedom will eventually come.

While it is difficult to examine a conflict objectively when you are a party to it, the longer the sides stall with making this effort, the more they will prolong their suffering. In the end, they, and the whole world with them, will understand that the war being fought today is a fight not only for the freedom of nations, but the freedom of every person, and in the end, the freedom of our souls. The struggle, therefore, is the price we pay for our freedom.

To win this war, we need to understand what we are up against, who is our real enemy. The more we look into the drivers behind this war, the more we will realize that the real culprit is the human ego, which drives all people to seek glory, fame, power, and wealth. We all possess an ego; it is a monster that lives within us, and only circumstances and characteristics beyond our comprehension determine if we reach a position where they might manifest in us. But even if they are not expressed, an egoistic tyrant still lives in all of us.

Therefore, our battle should be on two fronts: the physical and the internal. On the physical front, we need to do what we can to save our lives. On the internal, more important front, we need to stand up to the tyrant within us and seek to rise above the ego that separates us and pits us against each other to the death.

The battle against the ego takes place in different ways at different times and at different places. In some places, it unfolds violently, through wars, terrorism, or other forms of violence. In other places, it manifests through economic sanctions, shortage of staples, skyrocketing energy prices, and other forms of economic hardships that influence our lives. In still other places, the war unfolds through political battles. Either way, these hardships are all prices that we pay for our freedom.

The ego may win in some places and lose in others, but in the end, it will lose altogether. The time of its dominion is coming to a close.

In his essay “The Freedom,” written in the 1930s, the great thinker and kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that every tendency and characteristic in an individual is unique and we must cherish and nurture it. Afterwards, he elaborated on the importance of maintaining the freedom not only of individuals, but also of nations. In his words, “From the above-said, we learn what a terrible wrong inflict those nations that force their reign on minorities, depriving them of freedom without allowing them to lead their lives according to the tendencies they have inherited from their ancestors. They are regarded as no less than murderers.”

And to be free, we must be liberated from our ego. In order to achieve this feat, we must form new connections among us based on mutual concern and mutual support. Instead of suppressing one another, society must learn to encourage everyone to be their true selves.

For their part, individuals must learn to rise above their egos, too, and use their unique skills and capabilities not for their own benefit, and often at the expense of others, but for the benefit of society. In this way, if everyone will contribute what nature has given them to the benefit of all of humanity, there will be abundance, peace, and harmony on our planet. Therefore, the sooner we choose to pay the price for freedom from the ego, the sooner we will reach prosperity.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Only Destroyer in the World”

It has been more than three weeks now since the war in Ukraine began, and there is still no truce in sight. Reuters estimates that more than 15,000 people have died, and more than three million have been displaced. Still, there is no end in sight. It is becoming clearer by the day that there is only one reason for the war and one goal that the killing and destruction aim to achieve: domination of the ego.

In his classic essay from the early 1930s “Peace in the World,” the great thinker and kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that man is governed by the sense of uniqueness, the feeling that only I exist in the world. A few years after he wrote the article, the whole world experienced the devastating effects of this perception.

Since then, people have not become less self-centered, but actually much more so. In 2009, psychologists Jean M. Twenge and Keith Campbell gained renown for their insightful book The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. In it, they not only lament “the relentless rise of narcissism in our culture,” they also stress that “the rise in narcissism is accelerating.”

The current conflict in Ukraine demonstrates that human egoism has indeed reached a level where the horrors of World War II are no longer a deterrent. Once again, the ego will stop at nothing to gain power and control. The ego, as Baal HaSulam describes it, “feels that all the people in the world should be under his own governance and for his own private benefit.”

We cannot uproot the ego; it is our makeup. Yet, we do not need to. Instead, we need to redirect it toward constructive goals rather than destructive ones. Since we possess an inherent sense of uniqueness, we should make people feel unique for their contribution to society rather than for their power and control.

Through public opinion, we can “manipulate” ourselves to act in favor of society rather than against it. In this way, we will create communities where people feel emboldened, safe, and loved precisely because they contribute their skills and efforts to the common good.

The pointless destruction we are seeing today is the product of our nature. We could avoid it if we recognized our nature and dealt with it properly. Because we are not taking control over our ego, the ego is controlling us. There can be no compromise: Either we, as a society, govern and direct each person’s sense of uniqueness toward constructive goals, or our sense of uniqueness, aka narcissism, will lead us where it will. If we opt for inaction, the latter will happen and we will destroy ourselves and the world we live in. This is a certainty.

“The wise man’s eyes are in his head,” wrote King Solomon (Eccl. 2:14); he sees the future. If we are wise, we will work to build a good future for ourselves and for our children. If we are not, we will destroy our future by our own actions.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Legacy of a Leader”

This week was the 30th anniversary of Menachem Begin’s passing. Begin was among Israel’s greatest leaders. He was the commander of the Etzel paramilitary organization during the struggle with the British Mandate in Palestine, became Israel’s 6th prime minister, made peace with Egypt, and destroyed the nuclear reactor in Iraq before it became operative, among many other achievements. But in my eyes, what stood out most about Begin was his integrity.

In light of today’s leaders, of every party and side, Begin is an example to look up to. He gave the country his very best, and when he felt that he could no longer carry out his role as prime minister, he announced his resignation and retired from public life. To me, his legacy is the legacy of a true leader.

It is true that in those days, in the 1970s and early 80s, when Begin was the prime minister, we were all different. People were more naïve and less sinister and narcissistic than today. Nevertheless, Begin stood out even among his contemporaries. This does not take away from the greatness of leaders such as David Ben Gurion and others of his time, but Begin was still something else.

In Israel, everything happens very quickly. Regrettably, declines happen quickly, too, and today’s Israeli leaders are many miles away from those of the past.

In fact, Begin was so unique that he even won the favor of my teacher, RABASH. RABASH and I had an arrangement: Whenever we were in the car together, he would have me turn on the radio to listen to the news every hour. He was always looking for clues from the Creator, and worldly events were God’s words to him. However, two minutes into the news, when the anchor started quoting this or that politician’s words, RABASH would immediately tell me to turn off the radio. The only exception was Begin. Begin’s words were a delight to him. The clarity and integrity of his words were truly compelling for RABASH.

Another unique aspect about Begin was his respect for religion. Israel is a divided country in countless different ways. Despite being non-religious himself, Begin had tremendous respect for religious leaders. His sincere esteem for them earned him the support of many of them, but more importantly, the legacy of respecting religious and non-religious alike still prevails in Israel, to a great extent.

Today’s leaders cannot be like him. They do not come from the same place of clean ideology because if they did, they would not make it to leadership positions. Not only have the leaders changed, but more importantly, the society that engenders them has changed. Hence, its leaders have changed accordingly.

If we are ever to see such leaders as Menachem Begin rise again, we must first become a society that can generate them. Today, integrity is worthless. People appreciate power, not sincerity. As a result, they get power-hungry leaders, who are willing to trample anyone on their way up the heap. By the time they get to the top, they have forgotten who they presume to serve, and they have no other thought in mind but their own success.

It is not their fault; I have no grievances against any of our leaders. My only regret is that we, the Israeli society, are not rising to the challenge of building an exemplary society that the world can appreciate.
The world will not thank us for our high-tech weapons or sophisticated spying software. It will also not thank us for building fast computer chips or cool navigation apps.

The world will thank us only if we set an example of solidarity, of mutual care and mutual responsibility. If our leaders display these traits, and if they are backed by a nation that places solidarity above all else, we will win the world’s favor and our leaders will be welcome everywhere.

Solidarity and cohesion, in the end, are the only exports that the world needs from us. Begin promoted these, and this is why I respect his legacy.
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Medium published my new article “Children, Imagination, and Creativity”

When children watch a movie, they are glued to the screen. Children are naturally imaginative; they “live” what they see. They do not distinguish between fantasy and reality as adults do. Their imagination can take them anywhere — to the most wonderful places or to places that will leave them traumatized. It is therefore our responsibility to see that they go to good places.

After children watch a movie, we can often see how deeply it impresses them. We can find the body language, tone of voice, and phrases of the characters they watched spontaneously reflected in the children. These are not only transient impressions, but influences that shape their entire worldview and have a significant impact on their future.

Because children naturally learn by example and perceive what they see on the screen as reality, they perceive the events in the movie as examples of real life. As a result, they will try to imitate in real life the behavior and attitude of the protagonists they saw in the film.

Consequently, if we want our children to grow up sound in mind and mentally capable, we should expose them to entertainment that provides them with the right examples. There are several things we need to consider when it comes to giving children the right examples.

First, children’s movies should feature realistic characters, not mutants or distorted characters of any kind. For example, if animals do not talk like humans, they should not do so in children’s movies. Talking animals may be good entertainment for us, but they distort children’s perception of reality.

Second, a good film should neither preach nor frighten. On the contrary, it should enthrall the children and take them on a journey that will instill in them a positive attitude toward themselves, their friends and family, and toward the environment. The thinking should be this: Good social connections produce good results. When we work together, give, love, share, and care, we can change anything for the better.

Third, we should prepare children prior to watching a movie, and talk to them afterwards. Preparing and concluding together will help them process the messages correctly and they will make the most of the experience.

Finally, it would be a good idea to give them an assignment, preferably to a group of children such as siblings or classmates. The assignment should go something like this: On a clean sheet of paper, draw a new, perfect world or a perfect city. Depict the relationships between people, where and how they build their houses, what schools, parks, and stores look like, and everything else that is part of their lives.

Afterwards, have a serious discussion about their assignment; there is much to learn from it. At the end of the project, you can take the children to see professionals and ask them about their work. For example, ask teachers how they see their jobs, how police officers feel about the relationship between them and civilians, how architects make decisions about various aspects of the houses they design and how these decisions affect the lives of the people who live in them, etc.

As William Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” It is up to us to determine whether our children watch horror movies or cheerful ones. To a great extent, this will determine if they grow up thinking that life is a nightmare or a wonderful adventure.
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My new article on Linkedin “Our Future Is Today”

The time we spend with ourselves is usually the occasion for deep introspection. What we think about when we are alone was the question a new study sought to explore. A recent comprehensive study on this topic found that when a person is alone, he or she thinks about the past or the future, while with a friend or even a group of people, he or she is focused on the present.

A new research conducted by the Department of Psychology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel found that we tend to escape into the past or fantasize about the future when we are alone. The reason is simple: we have no control over our environment. Therefore, we can travel at any time and jump back and forth between thoughts about the past and fantasies about the future.

As soon as people surround us, even if we only feel their influence on us, we are immediately connected to the present, to the here and now. Even without saying a word, the people around us raise fundamental questions within us.

The present moment brings with it a deep questioning about the flavor of life. You must confront on the spot what you need to do to change your life. It is our time of free choice. That is why the present is the most difficult time, and we prefer to wander into the past or into the future.

It is a complex problem to persevere and endure the present split second. We can succeed if we keep in mind the purpose of creation, which is to discover and hold on to the giver of life. Discover the Creator, the supreme power of nature, and absorb His good and beneficent qualities.

The present is renewed every moment. Therefore, we need an environment that guides us properly, that helps us sharpen the essential questions of life, and not waste a moment in digressing into the realms of the past or the temptations of the future.

If we choose a good environment that is aware of the purpose of creation, we have the opportunity to deal with questions like these every moment: What are we living for? Where do we want to go? And how can we use the present moment properly?

If we give up on mastering the present moment, we will continue to be immersed in what was or will be. But if we pursue the search for the true meaning of life with all our might and use the freedom to cling to the Upper Force, we will use both the past and the future wisely to justify the actions of the Force of Nature over everything we have gone through so far and to gain confidence and trust in the future. So why should we worry about tomorrow if we rely on the Upper Force in the present moment?

When we develop a spiritual view of reality, we no longer perceive our life as a temporary human phenomenon on earth, but rise above the gurgle of time; it is discovered that time exists only for us to set our perceptual knobs correctly.
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Medium published my new article “Why Is the Purim Holiday Today More Relevant Than Ever?”

Costumes, masks, double identities. Behind the joyful celebration of Purim there is a profound story about good and evil. Unlocking its secret meaning can save the world today especially when reality looks so gloomy and uncertain.

Thus, this holiday is meaningful not only to the Jewish people, but to all of humanity.

The customary reading of “The Scroll of Esther” during the Purim festival does not merely celebrate an event that happened a long time ago. Instead, it describes a spiritual state not yet apparent that stands before us and that will be discovered as soon as we unite. Indeed, Megilat Ester or The Scroll of Esther refers to “the revelation of the concealed,” because in Hebrew, “guilui” means revelation, and “ester” from “hastara” means concealment.

In the story of Purim Haman raised the claim to King Ahasuerus that the Jews should be killed because they were separated, and were thus deemed unnecessary: “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed.”

In response, Mordechai appealed to King Ahasuerus for mercy on the Jews through Queen Esther, but she said it was impossible for her to help them as long as they remained dispersed and not united. So Mordechai went on a mission to pass on this call for unity of the Jewish people. When they eventually come together and unite, Esther was able to persuade King Ahasuerus to have mercy on them.

As with all the stories from the Torah, the characters and the interaction between them represent attributes and powers that play out in our thoughts, desires, attitudes, and relationships. Mordechai symbolizes a positive force that cares deeply for everyone because the future of the world depends on the development of the sublime qualities of love and giving, and on the development of a perfect integral connection between all parts of reality and all human beings. On the other hand, evil Haman symbolizes the negative force, an egoistic tendency to control everyone else, to bend everyone under us, to take everything that is possible from them, to exploit them to our advantage.

“Man is a small world,” our sages explained. It means that within each of us lie all these forces described in The Scroll of Esther, even if we do not feel them. They define the direction of development that will save us from the egoistic struggles of self-benefit at the expense of others, which threaten to degenerate the human race into self-extinction.

The more we develop, the more these powers intensify. The ruthless will to rule and control increasingly surfaces within people and great forces of separation operate to tear us apart. Therefore, the core message of the Purim story is that unity will be our salvation, and that our neglect in overcoming the differences between us endangers, harms, and may even annihilate us.

In other words, the elevated state that humanity is so eager to achieve and that is so desperately needed these days is concealed now. As soon as we learn to connect properly with one another, above our egoism, we will remove the root of all evil from our lives, and a world of all good will be revealed.
Happy Purim to all!
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My new article on Linkedin “The Scarred Children of the War”

Any war is horrific, but a war that involves civilian casualties is many times more so. Of these civilians, children are the most vulnerable. The war in Ukraine will scar its children and change them forever. Still, I believe that it will plant in them the conviction that war brings nothing good, and there is no way to justify the harm and pain that it inflicts.

In the past, wars meant occupation, plundering of possessions, and enslavement of the captive. Today conquering another country has no benefits. What will you do once you have conquered the capital? You will have to rebuild it after having ruined it yourself.

The advancement of technology and international commerce and industry have made war irrelevant as a means of obtaining supplies and wealth. Today, war is simply redundant, and I believe that today’s children sense this very deeply through their parents and through everything that they themselves are experiencing. The blasts, the blood, and the corpses on the street, the biting cold, the fear, and the uncertainty are injuring their souls, and they will pass the scars they carry on to their children and their children’s children.

Even children who are not under an immediate threat of rockets and bombs are sensing what is happening. Humanity is a single body; when organs in that body fight against each other, the whole body suffers, and the whole body learns the lessons. Therefore, I hope the lessons that the children of the war are learning through pain will sink into the consciousness of all of humanity, and everyone, around the world, will understand and feel the futility of war.

The next generation will feel that instead of fighting, they would be better off complementing each other’s needs by trading. They will know that only through cooperation can they succeed in this world.

The insights that today’s children are gaining are priceless. My only regret is that they are gaining them through pain. I wish that we could teach them this through simple education, but life has chosen a different mode of teaching for them.

Still, if we can understand what reality is teaching us—that brute force no longer leads to victory, but rather collaboration and mutual complementation—without experiencing brute force firsthand, it will help us transition to a new state of mind where war is not part of the paradigm. It will help us, and it will help our children even more.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Bully Is a Victim, Too”

One of the most painful, yet often undetected social phenomena among children is ostracism. Usually, it happens when a leader in a social group, such as a class or a sports team, picks a child as a target for exclusion and turns the rest of the group against the victim. To the child, it is a horrific experience that can scar a young soul for life. Worse yet, a bully who behaves this way feels emboldened by it and is therefore likely to repeat it either toward the victim or toward other children. To cure this social ailment, we need to understand why bullies behave this way and how we can help them adopt more positive patterns of behavior.

Bullies target children they perceive as weak, who do not stand up to them, or who are socially isolated. The bully’s goal is not so much to make the victim feel bad, as it is to make the bully feel good about himself or herself.

Often, bullies come from homes where they feel insecure. They may be suffering from physical or emotional abuse and feel trampled on at home. To compensate for their sense of inferiority at home, they need to feel superior elsewhere, and that other place is likely to be school or a sports team, or any social setting where the bully participates.

Compared to other forms of bullying, the problem with exclusion is that the bully “recruits” the rest of the group to gang up on the victim, leaving the victim socially isolated and without emotional support. For a child, such a situation can be devastating.

To tackle the phenomenon, it is not enough to punish the bully. A punishment might stop the bully from continuing to harass the victim for whom he or she was punished, but it will not stop the bully from looking for other victims because the need to bully will continue. Worse yet, it might make the intimidator continue to bully, but in more stealthy and sinister ways.

Therefore, it is essential to understand why the bully behaves this way, and provide the compensation for the lack that the bully needs in more constructive ways. Instead of the bully seeking compensation by him or herself, the society should offer the compensation in a manner that fills the bully’s emotional deficiency and does not hurt others.

Human nature requires us to feel good about ourselves. If there is a place where we feel inferior, we will not rest until we compensate for it. Therefore, if a person feels loved and supported, he or she will never feel inferior, and will therefore not wish to make others feel unloved or excluded.

The solution to the problem of bullying, therefore, and especially that of ostracism, lies in the hands of society—to create a warm and loving environment for all the children where they can grow and express their unique qualities in a socially-constructive manner, for the benefit of all of society.

If children work together on projects that require everyone’s skills, they will learn to rely on each other, trust each other, and delight in each other’s talents. Most importantly, they will come to care for one another. Instead of envy, their sense of interdependence will bring them to support each other as each child’s unique abilities benefit the entire group. When all the children cooperate in this manner, they form a harmonious society where each individual is fully satisfied and at the same time cares for the rest of all the members of the group.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Ukrainian Jewish Legacy”

Beyond the headlines of the deadly war in Ukraine from which a large number of Jews are fleeing to Israel, lies a unique and rarely told story about the remarkable contribution of Ukrainian Jews to science, art, politics, culture and education in the history of Israel and the world.

Throughout the years, many Jews who were born and lived in Ukraine imprinted their unique world-class talents in many areas. Among the most prominent names of Ukrainian origin are Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, known as the “Baal Shem Tov,” who was the father of the Hasidic movement. Some of his famous students include Rabbi Nachman of Breslav and Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. Among other names on the list of influential Ukrainian Jews are former Israeli leaders such as Golda Meir, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Moshe Sharet, Yitzhak Ben Zvi, and Levi Eshkol.

The world of literature is also replete with spectacular landscape descriptions of the green hills of Ukraine. Nobel Prize-winning author S.Y. Agnon was inspired by his hometown Buchach. Aaron Appelfeld wrote enthusiastically about Bukovina, and Bruno Schultz about Drohobych streets.

Ukraine is beautiful. I remember traveling from north to south—from Russia to Belarus, and from Belarus through Ukraine to Odessa, which lies on the Black Sea coast. There is not much difference in the transition from Russia to Belarus. Everything looks almost the same, filthy and broken. In the air it was noticeable how neglected everything around us was and that no one seemed to care much about the roadside villages. But from the moment we crossed the border and entered the territory of Ukraine, we immediately rubbed our eyes. We saw a new and clean place; even poor villages were well taken care of to preserve everything they had and to repair anything that was broken.

I remember it as a beautiful area, the climate was comfortable, the soil was fertile, everything was blooming, the conditions were relatively good and there was room to accommodate millions. Although Jews have lived in many countries in Eastern Europe, many of them were drawn to live in Ukrainian cities and villages, being pushed into the “borderline—the meaning of the word “ukraina.”

The Ukrainians were a very rural and land-loving people, and the locals always expected the Jews to bring development in science and medicine, in culture and the arts. At the same time, Jews experienced great antisemitism and many pogroms throughout their history in Ukraine. This pressure built within the local Jews a unique approach to life and to overcoming adversity through hard work—a kind of willpower and impulse that made them pioneers.

Even today, although we Jews have immigrated to Israel and established a national home, we still feel the stress of antisemitism pressing upon us from the global village. From every direction we are being increasingly pressured, and this is true both for Diaspora Jews and for Jews in Israel. Wherever we flee, we are always blamed for being Jews.

This pressure upon us needs to lead us to apply our willpower to a new kind of overcoming—the implementation of the correct method for forging Jewish unity to reconnect the essence of the Jewish people that we have lost in the useless quarrels between us. If we will re-acquire the knowledge and wisdom found in the connection between us, in our unity, we will then be able to give the world an unparalleled blessing, the breakthrough of lasting peace, tranquility, and fulfillment, the light humanity so desperately needs. And this gift to humanity will be the most valuable and lasting contribution of the Jewish people to the world—a true enlightenment in times of darkness.
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