My new article on Linkedin “The Chinese Leopard Has Leaped Down from the Tree”

China often conducts itself like a leopard that is sitting in a tree, waiting for the right moment to leap down on its prey. In the tug-of-war between Russia and the US over Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, China did not take sides. Until recently, when it announced that it will not join the sanctions against Russia, and has promoted “the biggest-ever natural gas supply deal” with Russian gas exporter Gazprom.

At the same time, China directly threatened the US regarding America’s attempts to embolden Taiwan. On two occasions, China sent offensive, almost vulgar warnings to the US. On the first occasion, they said, “We must sternly warn the United States that whoever plays with fire will burn himself. If it plays the ‘salami-slicing’ tactics on the Taiwan question, it is their fingers [sic] that will be cut off.” On the second occasion, a Chinese official stated, “If the US wants to embolden the ‘Taiwan independence’ … the US will pay a heavy price for its adventurist act. If the US tries to intimidate and pressure China … the so-called military deterrence [American army] will be reduced to scrap iron.”

On the face of it, China seems to have indeed chosen sides. But I would not draw conclusions prematurely. Like a leopard, they are very clever. In my opinion, they have joined the side they actually want to weaken.

Despite its audacious proclamations, the Chinese government has no interest in fighting against America. China is too dependent on American purchasing power to risk going to war with it. They would go to great lengths to avoid a military conflict with the US.

With Russia, the situation is different. China has its eyes set on the vast, ore and oil rich, and nearly empty lands stretching from Siberia to the Ural Mountains—an area several times bigger than China itself. With Russia’s current strength, China cannot conquer it. However, if Russia were to become weak and exhausted, it would be much easier for China to take over the land without much resistance. The longer it continues, the weaker Russia will become, and the easier it will be for China to bite off chunks of Siberia for itself.

Wars bring about changes. Big wars bring about big changes. World War I led to the creation of the United Nations and the Treaty of Versailles, which helped seat Hitler at the helm of Germany. World War II created the communist bloc under the Warsaw Pact, and the Western bloc under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which set off the Cold War.

The current conflict is not a world war, at least not yet, but its impact is nevertheless profound. The war in Ukraine is exposing the futility of ego-wars, and in the end, every war is an ego-war. The crisis in Ukraine proves that if we want to coexist peacefully, we must learn how to rise above our egos on the personal, social, political, and international levels.

Now, after millennia of serving our egos, we are on the verge of realizing that the only thing that is bad in our world is our own ego. The ego has promised us the world, but it has destroyed it. We must counter it with an equal force of positivity, or it will end us all.

This realization will have a profound impact on society. Until now, all our institutions catered to our egos. They attempted to moderate and streamline the interests of countries in a way that enabled them to coexist. Now that egoism has reached such levels where it cannot accept the existence or independence of others, we have no choice but to add another force: a positive force to counter the power and intensity of the ego.

In the coming years, we will witness the establishment of new institutions of a new nature. Their focus will not be on catering to the ego, or even on securing food and water supply. Rather, they will focus on creating social cohesion and solidarity. They will work from the understanding that if people are united, they care for one another and see to each other’s needs.

Instead of treating symptoms of alienation, these new organizations will work to eliminate it and create connection, bonding, and a sense of mutual responsibility. We are just beginning the transition, but the fact that the old world is falling apart means that we must hurry, so the new order is not born through more pain than necessary. The sooner we realize that in today’s reality we cannot let the ego set the tone, and we must balance it with caring, the easier and smoother will be the transition.
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My new article on Linkedin “A Sensitive Spot in Humanity”

The conflict in Ukraine is not a regular conflict between two nations. It is a very deep crisis that originates from a very special place in the common human soul. It is a sensitive spot in humanity, and we can see how powerfully it impacts all of us.

We will not resolve this crisis through diplomatic measures. At best, we will calm it down for a while, but it will only erupt more violently afterwards. We will also not end the conflict if one side completely overruns the other; no one will capitulate here, and the fire will continue to burn underneath until it explodes again.

There is only one thing we need to do in order to resolve the crisis: increase the importance of complementarity, the importance of the necessity to unite the hearts of the members of the rivaling nations above the enmity. To be clear, simply wanting the war to end will not end it; we need to want the separation between us to end. We need to want to feel each other’s hearts, and this, among many other benefits, will also silence the roaring guns.

We are in a very difficult, very treacherous situation. We should not blur things or try to cover them up. Tactics and political artifice will not resolve the crisis.

The only solution is to make an effort to bring people’s hearts closer above, and despite the hatred that has erupted among them. Otherwise, there will be no solution to the conflict, it will only escalate and drag more countries into it, and we all know what that means.

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Medium published my new article “Why We Cannot Work in Synchrony”

The war in Ukraine, the inability of the world to sanction Russia effectively, the uneven distribution of medications, the uneven distribution of wealth, staples, education, wherever you look, there are growing gaps and growing instability in human society. Now let us look at nature. In nature, everything is balanced and harmonious, synchronized to the last detail.

There is a famous natural phenomenon called “spontaneous synchronization” that causes bodies in close proximity to synchronize their movements. Metronomes, for example, spontaneously synchronize their beats even if you deliberately start them at different times.

But spontaneous synchronization applies not only to pacemakers; it applies to all levels of reality. This is how award winning Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University Steven Strogatz explains the phenomenon (Min 10:09–10:37): “One of the things that I find most appealing about it is how universal it is, that it occurs at every scale of nature, from subatomic to cosmic. It uses every communication channel that nature has ever devised, from gravitational interactions, electrical interactions, chemical, mechanical, I mean you name it. Anyway that two things can influence each other, nature uses that to get things in sync.”

It seems like the only element in reality that “escapes” spontaneous synchronization is humanity. It is as if the rules that apply to all of nature do not apply to us.

To an extent, this is true. In addition to belonging to the animate level of life, we are also sentient beings, and our actions are determined by willful decisions. In order to synchronize our actions, we need to want it to happen.

Otherwise, if we leave it to nature to decide, human nature, which is inherently self-centered, will override the system-centered nature of the rest of reality, and we will remain deeply discordant, and as a result, profoundly antagonistic to each other.

Over the past few years, the level of our alienation from each other has increased to a level that makes the possibility of another world war a realistic scenario. The only way to avoid it is to consciously and willfully adopt synchrony among us. What nature does spontaneously, we must do consciously and voluntarily.

There is a good reason for this. When we choose to follow a certain path, we do so after examining and evaluating all the options for and against it. If we behaved a certain way because we only followed our instincts, we would be animals not people. The difference between us and animals is that we think, debate, and question until we finally decide. As a result, the picture we see is more complete and deeper than any being in nature.

Yet, the price we pay for being sentient is often far too high. If we want to live in a peaceful world where people are wise and kind, we must make it happen. We must choose synchrony and harmony over friction and dissention. To do that, we must consciously raise the importance of synchrony in all of humanity.

Harmony and synchrony will not make us the same or even similar. Rather, they will make us harmonious and complementary. They will make us enjoy contributing our skills and abilities for the greater good, and together we will build a strong and solid society whose members are safe, healthy, and above all, happy.
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KabNet published my new article: “Toward Worldwide Shortage of Staples”

The war in Ukraine poses many threats not only to Ukraine, but to the entire world. The sanctions against Russia are extreme if not unprecedented.

However, we should not believe that this will come at no cost to the world. Already, the prices of wheat and oil are skyrocketing, but it is still not the worst of it. The worst will come when there is none of them, when supermarket shelves in Europe and the US are empty because of the war in Ukraine. The most important lesson we can (and should) already learn from this war is that the world is one, interdependent global village, and that when you hurt someone else, you hurt yourself.

Even before the war broke out, the strain on supply chains was driving up prices, and inflation was breaking records in the US and elsewhere. But now, for some products, the supply chains will collapse altogether.

We should not deal with this crisis only on the superficial level. We should not settle for looking for substitutes for the missing products. If we do, the substitutes will fail us, too.

Instead, we need to use the opportunity to correct the reason for the broken supply chains: our broken connections. The sanctions against Russia, with their implications to both Russia and the West, should make us realize that we cannot build our relationships on mutual exploitation. Our relations will be sustainable only if we establish them on trust and mutual complementation.

It is clear that in every transaction, each party has its own interest in mind; there is nothing wrong with that. However, when parties seek not only to profit from their deals, but to extort the other parties, to take from them more than they are willing to give, either by deceit or by force, this will not work for long. We must change our attitude from using our resources to impose our will, into sharing our resources for the greater good.

It is not as though we should suddenly love each other, at least not yet. But even if we cannot stand each other, we all have goods that others need but do not have, and others have goods that we need but do not have. Therefore, even if we cannot stand each other, we must share with one another. But for the chain to remain open, we must work with mutual respect and decency.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Russia-Ukraine War: Fertile Ground for Antisemites”

Whenever there is a conflict or problem in the world, it rapidly becomes “open season” on Israel. Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, social media platforms have massively echoed anti-Israeli voices comparing the war in Eastern Europe to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Such a parallel was recently drawn by UK Labour MP Julie Elliott during a parliamentary debate on the recognition of Palestine. Meanwhile, British Conservative MP Stephen Crabb called that comparison, “historically wrong, factually wrong, and morally wrong.” But antisemites do not need rational logic to justify their accusations.. They take advantage of any opportunity to accuse Israel of wrongdoing.

Former Egyptian football player Mohamed Aboutrika slammed the Federation of International Football (FIFA) after it banned Russia from all soccer competitions, but avoided applying the same punishment to Israel, which he accuses of human rights violations.

Slander against Israel and the Jewish people is nothing new. Any piece of information can be manipulated or distorted to fit someone’s narrative. Israel is portrayed as attacking Gaza for no reason when in fact, we are only defending ourselves. People can say whatever they want, but in truth, we are not Nazis as some claim, we are not against anyone and have never assaulted others just because we felt like it.

But there are no limits for what others can say or write to incriminate Jews for anything bad in the world. Any piece of information can be manipulated or distorted to someone’s agenda or interest against Jews.

The background and history of the conflicts and wars in the Eastern European countries are in no way comparable to the history of the Jews and the State of Israel. The realities are completely different, but Israel’s haters will ignore every reasonable explanation. They will not admit it, but deep inside they think “don’t bother me with the facts.”

Antisemitism is a natural instinct in every human being. It has existed for thousands of years—from the time when Jews received the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai (from the Hebrew word “Sina,” meaning hatred) to rise above the hatred revealed between them and from the nations of the world against the people of Israel.

The hatred against Jews will never disappear until we as a people realize and implement the mission we were given, fulfill the true reason why the people of Israel exist, carry out what humanity expects from us: to transition from unfounded hatred to unfounded love and by doing so become a “light unto the nations.”
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My new article on Linkedin “To Reduce Air Pollution, Work from Home”

A recent article by Steve Cohen from the Earth Institute at Columbia University elaborates on the benefits of preferring electric cars to cars powered by internal combustion engines. Cohen acknowledges that “Decarbonization will take decades, and … some of the opposition will be justified because these installations will have a negative impact on a community.” Nevertheless, he insists, “The argument that electric vehicles pollute too much is not persuasive. They pollute less than vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine,” and “that is the only comparison that matters.”

In my opinion, we are looking at the whole situation backwards. Even Cohen, an avid supporter of electric vehicles, admits that “We will see progress as we make the problem less bad, but we will not solve the problem.” So, instead of searching for ways to minimize the damage while maintaining our harmful lifestyle, I think we should change our way of life so that we don’t create the problem in the first place.

The current Western lifestyle encourages working many hours with often long drives to and from work. In recent years, things have begun to change, but I think we shouldn’t wait, we must shift to working from home as soon as possible and make this form of work as pervasive as we can.

In Asia, where long workdays and a long workweek were regarded as the norm until recently, there are already winds of change. “Panasonic Corp has joined a small, but growing, number of Japanese companies to offer staff a four-day workweek to encourage better work-life balance,” writes the media company HRM Asia. Panasonic is not alone; it is “part of a global trend,” the article continues, adding that in Japan, “a group of lawmakers is discussing a proposal to grant employees a day off in addition to the two break days a week, to ensure their well-being.”

Forbes magazine, too, writes that “the four-day workweek is gaining big momentum,” and other media outlets have been writing more and more about it.

In my opinion, we should go beyond the four-day workweek. I think that even the work we do should be done primarily from home. It will create less congestion on the roads, give people more free time, and flexible hours even on the days when they do work, and it will drastically reduce the environmental impact of the auto industry, whether it is powered by electric or internal combustion engines.

The automotive industry is only one example. In almost every area of human engagement, we are busying ourselves more than we should, and everyone is paying the price: we, our families, the society, and the planet. Excessive production and excessive work help no one and do not make us happier.

Think about how we would feel if we had two more hours of free time each day—roughly the time we spend commuting to work and back. Now imagine if we worked only four days a week, and from home.

In short, I think we should slow down, dedicate more time for the things we love to do and for the people we care about. It will make us happy; it will make society more peaceful; it will help the environment; and it will help the world. In these troubled times, we could all use some peace of mind.

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Medium published my new article “The War — the Spiritual War”

To the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, wars “are the necessary grounds of all coming to be,” writes Abraham Schoener of the University of Toronto. “War is not only a principle in the world of mortal affairs; it governs all things, both every being in the cosmos and the cosmos itself as a whole,” Schoener adds about the philosopher’s views. Indeed, all of nature consists of contradictory elements that join together. On the subatomic level, between light and darkness, cold and heat, attraction and rejection, everything stems from positives and negatives joining together to create balance.

On the human level, the two opposites are expressed as egoism, with all its negative expressions, and altruism, with its positive expressions. The problem is that there is very little of the latter, hardly any. On every level of nature, the negative and positive forces are in equilibrium, maintaining harmony and homeostasis. It is only at the human level that the negative force far outweighs the positive and throws the entire world off balance.

The war that is currently raging in Ukraine is therefore not a local dispute, but a clash of spiritual significance; this is why the whole world is at least emotionally involved in it, and I hope it does not become military involvement. If we want to eliminate war, we must change our spirits from predominantly negative and abusive of others to a balanced harmony between the negative and the positive, in accord with the rest of nature.

There is an old Cherokee tale about an elderly warrior who told his grandson about the battle within us. He said that within each of us there is a struggle between two wolves: one is mean, greedy, and abusive, and the other is kind, generous, and compassionate. The grandson thought about it for a while and finally asked, “Which of them wins?” to which his grandfather replied, “The one you feed.”

Humans are social beings. We think that our thoughts are independent, but in reality, we are a product of our society. The mean wolf is winning because our entire society is leaning toward meanness, violence, and exploitation. Feeding the kind wolf means elevating the value of peace and caring.

Human nature will not let us feed only the kind wolf; it is inherently evil, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). Nevertheless, if we, as a society, place the value of peace above all else in life, then we ourselves will change.

Normally, we think of peace as absence of active fighting. In fact, there is much more to peace than that. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, from the word hashlama, which means complementation, and shlemut, meaning wholeness. Peace, therefore, does not mean absence of egoism, but rather complementing it with altruism and creating a complete whole.

We must not deny or suppress our basic nature. If we try, we are certain to fail. Instead, we must complement it with its opposite. If we balance egoism with an equal amount of altruism, we will advance in harmony and peace, just like all of nature.

Since our egoism grows continually, we must never stop increasing the importance of peace. In this way, we will create a dynamic equilibrium, just as our body maintains it through homeostasis.

The current war, like all wars, is a call for humanity to complement our wickedness with kindness. We cannot avoid doing what we need to do on the battlefield, but if we think that winning a battle gives us peace, we will soon find ourselves embroiled in more wars, probably more devastating than the current one.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “A War Without, and a War Within”

Shortly after World War II ended with tragic explosions of nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, my teacher’s father, the great thinker and foremost kabbalist of the 20th century, Baal HaSulam, wrote what later became known as “The Writings of the Last Generation.” He did not intend to say that the end of the world was approaching, but rather that the world as we know it was dying, and a new one was being born. Yet, labor pangs can be very painful, or not so painful, and we, human beings, can determine how we go through it. Baal HaSulam called these two options “the path of light” and “the path of suffering.”

In these writings, Baal HaSulam stresses that with technology, humanity has “invented the atom and the hydrogen bombs,” and “if the total ruin that they are destined to bring upon the world is still not evident to the world, they can wait for a third world war, or a fourth one. The bombs will do their thing, and the relics who remain after the ruin will have no other choice but to take upon themselves this work where both individuals and nations do not work for themselves more than is necessary for their sustenance, while everything else they do will be for the good of others.”

The war in Ukraine is not between Russia and Ukraine; it is a clash between two halves of the world. It is reshaping international relations and alliances between East and West, between countries and nations. This war is transforming our view of creation and of life. We have not gone down to the very bottom, but when we come up from the nadir, we will find that the world has changed dramatically. It will never return to the world it was before.

Because today, everything is global, wars are global, too. Therefore, the foreboding prediction of Baal HaSulam seems very real today. In fact, on the current trajectory, I see no other result but the fulfillment of his words. The only way we can avert a nuclear world war is to take his advice and think of the good of others rather than our own, as much as we may dislike the idea.

Indeed, the war without is a reflection of the war within us. Every war, from domestic disputes to world wars, is a clash of egos. The ego wants control and superiority. Accordingly, the book Fitting In and Getting Happy: How Conformity to Societal Norms Affects cites a study by Solnick & Hemenway where more than half of the participants preferred to live in a society where they earn $50,000 per year while others earn $25,000, over a society where they earn $100,000 while others earn 200,000. The book’s author, Professor of Social Psychology at Tilburg University (Netherlands) Olga Stavrova concluded, “People do not desire to have a lot of a certain good as much as they desire to have more of this good than others.”

However painful the current situation in Ukraine may be, and it is very painful indeed, it is still a clash of egos. We need to understand that in order to solve this crisis, and every other crisis, for that matter, we must look at ourselves from aside and disconnect for a moment from our great personal pain, with which I wholly sympathize.

If we focus only on being right, then we will never end the wars. No one will ever agree and say, “I am wrong and you are right”; our egos will not let us do it. This is why looking for objective justice is inherently hopeless; it is choosing the path of suffering.

If, however, we put our grievances aside for a minute, and agree to take a break from trying to settle old scores, it will be possible to start building a positive future. In that state, we will be able to focus on nurturing mutual respect, and perhaps even mutual understanding above the numerous profound differences. If we persist with these efforts, this will be the beginning of the path of light.

At the moment, I would not expect more than that, but in the end, humanity will have no choice but to return to the words of Baal HaSulam, and agree that the best way for all of us is the path of mutual concern and mutual responsibility. If we do not want a third world war, then we must learn to care for one another. This is why the real war is within us, and the war without is only a reflection of our raging hate for others.
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Medium published my new article “Why the Great Resignation”

In the 2nd half of 2021 alone, more than 25 million Americans had quit their jobs. This wave, dubbed “The Great Resignation” or “The Big Quit,” is the largest wave of resignations since recording of data began at the turn of the century. Right now, this phenomenon is most prevalent in low-income occupations or in particularly hard and often unrewarding jobs such as healthcare workers. However, I anticipate that it will capture all the professions, and not only less popular or poorly paying jobs, and to spread not only in America, but around the world.

I can understand people who quit. What’s the point of slaving for a job that takes you an hour to get there, an hour to return, and leaves you no time for yourself or to be with your family? Besides, it is better if fewer people work; there will be less plastic waste, less air pollution, and less of everything else that is poisoning the planet.

In the past, fewer people worked, mainly because women did not work, but men also worked fewer hours and spent less time commuting. What has modernity given us besides exhaustion and poor health? We thought that this lifestyle would satisfy us, but we have found that beyond a certain point, the pursuit of a career and wealth mainly spoils our lives.

Therefore, I think it is good that we are becoming less materialistic and more indifferent and lazy. When people stop working, they find that they can get by with less money and still get the basic things they need. In return, they get freedom!

I believe we are witnessing a natural process, and not necessarily a negative one. It may be inconvenient for business owners or the government, but I do not think it is negative or that we need to “treat” it. Technology can take care of our needs, and if people find it necessary to work, they will work.

The current state of overconsumption is a distortion of society, a burden on the planet, and does not benefit anyone other than the shareholders of the corporations that sell us what we do not need, which is most everything that they produce.

Particularly now, when people are beginning to ask serious questions about life, they do not want to be burdened with material needs more than is necessary. They need the time to reflect and question life, to explore within them what they want from life and from relationships.

We are in the midst of a formidable transformation. It requires time, energy, and patience, and it takes people’s minds away from the mundane.

The more people embrace this new mindset, the better it will be for everyone. On the other end of the reflections lies a new worldview that incorporates all the people and shuns brutality and narcissism. So let people lay in the sun and think; it is better for all of us.
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My new article on Linkedin “Between Despair and Hope”

Tens of thousands of civilians cross Ukraine’s borders every hour, a mass of people laden with bags on their backs and children on their shoulders, with suitcases and memories dragging behind them.

I have many students and friends in cities all over Ukraine, from Kiev to Kharkiv, from Odessa to Lviv. I receive reports from them and follow their situation with concern. They tell me how they sought shelter in cold basements or fled to nearby villages, others sped westward in their cars for hours, praying that they would not run out of fuel and manage to escape.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than 500,000 Ukrainians have fled their homes as a result of the conflict, crossing the borders into neighboring countries such as Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Romania.

I have no doubt that the refugees will receive support and a warm embrace in Western European countries. I also believe that they will eventually return home and not stay permanently in host countries. Canada among others may open its doors to permanent immigration.

Israel, too, will surely act in accordance with the Law of Return, which gives Jews the right to relocate to Israel, and open its arms to welcome them. Israel has a place not only for the thousands of Jews who will emigrate from Eastern Europe, but for all Jews of the Diaspora.

Meanwhile, the world, including Israel, is helping with humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict. But besides meeting people’s basic needs, the most important help is inner support. We must ask that the spirit of love, bestowal and positive connection will soon prevail.

Disagreements and wars come so that we can unite above them. Only the unity of hearts, when each cares for the well-being of the other, will save humanity.
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