My new article on Linkedin “Reflections Following the Results of the Elections in Virginia”

In the end, identity politics is just that: politics. It is not real life; it is make-believe. In the end, humanity will reject ideas that do not coincide with nature. It may require a big war, perhaps another virus or some other trigger, but it may not. Either way, humanity will turn away from such exaggerations of the ego and establish a balanced and harmonious society where people find their self-expression in manners that contribute to society rather than shatter it into myriad confused and unhappy individuals.

Traditionally, the American people are quite conservative, in the good sense of the word. There are fluctuations back and forth but in the end, I believe that Americans will draw conclusions and follow what is natural and not the bellows of people with trendy ideas that are here today and gone tomorrow.

Changing one’s identity, deciding that I am something other than how I was born, all these are signs of growth. However, growth needs to be guided, or we grow where our ego leads us—away from each other and deeper into ourselves—toward separation, alienation, and sadness. This is where critical race theory and identity politics are leading us, and the residents of Virginia used the gubernatorial elections to refuse this direction. Instead of developing our true identity and realizing its full potential, the ideas that were rejected in this election encourage us to adopt another identity, and then spend the rest of our lives trying to justify our choice. This is not a recipe for happiness.

However, there is a good reason why such ideas are implanted in people. When people are busy trying to determine who (or what) they are, it is easier to govern them.

By nature, rulers want only one thing: to rule. It is easy to handle people when they are confused and deal with other issues besides the government and what it is (or is not) doing for them. Find them an enemy, find them a cause, and they will busy themselves with it and leave the rulers to enjoy the amenities of governance. Machiavelli wrote about it centuries ago, and human nature has not changed since.

Yet, all this is happening for a reason. The idea of wanting to change who we are is not without merit. It stems from an inherent yearning to find a higher purpose in life. Wanting to break the boundaries of nature is an expression of our disagreement with who we are.

Unlike any other being, it is an inherent desire in human beings to search for answers about their existence. Where do I come from? Why was I born? Why is there pain? Why was I born into my sex and not into another? Can I change who I am? And in the end, what is the purpose of my existence? These years I have been given, is there a meaning and a purpose to them beyond just passing the time as best as I can? And if there is, what is it? These questions are characteristic of humankind and drive us into the frenzied confusion that we are in today.

However, we will not find the answers to them within ourselves. We will find them in our connections with others. The shattering of our society “helps us,” in a warped kind of way, understand that we have built an ill society, and we must rebuild it if we want to be happy.

But we needn’t change anything within ourselves. There is nothing wrong with any of us as individuals. The only thing that is wrong is the way we treat each other. Therefore, our relation to each other is all we have to correct.

When we begin to feel more united, that we belong to one another like family members belong to one another, we won’t need to change who we are because we will focus on making other people feel loved and cared for.

In a good family, people don’t worry about themselves; they worry about each other and about the whole family. But because everyone in the family thinks this way, everyone is happy because everyone feels loved and cared for.

These days, when everyone is dependent upon everyone else the world over, we have to start building this feeling not just in our families, but among everyone. Eventually, this blanket of concern should cover all the people in the world.

Granted, it is a long journey, but its end is bliss, and nature is willy-nilly pushing us that way. Therefore, the sooner we align with nature, the happier we will be. In the end, isn’t this what we all want?
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My new article on Linkedin “Covid – the Career Terminator”

We are not even two years into Covid, but it is already clear that the virus is revolutionizing civilization. Things we took for granted until recently, such as work, school, and entertainment, have become debatable on many levels. The virus is not only affecting our health and our lives; it is changing how we see ourselves as human beings and as members of society.

Until the virus landed on us, we branded people, in large part, by their careers or jobs, and their lifestyles. Having a career used to be a symbol of success. There was a romantic tone to the word, and images of frequent “work” trips, company credit cards, an apartment in a high-rise with a guard in the lobby, and a social status for others to envy.

Somehow, Covid dimmed the glamour. It is not that people utterly reject the idea of a career, but it is not as enviable as it was two years ago, and its appeal is only waning.

We still want money, and we always will, but we are willing to pay much less for making lots of it. We are not willing to sacrifice so much of our social lives, our other interests, our peace of mind, and our family time for a social status. In part, it is because we no longer find it so enticing, and in part, it is because others no longer find our career “titles” enviable. They see our long hours at the office, our frequent flights, and they pity us for having to work so hard instead of enjoying life.

But the pandemic has gone deeper than changing our perception of work. Bit by bit, it has reawakened in us the “big” questions, those we have suppressed for years under the pressure of survival in a hyper capitalistic world: the questions about the meaning of life.

Just as the warming climate melts the permafrost and lets out gases that change the composition of our atmosphere, the virus is dissolving the ice in our hearts and opens them to long-frozen feelings that change the atmosphere in our society. We are learning to think more socially and less individually.

The fear of infection has made us acknowledge that we are dependent on others for our health. Now, with the crisis in supply chains due to the coronavirus, it makes us realize we are dependent on each other for our food, for the price we pay for things, for our ability to buy holiday gifts, for our entertainment, our social lives, and for our schools and education.

We may not realize it but the virus teaches us to reassess our values: who we consider great and admirable, and who we despise. It teaches us to judge people not by how much they make, but by how much they contribute to society. We started by applauding health and medical workers, then moved on to acknowledging that supermarket workers are indispensable, and now we realize that these invisible people are the ones who enable us to live and worry about ourselves.

Thanks to the virus, we are finally learning that each person is unique because each person can make a special contribution to society that no one else can. In our uniqueness, we are all equal.

When the process of welcoming each person’s uniqueness is complete, we will find that the hatred in our hearts is gone. We will realize how precious each of us is, and we will be grateful for the existence of every human being on this planet. When this happens, we will be thankful to Covid – the career terminator and generator of unity and peace.

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My new article on Linkedin “Silence Is Golden”

I spent countless hours conversing with my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (RABASH). For the most part, we spoke when we were alone during our daily morning walks or during our frequent two-day trips to Tiberias.

I once asked him what he did before I came, since when I met him he was already seventy-three years old. He said, “I was alone.” When I asked him if he didn’t need to talk to someone, he simply said, “No.”

Today, thirty years after his departure, I understand what he meant. I sit alone in my room and feel no need to come out or speak with anyone. I could sit here for a hundred years and not mind it whatsoever. I take strolls here and there, but since the closures started, I am mostly by myself, and I am perfectly content. Were it not for my students or the necessity to spread the wisdom of Kabbalah to the world, I wouldn’t utter a word.

In this I am like many Kabbalists before me. They, too, did not spend their days in idle conversation. They studied together and read from authentic Kabbalah sources.

This was also what RABASH and I used to do. Even when we were alone, such as in Tiberias, we would sit facing each other, The Book of Zohar or The Study of the Ten Sefirot open on the table between us, cups of Turkish coffee next to them, and we would read, and read, and read.

Once in a while, RABASH would stop reading to explain something, or I would ask a question about the text, but for the most part, we would read and connect between us, rising to a shared, spiritual feeling. Noting more was needed, nothing at all.

When an important event occurred, such as a war or elections in Israel, or other events that stirred the Israeli public, we would exchange a few words about it, but not for long, and certainly without prattling about it. We would not veer off from thinking about life’s purpose for a moment; every second mattered.

It is written in the Mishnah that Shimon, the son of Rabban Gamaliel, used to say, “All my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the most important, but deeds; and one who speaks too many words brings about sin” (Avot, 1:16).

Kabbalists are silent because they listen with their hearts. They listen to our common heart, the heart of the human system called Adam HaRishon, of which we are all parts.

We are born locked inside the bubble of our ego; we cannot listen to our common heart. Instead, we only listen to ourselves.

What I had learned from RABASH is to listen deep within, beyond the ego, to the common heart. In the depths of our soul, there is a longing to break through the boundaries of ego and feel the common heart. When we connect with it, we will truly be able to hear what is outside of us. We will be able to converse with the soul of all of humanity, with all of nature, and through them with the Creator.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Canopy – How Jews Can Break the Spell of Antisemitism”

It seems like a vicious circle: Every time Jews settle somewhere, the local population welcomes them, they prosper there and believe that they have found their “new Jerusalem,” new homeland, but right when they become complacent, their hosts turn against them, banish them or kill them, and often do both. Since the Jews were exiled from Jerusalem in the first century CE, they have been driven out from nearly one thousand places. If you stick a pin anywhere on a map of Earth, chances are that Jews lived there and were ousted from there.

We thought we were safe in England until we were driven out from there in the 13th century. We thought we were safe in Spain until they expelled us in the 15th century. We thought we were safe in Poland until we were butchered there in the 17th century. We thought we were safe in Russia until the pogroms of the late 19th century taught us better. We thought we were safe in Germany until the Nazis came and taught us that no place and no time are safe for the Jews.

Now, many of us still think we are safe in America and in Israel. We are not, and we mustn’t mistake complacency for safety.

Yet, this is not an unbreakable spell. If we conduct ourselves correctly, we can lift the curse and have a bright and prosperous future. For this, we must build a canopy of unity over our divisions, which will shelter us from the stormy clouds ahead.

We are nearing a critical point in the history of the world, and we Jews will be at its center, as we always have been. We will be accused of everything that is wrong in the world, as we always are, and there is a lot that is wrong with it today.

There will be no distinction between Jews in Israel and Jews abroad; all of us will face the world’s indictments. Moreover, the more we stall, the more momentum and intensity the hatred of the Jews will gain.

In the past, we could run from one country to another when things got bad. But one of the most important lessons we can learn from the Holocaust is that Germany was not alone in its hatred for the Jews. The Nazis were willing to expel the Jews right up to the Final Solution, but the developed countries closed their gates without exception. They even convened in Evian, France, for a special conference in 1938, where they decided not to grant German and Austrian Jews visas, while adding denunciation of how the Nazis are treating “their” Jews. Hitler took it as proof that the world tacitly agrees with his arguments against the Jews.

European Jewry had nowhere to run, and the vast majority of it was eliminated. Now we are facing a worldwide wave. If there was nowhere to go then, there is certainly nowhere to go now.

However, the ominous future does not mean that there is no hope. On the contrary, we have every reason to be hopeful since we have a key that can solve the problem in an instant if we only place it in the lock and turn it open.

Our shelter is not physical, but spiritual: It is our unity. As such, it needs no place, and we need not flee to one country or another. All we need is to find the strength within us to stop hating one another. After all, this is why we were expelled from Jerusalem in the first place.

It is beyond the span of such a short piece as this to detail their words, but our sages throughout the ages have advised us to do only one thing to avert trouble: unite. One by one, they promised that if we love each other as brothers, we will be safe from harm.

There have been too few times in history when we listened to them, and these times were so peaceful that we hardly hear of them today. It is simply that there were no wars, poverty, or division in Israel during those times; there was nothing “interesting” to report. Nevertheless, this is our way out of trouble; unity is our salvation. For more details on the merits of our unity, please look in my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Antisemitism.

Our unity will not give us any military strength. It is itself the source of our power since this is what the world wants to see from us—that we unite above our divisions. At a time of great division, humanity wants the Jews to lead not in cyber technologies, but in resolving social rifts through cohesion and solidarity.

When Henry Ford, a notorious antisemite, advised his readers to learn from the ancient Jewish society (see the book referenced above), this is what he aimed for. When member of the Russian Parliament Vasily Shulgin, a rabid antisemite, wrote in the early 20th century that if the Jews were teachers, he and all the Russians would follow them (again, see the reference above), he meant teachers in unity and love of others.

Unity is our shelter. If we build it, we will be safe and appreciated everywhere. The only benefit that can come from the rising wave of antisemitism is that if we turn to unity, we will save ourselves from harm and save the world from war. I hope we take the advice of our sages before the wave crests on us and breaks.
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My new article on Linkedin “ The Building of Strong Jewish Communities”

It has been testing times for UK Jewry in the last few years and it appears that their struggles are showing no signs of abating. Temple’s shutdown and a worrying drop in synagogue attendance reflect the growing decline of the Jewish communities in Europe and around the world. It should be an eye opener for world Jewry to exert more efforts in building deeper connections between Jews beyond the walls of the places of worship.

British newspaper columnist, Simon Keltner, highlighted in a recent article that there had been a 20% drop in attendance at UK’s synagogues over the last 2 decades and expresses concerns about the future: “Unless synagogues can attract a younger demographic, they will die alongside their members, and there is solid evidence of historic synagogues having to close their doors for good through lack of interest.”

In fact, the South London Synagogue in Streatham closed its doors this year. The synagogue that had been open since 1867 announced the decision “with great sadness” due to lack of attendance and an inability to attract new members.

Most recently, Israeli media echoed the news about the closure of Liverpool’s iconic Princes Road Synagogue after almost 150 years of continuous operation, but it was later refuted by the temple’s administration. Their site though pleas for active participation of its members to keep the place alive.

The decline of the local Jewish communities is part of the natural devolution of the Jewish society worldwide. The further we move away from the previous generations, those who clung to the essence of Judaism, the more gradually we close synagogues.

The synagogue is the symbolic heart of a community, the unifying factor among its members. Its closure, in any city, indicates the disintegration of relations between members of the community. Nowadays, Jews identify less with their Judaism, particularly secular Jews. Some assimilate, some disperse, and consequentially communities crumble and disappear.

What might happen in the future with other Jewish temples? Most likely, larger religious denominations such as Muslims will acquire them. There are already some examples of this transformation in the city of Marseille, France where one of their largest synagogues became a mosque. The same has happened in other U.S. cities like Philadelphia.

Should Jews in those locations have fought harder for the preservation of their temples? No, they couldn’t, nor should they have. The real place of struggle should be within themselves, over their spiritual nature as Jews.

A “synagogue” is the symbol of a spiritual space where Jews must connect with one another heart to heart. From this common bond we must then turn to the Supreme Force, the Creator, to ask Him to raise us above the forces of separation between us to a state of mutual and complete connection.

A “synagogue” is a spiritual home where people gather as one family. If there is no inner connection between us, then there is no sense of belonging to the material place either. When this happens, it is only natural that the community ultimately vanishes. In an alternative scenario, a quorum remains but separation and conflicts prevail.

Our good future as Jews depends solely on the power of connection between us. Once the bond between us is severed, there is no point of return. It is not far-fetched to expect that many communities will soon reach such a precarious situation that congregations will disappear entirely.

The egoistic nature of human beings continues to increase, evoking greater forces of separation. Therefore, a gradual disregard for the sages of the generation and the elders of the tribe is also unfolding. Nothing holds the community together anymore and nothing encloses it from the outside.

Not only is the ego accelerating the dissolution of the community, but it is also serving as a call to action. In today’s global world we must communicate on a higher level, above time and place, on a level in which we feel like one global community. The means are available today through the Internet to connect the Jews across the globe, however, this also is an intermediate stage in the transition to a spiritual community, to the feeling of a common connection at the center of which is the Creator—the power behind the connection—who unites us all.

Not only Jews need to unite, eventually, the entire human race will have to come together. Jews have a duty to be the first, to lead the way and act as a light to the nations.

In my estimation, it will take humanity about twenty years to reach a huge climax in which the community will crumble; people will find no meaning in their lives and finally seek true meaning. Finding answers to that spiritual quest will lead us to establish a global spiritual community—a nucleus starting from the Jews and connecting together every person in the world into one tight-knit global community.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Ever-Complacent People”

In his book Israel, the Ever-Dying People, American thinker Simon Rawidowicz writes, “There was hardly a generation in the Diaspora that did not consider itself the final link in Israel’s chain.” Very poignant. At the same time, this statement is just as true: There was hardly a generation that was not complacent until it was too late. Why do we never learn? Why do we always think, “It’s just temporary; it’ll pass”? It never passes, and it never will pass until we realize the meaning of being Jewish and the onus we must carry even if against our will.

On October 25, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) released its annual State of Antisemitism in America report. AJC Managing Director of Public Affairs, Avi Mayer, writes that 90% of American Jews acknowledge that antisemitism is either a very serious problem or somewhat of a problem, and 82% of Jews think it has intensified over the past five years. The report also found that one in four Jews has been a victim of an antisemitic incident in the previous year alone.

What are American Jews doing about the situation? They are doing what Jews have always done—they adapt. According to the report, “Over the past year, many American Jews have changed their behavior, limiting their activities and concealing their Jewishness due to concerns about antisemitism.” Four out of ten American Jews have “avoided posting content online that would reveal their Jewishness or their views on Jewish issues, refrained from publicly wearing, carrying, or displaying items that might enable others to identify them as Jewish, or avoided certain places, events, or situations out of concern for their safety.”

However, keeping a low profile until the storm passes will not help. It never did, and it never will. It did not help us in Spain before the expulsion, it did not help us in Nazi Germany before the Holocaust, and it will not help us in America.

We could suggest that American Jews move to Israel. Antisemites in America certainly would not object to the idea, and Israel has always tried to cajole American Jews into making Aliyah [immigration to Israel]. But American Jews do not see Israel as their home. Just as German Jews saw Germany as their homeland and Berlin as their capital, American Jews see America as their homeland and Washington D.C. as their capital. In the near future, they are about to find out that most non-Jewish Americans do not agree with them on this.

There is a solution to antisemitism, but Jews hate the thought of it. This is why they have never used it until it was too late. In Nazi Germany, with the Nazis making every effort to make them leave for Palestine, only a trickle of German Jewry did so. By 1938, when many Jews realized that they had better leave or else… the British authorities, who had control over Palestine, had shut the doors, and the rest of the world denied their entry using multiple pretexts.

For this reason, I hope that this time, American Jewry will hear and spare itself the bitter fate: The solution to Jew-hatred is Jewish unity. Jews must unite not in order to tackle antisemitism, but to set an example of unity, and for no other reason.

It is not a coincidence that we had articulated for the world the ultimate expression of altruism: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is not a coincidence that we had outlined the basic principles of social welfare, and advocated for caring for others and compassion. It is also not a coincidence that the father of our nation, Abraham, was known not as a great conqueror, but as a man of mercy, who had built a nation through hospitality and kindness. And finally, it is not a coincidence that we coined the term “mutual responsibility,” the basis of a balanced and sustainable persistence of any society.

From the perspective of the nations of the world, it is not a coincidence that despite our great ingenuity and countless contributions in every area of human engagement, the world feels no gratitude toward us. It is not a coincidence that Jews are always accused of evildoing, even though such accusations almost never have anything to do with reality.

All those things are not coincidences because the world expects only one thing from the Jews: to be a role model of mercy, like their father, Abraham. When Jews unite and rise above all their differences, the world venerates them for their example and comes to learn from them. When they are divided, the world despises them, accuses them of every possible wrongdoing, and wants to see them gone.

This is the truth that we have always refused to acknowledge. However, until we acknowledge and accept it, the world will not accept us.

Below are two books and a webpage I have written, elaborating on the root cause of the most ancient hatred and how to dissolve it.

1. The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism

2. Like a Bundle of Reeds: why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour

3. Why Do People Hate Jews?
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My new article on Linkedin “Haiti – a Testimony to Humanity’s Apathy”

Nearly three months ago, on August 14, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. According to UN official data, more than 2,200 people died from the earthquake itself, more than 12,000 were injured, while 65 health facilities were damaged or destroyed. Two days later, tropical storm Grace unleashed torrential rains on the devastated island.

When Grace left, Haiti, the poorest country in Latin and Central America, and one of the poorest in the world, was left to fend for itself. The world quickly moved on to talk about more “important” crises to the West, such as forest fires and flash floods, from which hardly anyone died and the damages are mainly to property.

Haiti, on the other hand, is still reeling and grieving. It has no means to recover. It is left there as a testimony to humanity’s apathy.

The problem is that we are not raised to care. We look at other people and see that they have a different skin color, different customs, a different mentality, and we cannot sympathize with them because of it. It shouldn’t be this way, but this is how we are brought up.

As a result, news channels may report disasters that occur outside of Europe or the US, but covering relief efforts, harnessing the world’s sympathy, telling the stories of the victims the way it’s done after every hurricane or forest fire, these are far beyond the interest of the West. There is simply no interest in the lives of people from a different culture.

These disasters are a wake-up call. They are here precisely in order to awaken empathy in us, and we don’t hear the call. The more we ignore our fellow human beings, who are suffering from natural, and even worse, from manmade catastrophes, the more severe these events will become, until we learn.

Whether we feel it or not, whether we want to or not, humanity is one organism. We are all connected. When we are indifferent, careless, or even cruel toward one part of humanity, all of humanity suffers, including the powerful who are careless. In today’s world, there is no getting away from interconnectedness.

Our apathy reminds me of an allegory I once read. The Jerusalem Talmud (Nedarim, 9:4) describes people’s ignorance of their interconnectedness with a clever allegory: “[Suppose] one is cutting meat, and the knife descends into his hand; would he consider avenging his hand and cutting his other hand for cutting the first? So is this matter … the rule is that one does not take revenge against one’s neighbor, for it is as though he is taking revenge against his own body.”

Eventually, we will have to become considerate and caring toward each other. We are dependent on each other and there is nothing we can do about it.

Just as the pandemic has taught us that infection anywhere is infection everywhere, so it is with all our sorrows and joys. The faster we become aware of it and conduct ourselves accordingly, the sooner we will turn humanity’s negative trajectory around. The more we stall, the worse will be nature’s “persuasion efforts” until we understand.
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My new article on Linkedin “A Two-Step Plan for Reconciliation with the Arab World”

I heard that some Israelis are happy about the feud between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia and that the latter, along with some of its allies from the Gulf, have called back their ambassadors from Beirut. I can understand the feelings of those Israelis. After all, Lebanon has played host to Hezbollah for decades, and Lebanese territories have long become a “launching pad” for operations against Israel. Yet, I think that in the long run, our relationship with Lebanon, and with the Arab world in general, depends more on the relationships among ourselves than on our relationships with other nations.

The first step in achieving peace with the Arab world is achieving peace among the Jews within Israel. Right now, we are so divided that we have become a mockery in the eyes of the entire world, not only the Arab world. How can a nation that never stops fighting within itself make peace with other nations? Clearly, it can’t.

Therefore, to win the Arab world’s respect and to be regarded as an entity to be reckoned with, we must become a strong, uniform nation.

After we achieve step one, step two will be much easier. Among Israelis, Arabs are often referred to as “cousins.” It is not a cynical or derogatory term at all. Jews never forget that the two religions have the same father, and that Isaac and Ishmael were brothers. Abraham loved both of them, and so should we, their descendants, love each other like family.

Therefore, once we, Jews, make peace among the siblings, we should stretch out our hand in peace and open our hearts to our kin.

This step will entail a process of rapprochement where we come to know each other better and better. We will get to know each other’s culture, language, and customs, to the point where we truly feel as equal members of a single family.

For the time being, we clearly need military protection against those trying to destroy us. But we should not rely on weapons, but on closeness of the hearts. If we focus on our internal unity first, and immediately following, turn to our Arab neighbors in peace, I have no doubt the two nations will become a role model for the world to follow.

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My new article on Linkedin “A Jewish Lobby at the Highest Level”

Two critical issues are currently on the table of the Biden Administration. Besides the intention of reopening a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinian affairs which would divide Israel’s capital, the reopening of the PLO mission in Washington is also at stake. Israel cannot afford to fall asleep in the face of these matters and wait for a sunny day.

The progressive sector within the Democratic Party is flexing their political muscle to bring these aspirations about. Where are the American Jews in the whole story? Unfortunately, they are outside the decision making process; they do not have much power to resist this situation. For years, the Jewish lobby and its influence on the American administrations has been in steady decline. This is a subject no one is willing to address, either to avoid provoking fear, or in some cases, because of a lack of interest in strengthening the lobby anew.

Moreover, many American Jews have aligned with the Left-leaning progressive agenda of the Democratic Party which legitimizes foreign affair decisions “for the sake of Israel,” even if in reality they are actually harmful to the Jewish state.

Some of them may be unaware of the dangerous situation they are putting us in here, while most take these positions quite intentionally. How can such actions be explained? Because, what need do they have for power or influence if the State of Israel is like a bone in their throat to begin with? Israel is for them an ideal they do not relate to as Jews, nor to its policies which are a burden to them. If so, it is only natural to desire to get rid of such a heavy weight instead of fighting for a cause that is not considered their own.

Israeli representatives may try to court members of the anti-Israel Democratic wing, tempted by their beautiful facade, when in fact they are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

So, if we in Israel do not remain attentive and keep a close guard of our nation, the outcome will be exactly as our sages warned, “Zionism will be cancelled altogether… and its residents are destined to endure much suffering. Undoubtedly, either they or their children will gradually leave the country, and only an insignificant number will remain, which will ultimately be swallowed among the Arabs.” (The Last Generation, Yehuda Ashlag)

Before the U.S. election I spoke a lot and openly about the dangers that lie within the Democratic Party, and now we see them actually materializing. It could easily become the preamble to increasing pressure against Israel more intense than during Obama’s term in office.

It is not too late to change our fate and correct the situation. The question is whether there is anyone who is willing to do it. This requires people who, on the one hand, feel the severity of the situation and the dangers involved, and on the other hand, are able to recognize that the rescue will come through the unification of the nation of Israel.

Where are those willing to do all in their power to bring us together as a society to the imperative goal? Where are the leaders who will encourage us to shorten the distance between us and implement the premise, “love your neighbor as yourself?” In the meantime, there are only public complaints about the state of affairs but complaints will never be enough to bring the boat through stormy seas to a safe port.

We need to realize that our greatest danger does not come from external forces. Those hostile forces we perceive are just a reflection of our laziness to take our destiny into our own hands. We wreak havoc upon ourselves, unaware of our potential inner strength which is the highest Jewish lobby we could ever achieve. As it is written, “The genuine movement of the Israeli soul at its grandest is expressed only by its sacred, eternal force, which flaws within its spirit… a nation that stands as a light unto nations, as redemption and salvation to the entire world for its own specific purpose, and for the global purposes, which are interlinked.” (Letters of the RAAIAH, Rav Kook)
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My new article on Linkedin “The Climate Waits for No One”

Thirty years ago, a friend of mine got into the green energy business and tried to pull me into it. I asked him what for, it isn’t serious. He said, “You have no idea how much money is being poured into it. Everyone wants in on it, politicians, financiers, businesspeople, the lot.” He was right, of course. Yet, no one wants to promote green energy in order to save the planet, but only to swell up their pockets even more. The declarations, therefore, remain in the assembly hall where they are stated, necessary actions are ignored, and the climate waits for no one: It will keep deteriorating.

This week in Glasgow, Scotland, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference is taking place. Officially, it aims to “bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.” In reality, the countries plan to do the exact opposite. This year’s UN Production Gap Report, which tracks the discrepancy between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and actual global production levels, states the following: “Despite increased climate ambitions and net-zero commitments, governments still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than what would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C [2.7°F].”

Energy sources and technologies do change, but not according to what is best for the planet. It changes according to the interests of politicians and money moguls, and it never benefits the planet or the majority of its inhabitants, namely all of us.

Since the climate waits for no one, eventually, it will catch up with us. Earth is a closed system, and in a closed system, there are consequences to exploitation: it hurts the abuser as well as the abused.

I don’t know when or at what cost, but eventually, we will all have to realize that we cannot take beyond what we need. We cannot keep exploiting Earth selfishly and thoughtlessly because it will turn against us.

Earth is like a submarine: there is only so much oxygen on board. If some crew members take more than their quota, the rest will not have enough, they will die, and the submarine will sink along with those who exceeded their quota.

We need constant reminders that we are one system, and we are all dependent on each other. We need to genuinely grasp that selfishness hurts us just as being exploitative hurts others. If we constantly remind ourselves that we are interdependent, we will behave with more consideration, and we will avoid the punitive impact of climate change.

The other option is to keep working as the UN’s Production Gap Report states that we are planning to work, and suffer nature’s unforgiving response. I hope we wise up in time because everyone will pay the price for this mistake.

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