My new article on Linkedin “It is the Turn for Jews in America”

After a decade in Silicon Valley in the United States, Maya Greenberg returned for a short homeland visit to Israel. Maya is a longtime student and active in spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, someone who helped me a lot in organizing one of the lecture tours I gave across America in 2014 to warn about widespread antisemitism.

Today, mid-2021, I no longer have to warn of the impending danger of hatred against Jews. It is rampant everywhere, from colleges across the US to social media. The voices of hatred toward the Jewish state and toward Jews in general resonate loudly and hostilely.

Like many Israelis living in America, Maya also learned that as soon as Americans hear in the news or read about another Israeli military operation, it immediately ignites a heated debate about the role and tactics of the Jewish state and its right to self-defense. Maya often reluctantly stands at the forefront of information, becoming an ambassador who feels obligated to answer every question that arises.

We talked this morning, and I advised her—and all Israelis in America—to divide their answer into two parts: what they should answer to those around them, and what they should answer to themselves. The message to each part is completely different.

What the Israelis try to say and explain to the Americans will not really give them a satisfying answer. Maybe at best it will only soften their perception until the next controversy. On the other hand, what the Israelis will say to themselves should be a scrutiny of the highest importance because the fundamental change that the dire situation requires stems from internalization of the bond between the Israelis and the Jews in general.

God forbid, I do not belittle anyone who is not a Jew. Their role is simply different: to awaken Jews to unite. Therefore, the real work to change the current predicaments lies on Jewish shoulders.

As Baal HaSulam, the greatest Kabbalist of the twentieth century, wrote, “Bear in mind that in everything there is internality and externality. In the world in general, Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are considered the internality of the world, and the seventy nations are considered the externality of the world.” (“Introduction to The Book of Zohar”).

In other words, all of humanity is connected in one system of communication, in which Israel is the innermost part, the essence. The people of Israel are like a small world that reflects all of humanity within it. Because of this, Israel is responsible for everything that happens in the world for better or worse.

As Jews, it surprises us over and over again that subconsciously the world feels more than we do that the key to all of humanity’s problems is in our hands. This fact is the origin of the natural, instinctive hatred toward the Jews and the cause for the great pressure on Israel to accept its responsibility to fulfill its role. The fate of the world will be decided by Israel.

If we, Jews, were fully aware of our internal function within the universal network of communication, if we would rise above our egoistic nature, then humanity would also rise to the top of its potential and flourish over separation and hatred. Then the nations of the world would honor Israel, as it is written, “Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my standard to the peoples: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.” (Isaiah 49, 22)

On the other hand, if the Jews in America—locals or Israeli expatriates—who are the focus of hatred, abandon their role and let their hearts be washed away by the currents of life and become indifferent to their role to unite, then the pressure of antisemitism will increase, the torments will intensify, and the next blow will be only a matter of time.

Maya paled at what I said. But unfortunately, just as in every period throughout history, bloodshed and bloody events have knocked on the door of Jewish communities around the world; now it is America’s turn.

The Jews in America feel the future is uncertain and there is a reason for that. They are disconnected from their roots, self-centered, only concerned about where to live in peace and comfort under the radar, even trying to shake off their link to Israel. Their connection to Judaism is very often relegated to making three visits to the synagogue per year, showing off their expensive Menorah at home, and paying their annual dues to their Jewish congregation.

The very detachment from the spirit of unity among Jews leads me to expect a worrisome future for Jews in America, a situation that could deteriorate as in those dark days in Nazi Germany where soldiers would roam the streets looking for Jews to pick up and haul to a train station and from there to a local concentration camp.

I expressed this concern at the annual conference of the Israel American Council (IAC) which was celebrated in Washington, DC in 2014. There, too, I tried to explain the many similarities between the conditions that motivated Germany to carry out the Holocaust and the current situation in the United States, which pose a great danger to Jews. I repeat my concerns again here and now.

Unlike during the Holocaust, American Jews still have a chance to be saved. Their unity would eliminate all evil and the antisemitic storm would subside.

Both American Jews and Israelis in America must understand the magnitude of the danger and solidify their connection as a united people who share the feeling of being one society in which a unique force binds them together. American Jews and Israelis in America must support each other, be guarantors for each other, because only reciprocity and mutual care will save them from a gloomy and dire fate. It is not too late to start, but the time to start is now.
[283547]

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Today, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “American Jewry and Jewish Israelis in America – Worlds Apart”

An Israeli student of mine, who has been living in Silicon Valley for quite some time, described the situation between American Jews and Jewish Israelis living in the US in the following words: “As an Israeli, I feel that I have no connection to American Jews. I am in a community of Israelis, we speak Hebrew, live the Israeli culture, the news in Israel … and it feels like a completely different nation.

I think it is an accurate depiction: These are two different nations, two different nations with a similar history and similar names, but they have grown so distant that they are worlds apart.

In fact, this is how it should be. We came from the various nations that occupied ancient Babylon and joined into a single nation when we agreed with Abraham’s teaching that mercy and friendship were the values to live by. Later, under Moses, we pledged to unite “as one man with one heart.” We fought to maintain and solidify our unity for centuries, but eventually, we succumbed to the hatred that prevailed among us before we first came to Abraham, and this is where we stand today.

While we were united, the nations saw that peace was possible, that there could even be love among sworn enemies, and Israel became a role model nation, a pilot society, a miniature implementation of world peace. Later, when we failed, we failed the whole world, and it hates us for it.

Now, it waits for us to reinstate the covenant between us and become a role model nation once again. It won’t forgive us for not trying, and it won’t forget our debt to humanity. It doesn’t care that American Jews hate Israelis who come to live there. If there is no unity among Jews, the world hates them, since they dim all hope of peace and unity. If they unite, they are what they were meant to be, “a light unto nations,” and the world gives them its full support.

The Jewish nation must bring about shalom [peace], from the word “shlemut” [wholeness], the wholeness of all of humanity above all differences. Antisemitism is the world’s way of telling us off, admonishing us for not trying to unite. If Jews in America, from every faction and denomination, bridge the rifts between them, their future will be bright and beautiful. If they do not, they can already see where this is going.

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Today, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “The Future of Israelis Living in the US”

An Israeli student of mine who is living in the US approached me with some questions regarding the future of Jews in the US, and specifically that of Israelis living in the Land of Unlimited Opportunities. The student said that Israeli Jews are feeling uncertain and described the disconnection between Israelis living in the US and Jews who were born there. The student also described a sudden burst of support for the State of Israel among Israelis living abroad following Operation Guardian of the Walls.

Indeed, the situation of American Jewry is becoming increasingly uncomfortable. The same goes for Israelis living there, if not more so. Because Israelis still feel connected to Israel, either through family ties or because it is where they grew up, they cannot cut it off from their system altogether. However, by and large, Israelis living in America want the least connection they can have with Israel and with Judaism. This may be a conscious or unconscious state of mind, but this is where the majority of Israeli Jews living in the US stand.

There is a very interesting process happening here. A new reality is forming, and as always, the Jews are at the heart of it. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent. The Covid-19 pandemic is just one example of it. Another example is the recent global spike in prices of transportation, staple foods, and utilities. Evidently, we have entered a phase in the evolution of humanity where what affects one part of humanity affects all parts of it.

If we want to resolve today’s crises, we have to think in terms of what’s good for humanity rather than what’s good for me, my city, or my country. Whether we like it or not, mutual responsibility is the call of the hour, and Jews, as the ones who first conceived this notion, are expected to lead it even if no one is verbally expressing this request. Jews are not requested to take over the world, but rather lead by example: We need to show that we are responsible for one another, and the rest of the world will learn from our example, just as it did in the days of the second Temple when non-Jews would come to Jerusalem to witness the unity of the Jews during the festivals of pilgrimage.

According to the book Sifrey Devarim (Item 354), “Nations and kings would say, ‘Since we have troubled ourselves and came, let us see the merchandise of the Jews.’ They would go to Jerusalem and see the Jews eating together and praying together, and since among the nations, the God of one is not the God of another, and one’s food is not another’s food, they would say, ‘It is befitting to cling only to this nation.’”

In his essay “About the Laws and Their Details,” philosopher Philo of Alexandria offered a beautiful depiction of the unity of the Jews that was so appealing to the nations: “Thousands of people from thousands of cities—some by land and some by sea, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south—would come each festival to the Temple as if to a common shelter, a safe haven protected from the storms of life. …With hearts filled with good hopes … they made friendships with people they had not met before, and in the merging of the hearts … they would find the ultimate proof of unity.”

These days, Israeli Jews are standing up to defend Israel, but I don’t feel that it is done for the right reasons. Unity should not be a step Jews take in response to antisemitism; it should be the step Jews take in order to prevent antisemitism altogether, at first, and ultimately because by this they are serving as a role model, just as our ancestors did in antiquity, before we gave in to unfounded hatred among us.

I am not optimistic that Israeli Jews in America will accept what I am writing here, but perhaps in a few years, when the pressure on them mounts, they will find them pertinent. In the past, we did not unite in the face of antisemitism, or if we did, we did too late. I hope that this time, we will be more attentive to the message and will wake up to the call for unity before another heartbreak lands on our nation.

We cannot defeat our enemies with arms, but only with our spirit. When we raise our connection to the level of mutual responsibility and solidarity, we will deter all the negative forces, and even our enemies will become our friends.

For more on this topic, refer to the books Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Today, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “Six Days in June that Changed Israel for Good”

Israel’s Defence Minister Dayan, Rabin and Commander Narkis walk through the Lion’s Gate into Jerusalem’s Old City during the Middle East War

This week, fifty-four years ago, the Six-Day War broke out. Leading to it was a weeks-long period of stress and anxiety in Israel, knowing that a war was about to break out, and that the intent of the enemy armies was to wipe the country off the map, as they had intended to do in 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence. But fifty-four years ago, six days after the war broke out, a truce was declared and Israel found itself several times bigger than it was six days prior, and in control of all of Sinai, the Golan Heights, all of Jerusalem, and the West Bank.

At first, Israelis were ecstatic with relief. But soon, hubris settled in, conceit began to contaminate the nation, and division plagued the Israeli society. Since then, Israel has not been the same. The Six-Day War changed Israel for good, but for the worse, for the far worse. The prize for defeating the armies of the enemies hands down on all fronts intoxicated us and turned us into arrogant fools. Instead of using the victory to show the world what Israel was really for, we bragged that Jews, too, could be strong.

The world does not need strong Jews; it needs spiritual leadership, guidance toward love of others, as our own Torah teaches. The world has plenty of strong nations, but none that can bring unity to the family of nations. This is what it expects from the Jews. And since Jews began to boast in their military power instead of in their solidarity, instead of supporting the Jewish state, the world shifted its support to the Palestinians.

Our sages have always connected the prosperity and success of our nation with unity, and our failures with division. The book Masechet Derech Eretz Zutah (chap. 9), for example, writes the following about the power of unity: “Thus would Rabbi Eleazar ha-Kappar say, ‘Love peace, and loathe division. Great is the peace, for even when Israel practice idol-worship and there is peace among them, the Creator says, ‘I wish not to touch [harm] them.’’” However, “If there is division among them,” continues the book, “what is it said about them? ‘Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt (Hosea 10:2).’”

Even before the establishment of the State of Israel, the great kabbalist and thinker Rav Yehuda Ashlag, aka Baal HaSulam, wrote in an essay titled “The Freedom”: “The matter of social unity … can be the source of every joy … and the separation between them is the source of every calamity and misfortune.”

Six years after the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur [aka October] War broke out and caught us completely off guard. We managed to pull through it and ward off the invaders, but we paid heavily for our hubris and complacency. Yet, even then, we didn’t learn the lesson. Since then, each time Israel faced a military campaign, we pulled together and won. But each time, our unity diminished. In the last campaign, Operation Guardian of the Walls, our unity has completely eroded.

We decry our growing division in the face of intensifying antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, yet fail to understand that it is precisely our division that is intensifying the antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment.

The sweet nectar of a sense of omnipotence is a poison that is destroying our society. We have to understand that our military strength buys us time, but it will not hold out forever. Our unity is our real weapon since it turns our enemies into friends and unites the whole world around us, rather than against us.

Henry Ford, a rabid antisemite and one of Hitler’s role models, wrote surprisingly positive and hopeful words about Jews in his nefarious book, The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem: “The whole prophetic purpose, with reference to Israel, seems to have been the moral enlightenment of the world through its agency.” In another place, he writes, “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems on paper, would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.” Indeed, as the book Maor VaShemesh writes, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them.”
[283462]

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Today, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “Why Blows Come in Waves”

Sooner or later, the world will recover from the blow of Covid-19. But if one thing is clear, it is that another version of Covid, another medical crisis, or a different kind of crisis, is soon to follow. Even before the onset of Covid-19, on August 13, 2018, WHO virologist Dr. Belinda Herring said, “The next pandemic could be around the corner.” More recently, on March 2, 2021, the magazine Infection Control Today published an article titled “Ready for the Next Pandemic? (Spoiler Alert: It’s Coming).” You can guess what it’s about.

For the most part, however, blows don’t come in clusters, but in waves, or one at a time, and for a good reason. Just as children learn through their parents’ discipline, humanity learns through nature’s discipline. Therefore, after nature disciplines us, it usually gives us time to rest, recover, but mainly—to think. Covid-19 is no exception. It is another blow in a series of worsening blows that will continue to worsen the more we ignore the lesson that nature is trying to teach. If previously, blows had a more local tone, Covid is unique in that it is truly global; no one is untouchable, and everyone is afraid.

By handing humanity this global jolt, nature doesn’t only show us who is the boss, but also that we are dependent on each other. And if we are dependent on each other, we have to help each other, take care of each other, and make sure everyone gets what they need. Otherwise, there will be more global blows. It has become a very simple calculation.

When the pancreas becomes dysfunctional, for example, the problem is not endemic to the pancreas; it spreads throughout the body and becomes diabetes. Today, nature is showing us that we are all vital organs. Therefore, for our own sake, we must be considerate and caring about everyone.

Although, as we said, the only way to learn it is through nature’s discipline, we can determine how fast we learn the lesson and progress to a better life for everyone. The more we stall, the tougher will be nature’s lessons.

We needn’t do anything specific; it is more about our attitude toward each other. Just as you don’t teach a mother what to do when she has a baby, but her love tells her what she needs to do and what she still needs to learn, when we develop care for one another, our new attitude will determine our behavior toward each other. Therefore, our focus should be on developing mutual care and consideration in order to avoid the next pandemic or the next big crisis, which is, as we just read, around the corner.

Filed under: Coronavirus, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “Our Own Worst Enemy”

Two things happened this week, which pertain to past wars: We commemorated the 54th anniversary of the Six-Day War in 1967, and new documents were released, which portray the hubris of decision makers leading to the Yom Kippur War (aka October War) in 1973. In the military sense, the Six-Day War was a surprisingly easy and sweeping victory, while the Yom Kippur War was a victory achieved at a great cost mainly because of the hubris that resulted from the previous campaign’s overwhelming success. In between the two campaigns was a prolonged war of attrition that regrettably did not abate our overconfidence.

There are important lessons to learn from the wars of the past, but there is one lesson that far outweighs all the others: It is impossible to win a war using only military means. An army can buy time, but the only way to win a war is to win it internally. In other words, while we won on the battlefield, we lost the war against ourselves. Since the Six-Day War, we have become a divided society. Conceit, vanity, and hatred of others have pervaded our nation and a sense of entitlement took over the gratitude for the return from a two-thousand years long exile.

And worst of all, even though we did not manage to unite the nation before the Six-Day war, after our great victory, we shunned unity even more. We have completely abandoned our vocation to be a virtuous people, a light unto nations that serves as a role model of love of others, that cultivates “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Instead of preaching for unity, as did Abraham, Moses, and the rest of the founders of our nation, we have come to pride ourselves in our military, technological, and industrial abilities. And because we have abandoned our vocation, the nations have abandoned us.

As long as we have external enemies who wish to wipe us off the face of the Earth, we must fight for our lives, and win! However, we mustn’t forget that at the end of the day, we are our own worst enemy. As soon as we connect among ourselves, our enemies will connect with us.

In the 1950s, the great kabbalist and thinker Rav Yehuda Ashlag, wrote that a “return such as today’s,” namely without unity, “does not impress the nations whatsoever, and we must fear lest they will sell Israel’s independence for their needs.” Evidently, Ashlag was right. Today, no country supports the Jewish state. We may tell ourselves that it is because we cannot explain our position properly, but in truth, it makes no difference what we say as long as we are spewing hatred of each other. The world simply does not want us around if we hate one another because in such a state, we are not a role model nation but the opposite, and the world does not want us if we set a bad example.

The people of Israel unite the world whether we are united or not. However, if we unite, the world will unite around us. If we divide and hate one another, the world will unite against us.
[283494]

Filed under: Israel Today, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “A Chance to Move toward Connection”

I was not in favor of changing the government, but once it happened, we have to see it as an opportunity to review the current situation and begin to advance toward connection. Connection can happen only when all the parties involved want to connect. There are two steps for creating connection: 1. The parties must want to connect, and 2. They must do what needs to be done in order to connect.

The first step is actually the hardest. It requires reviewing where we are, realizing how disconnected we are, and deciding that the hatred spewing from every faction of the nation toward every rival faction is unacceptable. In other words, we have to shift from blaming others for our woes to admitting that our own hatred does not contribute to mending the situation. If everyone participates in this process, this, in itself, will begin to change things for the better. However, it will lead us to a very difficult conclusion: We cannot implement step 2. We are simply unable to connect to the other side, the one we think is responsible for all our problems. We cannot stop hating.

Yet, our sense of helplessness is exactly what we need; this is the beginning of step 2. At this point, we realize that we cannot overcome our hatred because it is rooted in our psyche; it is our very nature, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). We realize that this is not some Biblical adage; it is a fact of life; it is who we are!

The beauty about this process is that at that moment of crisis, when we feel as though we aren’t doing anything to connect nor can we do anything about it because our hatred is stronger than us, this is all that is required—to want connection to happen and to realize that we cannot make it happen. When all of us, or at least enough of us, want it badly enough, it will happen seemingly by itself; our hearts will open toward each other and a new feeling will come in.

We think that we determine reality through actions, but we actually determine it through our desires. When we want others’ harm, we create an abysmal world. When we want others’ joy, we engender a beautiful world. When we hate but want to love, we change ourselves from enemies to lovers, and the world around us changes with us.

Therefore, all we need is to plant in our minds and hearts the importance of developing good connections, friendship, solidarity, or any other positive emotion you can think of, and develop it throughout society, covering all factions of the country. When it becomes important enough for us to feel these feelings, we will want to truly feel them. And when we truly want it, it will happen.

Filed under: New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “Israel and the People of Israel, Where to?”

On May 10, 2021, Operation Guardian of the Walls began. For twelve straight days, rockets traumatized Israeli citizens. As the Arab-Israeli conflict was reignited, an uprising of Israeli Arabs planted fear in the hearts of Israeli Jews, antisemitism around the world intensified, and the hostility of the international community toward the State of Israel exploded. Yet, while the State of Israel, and the Jewish people as a whole, are facing a perfect storm, large portions of the nation are oblivious to the existential danger. To understand how we’ve come to the predicament that we are in, we must look back not only at our own history, but also at the history of humanity and how the two entwine.

Behind all the vicissitudes and upheavals in the annals of humanity stands one and only engine: egoism. Over the eons, it evolved and morphed and grew into a crazed, insatiable ruler that is governing our governors, defining our social connections, and derailing humanity into a chasm. At the end of the day, we have no other problem other than our own egoism. If we solve this, then we have solved most other problems.

There have been several tipping points in the evolution of human egoism. The first such point came roughly 3,800 years ago in the Fertile Crescent at the time when the Babylonian Empire was at its peak. Over a relatively short period of time, the social calm and easy living that characterized the lives of the people who resided between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, had become tainted with ill-will and belligerence.

The disintegration of society prompted one man to ask why it was happening, and that man became one of the most significant individuals in the history of humankind: Abraham. When Abraham looked into why people were growing hostile toward each other, he realized that it stemmed from increasing self-absorption. To combat this disorder, he began to circulate the idea that people must nurture unity and solidarity to remedy their growing egoism. This is why to this day, Abraham symbolizes the attributes of mercy and kindness.

The Babylonian authorities were not keen on Abraham’s ideas. Eventually, they expelled the revolutionary rebel, who believed in love of others, along with those who adopted his ideas. As Abraham went westward, toward Canaan, his entourage grew as more and more people realized the benefit in choosing mutual responsibility and love of others over individuality and mutual hostility.

Abraham’s group endured countless tests to their commitment to each other and (mainly) to the idea of unity over hatred. Each test made them stronger and more united, until finally, after centuries of struggling for unity, their bond had become so strong that the group of foreigners had become a new nation in the world, unique in every sense, comprised of people who were unrelated physically, yet cemented together by the idea of unity itself.

Even after they engendered nationhood, the Israeli people kept alternating between internal division and complete solidarity. It is no coincidence that this nation, which experienced firsthand countless variations of connection and disconnection, gave to the world two of the most altruistic notions ever conceived: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18), and “That which you hate, do not do unto others” (Masechet Shabbat, 31a). Indeed, the Jews, who learned that “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21), also learned that the solution to hatred is not war, but to love others as ourselves.

Moreover, the ancient Jews learned that it is impossible to erase the evil inclination, that in fact, if we did not have it, we would have no incentive to forge unity. Therefore, King Solomon, the wisest of all men, succinctly concluded, “Hate stirs strife, but love will cover all crimes” (Prov. 10:12).

The great achievements of the Jews did not go unnoticed. During the period of the Second Temple, pundits and laypeople alike came to Jerusalem to learn from the Hebrews. Greek philosophers learned from the prophets, Ptolemy II King of Egypt summoned seventy sages to His capital Alexandria, where they taught him how to rule and translated their book (the Pentateuch) to Greek, and regular folk came to Jerusalem to witness “the ultimate proof of unity,” as philosopher Philo of Alexandria described it.

But our nation did not maintain its height. From the zenith of being a role model, a light unto nations, we plunged to the nadir of mutual hatred that generated two bloody civil wars. In the height of the first one, the Seleucid Empire destroyed the Temple and conquered Jerusalem, but was ultimately driven out by the Maccabees. In the second one, our hatred for each other sapped our strength and resilience, and the Romans conquered the land, destroyed the Temple, and exiled the nation.

Since then, we have been in exile. We have contributed to humanity countless technological innovations, revolutionary ideologies, illustrious artists, novelists, performers, and thinkers, yet the world has not forgiven our betrayal of our vocation: to be a role model of unity, a light unto nations. Henry Ford, while vilifying modern Judaism, added an advice to his readers: “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems on paper, would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

It is time we reroute. Here in Israel, and all over the world, Jews must reconnect with their legacy: love will cover all crimes, and unity transcends all divisions. The world is telling us through hatred that it does not want what we are giving it. It clearly does not thank us for our innovations, for our cultural contributions, for our financial wizardry or our political ingenuity.

If we want to win the world’s favor, we must give it what it wants and be once more the people of Israel: united above all divisions. In these fateful days to our people, we must remember how we came to be, what we were meant to achieve, and what we are destined to give to the world. Subsequently, we must make good on our oath to unite “as one man with one heart,” and become once more the nation that chooses mutual responsibility and love of others over individuality and mutual hostility.
[283295]

Filed under: Israel, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “The Change Israel Needs”

After four exhausting election campaigns in two years, Israel is on its way to swearing in a new government, the “government of change.” While the coming days are likely to be critical for this fragile connection, the trend of change is clear.

The people of Israel need visible miracles. By nature we are unable to exist together, not on this small piece of land in the Middle East, not if we were a country located in Europe, nor in isolation in the North Pole. We are a self-centered and stiff-necked people. Internal tensions in Israeli society have reached a boiling point in the past month and the situation is getting out of control.

I do not believe that the new government is capable of mending the rifts and bringing the State of Israel to a safe shore. It is headed by a collection of politicians who are all pulling in their own direction and are not willing to compromise in favor of a real unity of the people. They are willing to give up their egos and connect for now, but like a pack of wolves who set themselves the goal of devouring the doe, immediately after the hunt everyone will return to their own plot, disinclined to put aside their individual interests in favor of unity within Israeli society.

All the political upheaval currently taking place in Israel is an opportunity to change the perspective on the future of the nation. We have been given these circumstances to understand what kind of world we live in, who we are, the people of Israel, and what our role is on Earth.

The Jewish people have one particular value through which they will either rise or fall, and nothing will change it. That is the value of “love your neighbor as yourself.” As long as we strive for a cordial connection, for mutual guarantee, for increasing unity, then the wheels of society move forward to a good and benevolent destination. In an attempt to unite among ourselves, we evoke tremendous connecting power, a supreme force of love and bestowal that will cover all the differences regardless of how deep they are. Without it we would never succeed.

The connection between us does not depend on any government. Politics should not define who we are and more importantly what glues us together. From this period onward the focus is on connection within the people, a connection that must emanate from the grassroots level, from the people themselves.

And there is no need to hide or blur the separation and division. We must acknowledge that we are infected with egoism and ask ourselves even before the ego overcomes and rises over us in various forms: Why are we trapped in an endless cycle of crises? Why do we fail to rise above the societal fissures? Where has the feeling of shame gone?

Do we know how the whole world looks at us? For now the world is taking advantage of our Jewish skills and innovation, but at the same time hating us from the bottom of their hearts, laughing at us in the corridors of the international arena, and sharpening the arrows that will be hurled at us soon because they look at us divided and weak. In such precarious conditions, the more serious problem we need to address is our lack of vision for the future.

But this situation can be taken as an opportunity to reconnect to the method of connection inherited from our sages. Even a simple thought or effort to get closer to each other in our hearts and understanding that we have no other alternative to survive but to connect, will lead us to a meaningful development. We are given a golden opportunity to realize we are facing times of substantial transformation, but if we want that change to be a positive one, we should start within us, with a warmer relationship of mutual support between us.
[283288]

Filed under: Israel, New Publications - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “Time to Sober Up”

Israel is on the threshold of a new era. Until now, we have been celebrating like reckless children, slaves to our egos, and we have caused a lot of damage. That time is over. Operation Guardian of the Walls marked its end, and the emergence of a new government is the inauguration of a new period. It is time to sober up. In my eyes, this period should be about one thing: recognition of evil—the realization of all that is wrong with us and why we cannot stop the downhill slide.

We have no choice but to start building a new spirit in this country, a spirit of unity above all our differences, as it is written, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:26). With a spirit of unity and with a caring heart, we must begin to build a new country.

Our country is in a shameful state. The whole world is mocking us; we have become its laughingstock. Everyone hates us, no one wants to recognize our right to live here, and all they want is to use our intellect and technological abilities as much as they can, but no one wants to be near us.

This pitiful state can be a springboard for positive change, if we are brave enough to make it, but it can also escalate into complete alienation where the whole world unites against us. The only thing that can prevent this horrifying scenario is our own unity. If we unite, the world will unite around us; if we remain scornful toward each other, the world will unite against us.

A new government marks the beginning of the new state, but we mustn’t think that this state has anything to do with technology or policy. The beginning of the new state must show the beginning of unity among us. On the current trajectory, the world will turn against us so intensely that we will not want to stay here but we will have nowhere to run; we will not be permitted to go anywhere.

We have no choice but to start building a new spirit in this country, a spirit of unity above all our differences, as it is written, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:26). With a spirit of unity and with a caring heart, we must begin to build a new country.

Filed under: Israel Today, New Publications - No Comments →