My new article on Linkedin “No Victory without Conviction, and No Conviction without Unity”

The State of Israel is unique on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin. But perhaps we should talk about how Israel began, because if we know how it began, perhaps we’ll be able to understand the present complicated situation a little better. The idea of a contemporary Jewish state began in the late 19th century after pogroms against Jews in Russia, combined with socialist ideals that many secularized Jews embraced, led to the creation of Hovevey Zion [Lovers of Zion], the first Zionist movement. At the same time in France, the Dreyfus affair, when a Jewish French army officer was falsely accused of espionage for Germany, shook up a Jewish Viennese journalist named Theodor Herzl and drove him to realize that only a Jewish sovereign entity would save them from antisemitism.

We, Jews, are living in the State of Israel not for our own sake. It may appear as if we are, but it is only an illusion. We are here for the rest of the world, and unless we understand this and convince the world that this is so, we will not have the world’s support or the conviction in our being here.

As a result, at around the same time, Jews began to build and settle in Palestine, then an Ottoman province, as well as build political institutions for a future state. The Russians, who were virulently antisemitic, did not oppose the departure of the Jews from their midst, and the Ottomans had no interest in the forgotten province that was mostly marshland infested with mosquitoes and malaria.

During World War I, the British Empire conquered much of the Middle East, including all of Palestine. The British, influenced by Christian values, believed in the Biblical promise to the Jewish people. Encouraged by Jewish Cabinet members, the British government declared in 1917 that it “view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish psshheople” and to “use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.”

Despite ups and downs in the relationships between the Jewish settlement in Palestine and the British authorities, the national home gradually took shape. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they aggressively urged Jews to leave Germany and go to Palestine. They even allowed German Jews to take most of their wealth with them to Palestine, which was exceptional since Germany had strict currency rules forbidding export of German Marks so as not to devalue their currency. Indeed, much of the industry required for the establishment of an independent country, such as weapons, food producing factories, roadworks, and steel industry, was established thanks to Jewish money that poured out of Nazi Germany with Germany’s and Britain’s support.

Finally, in 1948, in the wake of the Holocaust, the League of Nations voted in favor of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, and the State of Israel was founded.

We therefore see that in the making of the Jewish state, other nations, and eventually the majority of the world, supported the establishment of the State of Israel. No other country has had such support; no other country was confirmed and recognized by the world’s key establishment even before it was established. In fact, even the victory of the Jews in the War of Independence that followed the League of Nations’ declaration was achieved with the active support of foreign countries who sold weapons and ammunition to the fledgling country, with a few even joining the armed forces.

However, for all the support that the Jewish state received in its infancy, it would not have won the war against the armies of six Arab countries—which were far better equipped and outnumbered the Jews by dozens of times—were its people not convinced that their cause was just and necessary.

Today, the situation is to the contrary. We have lost the support of the world, and, even worse, we have lost the conviction in our being here. In order to renew it, we must understand why we are really here.

We, Jews, are living in the State of Israel not for our own sake. It may appear as if we are, but it is only an illusion. We are here for the rest of the world, and unless we understand this and convince the world that this is so, we will not have the world’s support or the conviction in our being here.

Our only justification for being in the land of Israel is in being the people of Israel. In other words, in the deeper, spiritual sense of the word, the people of Israel are not those who call themselves Jews, but those who agree to unite “as one man with one heart,” just as our ancestors did after they came out of Egypt. They established the people of Israel, settled in the Land of Israel, and were expelled from it when they abandoned their unity and stopped being a spiritual people of Israel.

Therefore, our conviction depends on our union “as one man with one heart,” or at least on striving to reinstate this bonding. If we do this, we will become what we were tasked with being—“a light unto nations.” Our unity will set an example of rising above enmity and will “convince” the world that we “deserve” to be here. We do not need to prove anything or convince anyone. All we need to do is unite among ourselves.

I know that achieving unity among Jews is harder than any task, and that every Jew would prefer to unite with anyone but fellow Jews. No hatred is as deep as the hatred of the Jews for one another. This is precisely why when this hatred is resolved, all hatreds will be resolved.

It therefore turns out that unity is the basis of our success, a precondition for our conviction in being here, which in itself is a precondition for our victory. If we want peace, we must begin with peace with one another.
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For more on this topic, refer to the books The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour.

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My new article on Linkedin “Our Own Worst Enemies”

About a week ago, Amit Segal, a political commentator for Israel’s Channel 12 News, interviewed former Israeli ambassador in Washington Ron Dermer, who served from 2013 to 2021. To me, the most significant point that Dermer put across was that the support for the State of Israel among American Jews is dropping. Moreover, Dermer stressed that some of Israel’s most vociferous and venomous critics are Jews. When I look at those critics, it seems to me that they are not only hateful toward Israel, but that they take pride in their hatred.

Until we, Jews, overcome the hatred we feel for one another, there will be no healing for the hatred toward us. Throughout the centuries, we have been hated for every conceivable reason, as well as for some inconceivable ones. Hatred needs no reason or reasoning. The hatred for the State of Israel is only the latest in the series, but it is the same Jew-hatred that has tormented our people for centuries.

Indeed, the greatest antisemites are the Jews themselves. In antiquity, it was the Jew-turned-genocidal-anti-Semite Tiberius Julius Alexander who slaughtered 50,000 Jews in Alexandria, Egypt, and led the Roman army into the Temple through the Golden doors his own father had built. In the Middle-Ages, it was Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, a descendant of Jews, who initiated and oversaw the Spanish Inquisition that led to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In modern times, Jews have been acting against Jews on countless occasions, but perhaps one of the most notorious among them was Rabbi Stephen Wise, the leader of American Jewry during World War II, who helped President Roosevelt hamper the immigration of the Jews from Germany and Austria to the US while they could still save themselves from the persecution of the Nazi regime.

In order to understand how it is possible that Jews would hate Jews so vehemently, we need to understand that the root of the Jewish people is connection. We became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai when we agreed to unite “as one man with one heart,” and we lost our nationhood, along with our land, when we succumbed to unfounded hatred. Since then, and for the past two millennia, we have been in exile from each other, from our most basic tenet, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The State of Israel represents a chance we have been given to restore our nationhood, namely our unity. Jews who oppose the State of Israel are actually opposing unity. Perhaps subconsciously, they do not want to unite “as one man with one heart,” and certainly not to love their neighbors as themselves. They preach justice for others, but they exude hate for their own. In the name of equity to all, they promote prejudice and discrimination against their folk.

It will not help. Until we, Jews, overcome the hatred we feel for one another, there will be no healing for the hatred toward us. Throughout the centuries, we have been hated for every conceivable reason, as well as for some inconceivable ones. Hatred needs no reason or reasoning. The hatred for the State of Israel is only the latest in the series, but it is the same Jew-hatred that has tormented our people for centuries.

However, here, in sovereign Israel, we finally have a chance to reinstate our unity, and regain our nationhood. This is our duty to ourselves, and our onus toward the nations. Unity is the only way we can become “a light unto nations.” If we want to win the world’s favor, we must focus on internal unity. When we display hatred toward each other and sympathy for others, they see it as sycophancy, and no one likes a sycophant. I think it is time we started looking more at each other and built some inner strength, and less at others and what they might think. They will think about us what we will think about each other.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Rockets Expose the Myth of Coexistence”

The good thing about crises is that they expose the truth. After the Israeli War of Independence, Arabs remained in many places in Israel and became Israeli citizens. Over the years, it seemed as though we’ve learned to live together in peaceful coexistence. It was clear that there is no love between the two populations, and that the Israeli Arabs sympathized with the Palestinians in the West Bank, but they still chose to remain in Israel and lead a full civic life here, work alongside Israelis, trade with Israelis, and benefit from the amenities of a prosperous economy. For many years, it seemed as though the hatred that flared during the War of Independence had subsided thanks to the frequent contact with Israeli Jews. It was a myth. The rockets from Gaza and the riots in Jerusalem exposed the truth: Israeli Arabs identify themselves as Palestinians, and they only waited for a time when the Jewish society in Israel was divided and weak enough for them to expose that they, too, want the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea. For some reason, we enjoy lying to ourselves. We cannot afford this luxury; we should tell ourselves the truth: Nothing has changed since the establishment of the State of Israel. The Arabs, who supported the Nazis in World War II, are just as keen to destroy us now as they have always been.

“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which sparks of purity would flow onto the entire human race throughout the world,” to use the words of kabbalist Baal HaSulam. This purity, this unity above the ego, is the meaning of being “a light unto nations.”

We have to understand what Israel stands for in the world. The nation of Israel was “officiated” when descendants of strangers who were often hateful toward each other chose to unite above their enmity. By doing so, under the leadership of Abraham and his lineage, and finally under Moses, they set a precedent showing how people can overcome their egos and unite. “The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which sparks of purity would flow onto the entire human race throughout the world,” to use the words of kabbalist Baal HaSulam. This purity, this unity above the ego, is the meaning of being “a light unto nations.”

But since human nature is selfish to the core, or as the Torah puts it, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21), Israel’s method of achieving peace among sworn enemies has put it on a collision course with the rest of humanity. In truth, no division is greater or deeper than the division between Israel and the rest of the world, and no hatred is more intense. The chasm between Israel and the nations is a projection of the chasm between the nature of giving and unity and the nature of receiving and selfishness. There is no compromise; in the end, only one will remain.

When Israel are united, they are powerful enough to deter any enemy. In fact, a united people of Israel has no enemies since the light of unity it emits attracts the nations toward it to learn how they, too, can unite. The book Sifrey Devarim (Item 354) writes that in antiquity, in times when Israel were united, people from the nations of the world would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Alas, today we are anything but united. And when we are disunited, we are powerless, and the world feels our weakness and wishes to seize the moment and destroy us. When we are disconnected from our unity, our anchor of strength, the ego takes over the world and wishes to destroy its only enemy: the people of Israel. “Israel will be a holy congregation and one association, as one man with one heart. Then, when unity restores Israel as before, Satan will have no place in which to place error and external forces,” writes the book Shem MiShmuel. “When they are as one man with one heart,” it continues, “they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.” However, “If there is division among them,” writes the book Masechet Derech Eretz Zutah, “it is said about them (Hosea 10:2), ‘Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt.’”

This is what is happening today. We are suffering the consequences of the baseless hatred among us, and the whip is our neighbors. Our own disunity is the instigator of their violence, and the only fire extinguisher we have is our solidarity, our care for one another. If we can rise above the chasms in the Israeli society, we will prosper more than any other nation. If we do not, we will bear our guilt.

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My new article on Linkedin “Peace Begins Within”

Hundreds of rockets, fatalities, injuries, homes severely damaged, and entire cities shut down. Palestinians in the West Bank, and Israeli Arabs throughout the country, are beating and stoning Jewish civilians, attacking police officers, attempting to shoot and car-ram soldiers, and to lynch people in their cars. This is what Israel looks like today. We can complain about the biased and antisemitic reports that the press is showing, or that the Biden administration enables such things to happen and even tacitly supports them, but they aren’t the problem; they are the symptom. If at such a critical time, we allow ourselves to engage in infantile bickering and “I told you so” type arguments, then we are the ones encouraging the violence; we are the enablers.

How can we solve our security problems when we put sticks in each other’s wheels? Our own division is our haters’ fuel. If we want to be in a different place tomorrow, we have to start going there today. But when everyone points a blaming finger at others and says “Only I know the way,” then clearly no one knows the way and nothing will improve.

How can we solve our security problems when we put sticks in each other’s wheels? Our own division is our haters’ fuel. If we want to be in a different place tomorrow, we have to start going there today. But when everyone points a blaming finger at others and says “Only I know the way,” then clearly no one knows the way and nothing will improve.

The clash between Jews and Arabs is as old as our efforts to reestablish the Jewish State toward the end of the 19th century. But their level of activity against us depends on us, not on them. When we are united, they are quieter; when we are divided, they rise up with murderous intent.

If we want them to change, they need our positive influence. They need to feel that there is love within us, then they, and the whole world with them, will run to us. But when there is hatred among us, and hatred is what we project, then hatred is what we will get from them.

The book Kol Mevaser writes in this regard: “This is the mutual guarantee on which Moses worked so hard before his death: to unite the children of Israel. All of Israel are each other’s guarantors [responsible for one another], meaning that when all are together, they see only good.” Likewise, the book Bina LeItim asserts, “The foundation of the wickedness of evil Haman … is what he had begun to argue, ‘There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed,’ etc. He cast his filth saying that that nation deserves to be destroyed since separation rules among them, they are all full of strife and quarrel, and their hearts are far from one another. However, He put the healing before the blow [took preventing measures] … by hastening Israel to unite and … be one, as one man, and this is what saved them, as in the verse, ‘Go, gather together all the Jews.’”

Accordingly, when we unite, we will see the world changing its attitude toward us for the better. Moreover, we will see that our hopes for peace and for a good future are in our hands, and all we need to do is learn how to activate our secret power: internal unity. Indeed, peace begins within.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Pending Victory”

The Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II was a great victory. The recent 76th anniversary celebration of the important historic event should be also a reminder of the atrocities of the Nazi regime which acted with visceral hatred towards entire populations and especially against the Jews. Humanity overcame the rise of this pernicious force, but there is still work to be done to defeat the underlying origin of wars and conflicts: our egoistic human nature of self-benefit that causes division and hostility.

We must remember and relearn that we, the Jewish people, have a special role among the peoples of the Earth—to defeat the evil instinct that separates us from one another, and to strive tirelessly for connection that will defeat hatred forever. In this way we will fulfill our mission in the world and claim the most important victory ever: lasting peace and prosperity.

We have not learned much from history, neither the people of Israel nor all the nations. Even today Nazi parties can be found everywhere, and somehow we come to terms with the situation that antisemitism is rising again, albeit not as it was then. We should be clear that based on the growing manifestations of hatred against Jews, that there will be no problem in establishing a government today similar to what existed in Germany before. Such a scenario would not necessarily threaten just the people of Israel in the State of Israel, but Jews everywhere in the world.

Russia’s Victory Day was a huge success against the destructive Nazi regime, against the well-oiled war machine that came out of Germany, but the ideology itself was not defeated; it is alive and kicking. On May 9, 1945, the world received a beautiful lesson, that if many peoples stand together in unity against those who break all agreements and conventions of human civility—like the actions perpetrated by the German regime—then they will succeed. However, we must recognize that we are still lacking treatment of the root of the problem that is still in our midst.

The Russians are by nature a people capable of connecting in a time of need and of standing up against their haters. Hitler was a fool to try to go against them, and many advised him not to, but he thought he would succeed, that he would be the only one in history who could defeat them. He failed.

One and a half million Jews from Russia also joined the Red Army, enlisted in the struggle and fought against the Nazis. In spite of that, over the years the Russians became distinctly antisemitic. They learned from the Germans to hate Jews, and the growing hatred, together with the plethora of difficult living conditions in the former Soviet Union, built within the Jews a strong desire to leave Russia and move to Israel.

I myself was among those who immigrated—I remember well those times. It was the late 1960’s, from the Six Day War and onwards. It was already felt than that the emerging Jewish state had a solid foundation. It was felt that Israel could endure the rising challenges it faced through the determined mindset of soldiers and hard workers needed for the new nation to thrive. Many Russian Jews related to this vision and expressed a desire to join this cause and call to action. But even the establishment of the state of Israel did not help to remove the hatred that still clings within our hearts, and it continues to haunt us.

Russia’s Victory Day over Nazi Germany is a day worthy of respect for the heroes of that war who stood together and fought bravely. And at the same time, we need to ask a very important question: Why does the same hatred still stand with all its bitterness, and how do we begin to sweeten it from this day on?

We must remember and relearn that we, the Jewish people, have a special role among the peoples of the Earth—to defeat the evil instinct that separates us from one another, and to strive tirelessly for connection that will defeat hatred forever. In this way we will fulfill our mission in the world and claim the most important victory ever: lasting peace and prosperity.

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My new article on Linkedin “We Made the Bed, and We Will Lie in It”

Over the past year, I repeatedly said that if the leadership changes in Jerusalem and Washington, Israel will be in trouble. To some of my social media followers, it sounded as if I was making political commentary or promoted a political agenda, but this is not the case. I gain nothing from this or that individual being the head of the State of Israel, and certainly not from the identity of the president of the US. Rather, my one and only concern is the unity of the people of Israel, as a springboard for instigating the unity of all of humanity.

The implicit, and sometimes overt support of the Biden administration for these acts of violence are the most worrying, since they are the harbinger of far more vicious storms to come. In fact, the Palestinians are the least of our problems. Now that the US administration has opened the floodgates for antisemites around the world, we can expect onslaughts from Iran, Russia, Arab countries, and basically from everywhere. We will lose on all fronts and our situation will go from bad to worse.

The end goal for humanity is to be “as one man with one heart.” It may take us decades of unbearable torment, including a nuclear world war, to get there, or it may take a few short years and a pleasant and swift ride into a society whose members care about each other and are committed to the well-being of humanity and the planet. My concerns, therefore, are spiritual and not political, and certainly not partisan.

Yet, since it is impossible to establish unity without security, before we establish unity, we must secure the persistence of the State of Israel and the security of its people. As I see it, Benjamin Netanyahu has done a far better job at keeping Israel safe than any other prime minister. Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump has done more for Israel’s security than any other American president. Because security is the most essential requirement for establishing unity, I supported both of them.

Accordingly, even before Joe Biden took office, I warned that should he win the election, Israel’s security would be jeopardized. Sadly, as soon as he entered the White House, my prediction began to transpire. The return to the Iran deal, the growing support of the Palestinians, the tacit permission his administration has given to various organizations to attack Israel, such as the International Criminal Court, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Security Council, and countless others, all seeking to sanction, censor, weaken, and ultimately demolish the Jewish State, are only the beginning.

The riots we are seeing in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa, as well as the rockets from Jaffa on civilian population seem to stem from various reasons: The Sheikh Jarrah evictions, tensions surrounding the Temple Mount, the threats of Hamas to escalate the violence, and incitement for violence on social media, are a few of them. However, the implicit, and sometimes overt support of the Biden administration for these acts of violence are the most worrying, since they are the harbinger of far more vicious storms to come. In fact, the Palestinians are the least of our problems. Now that the US administration has opened the floodgates for antisemites around the world, we can expect onslaughts from Iran, Russia, Arab countries, and basically from everywhere. We will lose on all fronts and our situation will go from bad to worse.

However, and this is the most important point—I don’t see the Biden administration as the guilty party in this downward spiral. Rather, I think we brought this on ourselves. American Jewry, as well as much of the public here in Israel, wanted Biden to win. They wanted to unseat Trump and place Biden and his progressive administration in the White House. Well, we made the bed, and now we’ll lie in it.

As Jews, we do not understand the power we possess. I am not even talking about political clout and maneuvers that prominent Jews took in order to bring Biden to the White House; I am speaking only on the deeper level. With our desire, we seated Biden and unseated Trump, and all the Jews will pay, including the American Jewry.

The division among Jews is the malady of our people. It has brought upon us every evildoer since the onset of our nation. The division among us also prevents us from winning the world’s favor, since all that they expect from us is unity, and all we ever show them is division. That division causes us to want to see Israel haters in the White House, and makes us cloak our hatred for each other with sanctimonious outcries about justice. But where there is no love, there cannot be justice.

Let me reiterate: I do not speak from any political perspective, but from my spiritual perception of the world. If we want to see a peaceful world, where people are united, we must establish security and unity, in that order. And since the unity of the world begins with unity within the Israeli nation, there must be security in Israel so that Israel may establish unity.

In that regard, I’d like to quote the great Rav Kook, who, during World War I, outlined the connection between the world’s troubles and Israel’s unity. In his book Orot (Lights), he wrote, “The construction of the world, which is currently crumpled by the dreadful storms of a blood-filled sword, requires the construction of the Israeli nation. The construction of the nation and the revealing of its spirit are one and the same, and it is one with the construction of the world, which is crumbling in anticipation for a force full of unity and sublimity, and all of this is in the soul of the assembly of Israel.”
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My new article on Linkedin “One Name, One Nation?”

The tragedy on Mt. Meron, where 45 Orthodox Jews were crushed to death in a narrow passageway as thousands of fellow celebrants tried to squeeze their way out of a festive gathering on the festival of Lag ba Omer is a tragic and utterly redundant accident. In the wake of the disaster, a heartwarming phenomenon has emerged, which no one had expected. Many secular Jews, who are usually worlds apart from the Orthodox community, sympathized with the grieving families. Many of them expressed their sympathy online, and some of them even traveled to the mourners’ homes to comfort them. The Orthodox Jews, who are usually very cold and patronizing toward secular Jews, embraced those displays of empathy and everyone who witnessed these sights wished that we could always be like that, brethren of the same nation, without the need for tragedies to remind us of our ancestry.

In order to create a lasting connection between the two camps, they have to place unity above their current values. At the moment, they are nowhere near this and are not headed in this direction whatsoever. Unity is the thing they care about the least; the victory of their own values over the values of the other camp is all they want. Can there be unity in such a state? Can they even be regarded as one nation?

I believe their wish is honest, but regrettably, it is only a wish. When life returns to normalcy, the parties will return to enmity. Looking forward, I don’t see our future as bright, since I don’t see an inclination to unite the factions in the people of Israel. In 1940, my teacher’s father, the great kabbalist Baal HaSulam, wrote that Jews are like a bag of nuts, held together by blows. But when there are no blows, it is as though the bag is torn and the nuts disperse in every direction. Regrettably, the hatred, repulsion, and alienation in our hearts are so deep that I don’t think this event, or any tragedy, for that matter, can bring us together.

The problem is that the values of Orthodox Jews and secular Jews are so far apart that there is nothing that can bridge them. They are literally worlds apart. For the Orthodox, the ultimate goal in life is to dedicate themselves to worshipping God as they understand it. At the same time, the other faction strives to lead a Western lifestyle with secular values. This is why when the sadness over the loss subsides, only the chasm between two vastly different ways of life will remain, perceptions of reality that cannot live side by side. I am sorry to say this but no tragedy can set in motion a force that will bring those worlds together.

If you look at Orthodox weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other occasions that people celebrate, you will rarely find anyone there who isn’t an Orthodox Jew. If you do happen to see there someone who doesn’t look Orthodox, it is probably a politician looking to garner voters or clout in an untapped territory. Likewise, you will not find Orthodox Jews in celebrations of secular Israelis. The two are indeed worlds apart. The values, the most important issues to the two parties hold dear, are not only vastly different, they are opposite.

In order to create a lasting connection between the two camps, they have to place unity above their current values. At the moment, they are nowhere near this and are not headed in this direction whatsoever. Unity is the thing they care about the least; the victory of their own values over the values of the other camp is all they want. Can there be unity in such a state? Can they even be regarded as one nation?

I think that until all of us, all the parties regarded as belonging to the Jewish nation, put unity on top, or in simpler worlds, make “Love your neighbor as yourself” our prime value, we have no chance of uniting. On the contrary, the more we remain under the same political entity without building unity, the more we will increase the hatred that already exists between the factions. As things stand, the best next step should be to divide the country into two separate entities, as Abraham said to Lot: “Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left” (Gen. 13:9). Once we realize that this is not the way we want to live, probably after countless ordeals and traumas, we will be able to put unity on top of everything. Then, and only then, we will succeed.

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My new article on Linkedin “Respect and Disrespect in Relationships”

Relationships can succeed or fail over respect and disrespect. When we show disrespect, it can make the affected person want to die or kill. But what does it mean to respect someone? How does respect affect our connections? Also, how should we treat our children when it comes to respect, and what should we demand of them?

Each of us has sets of values with which we gauge the people around us. We grade them as high or low, and accordingly, treat them with respect, disrespect, and anywhere within that gamut. When we want to build a solid, healthy relationship, mutual respect is one of the most important elements.

We all have things we appreciate more or less about others, and others look at me through their own sets of values. In order to connect correctly, we must increase the value of the positive things in our connection, and decrease the value of things that hinder our connection. A good connection is built on mutual concessions, which builds in us respect for the connection itself.

We all have things we appreciate more or less about others, and others look at me through their own sets of values. In order to connect correctly, we must increase the value of the positive things in our connection, and decrease the value of things that hinder our connection. A good connection is built on mutual concessions, which builds in us respect for the connection itself.

Conversely, contempt erases a person’s self. It makes one feel as though he or she doesn’t exist, or doesn’t deserve to exist. This is why no one can stand being disrespected or ridiculed.

Inherently, each person feels that only he matters. If someone insists on having merit besides me, it is as if that merit comes at my expense. For this reason, when we build a relationship, it is important not to breach the boundary of the other person or belittle the other person’s personality. We may disagree with others on certain points, but we must not show disrespect, as this undercuts their value as individuals. We must remember that in the end, both of us are egoists, and both are trying to find a common ground on which we can connect.

The best way to avoid hurting others is to think about how we can respect and appreciate others. Generally, we shouldn’t think about how to avoid the negative, but about how to increase the positive. Therefore, we should constantly show respect, appreciation, and love. You may be different from me, but I build bridges of love above it since I value the connection with you more than anything. To make you happy, I am willing to make great concessions, and I want to give you an example and see the same approach from you.

In relationships between parents and children, there is also the complicated matter of mutual respect. On the one hand, if a parent does not respect a child, it will ruin the child’s self-esteem, which could result in insecurity for life. On the other hand, parents should not display unconditional love; it is important that they demand respect from the children, or the children might disrespect them, sometimes to the point of hatred.

Respect means you trust the child, you think he or she is responsible, and you make room for the child to develop independently. Don’t do for the child what the child can do alone; and even a little more than that, so the child will see his or her limits.

Demanding respect from the children is a condition that will enable them to be more successful in life. Children who respect the parents’ view can learn from them, receive guidance, and absorb values, orientation, and other good things that only loving parents can convey to their children. I don’t demand that my children will love me back; I only want their success, happiness, and health. This is what will make me happy.

Therefore, if we try to truly respect other people, make room for them within us, appreciate them even more than we appreciate ourselves, we will gradually develop toward them that elusive feeling called “love.” Then, we will discover that this is the most sublime feeling, which stands at the basis of Creation.
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My new article on Linkedin “With Our Hands on the Valve”

Wherever you look around the world, antisemitism is on the rise. In Argentina, the police prevented a deadly attack on a synagogue that was planned for a Saturday when synagogues are packed. In France, the Court of Cassation absolved the 2017 murderer of a Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, of criminal responsibility because he took cannabis before he brutally beat her and threw her out the 3rd floor window yelling in Arabic, Allahu akbar [God is great]. According to the Anti Defamation League, in 2020, there were more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents in the US. Similarly, the German Federal Criminal Police Office reported that the number of antisemitic crimes across the country was 2,351. Even the news about the Mt. Meron disaster, where 45 Orthodox Jews died in a stampede, including quite a few children and youths, was met with vitriol on social media. The many responders audaciously wrote such comments as “God send Your wrath on the Jews” and “Thank God, they’ll continue their festival of fire in Hell.”

If we look into the reason that our sages and the world place the responsibility for our woes in our laps, we will find that both refer to our internal division as the cause. While the nations blame us for sowing division among them, our sages point to our hatred of each other, which prevents us from spreading love of others to the world.

Antisemitism has always been ubiquitous and has always led to violence against Jews, but never was it so pervasive all at the same time. On the personal and social levels, individual Jews and Jewish communities around the world are facing a spike that has many of them looking for alternative places to live, but there aren’t many options. On the international level, institutional antisemitism cloaked as anti-Zionism expresses itself through coordinated attacks on Israel in the UN and other international organizations.

Additionally, America’s support of Israel is fading; its focus has shifted to renewing the accord with Iran, whose explicit goal is to obliterate the State of Israel. Europe, too, whose anti-Israel stance has long been a challenge for the Jewish state, supports Shi’ite, Iran backed Muslim organizations which the EU itself has defined as terrorist organizations.

Why does the world blame Jews and Israel for its every woe? Why do people accuse us, for example, of creating the Covid-19 virus, and before that the HIV virus? Why did it accuse us of wanting to destroy the world and take control over it during the 2008 Great Recession? Why do many people feel that Israel is an ally of Al Qaeda? In short, why do people feel that, as actor Mel Gibson fumed, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” or as retired General William Boykin blustered, “The Jews are the problem; the Jews are the cause of all the problems in the world”?

Interestingly, our sages seem to be somewhat in agreement with antisemites that the world’s troubles are somehow our fault. The sages of the Talmud wrote, “No calamity comes to the world but for Israel” (Yevamot, 63a). Rabbi Shimon also writes in The Book of Zohar that Israel’s wrongful actions “bring about the existence of poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world” (Tikkuney Zohar, Tikkun No. 30). In the early 20th century, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Arie Altar, the ADMOR of Gur, wrote in his principal composition Sefat Emet: “The children of Israel became responsible for the correction of the entire world … And it is to that that they replied, ‘That which the Lord has said, we shall do’—correct the whole of Creation. …In truth,” he concludes, “everything depends on the children of Israel.”

If we look into the reason that our sages and the world place the responsibility for our woes in our laps, we will find that both refer to our internal division as the cause. While the nations blame us for sowing division among them, our sages point to our hatred of each other, which prevents us from spreading love of others to the world.

Accordingly, in his composition The Book of a Few, Rabbi Hillel Tzeitlin writes that “If Israel is the one true redeemer of the entire world, it must be fit for that redemption. Israel must first redeem its own soul, the sanctity of its soul.” And how does Tzeitlin propose that we will achieve this? “For this purpose, I wish to establish with this book the ‘unity of Israel’ … If founded, the unification of individuals will be for the purpose of … corrections for all the ills of the nation and the world.”

Similarly, the great 20th century kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag wrote in his essay “Mutual Guarantee”: “It is upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and all the people of the world … to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of the love of others, which is the ladder to the purpose of Creation.”

So, when you look at the world and see the enmity among people and nations spreading like brushfire, and there is no water around to put it out, you realize that we have our hands on the valve, and we are the ones keeping it shut. Consciously or not, people evidently feel that the Jews are responsible for their troubles, but they don’t understand in what way. They cannot see that we are responsible for their troubles through our internal division and mutual hatred, which prevents them from achieving unity among themselves. Indeed, this lesson is for us to learn, and for us to execute. Because at the end of the day, as the great Rav Kook points out in his book Orot, “In Israel lies the secret to the unity of the world.”

For more on this topic, refer to the books The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour.
[282040]

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My new article on Linkedin “War and Peace in Jerusalem”

My grandfather, back in Belarus, was a very religious man. When I was a child, he would often tell me about Jerusalem. Even though I was only five or six years old then, I vividly remember the emotion in his words. He longed to feel Jerusalem, to unite with it. Simply speaking about it made his eyes shine.

The reason that Israel now governs Jerusalem is that the people of Israel have the onus of being “a light unto nations,” of bringing unity and peace to the world. The fundamental rule of the Torah is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Israel must practice it and set an example to the rest of the world. Only when Israel does this will the rest of the world follow.

My grandfather was born in exile and died in exile. But when I came to Israel and went up to Jerusalem, I remembered his stories, and as soon as we started the climb into the mountains of Jerusalem, I felt his spirit with me; I was realizing my grandfather’s dream. It moved me deeply.

Regrettably, Jerusalem today is very far from the Jerusalem in my grandfather’s dreams. The Hebrew word for Jerusalem, “Yerushalaim“, is a combination of two words: “Ir” [city] “Shlema” [whole/complete], meaning “a city of wholeness” or “a city of completeness.” Also, the word “Shalom” [peace] comes from the world “Shlemut” [wholeness] or “Hashlama” [complementation]. This is why Jerusalem is also regarded as Ir Shalom [a city of peace].

Evidently, there is no wholeness in Jerusalem, no complementation, and certainly no peace. There is plenty of the opposite: division, conflict, and hate. King David, who wrote in Psalm 122 that Jerusalem was built as a city that was joined together, would not be happy if he saw that Jerusalem has become a symbol of conflict, a hub of religious fanaticism and bloodshed.

Despite the intolerance, the city will become what it was meant to be—a center of peace and wholeness, a center of healing for a tormented world. The Book of Zohar writes about Jerusalem (Pinhas, 152): “Jerusalem among the rest of the countries [is] like the heart among the organs. Hence, it is in the middle of the whole world, like the heart, which is in the middle of the organs.”

Jerusalem, being the central place for Judaism and Christianity, and an important center for Islam, reflects the relationships among the faiths. Since there is no peace among them, the center, where the three religions meet, becomes the focal point of the frictions among them, and therefore the center of hostilities. Over the centuries, the city has been governed by all three vying religions, but the governance has always been achieved by war. Jerusalem will become a city of wholeness and peace, but the question is how long it will take us to make of it what it is meant to be, and how much we will suffer in the process.

The reason that Israel now governs Jerusalem is that the people of Israel have the onus of being “a light unto nations,” of bringing unity and peace to the world. The fundamental rule of the Torah is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Israel must practice it and set an example to the rest of the world. Only when Israel does this will the rest of the world follow.

For a short while in antiquity, Israel did just that. During the 3rd century BC, there was relative calm in the nation. Three times a year Jews would march up to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals of pilgrimage: Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot (Feast of Weeks). The pilgrimages were intended primarily for uniting the hearts of the people. In his book The Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus writes that the pilgrims would make “acquaintance … maintained by conversing together and by seeing and talking with one another, and so renewing the recollections of this union.”

Once they entered Jerusalem, the pilgrims were greeted with open arms. The townsfolk let them into their homes and treated them as family. The Mishnah (Bikurim 3) lauds this rare camaraderie: “All the craftsmen in Jerusalem would stand before them and ask about their well-being: ‘Our brothers, men of so and so place, have you come in peace?’ and the flute would play before them until they arrived at Temple Mount.” The book Avot de Rabbi Natan writes that every material need of every person who came to Jerusalem was met in full. “One did not say to one’s friend, ‘I could not find an oven on which to roast offerings in Jerusalem’ … or ‘I could not find a bed to sleep in, in Jerusalem.’”

While they lasted, those festivals of bonding had made Israel “a light unto nations.” The book Sifrey Devarim (Item 354) details how people from other nations would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Moreover, when Ptolemy II Philadelphus, King of Egypt, heard of the unity of the Jews, he wanted to learn their wisdom. Ptolemy invited seventy sages from Jerusalem to his palace in Alexandria to translate their books into Greek. But before he sent them off to create what is now known as the Septuagint, the first translation of the Old Testament into Greek, Ptolemy asked them about their wisdom, and mainly how he could benefit from it as a ruler. In The Antiquities of the Jews (Book XII), Josephus writes that Ptolemy had sat with the Hebrew sages for twelve straight days asking them “rather political questions, tending to the good … government of mankind.” Ptolemy was “delighted with hearing the laws read to him, and was astonished at the deep meaning and wisdom of the legislator,” writes Josephus.

Finally, “When they had explained all the problems that had been proposed by the king about every point, he was well-pleased with their answers,” concludes Josephus. Moreover, the historian writes that Ptolemy testified that “he had gained very great advantages by their coming, for he had received this profit from them, that he had learned how he ought to rule his subjects.”

Regrettably, Israel’s unity did not last. Internal division and conflicts destroyed the land, and the people were exiled because of their hatred for each other. Now that we are back in Israel, the burden of proof is once again on our shoulders to show that we are worthy of being “a light unto nations,” the center of unity whose heart is Jerusalem.
[282032]

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