My new article on Linkedin “Why Preserve Earth?”

As the climate crisis escalates and extreme weather is growing increasingly frequent, experts are seriously pondering how close we are to the point of no return. CBS News reported on April 26 that according to Professor Timothy Lenton, a global leader on the climate crisis, “the West Antarctic ice sheet may have already passed a tipping point.” CBS News also spoke to other experts and reported that “their message was unanimous: Changes are happening faster than what was expected and the chance of hitting tipping points in the climate system, which just a decade ago appeared remote and far off, now seems much more likely and more immediate. ‘This is why I have been raising the alarm,’ Lenton said. ‘In just a decade the risk level has gone up markedly — that should be triggering urgent action.’”

Over the past several decades, we’ve tried countless tactics and ploys to curb emissions, decrease pollution, and diminish our exploitation of the planet. None of them worked. Moreover, we are not only exploiting our planet, we are exploiting all of life on the planet, and we are exploiting each other. The mistreatment of others that characterizes us is evident on all fronts, which means that the problem is far more systemic and deeply rooted than switching to renewable energy, for example, or curbing deforestation.

In my view, however, the question is not whether or not we hit, or are close to hitting the tipping point. I believe that the question we should ask is not whether Earth is doomed and we’re doomed with it, but rather why are we here in the first place. The universe we live in has been around for fourteen billion years or so. Earth has existed for approximately 4.5 billion years, and life on Earth began a few hundred million years after Earth was formed. We have evolved from atoms into molecules, from molecules into unicellular creatures, and from unicellular creatures to the countless forms of life on Earth in the water, on land, and in the sky. Finally, in the last few hundred thousand years, humankind has emerged. Gradually, we have become the rulers of the planet, exploiting its soil, flora, and fauna, polluting the air, the soil, and the water, and depleting Earth’s resources as fast as we can in order to gain power and wealth. Is this why we are here, to do all this harm? Perhaps, if we knew the answer, we wouldn’t be doing the inconceivable damage we are inflicting on the planet every second. The question of our purpose in being here is therefore the key question we must answer. If we know the answer to it, we will resolve all our problems and save the planet.

Over the past several decades, we’ve tried countless tactics and ploys to curb emissions, decrease pollution, and diminish our exploitation of the planet. None of them worked. Moreover, we are not only exploiting our planet, we are exploiting all of life on the planet, and we are exploiting each other. The mistreatment of others that characterizes us is evident on all fronts, which means that the problem is far more systemic and deeply rooted than switching to renewable energy, for example, or curbing deforestation. The problem that causes all our plights is us, or more accurately our nature—human nature. Unlike any other being on this planet, we are exploitative, mean, and abusive to each other, to all living creatures, and to the planet we call home. In fact, we are so heartless that we cannot restrain our greed even when we know that our doing will ruin the future of our children and grandchildren. Instead of a home to live in, we are handing down to them a planet-size pile of trash. What good parent would do that? None, of course, but we are not good parents.

Yet, not all is lost. In the first lockdown that was imposed nearly all over the world at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, multiple examples of nature’s resilience from around the world proved that Earth is much stronger than we thought, and can recover even from prolonged human exploitation. Therefore, if we solve our one problem, human nature, the rest of nature will quickly recover and planetary balance will be restored.

Changing human nature may seem impossible, at first, like pulling oneself out of a swamp by one’s own hair. However, we can learn from nature how to do that. In nature, things change according to their environment. Adaptability is key to the survival of any species. If we create an environment of friendliness, mutual responsibility, and caring, our nature will adapt to its environment and will become likewise. We needn’t change ourselves, but only our superficial behavior. Then, if all of society behaves kindly, people will become genuinely kind. Just as living in a cruel environment forces everyone who lives there to be cruel, even if they are not cruel by nature, the opposite is just as true.

Once we make our social environment friendly and considerate, our nature will become friendly and considerate. Once we become friendly and considerate, we will stop being exploitative. Once we stop being exploitative, we will stop abusing each other, other living beings, and the planet as a whole. It turns out that to save ourselves and our planet, our sole focus should be on changing our social environment from hostile to friendly, from abusive to considerate. Everything else will quickly follow.

Moreover, transcoding our inherent nature will reveal to us realms we cannot conceive right now. As long as we are concentrated only on ourselves, all we see is ourselves. But the purpose of our being here is to grow far beyond ourselves, to grasp all of reality, to understand on the deepest level why we exist, why there are life and death, creation and destruction, and how everything is connected. Only if we start thinking of each other will we stop thinking of ourselves, and only if we stop thinking of ourselves will we start perceiving the world around us as it truly is. This is why the one question we should ask in order to secure our lives, the well-being of the planet, and even our happiness is “Why are we here?”
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My new article on Linkedin “What We Can (or Can’t) Learn from Whales”

Many years ago, when I was a university student at the Medical Academy in Leningrad (today’s St. Petersburg), there was a special project that the academy conducted in the Black Sea. It had to do with communicating with dolphins and trying to learn their language. The project didn’t amount to much, and the lesson was learned.

We must focus our communication efforts on our own relations, on creating healthy, balanced, and considerate relationships among us. This will help us, and will help the whales, much more than learning the meaning of whale-sound A compared to whale-sound B. It is ourselves we need to study and correct, not them!

A few days ago, a student told me that a project is underway in Israel to try to learn the language of the whales using high-tech equipment, linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence. He asked me what I thought about it. I told him about the experiment in Leningrad and concluded that it, too, would not amount to much.

If we want to learn from nature, it is not in order to communicate with animals, but in order to understand the matrix of nature, how it operates, to understand the secrets of creation and the mechanism of the creative force that makes it. I realize that it’s impressive to see how whales communicate, but then what? Where does it lead us? Will it teach us how to communicate with one another? No, it won’t. And if we cannot communicate with one another, what good does it do us to see how well other species communicate?

We must focus our communication efforts on our own relations, on creating healthy, balanced, and considerate relationships among us. This will help us, and will help the whales, much more than learning the meaning of whale-sound A compared to whale-sound B. It is ourselves we need to study and correct, not them!

All of nature is already operating according to the law of balance, where life and death, growth and decay, giving and taking are balanced and mutually supportive. Only humans seek only to take, take, take, and give nothing in return. And because we are the only being that’s egocentric and destructive in all of creation, it is so vitally important that we focus on our own communication, our own relationships with one another, that we learn to care about each other!

Once we learn this, we will also understand all of creation, how to communicate with other species, and how to support the thriving of all life on Earth. If we look up, to our higher selves, to being connected heart-to-heart with all the people, we will be able to contribute to all other species, and our existence here on Earth will have a meaning and purpose, and will benefit all creations.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Secret of The Book of Zohar”

This Thursday evening, we will celebrate LAG ba Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer count, which begins the day after Passover and ends forty-nine days later, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot. The 33rd day is very meaningful for several reasons, but one in particular captivates millions around the world: On that day, nineteen centuries ago, was the conclusion of the writing of The Book of Zohar, the seminal book in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

When Rashbi and his ten completed writing the book, they realized that humanity was not ready for it. In order to use this book of love correctly, humanity needed to feel how deeply it is immersed in hate. At that time, even though they themselves were in constant flight from the Romans, who wished to kill them, they knew that as a whole, the world had not revealed how hateful human nature really is. As a result, in yet another selfless act, they concealed the book that they had written so arduously.

There is a good reason why this day is celebrated as a great day for humankind: The Book of Zohar was written in a special way and for a special purpose. It was concealed for a reason and was later revealed for just that reason. And these days, we are living out this reason.

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) was a great kabbalist. He attained the highest degrees of spirituality and his name is mentioned countless times in the Mishnah and the Gemarah, the fundamental books in Judaism. However, Rashbi’s uniqueness is not in his superior spiritual attainment, but in his relentless efforts to share it with humankind. The spiritual world is the complete opposite of ours. While our world is based on egoism and destructive competition, the spiritual world is the negative image of ours, consisting of pure love and giving. This is why The Book of Zohar stresses, “Everything stands on love” (VaEtchanan, Item 146).

The basic unit in the spiritual world consists of ten subunits. These subunits are unique, and often contradicting expressions of love and giving, which complement each other to form a strong and stable structure called Partzuf. These subunits of love are called Sefirot, from the Hebrew word sapir [sapphire], which unite into the basic spiritual unit, called Partzuf. Subsequently, Partzufim [pl. for Partzuf] join together and build the entire spiritual world. Because the Sefirot are expressions of love and giving, and they form all that exists in spirituality, the entire spiritual world is one of love.

Because our world consists of pure egoism, or as the book of Genesis tells us, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21), we are completely disconnected from the spiritual world. In fact, we’re so opposite from it that we cannot grasp it with our senses.

But Rashbi, who dedicated his life to connecting humanity with this world of love, had found a way to bridge the chasm. Together with his son, he assembled eight keen disciples who were willing to dedicate themselves to this noble task as he was, and together, the ten of them formed a semblance of a spiritual Partzuf, which, as just said, also consists of ten Sefirot.

But the process was not easy. Rashbi and his disciples were human, and therefore inherently selfish. Forming a ten did not make them a spiritual Partzuf. They had to overcome their egoism in order to become similar to a spiritual Partzuf, which was a long and gradual process. But as they learned to become more spiritual, loving, they put their experiences down in writing, and thus wrote The Book of Zohar.

No one had done this before them, and no one has done it since. Bit by bit, they opened up their own egoism, prevailed over it, and wrote about it in allegories and in the language of Kabbalah. At the end of their spiritual journey, they had transformed their nature entirely from hatred to love, and shared it all with us in this magnificent book. This is why The Book of Zohar is so important to humankind, especially today, when hatred is overtaking every aspect of our lives.

In the portion Aharei Mot, Rashbi’s ten gave us a glimpse into the process of feeling the hatred and transforming it to love that they had experienced. They wrote, “‘How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together.’ These are the friends as they sit together, and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another. Then they return to being in brotherly love.”

But Rashbi’s ten did not stop there; they also shared why they made all those efforts. In their words, “And you, the friends who are here, as you were in fondness and love before, henceforth you will also not part … and by your merit there will be peace in the world, as it is written, ‘For the sake of my brothers and my friends let me say, ‘Let peace be in you.’’” Indeed, they wrote The Book of Zohar not for themselves, but for the rest of the world to find peace and love.

However, when Rashbi and his ten completed writing the book, they realized that humanity was not ready for it. In order to use this book of love correctly, humanity needed to feel how deeply it is immersed in hate. At that time, even though they themselves were in constant flight from the Romans, who wished to kill them, they knew that as a whole, the world had not revealed how hateful human nature really is. As a result, in yet another selfless act, they concealed the book that they had written so arduously.

Over the centuries, humanity has revealed deeper and deeper layers of its nature, that indeed, it is all evil. When enough evil was revealed, The Book of Zohar was revealed once more. However, it was still not time for everyone to get to know it and be able to use it for its purpose: transforming hate to love.

Only now, since the end of the 20th century, our acknowledgement of our nature is sufficient for us to truly need this book of love and giving. This is why the greatest kabbalist in modern times, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, wrote the complete Sulam [ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar, which explains every word in it, so we can all benefit from it and be able to transform ourselves the way Rashbi’s disciples did back when they wrote it.

Indeed, LAG ba Omer marks a very significant day in the history of humankind, when a rope was thrown to humanity to pull it out of the quagmire of hatred and into the pool of love that is the spiritual world.
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My new article on Linkedin “What Sarah Halimi’s Murder Tells Us”

On Sunday, thousands of people demonstrated in Paris to protest the recent decision by the French Court of Cassation to absolve the 2017 murderer of Sarah Halimi of criminal responsibility because he took cannabis before he killed her. Paris was the center of the protests, but demonstrations also took place in Tel Aviv, London, Rome, New York, Los Angeles, and several other cities around the world.

As warped as this ruling seems to be, Jews should not expect justice anywhere in the world. Justice means that there is balance between good and bad, but there is none of it today. Wherever you look, evil reigns.

Sarah Halimi was a Jewish woman aged 65. On April 4, 2017, her Muslim neighbor, 27 years old Kobili Traoré, broke into her apartment on the third floor, beat her savagely, and threw her out the window to her death while shouting in Arabic Allahu akbar [Allah is great]. After the murder, he declared “I killed the Shaitan [Arabic: evil spirit].”

Initially, French authorities would not label the murder as antisemitic until public criticism forced them to acknowledge it as such. However, in 2019, when the verdict was finally given, the assailant was declared mentally unfit for trial because he had consumed cannabis, which induced a state of psychosis. The decision was appealed but a few days ago, the Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the lower court’s ruling. As a result, according to The Jerusalem Post, Traoré “gets to walk free.”

As warped as this ruling seems to be, Jews should not expect justice anywhere in the world. Justice means that there is balance between good and bad, but there is none of it today. Wherever you look, evil reigns.

Even worse, the only ones who can bring about balance between good and bad are the Jews. Therefore, since bad is reigning, the Jews both suffer from it, and are accused of creating it.

Jews don’t create the bad. Humans are inherently bad, or as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). However, Jews are meant to bring about the good, the kindness on which Abraham founded the nation, and which generations of prophets and spiritual leaders cultivated above countless regressions into mutual hatred.

The key criterion for spotting antisemitism is “double standard,” when someone judges Jews by a different yardstick than they judge people of other nations. However, this is the common yardstick; few people relate to Jews the way they relate to members of other nations because, even if they’re unaware of it, people expect Jews to set an example of kindness, mutual responsibility, and all the things that are the tenets of our faith. When we don’t cultivate these qualities and don’t display them toward each other, the nations follow our example and blame us for all the hatred there is around them. After all, without the example of the nation who is supposed to be “a light unto nations,” what can you expect from the rest of the world?

Take, for example, Ukraine born Vasily Shulgin, who was a senior member of the Duma, the Russian Parliament, before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and a rabid self-proclaimed antisemite. In his book What We Don’t Like about Them, he explained what he thought was the problem with Jews. Shulgin complained that “Jews in the 20th century have become very smart, effective, and vigorous at exploiting other people’s ideas.” But all of a sudden, he takes a sharp turn from the trite canard and declares, “[But] this is not an occupation for teachers and prophets, not the role of the guides of the blind, not the role of the carriers of the lame.”

Indeed, the world needs a messenger of kindness. Just as Abraham did in antiquity, now it is upon us Jews. Until we accept this idea and take upon ourselves the mission to balance evil with goodness, the world will continue to relate to us as Shaitan.
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My new article on Linkedin “We’ve Got Vaccines, When Will We Be Healed?”

Since December 11, 2020, there have been FDA approved vaccines available for use. Since then, the virus has only spread further and broke record after record of new cases and deaths. Brazil, India, and even Sweden are seeing rising numbers of confirmed cases and their health systems are on the brink of collapse, if they haven’t already faltered. At the same time, some countries are emerging from the crisis. Israel, for example, has had a day without Covid-19 deaths for the first time in nine months. The US is also seeing diminishing numbers, though it is still not out of the woods.

Until we realize that the problem is not with Covid, but with us, and specifically with our relations, we will not be healed. Each country, even those that currently appear to have defeated the virus, will suffer their own blows. We will be healed only when we realize that our attitude toward each other is our real sickness, that this is the real plague. There isn’t, and cannot be a vaccine for human cruelty; we can cure it only through sincere efforts to build positive ties, to transcend our mutual alienation.

Nevertheless, even countries that now appear to be winning, have other blows waiting in the pipeline. The pandemic has landed on humanity for a reason: to force us to understand that we have to change our attitude—first toward each other, and then toward the rest of the world. But despite nearly 150 million cases, and more than three million deaths, we have not learned a thing. Until we understand that the problem is with us, and not with the virus, we will keep suffering blows. If we don’t understand it through the coronavirus, we will understand it through some other crisis.

Besides the illness, Covid has far-reaching consequences that are even worse than the disease itself, which is horrible enough. Widespread joblessness, other health issues, and social crises are all consequences of Covid, but there is more. The climate crisis is worsening, political tensions are rising, and the future of humanity seems bleak on all fronts. The initial lockdowns were actually helpful in moderating some of the adverse effects of humanity on the climate, but that moderation was short-lived and repeated lockdowns proved detrimental on other aspects.

Until we realize that the problem is not with Covid, but with us, and specifically with our relations, we will not be healed. Each country, even those that currently appear to have defeated the virus, will suffer their own blows. We will be healed only when we realize that our attitude toward each other is our real sickness, that this is the real plague. There isn’t, and cannot be a vaccine for human cruelty; we can cure it only through sincere efforts to build positive ties, to transcend our mutual alienation. Covid-19 is one way to convey this message to humanity, but nature can land plenty of other blows that will force us to acknowledge that we are dependent on each other. The sooner we learn that the healing is between us, the sooner we will overcome the virus.

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My new article on Linkedin “Who’s a Leader?”

In today’s narcissistic era, everyone thinks they are the best and smartest. Recent election campaigns in several western countries have highlighted the issue of leadership, or, more specifically, who is fit to lead. While many people want to reach the top of the pyramid, few are willing to take responsibility that comes with it. And even before we discuss responsibility, we must define what it means to be a leader, especially if we expect that leader to take us to a better tomorrow.

As just said, the key trait of a leader must be the willingness to take responsibility. At every level, in every place and in every society, someone must be in charge, take the lead, but with others’ support. Without meeting these requirements, society cannot survive. However, successful leaders cannot be people whose ego drives them to power. Instead, it must be someone who can understand the needs, goals, and requirements of the specific society that one aspires to lead.

While many people want to reach the top of the pyramid, few are willing to take responsibility that comes with it. And even before we discuss responsibility, we must define what it means to be a leader, especially if we expect that leader to take us to a better tomorrow.

The necessity to have someone in charge is rooted deep in nature. One force governs all the systems of reality. This force divides into countless elements that are grouped together and form units. And in each unit, from the smallest to the largest, there is a leader, something or someone who is in charge. That is, someone needs to take responsibility, to lead, to see that the organism, or the team, the company, or country is heading in the right direction.

People’s drive to dominate others is natural and obvious. However, true responsibility stems not from wanting to dominate over others and patronize them, but from feeling others’ pains and wanting to improve their situation, to genuinely help them.

Being responsible individuals requires learning. Our inherent nature is inconsiderate and exploitative. Caring for others and taking responsibility for their well-being not in order to benefit ourselves, but truly for the sake of others, takes learning. To achieve this, we must first come to know the desirable connection that we need to establish in the particular system that we want to lead. If we look at nature, we will see that all the elements—still, vegetative, and animate—are intertwined harmoniously, and together create the fabric of existence. If we can establish similar relationships among us, too, where each element supports the thriving of all the other elements in society, we will transform the society for the better.

In such a society, people’s responsibility is to show others that they care about human connections, that others matter to them, and that they are trying to advance everyone toward an even more connected state.

Clearly, there will be problems along the way. Building warmth and mutual responsibility among inherently self-centered beings is no small feat. But if we make an honest attempt to build it, we will discover the one force that governs all of nature, since that force is a force of giving, creating, projecting, and when we try to become like it, we begin to resonate with it and therefore feel it.

The world is connected. We are, as Marshall McLuhan referred to it, a “global village.” We are dependent on each other, influence each other, and it is only going to become more so in the future. Therefore, those who understand it and take upon themselves to promote consideration and mutual responsibility among everyone will be regarded as responsible individuals. In the future, they will be society’s leaders.

When society adopts this attitude, we will begin to rise above our narrow-minded and self-centered perception and become similar to the one force that has created everything. This is really our goal, to develop the same qualities as the force that has created and governs creation. When we develop them, we will become like it, there will be no limit to our wisdom and power, and we will become the true leaders of the world.

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My new article on Linkedin “Understanding the Point in the Heart”

One of the first things people learn about when they first come to study Kabbalah is a concept called “the point in the heart.” We are told that those who come to study Kabbalah, especially those who persist with it despite difficulties and hurdles, are people with a developed, or a strong point in the heart. Those who have it, kabbalists tell us, are more likely to succeed in their learning and advance on spiritual degrees.

Among my students, there are people of all races, faiths, ages, and nationalities. Some of them are highly educated, and some are laypeople; some are sophisticated and eloquent, and some can hardly express a thought. Yet, the one thing they all have in common is a point in the heart, that burning question about the meaning of life. And that point unites them above all differences.

But what is it really? Rav Yehuda Ashlag, aka Baal HaSulam for his Sulam [ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar, wrote that the point in the heart is really a question. In the beginning of his introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, he writes that the point in the heart is an “indignant question that the whole world asks, namely, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’” Baal HaSulam further asks, “These numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily, and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them … who is it who enjoys them?”

These days, many people ask this question, but not many people are driven to search for answers. Many despair and turn to escapism of all sorts. When someone’s point in the heart is strong enough, that person will begin to search rather than give up and sit by the wayside.

Among my students, there are people of all races, faiths, ages, and nationalities. Some of them are highly educated, and some are laypeople; some are sophisticated and eloquent, and some can hardly express a thought. Yet, the one thing they all have in common is a point in the heart, that burning question about the meaning of life. And that point unites them above all differences.

There is a good reason that people with points in the heart easily unite among them. When one studies authentic Kabbalah, one discovers that the meaning of life is found only when connecting heart-to-heart with others. In other words, if we remain confined within our personal space and concerned only with ourselves, we won’t discover anything. This is our initial state of being, and if we don’t develop beyond it, how can we discover anything? Therefore, those who find the meaning of life, find it in their connections with others. When they rise above preoccupation with their own needs and start thinking of others, they discover new worlds, new realms of existence that they didn’t know were there. When this happens, the question of the meaning of life receives its answer. The bonding that people achieve makes them wise and sensitive, and cognizant of all of life. When they achieve this, they understand why they were born, why they live, why they will sometime die, and even what happens afterwards.

In addition, a person who is busy giving is never sad, never dispirited, and is always hopeful and excited about life. Such a person always seeks more people with points in the heart with whom to share that they will find the meaning of their lives in connecting heart-to-heart with others.

Every person has a point in the heart. In most people, it is dormant. But today, more and more people are seeking answers to life’s trials and tribulations. This is why kabbalists have opened the wisdom to everyone, so that anyone who asks, like Baal HaSulam, “What is the meaning of my life?” will find the answer and find peace and happiness.

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My new article on Linkedin “To Change Our Earth, Change the Human”

“This is suicidal. We must end our war on nature and nurse it back to health,” said UN Secretary-General António Gutierres to mark International Mother Earth Day. There is not much to celebrate anymore—climate change, emerging pandemics, extinctions of animal and plant species, and rampant pollution are only some of the symptoms of an extremely distressed planet. How can Earth be healed? The remedy is to change the egoistic exploitive attitude both between humans and toward our environment.

“Restore Our Earth” is this year’s slogan of what promises to be the world’s largest annual awareness and educational event for environmental issues affecting the planet. But it is flawed thinking to assume that the Earth can be thought of like a broken machine we can fix in a repair shop. It is impossible to talk about restoring it with this skewed vision of our situation. We need to aim at a deeper transformation, a real change that is only feasible through changing our destructive human nature.

“Restore Our Earth” is this year’s slogan of what promises to be the world’s largest annual awareness and educational event for environmental issues affecting the planet. But it is flawed thinking to assume that the Earth can be thought of like a broken machine we can fix in a repair shop. It is impossible to talk about restoring it with this skewed vision of our situation. We need to aim at a deeper transformation, a real change that is only feasible through changing our destructive human nature.

Let’s take a look at current attempts to take the stress off planet Earth through changes in human diet, as an example of our incorrect responses to the problems we face. Animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions, a contributing cause of global warming, according to official data. But new initiatives such as the production of artificial “meat” that claim to be more environmentally friendly will actually be more costly and less beneficial in the long term, similar to the consumption of processed products as replacements for what nature directly produces.

In other words, we will not improve our ecosystem by creating artificial solutions, through specific diets, or through international committees and global summits. Only an in-depth and holistic approach to the way we relate to one another as human beings and toward our environment can cure what ails the Earth.

We should not wait for great torments and environmental disasters to shake us into action. If we do, we are at risk of extinction ourselves, like the dinosaurs who disappeared from Earth. We have not yet realized that our planet is our common home and whatever happens within it has an endless chain of reactions that will eventually affect us. Someday, we will have to come to terms with the fact that the problems we face begin with the selfish nature of man who operates from an individualistic, me-centered, exploitative and narrow vision that wants to gain everything for self-gratification. Until we transcend individual and national borders and start thinking globally, nothing will help. We humans, for our part, need to comprehend that the state of nature depends on the relationships between human beings, as well as on the willingness of man to adapt to the integrality of nature, that is, to take only what is necessary for survival and to guard with care the good functioning of the entire system instead of considering only egoistic calculations.

How are human relationships connected to what happens in nature? There are four levels in nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human. All levels except man exist in accordance with nature’s laws of reciprocity and balance. The other levels have no free choice in anything; they act instinctively and take only what is needed for their survival. It is only the human level that is different. Only humans commit atrocities on Earth and do so intentionally, consciously, sometimes just for the sake of causing harm. All of the negative blows we receive from nature are just its reaction, the natural consequences of our actions. Simply put, we bring these calamities upon ourselves.

The comprehensive solution to the ecological and social dangers we face is in our hands; the key is in our efforts towards global connection. If we try to build a harmonious system of human relations, all of nature will calm down. As we begin to feel how dependent we are on everyone else, we will think twice before engaging in the ill-treatment of one another. Only through mutual responsibility will we attain the necessary attitude, the right frame of mind, to save our common home and live safely and happily under one roof, our planet Earth.
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My new article on Linkedin “What on Earth Are We Doing to Earth?”

This week, the world marked Earth Day 2021. The theme was “Restore Our Earth.” Indeed, Earth has suffered the punishments that humanity has inflicted on it for far too long. Regrettably, we cannot restore it, not right now, and not in our current state.

You restore what is broken, and seeking to restore Earth means that we acknowledge that Earth is broken. But Earth didn’t break of its own accord. We broke it! We, with our broken attitude to Earth and to each other, have done all the damage that we are now purportedly trying to fix. How can we restore something if the thing that broke it is still breaking it, and even faster and more intensely than before? Unless we fix ourselves first, any statements about restoring Earth are hot air, at best, if not a deliberate deception. This is why for years, our organization stated the motto: “To change the world, change man.”

Unless we fix ourselves first, any statements about restoring Earth are hot air, at best, if not a deliberate deception. This is why for years, our organization stated the motto: “To change the world, change man.”

A recent study by an Oxford University research center, Our World in Data, has found that since humans have become the dominant species on the planet, “wild mammals have declined by 85%.” We have not been less egregious toward the soil, toward the air, or toward the water and Earth’s flora than toward animals. In fact, we are so injurious to life that wildlife around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which exploded in 1986 and created a radioactive no-go zone for humans, has thrived like never before despite the radiation. Researchers who studied wildlife in the no-go zone were so impressed with the increase in wildlife population and the robust health of the animals that they concluded that humans are more deleterious to nature than radioactive pollution.

Therefore, we will not be able to restore Earth until we transform ourselves from the self-centered beings that we are into caring and connected individuals, who live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. We must self-educate ourselves away from narcissism and toward an approach that rejoices in connection, bonding, mutual responsibility, and balance. Reality is an integrated mesh of contradicting elements, and only humans try to be the sole rulers of the universe.

While the rest of reality celebrates sharing, we despise it. Not all of us, but as a whole, as a species. We exploit and deplete not only Earth, but first and foremost one another. Therefore, with one another is where we have to start. Only when we learn to treat each other with consideration, when we understand that the well-being of others affects our own well-being, even if we don’t feel it tangibly, we will learn to rejoice in the well-being and prosperity of others. When we achieve this, we will find that we are finally happy, and that everything prospers, including our poor and tormented home, Planet Earth.

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My new article on Linkedin “Two Ways to Be Good”

On every aspect we can examine, life is better today than it ever was: We have more food than ever, even too much; we have better health care; we live longer; and we have freedom of speech, at least compared to a hundred years ago or earlier. Technology has given us abundance; we can comfortably travel anywhere we want within hours, and at a ridiculous price; we can communicate with any person on the globe within seconds as if they stood right next to us, and modern medicine is performing miracles (even Covid-19 is nothing compared to plagues that killed tens of millions only a century ago). It seems as though people should have been happier than ever. Surprisingly, today we are more depressed than ever. If we look into this enigma, we will find something fascinating: Not only our lives have changed, but also our goals. We used to want to survive; now we want to enjoy ourselves and be happy. Technology is built to make life easy, but it cannot make us happy. To be happy, we need loving people, not advanced technology.

When we, as a society, engage in building positive connections, material existence will not only become effortless, but it will also become enjoyable and meaningful. We will know why we do what we do, how it helps us, and how it helps the world. We will enjoy being good to one another and find that it is far more rewarding than cold and ruinous competition. In the process, we will come to feel each other’s needs, connect in our hearts, and not only in our bodies, and our joy will grow inconceivably more powerful and meaningful.

In fact, the more technology improves makes our lives easier, the more it points us toward asking about the purpose of life. If we do not need to struggle for survival, then why do we need to lift a finger? And if we do not need to lift a finger, then are we really alive? Although still mostly in our subconscious, these questions are increasingly troubling us and spoil the party we should have been having. The sooner we shed light on these questions, the sooner we will be able to resolve them and find true happiness.

As long as all we wanted was to survive, we didn’t know what happiness was. At best, if we secured our survival, we were content. But contentment isn’t happiness. Happiness comes from heart-to-heart connection with other people, when we feel them as though they were a part of us, and they feel the same way toward us. It is not merely mutual responsibility on the physical level, but a merging of minds and hearts among all people, a state we can achieve only if we truly care about each other, love each other as ourselves, or as our sages put it, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” very literally.

For this to happen, we first have to acknowledge that our current state of mind is the complete opposite: We are strangers to each other, hostile and distrustful. We’ve moved from wanting to survive to wanting to enjoy, but how can we enjoy life if we cannot trust that people around us don’t want to harm us? It keeps us constantly on edge, vigilant, and stressed. To enjoy life, we first have to be certain that the people around us want our best. In other words, we have to become good to one another, caring. And it must encompass all of us. If one person in society seeks to harm others, it will force all the others to become wary and hostile.

There are two ways we can become good to one another: 1) by realizing that we have no other choice and changing against our will, or 2) by realizing that this is our best option, our preferred way of life, and actively pursue this transformation in our lives. Currently, we are treading the first path, desperately trying to find routes of enjoyment that do not require caring about others. This is not working. As a result, we are growing increasingly frustrated and seek all kinds of escape from the pain through drugs, violence, extremism, and depression—the most common ailment of our generation. We can keep treading this path until we feel that we have exhausted all the options, which might take decades of unimaginable suffering. Alternatively, we can give the other path a chance right now, and see how it works.

If we try the other path and commit to fostering positive connections, we will find what we are truly looking for: happiness. No one can feel sad while surrounded with loving people. Moreover, when we start nurturing positive connections, everything we do begins to make sense, since we are doing it to help others and connect with them. When we work for others’ sake, we inevitably infuse meaning into our actions. No one who has ever done something for another person asked about the reason or the purpose of the act. The purpose is self-evident and the reward is tremendous.

Moreover, when we, as a society, engage in building positive connections, material existence will not only become effortless, but it will also become enjoyable and meaningful. We will know why we do what we do, how it helps us, and how it helps the world. We will enjoy being good to one another and find that it is far more rewarding than cold and ruinous competition. In the process, we will come to feel each other’s needs, connect in our hearts, and not only in our bodies, and our joy will grow inconceivably more powerful and meaningful.

In the end, we will learn to be good to one another, as this is the only way we can thrive. But how we learn it depends on us.
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