With Or Without Corbyn, The True Solution To UK’s Anti-Semitism (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “With or Without Corbyn, the True Solution to UK’s Anti-Semitism”

Anxiety has spread among UK’s Jews over Labour’s potential victory in two weeks. For the first time in history, a prominent voice within the British Jewish community urges to refrain from voting for the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a politician with a long anti-Semitic background.

The spiritual leader of the UK’s 62 orthodox synagogues, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, warned that in the upcoming elections the “soul of the nation is at stake,” if Labour forms the next government. Leading rabbis also recommended that European Jews “must hide themselves and not stand out in their words and actions,” in light of today’s rampant anti-Semitism.

However, regardless of the election outcome, Jews will continue being felt as an increasing problem, since anti-Semitism is a much bigger phenomenon than any candidate.

Also, keeping our heads down, which failed to help us in the past, will likewise fail to help us today. A century ago, before the Holocaust, Jews acted in a similar fashion with terrible results. We can already see that the avoidance of wearing Jewish distinctive items like the kippah or the Star of David, has not helped diminish vicious attacks on Jews in Europe or anywhere else.

Over the last few years, anti-Semitism passed a boiling point, and it is now bubbling all around the world. Therefore, anti-Semitism demands a more thorough investigation and explanation, to penetrate through to the root of the problem, and seek a solution that would both satisfy those who hold anti-Semitic sentiment, as well as securing the acceptance, safety and peace of the Jewish people.

Today As Yesterday

Hatred against Jews is soaring worldwide, but anti-Semitism in the Old Continent seems to be spreading more rapidly across the major cities, with violent incidents reported almost on a daily basis. Such animosity is fueled by anti-Semitic tropes, as according to a recent survey conducted in 18 countries by the Anti-Defamation League, one in four Europeans expressed profound anti-Semitic sentiments.

Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), the foremost Kabbalist of our era, worked with all his strength to warn the Jews of his native Poland that the danger of annihilation was approaching. He also wrote about his concern in his 1933 article, The Solution:

I have also spoken to the leaders of the generation, but at the time, my words were not accepted, though I was screaming like a banshee, warning about the destruction of the world. Alas, it made no impression. Now, however, after the atom and hydrogen bombs, I think the world will believe me that the end of the world is coming rapidly, and Israel will be the first nation to burn, as in the previous war. Thus, today it is good to awaken the world to accept the only remedy, and they will live and exist.” (Yehuda Ashlag, The Solution)

Baal HaSulam explained to Jews that it was their role to pioneer humanity’s correction. In nature, there are two forces—positive and negative, giving and receiving, love and hatred—and the Jews’ unification would awaken the positive, giving and loving force of nature into the world. By doing so, humanity would experience a newfound harmony and happiness, and the Jews would thus fulfill their role as “a light unto the nations.”

On the other hand, if the Jews do not unite, but continue to sink deeper into egoistic quicksand, i.e., self-centered thoughts and actions, they block the light, i.e., the force of unification dwelling in nature, from shining through to humanity. As more and more problems surface from growing dissatisfaction with life, and divisiveness between people, so does increasing hatred toward Jews. At first, the negative force acts in humanity’s subconscious. Afterward, it strikes openly and violently in tragedy.

Two Ways to Unity

Baal HaSulam taught that the Jewish people have two ways to advance: positively or negatively, through unity or separation. One way is a willful striving for unity a priori. The other way is through undesirable pressure to unite through hatred and violence upon them.

Unfortunately, at the time, no one listened to Baal HaSulam, and he was instead forced to leave Europe, with his son, my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag (Rabash), and enter the Land of Israel. After a while, his family also immigrated, and the Jewish community that remained encountered the Holocaust.

History repeats and the message remains: Jews have an essential role toward the nations of the world. However, they are remote from fulfilling their original role. Most are even unaware of the method that is available to them. But the questions increase and push to awaken the sentiments and common sense:

• Why didn’t the hatred of Jews disappear after the horrifying Holocaust?
• Why do the nations of the world have such a burning hatred toward Jews?
• Why is anti-Semitism rising globally?

The answers to these questions, together with the path to unity, rest in the method of connection: the wisdom of Kabbalah. It can help us become an example and model of unity for all people, especially for the citizens of Britain. If the Jews of Britain will start prioritizing unification above all other engagements, they will be able to awaken the attention of both Jews and non-Jews in Britain, and thus gradually anti-Semitism will become a non-issue, not only among the leadership of the Labour party, but in all walks of life.

Family And Marriage, Part 7

Go Beyond Your Ego

Remark: You said that a person instinctively experiences first love at the age of 12 or even earlier. Then for the first time one feels love for one’s children. All this in order to feel the model on yourself, how to correctly relate to our neighbor, to all of humanity.

My Comment: Yes. And then to the Creator.

Question: Are these relationships similar?

Answer: Each time they emerge at a different level.

If we are talking about children’s love, or love for children, or love for the family, then this is the natural love that exists in everyone as a bud, one needs to develop it.

If we talk about love for strangers, this goes beyond the framework of our egoism. Our egoism includes some kind of field: “This is mine, and this, and this.” Whatever is mine, I love, attract, and cherish it. I do not cherish anything that goes beyond the scope of my egoism. On the contrary, maybe I don’t need it and I don’t want to see it near me.

So, work on yourself is necessary here. Here I must see what is beyond my egoism. And practically outside of it is the Creator. As I begin to relate to what is beyond my egoism, so I relate to the Creator. Therefore, I must determine my attitude to the Creator and, based on this, relate to everything that is outside of my egoism.

Question: It turns out that if a person has a big ego, then one’s framework is narrowed? He doesn’t even feel family as his own?

Answer: Yes. But this does not mean that one cannot go beyond one’s ego. Maybe, on the contrary, in this way a person is pushed forward, given the recognition of evil.

Our movement forward is based on contraction and expansion: inhalation – exhalation, exhalation – inhalation. Therefore, if a person has great egoism and he does not feel anyone but himself, although, perhaps, he does not realize it, this moves him to deeper comprehension of the Creator.

The greatest Kabbalists, before their correction, were very big egoists.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19

Family And Marriage, Part 6

Time and Love for Children

Question: Do I understand correctly that nature instinctively instilled love for children in us only so that we would learn to treat other people the same way?

Answer: Yes and no. Over time, love for children will change. It is already changing. Today, people relate to children differently than before.

Throughout all generations there has been a draw, caring, and love for children, but all this is changing.

Since our desire, understanding of the world, and method of communicating with the outside world are changing, naturally, the attitude toward children as a part of the world is changing too.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19

“Rethinking Social Media In The Era Of Hatred” (Newsmax)

My article in Newsmax: “Rethinking Social Media in the Era of Hatred”

If Hitler had access to social media like there is today, he would have been allowed to buy ads, reflected British actor Sacha Baron Cohen in a recent thought provoking statement, calling internet platforms “the greatest propaganda machine in history,” ruled by money.

I concur, but beyond the speeches, real changes will demand unprecedented measures in times of extraordinary challenges to face bigotry, discrimination, and the most deeply-rooted form of hatred: anti-Semitism.

Social media has been deliberately built to influence our emotions, preferences, decisions, impulses, energy, attention span, and interactions. There is a well-established process to influence our minds and pockets. The internet was created for the purpose of serving humanity, says its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, who 30 years later laments how the opposite has been achieved and “communities are being ripped apart as prejudice, hate and disinformation are peddled online,” suggesting that the web needs “radical intervention from all those who have power over its future.”

Is the Future of Humanity for Sale?

Social media and the media in general have become the ruling power where everything is permissible regardless of the veracity or positive benefit to society. The current communication systems are handled according to monetary interests, a reflection of human nature that is innately egoistic, i.e., aiming at self-benefit and exploitative relations. We will eventually need to realize that any technological innovation or means failing to advance humanity toward greater positive connection only harms it. But how can we achieve such a lofty goal considering that it is against the way we are built: egoistic?

It will happen when we eventually feel there is no other alternative to thrive but to change direction.

The world is rapidly moving toward a dead end, a turning point in social evolution: power structures are shaking in multiple countries around the planet, as we have witnessed in the last few weeks. Global economic debacle is predicated by international analysts. Such a scenario is showing us that self-centered perceptions and actions are reaching maximum capacity. If money can now buy anything, it will gradually lose its value, and social media as well as political, economic, and social actors will have to find a way to stay afloat.

Here is precisely where the Jewish people can contribute to society’s betterment. It is not by chance that the main social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, and others have been created by Jews. It gives us a hint of our true identity, our purpose, and role in the world: to unite humanity as a whole. We currently have the tools; now it is time to learn how to use them for a higher purpose.

New Principles for a New Society, the Role of the Jewish Nation

About a century ago, Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag wrote: “Do not be surprised if I mix together the well-being of a particular collective with the well-being of the whole world, because indeed, we have already come to such a degree that the whole world is considered one collective and one society.”

The Jewish nation can pioneer the correction of what needs to be fixed in the world: human relations — the way we relate to one another and the purpose of what we have created to either belittle or support each other. The use of social media to enhance mutual concern and a more holistic perception will positively shape the world of today and tomorrow.

In order to do so, every society could follow the model established by the Jewish people centuries ago, similar to what was called in ancient Israel, a Sanhedrin, an ideological body responsible for the nation’s right direction, to achieve balance and harmony. Similarly, in today’s world, the model of such an ideological body, a pluralistic watchdog where all the ideas are represented and discussed, until a common agreement is reached and only then disseminated, could help monitor the correct use of social media.

Such a body should be comprised of representatives from the entire political spectrum, as in Congress, in charge of evaluating media if harmful or malicious information is disseminated to the general public, instead of only facts.

As the world becomes increasingly interdependent, people will have to expand their circle of concern. We need to enhance our social sensitivity, broaden our worldview, better understand our nature as human beings, our limits and responsibilities, and most importantly, learn how to tap into our inherent wiring for human connection.

If the world started feeling an upgrade in consciousness, a positive change in their lives through this new model to find balanced communications and human interaction, the tendency toward anti-Semitism would invert: the Jewish nation will be perceived as the conduit of the good that fills people’s lives.

Such a sense of fulfillment can be achieved if we start using the web as a common umbrella of mutual understanding and support that would help us unite above all of our differences, divisions, and conflicts.
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Why The Next Holocaust Can Happen In America – Talk With Shaul Magid

Shaul Magid, the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, meets Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to discuss anti-Semitism, and why America is one of the most sensitive countries where it can have an immersive growth.

The most developed nations of the world can feel the severest effects of anti-Semitism. This is so because they better feel that Jews “are hiding the key to Heaven” from them.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Jews really do. They bear the method of correction, which lets them bring the force of love and bestowal into the world and prevent the upcoming overall crisis. This method the Jewish people received in ancient Babylon 3,800 years ago from Abraham who revealed that building positive human connections helps to consciously rise above the destructive egoistic human nature. Today, there is an urgent need for this method to be shared with everyone.

Unfortunately, after three exiles, it was lost, and Jews fell into some kind of coma. There is a false sensation of being secure. Even though recently, we were able to observe the anti-Semitic acts all over the world (especially in the US), instead of turning to their nature and become a “light unto the nations,” Jews powerlessly fight against anti-Semitism advocating laws for protecting Jews and state security. With such a state of things, the next Holocaust can happen in a country like America.

In order to prevent this, we must understand that the solution lies in the connection between us. The Jewish people need to do so first, and by the law of nature, the world will follow them.

Male And Female, Part 1

Two Forces in the Universe

Question: Kabbalists write that the relationship between genders is the foundation of the entire universe. Are people divided into men and women because there is the Creator and the created beings?

Answer: Yes. Two forces of the universe—the force of bestowal and the force of reception—are manifested in matter in the form of man and woman.

Question: So the force of bestowal is the male essence and the female essence is the force of reception?

Answer: Yes, but purely conditionally. In principle, from the aspect of forces, this is true: the male force gives and the female one receives. However, when it comes to receiving and bestowing, it does not mean that the female force is attuned to the egoistic quality to receive and the male one to the altruistic quality to bestow.

In each person there are both forces: both male and female.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/31/18

“Black Friday”

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 11/29/19

Each year, right after Thanksgiving, human nature runs amok. We call it “Black Friday.” Let’s not kid ourselves; retailers aren’t losing money on Black Friday, they’re making a lot more of it. So why don’t they sell at these prices all year long? Because we customers are not united.

I’m not trying to suggest that unity for the sake of cutting prices will get us anywhere. It won’t. If anything, it will make things worse because there will always be people who will take advantage of the situation at the public’s expense.

But if we’re willing to stand in long lines, spend a lot of time and effort to save a few hundred dollars (at best), think how much we could save by collaborating? How much we could save by building our commitment to each other, and not just to ourselves?

Family And Marriage, Part 6

Time and Love for Children

Question: Do I understand correctly that nature instinctively instilled love for children in us only so that we would learn to treat other people the same way?

Answer: Yes and no. Over time, love for children will change. It is already changing. Today, people relate to children differently than before.

Throughout all generations there has been a draw, caring, and love for children, but all this is changing.

Since our desire, understanding of the world, and method of communicating with the outside world are changing, naturally, the attitude toward children as a part of the world is changing too.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19