A Holiday Full of Light

by Dr Michael Laitman Hanukkah is known as “the festival of light.” But the rise in anti-Semitic incidents from France to New York casts quite a heavy shadow on our lives. Can we cast it away? Can we blow away the dark clouds gathering around the Jewish people? Apparently we can. Since the world is examining our every move with critical eyes, it means that we, the people of Israel, can also influence the world much more than we dare (or like) to think. If we build a society based on mutual love and mutual connection, it will become a role model to the entire world. But once we do, says Rav Kook, we will change our fate—and the fate of the entire world—to the better. Here is his poetic description of the connection between the people of Israel and the correction of the world: “Since our own vocation is ever standing, accompanying the vocation of the whole of Nature—whose law is to complete all creations and bring them to the apex of perfection—we must guard it devoutly for the life of us all, which is kept within it, and for the whole of humanity and its moral development, whose fate depends on the fate of our existence.” (Appeared in HaPeles, a rabbinical magazine, Berlin, Germany, 1901) Rav Yehuda Ashlag (author of the Sulam [Ladder] commentary on The Book...

Maccabees vs. Greeks, Round II

by Dr. Michael Laitman Hanukkah is a great time to discuss hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principle, which the Hellenists nurtured so enthusiastically. I would like to present an idea that may sound novel to many of you, but is actually at the basis of Jewish thought. On the face of it, there is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy. In fact, our very nature is that of a desire to receive pleasure. The Greeks knew how to make the most of human nature. They were masters at cultivating culture, sports, science, and architecture all to our amusement. Opposite them were the Maccabees. They maintained a very different approach—that human nature is rotten to the core, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth,” and “Sin crouches at the [womb’s] door.” To be sure, the Maccabees (or Jews who didn’t subscribe to Hellenism), did not object to cultivating culture, science, or technology. It is more that they objected to the self-centered implementation of our skills and talents, to the glorification of the self rather than of the common good. This is why the Greeks admired winners and adored competition. The Jews, on the other hand, cultivated “love your neighbor as yourself” as their ideal. Granted, the implementation of the ideal was not as ideal as the notion...

Why Jews Are Feeling the Heat

Why Jews Are Feeling the Heat by Dr. Michael Laitman, originally published in the Times of Israel. This last summer was hot in every sense here in the Holy Land. Most of our attention was focused on what was probably the longest military campaign we experienced here in many years. The most unique aspect of the dramatic summer we had to go through was that it ultimately marked and emphasized the dead end we have reached. The battle is over, but there is still a threat and there is nowhere for us to escape. The moment one round of conflict was behind us, the shadow of the next was already hanging over our heads. Each time we stall for different reasons and postpone any decision making, hoping that things will somehow work out on their own, they don’t. In fact, things haven’t changed for decades. The drama inside and around Israel only continues to escalate, a clear sign that we are really missing the point. The prophet Jonah found himself in a similar situation thousands of years ago. The plot reads like an adventure novel. Jonah receives a mission from God to help the people of Nineveh (who are not Jewish) overcome the mutual hatred they feel and fulfill the principle of love thy neighbor as thyself. It was Abraham who first fulfilled this idea and founded the Jewish...

We Don’t Need a Nation State Bill, We’ve Got One!

We Don’t Need a Nation State Bill, We’ve Got One! Originally Printed Online in the Jerusalem Post I understand why Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to pass the Nation State bill, but I completely disagree with both the idea he’s trying to promote, and certainly with its implementation. We’ve had a Nation State Bill since the inception of our nation, the Israeli nation. The emblem of our people throughout the ages has always been unity, and not segregation. Those who wanted to unite and through unity discover life’s essential force, the Creator, became the people of Israel, and those who did not became other nations. The original Israelites were not all from the same tribe; they were an eclectic assembly of people who united around an idea—that through unity, they will discover a level of reality that they could not see in their current perception. Therefore, unity is the only Nation State bill we need. And in that unity, just as when our nation was first formed, we must include anyone who wishes to unite, not just those born to a Jewish mother according to an ID. If people unite around the tenet, “love your neighbor as yourself,” then they are Israel according to its deeper, true meaning. If we unite around that tenet, we will be supported by all the nations; we will have no enemies whatsoever, and millions,...

The World is Ready For a Message of Unity

  At the beginning of the month I was invited to LA for a marathon shoot of 24 short episodes explaining the wisdom of Kabbalah and its relevance to our lives. This couldn’t have been timed better since I was already in town for a convention and a lecture that followed, so I delightedly took on the challenge of shooting 24 episodes in two days (though my part in each is about 5 minutes). The World is Ready for a Message of Unity On the second day of the shooting, I had a special treat. I sat before a panel of six students that consisted of the council of the USC interfaith program, who “grilled” me with questions regarding Kabbalah for seven hours straight. Naturally, anti-Semitism and the role of the Jewish people arose in their questions, and being students, they didn’t hesitate to ask whatever came into their minds. The panel consisted of a Roman Catholic, a Methodist, one who didn’t disclose his faith, a Muslim and two agnostics. All students said they were observant in their faiths, yet were interested in learning about other faiths and traditions, which was why they joined the interfaith program. Through their questions, I explained about Kabbalah, but I also dedicated time to discussing the role of the Jewish people in the world, and why so many people feel that there is...

The Struggle to Stop Fighting [Opinion]

If a person takes a bundle of reeds, he cannot break them all at once. But taken one at a time, even an infant will break them. Just so, Israel will not be redeemed until they are all one bundle. (Midrash Tanhuma, Nitzavim, Chapter 1) Even as a child I was troubled with deeper questions. As a child with a passion for knowledge and a penchant for research, I became intrigued with “life, the universe, and everything” (to paraphrase on Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). I was fascinated with nature, and intrigued with human nature. And one of the issues that touched me to the core was anti-Semitism. As I wrote in my latest book, Like a Bundle of Reeds, a shadow followed through my childhood years, and even through my teens. It was the specter of the Holocaust, that thing which many chose to never mention, though it was always there. When I grew up the questions surrounding anti-Semitism kept haunting me, and became a very tangible issue through my years as a refusnik (Soviet Jews denied permission to leave the USSR during the 1970s). But once outside of the Soviet Union, and being a new oleh in Israel, more worldly challenges demanded my attention, such as learning a new language and providing for my family. It just so happened that in Israel I became a...