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 of Zohar, also wrote about this topic in his matter-of-fact style: “The people of Israel, which has been chosen as an operator of the general purpose and correction … contains the preparation required for growing and developing until it moves the nations of the worlds, too, to achieve the common goal” (The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress”).
Until we do this and become “a light unto the nations,” anti-Semitism will only intensify and the pressure on us will grow all over the world. It is now time for every Jew, and for all the Jews together, to understand our uniqueness and our role.
Look what is happening on campuses in America. Who could have imagined that young Jewish students in America—the land of the free—would be targeted and harassed on a daily basis? Who could have thought that universities would become the hotbed of anti-Semitism in the US?
We need to understand that anti-Semitism comes from educated people, not from the uneducated. So we must explain to the world how to achieve social cohesion, solidarity, and unity among all. The wisdom for achieving this is within us. Once we implement it, anti-Semitism and hatred in general will disappear all over the world.
Hanukkah is the festival of light. It is an ideal time to ponder how we can fulfill our role in these troubled times, and truly become a Light unto the Nations.
This article was originally published online in the Jerusalem Post Image: “Festival of Lights” by Robert Couse-Baker