The Scarred Children of the War

Any war is horrific, but a war that involves civilian casualties is many times more so. Of these civilians, children are the most vulnerable. The war in Ukraine will scar its children and change them forever. Still, I believe that it will plant in them the conviction that war brings nothing good, and there is no way to justify the harm and pain that it inflicts.

The next generation will feel that instead of fighting, they would be better off complementing each other's needs by trading. They will know that only through cooperation can they succeed in this world.

In the past, wars meant occupation, plundering of possessions, and enslavement of the captive. Today conquering another country has no benefits. What will you do once you have conquered the capital? You will have to rebuild it after having ruined it yourself.

The advancement of technology and international commerce and industry have made war irrelevant as a means of obtaining supplies and wealth. Today, war is simply redundant, and I believe that today’s children sense this very deeply through their parents and through everything that they themselves are experiencing. The blasts, the blood, and the corpses on the street, the biting cold, the fear, and the uncertainty are injuring their souls, and they will pass the scars they carry on to their children and their children’s children.

Even children who are not under an immediate threat of rockets and bombs are sensing what is happening. Humanity is a single body; when organs in that body fight against each other, the whole body suffers, and the whole body learns the lessons. Therefore, I hope the lessons that the children of the war are learning through pain will sink into the consciousness of all of humanity, and everyone, around the world, will understand and feel the futility of war.

The next generation will feel that instead of fighting, they would be better off complementing each other's needs by trading. They will know that only through cooperation can they succeed in this world.

The insights that today’s children are gaining are priceless. My only regret is that they are gaining them through pain. I wish that we could teach them this through simple education, but life has chosen a different mode of teaching for them.

Still, if we can understand what reality is teaching us—that brute force no longer leads to victory, but rather collaboration and mutual complementation—without experiencing brute force firsthand, it will help us transition to a new state of mind where war is not part of the paradigm. It will help us, and it will help our children even more.

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Why Is the Purim Holiday Today More Relevant Than Ever?

Costumes, masks, double identities. Behind the joyful celebration of Purim there is a profound story about good and evil. Unlocking its secret meaning can save the world today especially when reality looks so gloomy and uncertain. Thus, this holiday is meaningful not only to the Jewish people, but to all of humanity. 

The core message of the Purim story is that unity will be our salvation, and that our neglect in overcoming the differences between us endangers, harms, and may even annihilate us.

The customary reading of “The Scroll of Esther” during the Purim festival does not merely celebrate an event that happened a long time ago. Instead, it describes a spiritual state not yet apparent that stands before us and that will be discovered as soon as we unite. Indeed, Megilat Ester or The Scroll of Esther refers to “the revelation of the concealed,” because in Hebrew, “guilui” means revelation, and “ester” from “hastara” means concealment.

In the story of Purim Haman raised the claim to King Ahasuerus that the Jews should be killed because they were separated, and were thus deemed unnecessary: “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed.”

In response, Mordechai appealed to King Ahasuerus for mercy on the Jews through Queen Esther, but she said it was impossible for her to help them as long as they remained dispersed and not united. So Mordechai went on a mission to pass on this call for unity of the Jewish people. When they eventually come together and unite, Esther was able to persuade King Ahasuerus to have mercy on them.

As with all the stories from the Torah, the characters and the interaction between them represent attributes and powers that play out in our thoughts, desires, attitudes, and relationships. Mordechai symbolizes a positive force that cares deeply for everyone because the future of the world depends on the development of the sublime qualities of love and giving, and on the development of a perfect integral connection between all parts of reality and all human beings. On the other hand, evil Haman symbolizes the negative force, an egoistic tendency to control everyone else, to bend everyone under us, to take everything that is possible from them, to exploit them to our advantage.  

"Man is a small world," our sages explained. It means that within each of us lie all these forces described in The Scroll of Esther, even if we do not feel them. They define the direction of development that will save us from the egoistic struggles of self-benefit at the expense of others, which threaten to degenerate the human race into self-extinction.

The more we develop, the more these powers intensify. The ruthless will to rule and control increasingly surfaces within people and great forces of separation operate to tear us apart. Therefore, the core message of the Purim story is that unity will be our salvation, and that our neglect in overcoming the differences between us endangers, harms, and may even annihilate us.

In other words, the elevated state that humanity is so eager to achieve and that is so desperately needed these days is concealed now. As soon as we learn to connect properly with one another, above our egoism, we will remove the root of all evil from our lives, and a world of all good will be revealed.  

Happy Purim to all! 

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The Price of Freedom

As the battles in Ukraine escalate and the pressure on civilians intensifies, it is becoming clear that a compromise or a “reasonable” solution are both out of reach. Not only is the misery on the ground escalating, but the enmity between the two nations is deepening as the suffering of people intensifies. Today, overpowering other nations with military force is impractical. Therefore, the parties will eventually have to put down their arms. If at that moment, the adversaries understand the need to give each other freedom, they will be able to advance constructively. If, however, they insist on trying to dominate each other, the price of freedom will soar, though freedom will eventually come.

To be free, we must be liberated from our ego. In order to achieve this feat, we must form new connections among us based on mutual concern and mutual support. Instead of suppressing one another, society must learn to encourage everyone to be their true selves.

While it is difficult to examine a conflict objectively when you are a party to it, the longer the sides stall with making this effort, the more they will prolong their suffering. In the end, they, and the whole world with them, will understand that the war being fought today is a fight not only for the freedom of nations, but the freedom of every person, and in the end, the freedom of our souls. The struggle, therefore, is the price we pay for our freedom.

To win this war, we need to understand what we are up against, who is our real enemy. The more we look into the drivers behind this war, the more we will realize that the real culprit is the human ego, which drives all people to seek glory, fame, power, and wealth. We all possess an ego; it is a monster that lives within us, and only circumstances and characteristics beyond our comprehension determine if we reach a position where they might manifest in us. But even if they are not expressed, an egoistic tyrant still lives in all of us.

Therefore, our battle should be on two fronts: the physical and the internal. On the physical front, we need to do what we can to save our lives. On the internal, more important front, we need to stand up to the tyrant within us and seek to rise above the ego that separates us and pits us against each other to the death.

The battle against the ego takes place in different ways at different times and at different places. In some places, it unfolds violently, through wars, terrorism, or other forms of violence. In other places, it manifests through economic sanctions, shortage of staples, skyrocketing energy prices, and other forms of economic hardships that influence our lives. In still other places, the war unfolds through political battles. Either way, these hardships are all prices that we pay for our freedom.

The ego may win in some places and lose in others, but in the end, it will lose altogether. The time of its dominion is coming to a close.

In his essay “The Freedom,” written in the 1930s, the great thinker and kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that every tendency and characteristic in an individual is unique and we must cherish and nurture it. Afterwards, he elaborated on the importance of maintaining the freedom not only of individuals, but also of nations. In his words, “From the above-said, we learn what a terrible wrong inflict those nations that force their reign on minorities, depriving them of freedom without allowing them to lead their lives according to the tendencies they have inherited from their ancestors. They are regarded as no less than murderers.”

And to be free, we must be liberated from our ego. In order to achieve this feat, we must form new connections among us based on mutual concern and mutual support. Instead of suppressing one another, society must learn to encourage everyone to be their true selves.

For their part, individuals must learn to rise above their egos, too, and use their unique skills and capabilities not for their own benefit, and often at the expense of others, but for the benefit of society. In this way, if everyone will contribute what nature has given them to the benefit of all of humanity, there will be abundance, peace, and harmony on our planet. Therefore, the sooner we choose to pay the price for freedom from the ego, the sooner we will reach prosperity.