If We Want, We Will Have Independence

In the short time between 1948 and today, we have built the State of Israel as a strong and prosperous country under immense pressure and constant bombardment. However, we have not achieved a state where we feel stable or safe in this land. Quite the contrary. Day by day the menace increases both from outside the country and within it, and we feel how at any moment, everything that was achieved with blood, sweat and tears, can crumble and dissolve. There is a constant existential threat. 

Our independence depends on an internal factor, and that is our will. The desire to connect across the divide. Connection is the spiritual power that has been inherent in us since our ancestor Abraham founded the nation across the division created by the growing ego or self-benefit. And we do not use this power because we do not want to. 

Our inability to achieve security stems from the way we have gathered on this land. We founded this country as brothers in need, as foreigners who agreed to live in this land, knowing that the world is against us and through lack of any other choice. From this starting point, today we are in danger of disintegrating and losing our independence. 

When our ego wins and divides, and it always does, "brothers in need" are no longer able to keep us together. Every quarrel goes away instead of strengthening closeness, every friction weakens instead of strengthening and increasing love. Until we can no longer stand each other. And the neighbors adjacent to our borders, feel our disunity and strike us.  

Our well-being depends on the peace between us. Therefore, from the very beginning, we should strive to see in each other not brothers in trouble, but brothers. Full stop. We should want to guide each other, be concerned with each other’s well-being and measure ourselves constantly in relation to our mutual concern: Have we achieved these ideals? If we haven’t, we will immediately need to rectify our mistake.  

We should become a nation that is no less than a family. Only a concept called family can hold such abysmal differences and by so doing can turn itself into an even stronger and more successful nation. 

Our independence depends on an internal factor, and that is our will. The desire to connect across the divide. Connection is the spiritual power that has been inherent in us since our ancestor Abraham founded the nation across the division created by the growing ego or self-benefit. And we do not use this power because we do not want to. 

This power, which can dwell between us from the desire for love and mutual embrace, is the highest power. Since it is potentially anchored in us, it is sufficient to ensure our survival here. Nothing more, nothing less. Erecting a real building requires we do it with the right intention, i.e., that it should serve all of us. In this way, not only will Israel truly be built, but the whole collapsing world will be fortified. 

It does not take much. A little compromise. I just have to stop seeing the Jew outside of me as a stranger.

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Antisemitism in Crimson Print

Last week, The Harvard Crimson editorial stated in its title that the university daily newspaper is “In Support of Boycott, Divest, Sanction and a Free Palestine.” Wholly adopting the narrative of the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, praising their “Keffiyeh Thursdays,” and their “colorful, multi-panel ‘Wall of Resistance’ in favor of Palestinian freedom and sovereignty,” the paper stated: “We … wish to extend our sincere support to those who have been and continue to be subject to violence in occupied Palestine. … This editorial board is broadly and proudly supportive of PSC’s mission and activism.” The paper does recognize that “Jewish people — like every people, including Palestinians — deserve nothing but life, peace, and security,” but when it comes to sovereignty, the paper grants this right only to the Palestinians.

We have lost our unity and have fallen into abysmal hatred of each other. In such a state, we do not serve our purpose, we are not a model of mutual responsibility or unity, and because of it, we condemn the world to perpetual bellicosity.

At the same time, the writers of the editorial “feel the need to assert that support for Palestinian liberation is not antisemitic. We unambiguously oppose and condemn antisemitism.” It is interesting that objection to the very existence of the Jewish state, a level of disapproval and denunciation that even today’s Russia and North Korea do not face, is not considered antisemitic, but one of the board’s “foundational principles we must uphold.”

We should not be fooled by the paper’s thin veil of moralism; it is antisemitic to the core. At the same time, we should not blame them for writing such editorials when Jewish students themselves feel this way toward Israel. But when it comes to Jews, the only distinction that really matters to BDS activists, antisemitic university professors, Nazis, or whomever, is the distinction between Jews and non-Jews. The rest, for them, is detail.

The Crimson editorial comes as no surprise. It is part of a growing wave of antisemitism, whose end will be another catastrophe for the Jewish people. The editorial, as well as the Jewish community’s lackluster response to it, point to the fact that we, Jews, are not functioning correctly. And if we do not do what we must, we should not expect anything positive in our future. The editorial’s position will gain traction and the Jews will keep silent until they vanish, either physically or spiritually, and probably both.

Our only response to such publications must be enhanced unity. No protests or debates with antisemites will help, but only enhanced focus on internal unity among Jews; this is the only answer to antisemitism, and the only thing that will diminish it. Jewish sympathy with BDS is not our main problem, but what this sympathy reflects: the depth of Jewish division. The more divided we are, the more we increase antisemitism.

Today, we have BDS supporters even in the Israeli government. That is, within the Israeli government there are people who are against the State of Israel. If it sounds absurd, it is.

To tackle antisemitism, we must understand why there are Jews. I understand why Jews do not want to sympathize with their own heritage. Jews are pariahs. However, if Jews knew what it means to be Jewish, what a noble duty we have been given, and which the world demands that we carry out, perhaps they would relate to their heritage with more respect.

Just the fact that we are held responsible for so many misfortunes proves what power we hold in the eyes of the world. It proves that the world believes that we can bring tremendous good to the world, and they are mad at us for not bringing it. Therefore, all we need to do is find out what is the benefit that the world demands we bring it.

The benefit that we can, and must give to humanity is mutual responsibility among everyone. We are the nation that conceived this notion when we first established our nationhood. We coined such sayings as “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We became a nation only after we united “as one man with one heart,” and immediately thereafter were ordered to be “a light unto nations”—to be the world’s example of unity.

Yet, we have lost our unity and have fallen into abysmal hatred of each other. In such a state, we do not serve our purpose, we are not a model of mutual responsibility or unity, and because of it, we condemn the world to perpetual bellicosity.

Everyone but us feels this and hates us for it. We are the only ones oblivious to our calling and therefore do not understand what everyone wants from us. While humanity cannot articulate its grievance against us, the fact that it accuses us of warmongering proves that they believe that we can eliminate belligerence.

Indeed, we can do it by restoring our internal unity above all our divisions. By this, we will become a “light unto nations.” If we restore our mutual responsibility, we will become the model that the world demands that we become, and we will gain the world’s respect and gratitude. Then, and only then, we will not see antisemitic editorials, as people will understand why there are Jews, and why there is a Jewish state.

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There Could Be Much More Light in Israel

On the knife for cutting the Shabbat challah of Baal HaSulam—Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag—were engraved the words, "State of Israel." Although the Independence Day of the State of Israel has no Kabbalistic background, the establishment of the State of Israel was of great importance to Baal HaSulam. 

Independence Day is also of great personal significance to me. Thanks to the establishment of the State of Israel, I was able to immigrate to Israel. And I share the aspirations of Baal HaSulam for the establishment of an exemplary people on Israeli soil. Let us be united as one man in one heart toward that goal. For only in this way will great and positive forces be able to arise among us, superior forces that we will spread to all the nations of the world from the strength of our unity as Israel. 

In the eyes of the Kabbalist, the reestablishment of the State of Israel in the land of Israel was a great step and cornerstone toward the fulfillment of the eternal Jewish vision. Two thousand years after the destruction of the Temple, when unfounded hatred broke out among Jews and we were scattered to all corners of the world, we finally founded once again a state to realize our role as the Israeli nation: to be "a light unto nations" - a model of the correct path for all mankind. 

The Zionism of Baal HaSulam was not the Zionism we know, and it did not advocate one party or another. It focused on the goal for realization of the plan of creation, a plan in which the Jews play a central and significant role. From one Independence Day to the next, Baal HaSulam tried to navigate the compass and guide the Jewish people in his writings to fulfill their spiritual destiny. 

Independence Day is also of great personal significance to me. Thanks to the establishment of the State of Israel, I was able to immigrate to Israel. And I share the aspirations of Baal HaSulam for the establishment of an exemplary people on Israeli soil. Let us be united as one man in one heart toward that goal. For only in this way will great and positive forces be able to arise among us, superior forces that we will spread to all the nations of the world from the strength of our unity as Israel. 

I was recently pleased to hear that 90%of Israelis said in a new poll that they are proud to be Jewish. Without such national pride it is impossible to move forward. However, we should feel this pride as both a reward and an obligation. 

While we are rewarded with the exalted role that awaits us, with the distinction of being a special link in the chain of humanity, it comes with an obligation to continue along the path, because we are only in the middle and we must reach the end. Our destination is to reach the state of mutual guarantee between us and then to transmit the power that comes from our unity to the whole world. 

We have a heavy and significant work to carry out, and the nations of the world sense this within the contents of the internal global network that connects us all. Year by year, people put increasing pressure on us to push and force us to fulfill our destiny. Sometimes the people of the world relate to us negatively in the form of antisemitic statements, and sometimes they relate positively in the form of expressions of appreciation and a desire for cooperation. But whether from one side or another, the world is steering us toward one clear point: that Israel must be a unique people, upright before God, a people directly connected to and aligned with the revelation the Supreme Force. 

Considering the darker side of the recent survey was the admission that about 33% of the respondents, young people aged 24-34, said they were considering leaving Israel. It is the intense stress and pressure, the danger and threat, and, most importantly, the lack of foreseeing a positive future that empower these thoughts of leaving Israel. They all stem from a lack of knowledge and appreciation of our indispensable role as a people, our destiny as a nation, and our responsibility to some nine billion people of the world. 

Both the younger and older generations—in fact, all of us without exception—need to go through a maturing process. Simply understanding our role as taught by Baal HaSulam in his writings—a direct continuation of the message of a long chain of Kabbalists stretching back to the birth of our people— will already neutralize the latent contempt some of us may feel for our role. This deeper perception will elevate us and clarify for us how to build among ourselves and later in the world a reformed society.