How Can Israel Be United Effectively?
When we look at the state of the world, on the one hand, and the state of the Jewish people, who may seem more divided than ever, on the other hand, the natural question that arises is where do we start if we want to correct the problem? Is it possible to reach unity from this state of division? It is important to stress that this situation, reflective of a very deep breakage, is the best starting point for positive change and development.
The people of Israel have all the internal components and contradictions required for the realization of mutual complementarity. The uniqueness of the Jewish people is the knowledge and ability to bring about a state of connection and completion. As my teacher, Kabbalist Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (RABASH) wrote,
“Usually, if someone takes a pile of branches, can he break them all at once? But if taken one at a time, even a baby can break them. Similarly, you find that Israel will not be redeemed until they are all one society, as it is said, ‘In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah together.’ Thus, when they are united, they receive the face of Divinity.”
In my book, Jewish Self-Hatred: The Enemy Within — An Overview of Jewish Antisemitism, I made the case, using several examples, that self-hating Jews have served to bring much harm to the Jewish people, and as can be expected, also to themselves as a result. Concluding from years of such experience, we should not look for a place where nobody hates us. Instead, we should seek how to turn the hatred between us into connection and love. Then we will be able to dissolve the hatred and rejection we get from the nations of the world. As it is written in the book Maor VaShemesh, “The primary defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between one another in Israel, no calamity can befall them and by that, all the curses and suffering are banished.”
Many world events today express the immense hatred swelling in humanity, and Jews are no exception. We take sides and pit ourselves up against each other in many areas of life, and bridging our divisions seems unimaginable since we fall to the self-centered demands of the ego time and again, and hatred takes over unabated.
We are currently living through a major transitional era where we are becoming increasingly aware of the wickedness of our selfish nature.
While we feel worse and worse, more depressed, stressed, anxious, and uncertain about our future, we are still unaware of the causes and subsequent effects of our negative sensations, and more importantly, what we can do about them. However, we will eventually have to realize that our egoistic human nature is a lever that we can “pull” in order to switch it to love.
Without the increasing hatred and negativity that fill our lives, we would be unable to feel a much fuller sense of enjoyment in love since the increasingly unraveling evil within us adds more appetite and yearning for a genuine sensation of love to emerge.
But we do not have to wait for pain and suffering to spur us to recognize our selfish nature and mutual hatred as evil so that we want to change it. We can achieve the goal of fixing our relationships without blows to activate us. In the words of Rav Kook (Letters of the Raayah, 1966),
“Great is my faith that all this global uproar of a time of the shifting world in which we live has come, essentially, only for Israel. Now we are called upon a great and sacred task, to carry it out willingly and mindfully: to build ourselves and the entire ruined world along with us.”
We may have a strong hatred, but we also have a very strong human warmth; we can be very alienated from one another and yet also very embracing. We thus should not let the fact that everything now seems broken and hopeless scare us. On the contrary, true completion is made only between opposites — love over hatred, unity over division.
In fact, until we discover the maximum depth of division and rift, it is impossible to begin to engage in reconciliation. When we become aware of the breakage and its negative consequences in our lives, we will be ready to begin the process of connection.
Indeed, the process of reunification starts with what the wisdom of Kabbalah calls “the revelation of evil.” Through such a revelation, we receive clarity on what we need to correct within ourselves in order to reach a state of love. As RABASH explains,
“Man’s enemies, which is the evil inclination, called ‘enemy,’ as it is written, ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread,’ referring to the evil inclination, as our sages said, that King Solomon would call the evil inclination by the name ‘enemy,’ so he, too, will make peace with him. This is called, ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with both your inclinations,’ namely with the good inclination and with the evil inclination.”
As we have addressed in previous chapters, over the generations, factions of the Jewish people that could not maintain the principle of love that covers hate turned their back on other fellow Jews and dissociated from any form of Judaism. To this day, many would happily follow the same pattern of disconnection from Israel and from other Jews and would be happy to completely assimilate among the nations.
In order to break the ongoing harmful pattern of self-hatred that leads us astray and negatively influences our identity as a nation, our destiny, and the attitude toward us from the nations of the world, the call of the hour is to change our trajectory after a clear assessment of the state we are in.
Our bane could also be our gain. There has always been strife, and at times we have reached intolerable levels of tension among ourselves. The division is not bad per se. It is good or bad, depending on how we use it. These competitive or adversarial qualities are comparable to characteristics we observe in the animal kingdom where some species are carnivores and have been given these characteristics by nature for a specific purpose.
In the same way, our differences, no matter how deep, become visible as signs of vitality and a profusion of ideas. If we use them to strengthen our unity, they work in our favor. If we succumb to our ego and let our differences separate us, they become our bane. In the words of RASHI, author of comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and the Torah, “In the Goren [place of gatherings], they would sit in affinity and friendship, and as one bundle, like the Sanhedrin, without suspecting one another, since they would see each other and hear each other, and argue with one another until a proper instruction came forth.”
In our remote past, we worked out our way to overcome our differences and formed a nation like no other, a nation that was so worthy it was given the task to be a light to all the nations. It was bequeathed with the mission of being a model of unity above differences. However, as time passed, the more we tried to get closer, the more our egos demanded to express themselves, and the more challenging our unity became.
Today, it is with good reason that many people, both Jews and non-Jews, feel and say that the task of being a light to the nations is currently distant for the Jewish people. When we radiate strife and discord, there is nothing “illuminating” about us. At the same time, we know where the problem lies, so we have an opportunity to meet the challenge of rising above our disputes and uniting.
The book Shem MiShmuel by Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein refers to the weakening of our people when separation prevails, “Removal of the unity caused unfounded hatred, and the wall of Israel was weakened. This is why there was power in the Greeks to breach the wall of Israel.” But it also refers to the promising alternative when we pursue the goal of getting closer to each other, which can be likened to the construction of a fortress against our enemies: “The advice for this is the unity of Israel, since when Israel unite, they are like a partition of people who do not let a stranger enter between the lines.”
Covering Hate with Love: The Path to True Jewish Unity
We are a nation that succeeded in overcoming the deepest rifts by uniting above them and not by suppressing all opposing views under one dominant opinion. Moreover, we have succeeded in harnessing our differences for the common good in a way that not only allows for all views to exist but even strengthens other views without negating one’s own. As expressed in the book Maor Einayim, “Indeed, when all the disputes are elevated to the root of the source, to the world of unity, unity is formed over the names of the people of Israel.”[i]
But in order to attain this unity, we first need to have the desire to connect, as it is written in Likutey Halachot [Assorted Rules], “The essence of love and unity is in the desire. When each one is pleased with his friend, there is no disparity of desire between them, and they are all included in one desire. By this, they are incorporated in the upper desire, which is the end goal of the unity.”[ii]
Our sages wrote succinctly about the conditions for getting closer to each other. We cannot connect when we behave as self-righteous Jews and cancel, disregard, or disparage one another. As it is expressed in the book Maor VaShemesh,
“The main thing that brings one to love another is by each one being lowly and despicable in his own eyes, always finding faults in everything he does, and seeing the righteousness and actions of one’s friend as very great in his eyes. Through this, he comes to love his friend and be in unity with him. Conversely, if he is great in his own eyes and feels proud, he naturally sees his friend’s faults and by this comes to hate him, since his friend is very lowly in his eyes.”[iii]
King Solomon stated, “Hate stirs up strife, and love will cover all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12). As long as we let hatred set the tone among us, we will experience a collective decline. Conversely, we can claim victory when we are able to cover hate with love. The choice is in our hands.
One may ask, why would I want to unite with other fellow Jews? What would I get from it? Our sages shared their thoughts on this matter throughout their writings. Rav Kook wrote in his book Orot (Lights), “A person from Israel who wants to be rewarded with the light of life in truth must agree to plant himself in the assembly of Israel with all his heart, with all his senses and corporeal and spiritual powers.”
Similarly, Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote, “The most important thing before you today is the unity of friends. Exert in that more and more, for it can recompense for all the faults.”[iv] And in the book Degel Machaneh Ephraim, we can read,
“It is good for the children of Israel to always unite together in one bundle. Then, even those who are of lesser degree help their friends sanctify with more holiness and attain more. The upper one needs the one below it, and the lower one needs the one above it. Likewise, you should always be bundled in one bundle, and then your roots will unite, as well. This is the meaning of ‘You will be unto Me a Segula [virtue/remedy],’ meaning that you will be a Segula in the upper world, as well, when you are in one unity below.”[v]
In a nutshell, especially now, as antisemitism is rising worldwide, we can use this age-old hatred as a lever, get closer to each other, and thus become once again the united people of Israel, a model of unity and brotherhood that the world so desperately needs. This is the panacea that the world is searching for.
Indeed, as Baal HaSulam writes,
“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which sparks of purity would flow onto the entire human race throughout the world. And these sparks multiply daily, like one who gives to the treasurer until they are filled sufficiently, meaning until they develop to such an extent that they can understand the pleasantness and tranquility that are found in the kernel of love of others.”[vi]
[i] Rabbi Menachem Nachum, Maor Einayim, Portion VaYetze.
[ii] Rabbi Natan, Likutey Halachot [Assorted Rules], Hoshen Mishpat, “Rules of the Guarantor.”
[iii] Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Halevi Epstein, Maor VaShemesh [Light and Sun], Nitzavim [Standing].
[iv] Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), Letter №10, The Writings of Baal HaSulam, vol. 2, trans. Chaim Ratz (USA: Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2019), 290.
[v] Moshe Chaim Ephraim, Degel Machaneh Ephraim, Yitro [Jethro].
[vi] Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), The Writings of Baal HaSulam, vol. 1, trans. Chaim Ratz (USA: Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2019), 52.
(Based on the book “Jewish Self-Hatred: The Enemy Within — An Overview of Jewish Antisemitism” by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.)