History Repeats Itself: The Urgent Need for Jewish Unity

Throughout history, the Jewish people have never truly listened to the call for unity. Time and again, sages and great scholars arose in every generation, urging the people to unite. Yet, they did not listen. But the sages never gave up; they continued to call, teach, and try by every means possible to awaken the people, to at least soften their blows.

This has always been our mission. The pressure from other nations, as well as our own unifying movements, should eventually lead us to unite. It is not merely a choice but a necessity. Both the nations of the world and the people of Israel are ultimately driven to unite with one side pushing through external pressures while the other side gets pulled by the wisdom of the sages. In the end, the entire process is laid out in order to lead us to unity.

Why? It is because a harmonious and peaceful unified state is the purpose of human development, and the Jewish people serve as a conduit in this process of a positive unifying example for humanity. When we motion to unity, we will inevitably become a model that compels the rest of the world to do the same. This is the great secret that has been known for generations but ignored time and again.

More than a hundred years ago, Theodor Herzl wrote about how decades will pass before we learn this lesson of the necessity of unity. And again, it will be forgotten, and we will neglect unity and mutual guarantee, and we will be punished with severe consequences. This is what it means to be a stiff-necked people. There is no strong memory of the suffering we endured. Just like small children who forget and repeat the same mistakes, so too do we walk in circles, stepping on the same rake again and again.

What will it take to awaken us? What will be the last straw? Unfortunately, history has shown that only great suffering and terrifying threats have been able to shake us from our slumber. Even then, those who suffered the most did not understand the reason for their afflictions. The Jews who were taken to concentration camps were clueless as to the spiritual root of what was happening.

Our role today is to ensure that this time, we understand in advance where suffering comes from, what causes it, and how to prevent it. If we do not unite, we will inevitably bring upon ourselves the same misfortunes, destruction, and suffering as in the past. But if we unite, we will serve as the foundation for universal unity, which will be humanity’s salvation from its divisive egoistic drives. When the Jews begin to unite, the world will readily accept the ability to unite that the Jews establish unconditionally and without hesitation.

However, this is a difficult mission, perhaps the most difficult. The Jewish people are no homogenous nation but a gathering of representatives from all 70 nations of the world. In ancient Babylon, Abraham guided people from all nations and united them under one idea: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We accepted this idea then, and to a certain extent, such unity was achieved during the period of the First Temple, and to a much lesser extent, in that of the Second Temple.

Since then, however, we have fallen far from this ideal. Through centuries of exile, suffering, and dispersion, self-preservation has become the reflex that has developed in the Jewish people, i.e., closing ourselves off, relying on knowledge, money, and survival instincts. We live for ourselves and our children, looking at the world and life through a very narrow lens, disconnected from the greater reality that binds us to our mission.

The greatest obstacle thus remains: How can we reach the hearts of the Jewish people and inspire them to unite? We each carry within us the roots of different nations. These are the roots of the 70 nations, compressed into a small group of people, making unity seem almost impossible.

But it is possible. When everything is already in flames, a saving rain can fall from the sky to extinguish them. That rain, however, will only come when there is genuine disappointment in egoistic existence and a sincere desire to unite. If that desire arises, then from the very positive unifying laws dwelling in nature, the force of unity will come to help.

However, we need to take the first steps, to move toward unity on our own. We will then receive the help we so desperately need.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on March 14, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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