There is never a dull moment for Israel. Even though a ceasefire is the talk of the day, the public has no confidence that the heavy barrages will come to a halt for long. Threats persist in both the south (from Hamas in Gaza) and the north of the country with rockets launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israeli territory. So the question that arises again is, when will the aggression end once and for all? The ball is in our court, in the court of the Jewish nation.
The hatred towards us never stops. Israel is constantly under siege, with pressure and repeated attacks, not only from Hamas and Hezbollah, but from Iran and other hostile elements all over the world. It is said, “The heart of ministers and kings is in God’s hands,” so even when the United States and other nations put pressure on us to reach a ceasefire, the real, heavy pressure comes from a deeper source, from the depths of nature.
We live in an integral system and are organized in a network that binds together the entire human race and operates according to strict laws of nature. The main hub in all this interconnected global traffic is the people of Israel.
“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over,” wrote foremost Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag in his article “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee.)
In other words, the Israeli nation has a significant role to play in the lives of everyone in the world. We were given a task from the day we stood at the foot of Mount Sinai, united as one man with one heart, when we signed a mutual guarantee and agreed to be a light unto the nations. From that moment on, we received the Torah, the light, the method for uniting the world—the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Since then, the function of the Jewish people has been redefined in the inner workings of reality: as long as the people of Israel are united above their opposite views, then the power of internal connection between them ignites sparks of light, a positive force that is projected to all the nations of the world in the global network. On the other hand, if the Jewish people succumb to egoism—self benefit at the expense of others—and mutual hatred, it is as if they block the pipeline of oxygen for all of humanity, cutting off the sparks of light.
The blockage is not visible, but it is felt keenly in the hearts of people and nations. Animosity against Jews conquers and suffocates the people of the world until it breaks out as antisemitic hate speech and actions. The more the lack of light and frustration intensifies in the nations of the world, the more it obliges them to take action, to seek to annihilate the Jews wherever they are.
So it is not a matter of principle that we should be the first to publish a spectacular picture of victory, nor will it help if we increase the deterrence mechanisms or increase retaliatory actions if we do not take great care to be united from within—not “united” as we are now because outsiders pressure us to embrace each other as we huddle in the shelters, but united in a true heartfelt and lasting unity.
If we just try to obscure the pressure on us, arming ourselves with a variety of fair arguments and adorning ourselves with eloquent information for the eyes of the global media, we will not solve the problem; to date, we have failed in these tactics. We need to listen to the world’s internal and underlying demand from us: Jewish unity.
The first step to calming down the attacks upon us must begin with acknowledging and agreeing that the fire rains down on us because we are not being a cohesive people. Literally. The international pressure on us should be used to increase our awareness of our obligation: to bring into the world the method of connection, to exemplify and preach to humanity anew the great rule of the Torah, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Only from love will peace flourish in the world.
If we understand the gap between our current situation and the desired situation that the system of natural laws demands of us, we will understand that we must first bring about a ceasefire in the relationships between us as Jewish people. Then, we will cause the world to treat us kindly, with friendship and sympathy, and we will be filled with joy because, as it is written: “In Israel is the secret to the unity of the world,” Rav Kook (Orot HaKodesh).
[Sveta Shtilrman stands at her living room inside a damaged building following a rocket attack from Gaza, in Ashdod, Israel May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun]
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