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The Jewish nation began in the cradle of modern civilization: Mesopotamia, known as “the land between two rivers.” Mesopotamia was a vast and fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. It was the birthplace of numerous inventions that enabled the development of human civilization. It was also the birthplace of Abraham, who became the father of three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Abraham, the son of Terah, a statue builder and idol-worshiping spiritual leader, possessed a unique quality that set him apart from the rest of the people: he was unusually perceptive, with a zeal for truth. Abraham was also a caring person, who noticed that his country folk were becoming increasingly unhappy. As he reflected on his observation, he realized that the reason for their unhappiness was their growing egoism, i.e., self-interest at the expense of others.
They became increasingly estranged from each other. Within a relatively short time period, the Babylonians had gone from a prevailing sense of kinship, described in the Book of Genesis (11:1) as being “of one language and one speech,” to vanity and alienation. From simple people who were content with their lot, the Babylonians became greedy and self-centered, saying, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to heaven, and let us make ourselves a name” (Genesis 11:4).
As soon as Abraham realized that his people’s problem was the lack of balance between giving and receiving, he began to tell them about it. But his efforts were met with ridicule and disbelief. The book Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer (Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer), one of the most prominent Midrashim (commentaries) on the Torah, offers a vivid description of the Babylonians’ vanity:
“Nimrod [King of Babylon] said to his people, ‘Let us build a great city and dwell in it, lest we be scattered over the earth … And let us build a great tower in it, reaching to heaven … and let us make a great name for ourselves in the land.’”
Abraham’s struggle for the principle of balance was more than an attempt to save the community of his hometown. Abraham discovered that the egoism within humanity was an ever-growing beast, and without a workable method of containing it, would destroy everything. This is why the Hebrew kings of the past and the Jewish sages throughout the centuries emphasized the principle of placing unity above the growing ego.
They knew that this was a process and not a one-time solution that would bring peace and fulfillment. The “light” that the Jews were to bring was the law of unity that Abraham had discovered and that they would introduce into their society. It was a way of life that would enable people to rise above their egos and create a balanced, thriving society that lived in homeostasis.
Since the Jews were entrusted with this task, hatred of them grew if they did not unite and thus were not “a light unto the nations.” Conversely, hostility diminished or even disappeared when they made their relations with each other positive and thus set an example for others to emulate. I explicated this pattern of unity and antisemitism throughout history at length in my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, and today we have reached times where the need to enact unity is becoming dire, and its red alert is the exponentially-rising antisemitic sentiment, crimes, and threats that abound globally.
It is my hope that we use the warning signal of fiercely rising antisemitism as a wake-up call to unite above our divisive drives, and that we will become a shining example for the kind of unity the world needs very much today. Whether we do so or not is the difference between whether the hatred for us will erupt in catastrophic proportions, as it has in the past, or whether we will open up a whole new unified, harmonious, and peaceful world.
Based on the book “New Antisemitism: Mutation of a Long-Lived Hatred” by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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