The Specialness Syndrome
There are two types of human beings on earth: Jews and non-Jews. Thanks to the non-Jews (or Gentiles), there are Jews. If Abraham had been the only man alive, he and his descendants couldn’t have been chosen. They could only be chosen among others who were not. Thanks to the wicked, the righteous shine bright.
The quest to be special, and to derive purpose from that specialness, is perhaps the most ostensible characteristic of Jewish identity, but this quest in fact pervades the human psyche. We are all Jews in this sense (even though 85% of us do have a lower IQ than the average European Jew). In being special, to God or to anyone, we are separate from others, and this separation is the source of the mind’s suffering. In a special relationship, we bask in the feeling of being loved, but if that special relationship should end, we are plunged into a hell of rejection and guilt. There is a myth that Lucifer was God’s lover before he was cast away. The rejection of Lucifer’s love revealed hate, and Lucifer thus became Satan, the embodiment of all evil. Only the pre-existence of love can produce hate.
The belief in your specialness is what separates you from other human beings, and it is this separation that causes and sustains conflict. The belief in your separateness will condemn you to a never-ending search to preserve your separate Self. It is the same logic that plays out in a relationship as it does between groups, or between nations. Fundamentally, you are not any more separate from others than a drop of water is separate from the ocean, but your ego maintains the illusion that you are. We all have to grapple with this almighty ego because we cannot conceive of our own existence without it.
Make an experiment, starting with a single day, or even a single hour.
Get naked, in a figurative sense. Strip yourself entirely of the layers of identity with which you have covered yourself.
That includes your religion, your country, your job, and your family. If you find this to be as inconceivable as taking off your clothes in public, then simply observe yourself thinking how impossible it is. In that very observation, you will have recognized the existence of your naked Self.
You will have taken the very first minute step towards making the Moses declaration: "I am that, I am". From this moment, miracles will become possible in your life.