The Realities of Antisemitism and of Slef-Hating Jews

Again, echoing Rabbi Kaminsky's words from before Maariv, it's very important that everyone who is eligible to and hasn't yet registered to vote should do so and that we should all follow that up with a voting in the forthcoming election. Regardless of the electoral outcome, the worrisome fact that undisguised rabid Sinas Yisrael is socially and politically acceptable in New York City of all places should remind us of two fundamental truths. Meshech Chochma writes, commenting on the passage from the Sifrei that we quote in the Hagadda:

ויגר שם מלמד שלא ירד יעקב אבינו להשתקע אלא לגור שם. פירוש מלמד לדורות בכל גלות וגלות ההנהגה שידעו הן שלא ירדו להשתקע רק לגור עד בוא קץ הימין ויהיו נחשבים בעיני עצמם לא כאזרחים.

Meshech Chochma says that in Golus our relationship with the country where we live is a dialectical one. On the one hand, on the civic, societal level, we are loyal, law-abiding, productive, contributing members of society and, like every citizen, are entitled to the benefits, the full benefits of citizenship. But religiously, in terms of our internal compass, in terms of our internal religious orientation, ויהיו נחשבים בעיני עצמם לא כאזרחים. There are several legitimate, even compelling factors for why a Jew can be living in Chutz La'aretz, hopefully in each of our lives at least one of these factors is present, but there's no reason and there's no justification for ever forgetting that we're living in Golus. There can be reason to live in Golus, but there's never ever reason to forget that we're living in Golus. What's so striking about the fact מלמד שלא ירד יעקב אבינו להשתקע to settle ela lagur sham to live there as a stranger is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Yaakov Avinu that he was going to die in Mitzrayim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Yaakov Avinu: אנכי אלך עמך וגם עלה. He promised him Kevura in Eretz Yisrael. So Yaakov Avinu knew that in terms of his this-worldly existence that Mitzrayim was the... final stop. And yet, that reality notwithstanding, attitudinally, but it was lo ke'achshav. And maybe the more we internalize that religious orientation of ויהיו נחשבים בעיני עצמם, again, klapei pnim, not klapei chutz. ויהיו נחשבים בעיני עצמם לא כאזרחים, maybe the more we internalize that, the less need there will be for external reminders from sonei Yisrael. Someone shared the following story, the following encounter that they had with the Rav. I don't know, it's probably a story that goes back 50 years. So he shared the story with me that he once met the Rav in the airport, that the Rav commuted between Boston and New York, and he went over to give shalom and the Rav responded and struck up a conversation with him, and he asked him where he lives. And the person said, "I live in such and such a place," and he mentioned the community where he lived. And the Rav said, "Yeah, it's takke a beautiful, strong Jewish community," and then he added, "But there's only one problem: they forget that they're in galus." The same point as the Meshech Chochmah. The second truth that we're reminded of is one that the Rambam highlights in Iggeres Teiman. The Rambam says from the time of Ma'amad Har Sinai and bechiras Yisrael, התקוממו כל האומות עלינו בעבורה על צד קנאה ורשעה. bechiras Yisrael, the way that umos ha'olam chose to respond to bechiras Yisrael, was with jealousy and wickedness. And then the Rambam makes a striking, striking, sweeping statement: ולא היה זמן מאז עד עתה. So from the time of Ma'amad Har Sinai until today, the 12th century,

ולא היה זמן מאז עד עתה שלא שם כל מלך עז או איש רשע מתגבר ראשית כל כוונתו ואחרית מצוותיו לסתור תורתנו.

Every brazen ruler, every rasha who prevails, his intent and his goal are to rebel against bechiras Yisrael. The Rambam says basically they're waging war against Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That can't be done, so they wage a proxy war against us. Anti-Semitism is a constant. The Rambam in Hilchos Melachim writes, and I think it's at the end of Perek Ches, Perek Zayin, sorry, Perek Zayin, Perek Tes, that when a Chayal goes out to wage war, he should know that על ייחוד השם הוא עושה מלחמה. And that statement again in the halachic context of Mishneh Torah reflects this historical understanding. Whatever pretext may be given, maybe the pretext is territorial, all kinds of excuses and pretexts, but really it's just the latest battle in this ongoing war against Hakadosh Boruch Hu, which then gets directed against us. רוצה לחלוק על השם ואין לחלוק עליו, so they aim their, it used to be their arrows and now it's the missiles Rachmana Litzlan against us. And what's so striking about Mishneh Torah is, mainly you could have said that the Rambam in Iggeres Teiman makes a statement about history from Matan Torah until the 12th century. But what would the Rambam say about what happened subsequently? So okay, you don't really know from Iggeres Teiman. But the Rambam clearly when he wrote Mishneh Torah was writing Torah that's eternal. So when he writes in Hilchos Melachim that the Chayal should know that על ייחוד השם הוא עושה מלחמה, the Rambam didn't think that was going to become dated. The Rambam didn't think that was going to become outdated. So what the Rambam is telling us is, it's been a constant until now, and it will remain a constant until Melech HaMashiach comes. You know, until a couple of years ago, there are times in, there are short tekufos in history where we have a respite from antisemitism. There was a Golden Age in Spain. In terms of world history, it wasn't that much, not that long after that there was Geirush Sefarad. And there was a time when many people without a sense of history thought that America was different. So I remember, I think I was in my teens at the time, the Rav was giving a drasha, and he said, you know, many people asked, and he posed the question rhetorically, referring to the Holocaust, could it happen here, here in the United States? And he answered so emphatically, of course it could happen. The vile mobs on college campuses began their protests before the Medinas Yisrael engaged in its defensive actions in Azza. If antisemitism can explode, so obviously it means that it was there beneath the surface and just needed a spark. You know, if a spark falls and there's an explosion, so it means there was an awful, awful lot of sticks of dynamite there. Because if there was nothing there, so then the spark fizzles and nothing happens. There are certainly Chasidei Umos HaOlam, there certainly are, and there certainly are Chasidei Umos HaOlam in this country as well. with that same broad stroke that anti-Semitism is a constant in the collective Jewish historical experience. It has been since Ma'amad Har Sinai and it remains that way and it remains that way and that's what we've been living through the past two years and it has in this electoral cycle and season become even more vividly clear and is more acutely felt. The last point that we'll discuss tonight. What's excruciatingly painful, one excruciatingly painful element in the current unfolding politics is the role of self-hating Jews. It's painful beyond words, beyond words. The depth of the hatred, that self-hatred, but you know when a Jew hates himself so that translates as perfidy because he then hates other Jews as well, anyone who's holding on to their Jewishness. The depth of that hatred is staggering but it's actually not surprising. So to suggest one perspective, not the only one but one perspective on that phenomenon. You know, Ba'avonoseinu Ha'rabim there are many Jews, most Jews, are tinokos shenishbu. They're not yet religious, but Baruch Hashem most of them are not self-hating. They're not looking to extinguish Rachmana Litzlan their Jewishness. It's just that because through no fault of their own as tinokos shenishbu, the neshama or the nitzotza shel kedusha are dormant. So their Jewishness isn't the factor in their lives that it should be and it's sadly, tragically neglected until it will be ignited within them. But Rachmana Litzlan, some Jews, the self-hating Jews, they want to extinguish their Jewishness. It's not that their Jewishness is dormant, they want to extinguish it. They want to uproot it. But that can't be done. ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא and there's an element in the neshama which remains, which allows for the potential for teshuva. So the efforts to extinguish, to suppress, to uproot their Jewishness are futile. They're constantly frustrated and because of that they constantly redouble and intensify their efforts and that's what generates this Seemingly open-ended, bottomless self-hatred. It's excruciatingly painful to to see and on one level it's the the worst part of the the whole parsha. And זה לעומת זה עשה אלקים, whenever whenever we see how how much a Jew, rachmana litzlan, can rebel against kedusha, it's a reminder of how much a Jew can cultivate and pursue and attain kedusha and halevai that that that should be what what emerges.