SHABBAT HA’GADOL DERASHA - Boca Raton …rabbi.brsonline.org/ShabbosHagadol2015Antisemitism.pdf · SHABBAT HA’GADOL DERASHA ... Ancient Hatred to Modern Anti-Semitism ... Jews

From Ancient Hatred to Modern Anti-Semitism

Why the Jews?

Rabbi Efrem GoldbergBoca Raton Synagogue

[email protected]

SHABBAT HA’GADOL DERASHA

Sponsored by Dr. Avraham and Elana Belizon in memory of his beloved father, Dr. Yitzchak Belizon z’l

Ancient Hatred to Modern Anti-Semitism – Rabbi Efrem Goldberg – Shabbos Ha’Gadol 2015/5775

Boca Raton Synagogue – Page #1

I. Introduction a. Anti-‐Semitism in our times – Paris, Copenhagen, London b. ADL statistics c. Anti-‐Semitism disguised as anti-‐Israel d. Why must it be this way?

II. Historic Connection Between Pesach and Anti-‐Semitism

a. Blood libels i. Began in Middle Ages. Over 100 such libels from 12th to 16th centuries ii. Damascus libel iii. As recently as 1928 in Massena, New York

b. Modern blood libels against Israel

III. Seder Replete with Allusions to Suffering and Persecution & Hope for Redemption a. Rosh Hashana – Nissan will be month of future geulah b. Rambam begins by describing seder in galus c. Customs

i. Egg in Salt water ii. Kittel

d. Triumph over Edom = Rome = Christendom i. Pesikta, Targum Sheni, Rokeiach

e. Why did the Rabbis go to B’nai Berak for the seder? i. Bar Kochba? ii. Dr. Herskovitz – to develop a response to Christianity

IV. Not Just Allusions, Explicit – V’hi She’Amda

a. Indeed, we have been hated in every generation – Apisdorf chart b. What is the v’hi?

i. Bris bein ha’besarim ii. Netziv – the very fact that we have been hated has sustained us because it has

protected us from assimilation c. Shibolei Ha’Leket, Ritva: Just as we were redeemed from first 3 exiles we will be

saved from this long 4th exile under Edom. d. R’ Chaim Berlin – anti-‐Semitism takes 2 forms

V. Speaking of Enemies…Arami Oveid Avi

a. Haggadah moves directly into the story of a great anti-‐Semite b. Why read this section instead of Shemos?

i. Succinct summary of yetzias mitzrayim ii. It is a demonstration of how to tell the story years later iii. Tell the story going all the way back to Yaakov and not just from Egypt.

c. We don’t actually find Lavan trying to kill Yaakov? How can we declare Lavan even worse than Pharaoh?

i. Gra – tzei u’lemad, right after v’hi she’amda, go and see how someone who positions himself as if he loves us, truly hated us

ii. Rabbi Sacks – Lavan is the first anti-‐Semite iii. Maharal – he is first to hate us for absolutely no reason at all



VI. Our Response to Anti-‐Semitism…Shfoch Chamascha

a. Some see this section as offensive and suggest its removal i. A manuscript from 1521 altered it to “pour out your love” ii. Ma’aseh Mitzrayim relates to the tension between praying for the government

and wishing their demise b. Rabbi Sacks – only added in the Middle Ages, likely in response to Crusades c. Why do we say it at this point in the Haggadah?

i. Aruch Hashulchan ii. Ran – four glasses of wine correspond with four exiles. The fifth cup is our

request for Hashem to pour out His wrath on them. iii. Rav Rimon – like Av Ha’Rachamim at Seder iv. Rav Schachter quoting the Rav

d. Limits of Shfoch Chamascha i. Rav Hirsch – doesn’t say on but says to ii. Lubavitcher Rebbe – we are seeing positive change iii. Rav Shlomo quoting Kotzker – pour your warmth

VII. Let’s Toast to Revenge – Kos Eliyahu

a. No mention of this custom in Talmud, rishonim, Tur, Shulchan Aruch, etc. b. Why now?

i. Gra – it is the debated 5th cup and Eliyahu resolves debates ii. Eliyahu is harbinger of redemption

1. Shabbos Ha’gadol haftorah 2. Gra – two halves of Hallel correspond with past redemption and future

redemption

VIII. A Night of Protection, A Night of Destiny a. Rama – open door for Eliyahu b. Leil shimurim

i. Shemos, Rashi, Rashbam, Ba’al Ha’Turim c. Halachik implications

i. No fear of zugos (pairs) ii. Aramaic iii. Abridged bedtime Krias Shema iv. Beracha mei’ayn sheva v. No need for salt vi. No need to lock the door

IX. Post Leil Shimurim – How to Respond to Anti-‐Semitism?

a. David Brooks suggestion b. Moment Magazine suggestion c. Seeing Anti-‐Semitism in context of Jewish Destiny

i. Aruch Ha’Shulchan – R’ Akiva the eternal optimist ii. Rav Rimon story of Holocaust survivor

d. Fate and Destiny i. R’ Soloveitchik – Covenant of Egypt and Covenant of Sinai











Times of London August 17, 1840

After Damascus blood libel, 1840



Massena, New York

1928

Blood libel in NY



1. Rosh

2. Rambam Nusach Hagadah

1138-1204

3. The Historical Haggadah R’ Nachman Cohen

Seder References to Suffering and Persecution



4. Pesikta D’Rav Kehana 7:133

He who exacted vengeance from the former oppressor will exact vengeance from the latter. Just as in Egypt it was with blood, so with Edom it will be the same.



6. Rokeiach #271 R”Elazar of Worms (1176-1238)

5. Targum Sheni Esther 3:8 7th or 8th Century

7. Haggadah

8. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Haggadah

Just as we destroy the chametz in light of the matzah, so too may Hashem destroy the wicked government from among us and save us from this foolish king.

In the merit of the destruction of the chametz, may Esav be destroyed.



9. Professor Meir Herskovitz

Yeshiva University

“The Gathering in B’nai Berak,“

Or Ha Mizrach 26 (1978)

10. Haggadah

The Rabbis met in B’nai Berak to

formulate a response to Christianity, which was threatening

Judaism at the time.



http://www.aish.com/h/pes/h/Vi-He-She-Amda.html

Vi-He She-Amdaby Rabbi Shimon ApisdorfHave others really tried to destroy us in every generation?

Anti-Semitism: Every Generation

In each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed beHe, rescues us from their hands.

Have non-Jews really tried to destroy us in every generation?

Consider:

1430 BCE Slavery in Egypt. (Passover)356 BCE Haman attempts genocide of the Jews. (Purim)138 BCE Greek government outlaws the practice of Judaism in Israel. (Chanukah)486 CE Monks and mobs burn synagogue, dig up a Jewish cemetery, and burn bones.624 Mohammed watches as 600 Jews are decapitated in Medina in one day.640 Jews expelled from Arabia.1096 First crusade: Thousands of Jews tortured and massacred.

1146 Second crusade: Thousands of Jews, including women and babies, arebutchered across Europe.

1200s Jews ― blamed for causing the Black Plague ― are murdered in Frankfort,Speyer, Koblenz, Mainz, Cracow, Alsace, Bonn, and other cities.

1290 Jews expelled from England.1306 Jews expelled from France.1349 Jews expelled from Hungary.1391 Spain: Seville, Majorca, Barcelona – tens of thousands killed.1394 Second expulsion from France.

1400's Jews accused of murdering Christian children and baking matzah with theblood.

1421 Jews expelled from Austria.1492 Jews expelled from Spain; Inquisition.1496 Jews expelled from Portugal1500s Marranos are burned in Mexico, Portugal, Peru, and Spain.

Vi-He She-Amda http://www.aish.com/print/?contentID=48962016&section=/h/pes/h

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1553 The Talmud is burned in Italy.1648-66 Cossacks, Poles, Russians, and Swedes massacre Jews.1744 Jews expelled from Bohemia and Moravia.1818 Pogroms in Yemen.1840 Blood libel in Damascus.1862 General Ulysses S. Grant expels Jews from Tennessee.1882 Pogroms in Russia.

1930s-40sOfficial Canadian reply to most Jewish pleas for refuge: "Unfortunately, thoughwe greatly sympathize with your circumstance, at present you cannot beadmitted. Please try some other country."

1939-45Six million Jews are annihilated across Europe. Babies serve as targetpractice, women are human guinea pigs for doctors and scientists, beards aretorn from men's faces.

1948-67 Arab nations launch attacks to annihilate the States of Israel. Fearing for theirlives, Jews flee Algeria, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Egypt.

1917-91 The study of Hebrew is a "crime against the state" in the Soviet Union.

How have we survived such an onslaught?

There is a dimension of Jewish thought known as gematria, or numerology. This approach attaches a numericalvalue to every letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In accordance with a strict set of rules, scholars are often able toreveal hidden meanings by uncovering ideas that are numerically encoded in various words and sentences.

The Haggadah says, "And this is what has sustained our forefathers and us..." The Hebrew word for "this" isv'hee, which is a four letter word consisting of a vav, the sixth letter of the alphabet, a hey, the fifth letter, a yud,the tenth letter, and an aleph, the first letter.

Perhaps these four letters are an allusion to the source of our national endurance.

Vav = 6 – represents the six sections of the TalmudHey = 5 – represents the five books of the Written Torah.Yud = 10 – represents the Ten Commandments.Aleph = 1 – represents "God is one."

Through it all, Jews have always seen themselves as having a profound relationship with the transcendental Godwho is One. A vibrant observance of the commandments, coupled with an unfailing dedication to studying thewisdom of the Torah, is both the expression of that relationship and the force which has propelled us throughtime.

If you remove these elements, what else is there to being Jewish?

(from the Passover Survival Kit Haggadah)

Fighting the Moral Message

Rabbi Tom Meyer

Vi-He She-Amda http://www.aish.com/print/?contentID=48962016&section=/h/pes/h

2 of 5 3/25/15, 3:03 PM

11. R’ Shimon Apisdorf www.Aish.com



12. Netziv

Imrei Shefer Haggadah (1817-1893)

13. Shibolei Ha’Leket (1210-1280)

14. Ritva (1250-1330)

15. R’ Chaim Berlin (1832-1892)

Being hated has kept us from assimilating



16. Vilna Gaon (1720-1797)

17. Maharal R’ Yehudah

Loew of Prague (1520-1609)

Lavan is father of anti-‐Semitism, because he is the first to hate us for absolutely no reason



http://www.aish.com/tp/i/sacks/134582498.html

Vayetzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3)The Birth of the World's Oldest Hateby Rabbi Lord Jonathan SacksThe roots of anti-Semitism.

"Go and learn what Laban the Aramean sought to do to our father Jacob. A Pharaoh made his decree only aboutthe males whereas Laban sought to destroy everything." This passage from the Haggadah on Pesach - evidentlybased on this week's parsha - is extraordinarily difficult to understand.

First, it is a commentary on the phrase in Deuteronomy, Arami oved avi. As the overwhelming majority ofcommentators point out, the meaning of this phrase is "my father was a wandering Aramean", a reference eitherto Jacob, who escaped to Aram [=Syria, a reference to Haran where Laban lived], or to Abraham, who left Aramin response to God's call to travel to the land of Canaan. It does not mean "an Aramean [=Laban] tried to destroymy father." Some commentators read it this way, but almost certainly they only do so because of this passage inthe Haggadah.

Second, nowhere in the parsha do we find that Laban actually tried to destroy Jacob. He deceived him, tried toexploit him, and chased after him when he fled. As he was about to catch up with Jacob God appeared to him ina dream at night and said: 'Be very careful not to say anything, good or bad, to Jacob.' (Gen. 31: 22). WhenLaban complains about the fact that Jacob was trying to escape, Jacob replies: "Twenty years now I have workedfor you in your estate - fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for some of your flocks. You changedmy wages ten times!" (31: 41). All this suggests that Laban behaved outrageously to Jacob, treating him like anunpaid labourer, almost a slave, but not that he tried to "destroy" him - to kill him as Pharaoh tried to kill all maleIsraelite children.

Third, the Haggadah and the Seder service of which it is the text, is about how the Egyptians enslaved andpractised slow genocide against the Israelites and how God saved them from slavery and death. Why seek todiminish this whole narrative by saying that, actually, Pharaoh's decree was not that bad, Laban's was worse.This seems to make no sense, either in terms of the central theme of the Haggadah or in relation to the actualfacts as recorded in the biblical text.

How then are we to understand it?

Perhaps the answer is this. Laban's behaviour is the paradigm of anti-Semites through the ages. It was not somuch what Laban did that the Haggadah is referring to, but what his behaviour gave rise to, in century aftercentury. How so?

Laban begins by seeming like a friend. He offers Jacob refuge when he is in flight from Esau who has vowed tokill him. Yet it turns out that his behaviour is less generous than self-interested and calculating. Jacob works forhim for seven years for Rachel. Then on the wedding night Laban substitutes Leah for Rachel, so that to marryRachel, Jacob has to work another seven years. When Joseph is born to Rachel, Jacob tries to leave. Labanprotests. Jacob works another six years, and then realises that the situation is untenable. Laban's sons areaccusing him of getting rich at Laban's expense. Jacob senses that Laban himself is becoming hostile. Racheland Leah agree, saying, "he treats us like strangers! He has sold us and spent the money!" (31: 14-15).

Jacob realises that there is nothing he can do or say that will persuade Laban to let him leave. He has no choicebut to escape. Laban then pursues him, and were it not for God's warning the night before he catches up withhim, there is little doubt that he would have forced Jacob to return and live out the rest of his life as his unpaid

The Birth of the World's Oldest Hate http://www.aish.com/print/?contentID=134582498&section=/tp/...

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labourer. As he says to Jacob the next day: "The daughters are my daughters! The sons are my sons! The flocksare my flocks! All that you see is mine!" (31: 43). It turns out that everything he had ostensibly given Jacob, in hisown mind he had not given at all.

Laban treats Jacob as his property, his slave. He is a non-person. In his eyes Jacob has no rights, noindependent existence. He has given Jacob his daughters in marriage but still claims that they and their childrenbelong to him, not Jacob. He has given Jacob an agreement as to the animals that will be his as his wages, yethe still insists that "The flocks are my flocks."

What arouses his anger, his rage, is that Jacob maintains his dignity and independence. Faced with animpossible existence as his father-in-law's slave, Jacob always finds a way of carrying on. Yes he has beencheated of his beloved Rachel, but he works so that he can marry her too. Yes he has been forced to work fornothing, but he uses his superior knowledge of animal husbandry to propose a deal which will allow him to buildflocks of his own that will allow him to maintain what is now a large family. Jacob refuses to be defeated.Hemmed in on all sides, he finds a way out. That is Jacob's greatness. His methods are not those he would havechosen in other circumstances. He has to outwit an extremely cunning adversary. But Jacob refuses to bedefeated, or crushed and demoralized. In a seemingly impossible situation Jacob retains his dignity,independence and freedom. Jacob is no man's slave.

Laban is, in effect, the first anti-Semite. In age after age, Jews sought refuge from those, like Esau, who soughtto kill them. The nations who gave them refuge seemed at first to be benefactors. But they demanded a price.They saw, in Jews, people who would make them rich. Wherever Jews went they brought prosperity to theirhosts. Yet they refused to be mere chattels. They refused to be owned. They had their own identity and way oflife; they insisted on the basic human right to be free. The host society then eventually turned against them. Theyclaimed that Jews were exploiting them rather than what was in fact the case, that they were exploiting the Jews.And when Jews succeeded, they accused them of theft: "The flocks are my flocks! All that you see is mine!" Theyforgot that Jews had contributed massively to national prosperity. The fact that Jews had salvaged someself-respect, some independence, that they too had prospered, made them not just envious but angry. That waswhen it became dangerous to be a Jew.

Laban was the first to display this syndrome but not the last. It happened again in Egypt after the death ofJoseph. It happened under the Greeks and Romans, the Christian and Muslim empires of the Middle Ages, theEuropean nations of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and after the Russian Revolution.

In her fascinating book World on Fire, Amy Chua argues that ethnic hatred will always be directed by the hostsociety against any conspicuously successful minority. All three conditions must be present. [1] The hated groupmust be a minority or people will fear to attack it. [2] It must be successful or people will not envy it, merely feelcontempt for it. [3] It must be conspicuous or people will not notice it. Jews tended to fit all three. That is why theywere hated.

And it began with Jacob during his stay with Laban. He was a minority, outnumbered by Laban's family. He wassuccessful, and it was conspicuous: you could see it by looking at his flocks.

What the sages are saying in the Haggadah now becomes clear. Pharaoh was a one-time enemy of the Jews,but Laban exists, in one form or another, in age after age. The syndrome still exists today. As Amy Chua notes,Israel in the context of the Middle East is a conspicuously successful minority. It is a small country, a minority; it issuccessful and it is conspicuously so. Somehow, in a tiny country with few natural resources, it has outshone itsneighbours. The result is envy that becomes anger that becomes hate. Where did it begin? With Laban.

Put this way, we begin to see Jacob in a new light. Jacob stands for minorities and small nations everywhere.Jacob is the refusal to let large powers crush the few, the weak, the refugee. Jacob refuses to define himself as aslave, someone else's property. He maintains his inner dignity and freedom. He contributes to other people'sprosperity but he defeats every attempt to be exploited. Jacob is the voice that says: I too am human. I too haverights. I too am free.


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If Laban is the eternal paradigm of hatred of conspicuously successful minorities, then Jacob is the eternalparadigm of the human capacity to survive the hatred of others. In this strange way Jacob becomes the voice ofhope in the conversation of humankind, the living proof that hate never wins the final victory; freedom does.

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Vayetzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3)The Birth of the World's Oldest Hateby Rabbi Lord Jonathan SacksThe roots of anti-Semitism.

"Go and learn what Laban the Aramean sought to do to our father Jacob. A Pharaoh made his decree only aboutthe males whereas Laban sought to destroy everything." This passage from the Haggadah on Pesach - evidentlybased on this week's parsha - is extraordinarily difficult to understand.

First, it is a commentary on the phrase in Deuteronomy, Arami oved avi. As the overwhelming majority ofcommentators point out, the meaning of this phrase is "my father was a wandering Aramean", a reference eitherto Jacob, who escaped to Aram [=Syria, a reference to Haran where Laban lived], or to Abraham, who left Aramin response to God's call to travel to the land of Canaan. It does not mean "an Aramean [=Laban] tried to destroymy father." Some commentators read it this way, but almost certainly they only do so because of this passage inthe Haggadah.

Second, nowhere in the parsha do we find that Laban actually tried to destroy Jacob. He deceived him, tried toexploit him, and chased after him when he fled. As he was about to catch up with Jacob God appeared to him ina dream at night and said: 'Be very careful not to say anything, good or bad, to Jacob.' (Gen. 31: 22). WhenLaban complains about the fact that Jacob was trying to escape, Jacob replies: "Twenty years now I have workedfor you in your estate - fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for some of your flocks. You changedmy wages ten times!" (31: 41). All this suggests that Laban behaved outrageously to Jacob, treating him like anunpaid labourer, almost a slave, but not that he tried to "destroy" him - to kill him as Pharaoh tried to kill all maleIsraelite children.

Third, the Haggadah and the Seder service of which it is the text, is about how the Egyptians enslaved andpractised slow genocide against the Israelites and how God saved them from slavery and death. Why seek todiminish this whole narrative by saying that, actually, Pharaoh's decree was not that bad, Laban's was worse.This seems to make no sense, either in terms of the central theme of the Haggadah or in relation to the actualfacts as recorded in the biblical text.

How then are we to understand it?

Perhaps the answer is this. Laban's behaviour is the paradigm of anti-Semites through the ages. It was not somuch what Laban did that the Haggadah is referring to, but what his behaviour gave rise to, in century aftercentury. How so?

Laban begins by seeming like a friend. He offers Jacob refuge when he is in flight from Esau who has vowed tokill him. Yet it turns out that his behaviour is less generous than self-interested and calculating. Jacob works forhim for seven years for Rachel. Then on the wedding night Laban substitutes Leah for Rachel, so that to marryRachel, Jacob has to work another seven years. When Joseph is born to Rachel, Jacob tries to leave. Labanprotests. Jacob works another six years, and then realises that the situation is untenable. Laban's sons areaccusing him of getting rich at Laban's expense. Jacob senses that Laban himself is becoming hostile. Racheland Leah agree, saying, "he treats us like strangers! He has sold us and spent the money!" (31: 14-15).

Jacob realises that there is nothing he can do or say that will persuade Laban to let him leave. He has no choicebut to escape. Laban then pursues him, and were it not for God's warning the night before he catches up withhim, there is little doubt that he would have forced Jacob to return and live out the rest of his life as his unpaid


1 of 3 3/25/15, 6:09 PM

18. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks



Pour out your love on the nations who know You And on kingdoms who call Your name.

For the good which they do for the seed of Jacob And they shield Your people Israel from their

enemies. May they merit to see the good of Your chosen

And to rejoice in the joy of Your nation.

When we read this section at our Seder this year, there was a collective wince at the table -- not so much from our gentile guests but our Jewish ones. Could our religion, our people, ever wish something so terrible on others? My wife quickly jumped in to explain the historical context, that this is what an oppressed people would yell to vocalize its pain.

I knew intellectually that she was right, but the lines seemed so misplaced, so terrible. On a holiday of freedom, one in which we also reflect on the pain that the ten plagues caused the Egyptians and take wine out of our glasses to reduce our joy accordingly, it seemed unfitting to wish ill upon others. So I followed up on my wife's insightful remarks more simply: "That's true... But these are ugly words."

These ugly words may not have offended my gentile guests and may have even been overlooked by my Jewish guests after another glass of ritually mandated wine. But with the understanding that it is in every generation that we go from slaves to free people and recommit ourselves to a Jewish life and Jewish morals, "God's Triumph over Evil" should be excised from the Passover Seder entirely.

Once we were slaves to the oppression in our past. Now we are free to learn from it.

20. Huff Post

19. Haggdah

21. Manuscript from Worms Haggadah, 1521



22. Ma’aseh Mitzrayim R’ Eliezer Ashkenazi, Italy, 1583

25. Ran (19a in the Rif)

24. Aruch Ha’Shulchan R’ Yechiel Michel Epstein

(1829-1908)

23. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Haggadadh

Tension between praying for

Government well-‐being or downfall

After the 3rd cup, we say Shfoch and open the door to invoke our faith in Moshiach



28. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch

(1808-1888) Tehillim 79:6

27. MiPeninei Ha’Rav Rav Herschel Schachter

26. Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon



29. Toras Menachem Haggadah

Lubavitcher Rebbe (1902-1994)

30. Lev Ha’Shamayim R’ Shlomo Carlebach

(1925-1994)

Kotzker: Throw your warmth at the nations of the

world



32. Haftorah of Shabbos Ha’Gadol

31. Ta’amei Ha’Minhagim quoting the Gra

33. Gra

34. Shemos 12:42

35. Rashi

Two halves of Hallel correspond

to past redemption and longing for future

one.



37. Ba’al Ha’Turim

38. Rashbam

40. Shibolei Ha’Leket

39. Pesachim 109b

41.Shulchan Aruch o.c. 481

42. Machatzis Ha’Shekel

43. Minhag Yisroel Torah

Abridged Kerias Shema al ha’mita because it is night of protection



45. Mishna Berura

44. Shulchan Aruch o.c. 487

46. Tosafos Berachos 40a



No need to dip matzah in salt on Pesach night



http://nyti.ms/1CTPNeD

The Opinion Pages | OP-ED COLUMNIST

How to Fight Anti-Semitism

MARCH 24, 2015

David Brooks

Anti-Semitism is rising around the world. So the question becomes: What can we doto fight it? Do education campaigns work, or marches or conferences?

There are three major strains of anti-Semitism circulating, different in kind andvirulence, and requiring different responses.

In the Middle East, anti-Semitism has the feel of a deranged theoretical systemfor making sense of a world gone astray. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah AliKhamenei, doesn’t just oppose Israel. He has called it the “sinister, unclean rabiddog of the region.” He has said its leaders “look like beasts and cannot be calledhuman.”

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran reinstated a conference of Holocaust deniersand anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. Two of Iran’s prominent former nuclearnegotiators apparently attended. In Egypt, the top military staff attended a lectureon the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The region is still rife with the usualconspiracy theories — that the Jews were behind 9/11, drink the blood of non-Jews,spray pesticides across Egyptian lands.

This sort of anti-Semitism thrives where there aren’t that many Jews. The Jew isnot a person but an idea, a unique carrier of transcendent evil: a pollution, a stain, adark force responsible for the failures of others, the unconscious shame andprimeval urges they feel in themselves, and everything that needs explaining. This isa form of derangement, a flight from reality even in otherwise sophisticated people.

This form of anti-Semitism cannot be reasoned away because it doesn’t exist onthe level of reason. It can only be confronted with deterrence and force, at the levelof fear. The challenge for Israel is to respond to extremism without being extreme.

How to Fight Anti-Semitism - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/opinion/david-brooks-how...

1 of 3 3/25/15, 9:40 PMThe enemy’s rabidity can be used to justify cruelty, even in cases where restraintwould be wiser. Israeli leaders try to walk this line, trying to use hard power, withoutbecoming a mirror of the foe, sometimes well, sometimes not.

In Europe, anti-Semitism looks like a response to alienation. It’s particularlyhigh where unemployment is rampant. Roughly half of all Spaniards and Greeksexpress unfavorable opinions about Jews. The plague of violence is fueled by youngIslamic men with no respect and no place to go.

In the current issue of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg has an essay, “Is It Timefor the Jews to Leave Europe?” He reports on a blizzard of incidents: a Jewish schoolprincipal who watched a Frenchman of Algerian descent pin his 8-year-old daughterdown in the schoolyard and execute her; a Swedish rabbi who has been the target ofroughly 150 anti-Semitic attacks; French kids who were terrified in school because ofthe “Dirty Jew!” and “I want to kill all of you!” chants in the hallway; the Danishimam who urged worshipers in a Berlin mosque to kill the Jews, “Count them andkill them to the very last one.”

Thousands of Jews a year are just fleeing Europe. But the best response isquarantine and confrontation. European governments can demonstrate solidaritywith their Jewish citizens by providing security, cracking down — broken-windowsstyle — on even the smallest assaults. Meanwhile, brave and decent people can take apage from Gandhi and stage campaigns of confrontational nonviolence: marches,sit-ins and protests in the very neighborhoods where anti-Semitism breeds. Exposethe evil of the perpetrators. Disturb the consciences of the good people in thesecommunities who tolerate them. Confrontational nonviolence is the historicallyproven method to isolate and delegitimize social evil.

The United States is also seeing a rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents.But this country remains an astonishingly non-anti-Semitic place. America’sproblem is the number of people who can’t fathom what anti-Semitism is or whothink Jews are being paranoid or excessively playing the victim.

On college campuses, many young people have been raised in a climate of moralrelativism and have no experience with those with virulent evil beliefs. Theysometimes assume that if Israel is hated, then it must be because of its cruel andcolonial policies in the West Bank.

In the Obama administration, there are people who know that the Iranians areanti-Semitic, but they don’t know what to do with that fact and put this mental


2 of 3 3/25/15, 9:40 PM

49. David Brooks



The enemy’s rabidity can be used to justify cruelty, even in cases where restraintwould be wiser. Israeli leaders try to walk this line, trying to use hard power, withoutbecoming a mirror of the foe, sometimes well, sometimes not.

In Europe, anti-Semitism looks like a response to alienation. It’s particularlyhigh where unemployment is rampant. Roughly half of all Spaniards and Greeksexpress unfavorable opinions about Jews. The plague of violence is fueled by youngIslamic men with no respect and no place to go.

In the current issue of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg has an essay, “Is It Timefor the Jews to Leave Europe?” He reports on a blizzard of incidents: a Jewish schoolprincipal who watched a Frenchman of Algerian descent pin his 8-year-old daughterdown in the schoolyard and execute her; a Swedish rabbi who has been the target ofroughly 150 anti-Semitic attacks; French kids who were terrified in school because ofthe “Dirty Jew!” and “I want to kill all of you!” chants in the hallway; the Danishimam who urged worshipers in a Berlin mosque to kill the Jews, “Count them andkill them to the very last one.”

Thousands of Jews a year are just fleeing Europe. But the best response isquarantine and confrontation. European governments can demonstrate solidaritywith their Jewish citizens by providing security, cracking down — broken-windowsstyle — on even the smallest assaults. Meanwhile, brave and decent people can take apage from Gandhi and stage campaigns of confrontational nonviolence: marches,sit-ins and protests in the very neighborhoods where anti-Semitism breeds. Exposethe evil of the perpetrators. Disturb the consciences of the good people in thesecommunities who tolerate them. Confrontational nonviolence is the historicallyproven method to isolate and delegitimize social evil.

The United States is also seeing a rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents.But this country remains an astonishingly non-anti-Semitic place. America’sproblem is the number of people who can’t fathom what anti-Semitism is or whothink Jews are being paranoid or excessively playing the victim.

On college campuses, many young people have been raised in a climate of moralrelativism and have no experience with those with virulent evil beliefs. Theysometimes assume that if Israel is hated, then it must be because of its cruel andcolonial policies in the West Bank.

In the Obama administration, there are people who know that the Iranians areanti-Semitic, but they don’t know what to do with that fact and put this mental


2 of 3 3/25/15, 9:40 PMderangement on a distant shelf. They negotiate with the Iranian leaders, as ifanti-Semitism was some odd quirk, instead of what it is, a core element of theirmental architecture.

There are others who see anti-Semitism as another form of bigotry. But theseare different evils. Most bigotry is an assertion of inferiority and speaks the languageof oppression. Anti-Semitism is an assertion of impurity and speaks the language ofextermination. Anti-Semitism’s logical endpoint is violence.

Groups fighting anti-Semitism sponsor educational campaigns and do a lot ofconsciousness-raising. I doubt these things do anything to reduce activeanti-Semitism. But they can help non-anti-Semites understand the different forms ofthe cancer in our midst. That’s a start.Joe Nocera is off today.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on March 24, 2015, on page A23 of the New York edition with the

headline: How to Fight Anti-Semitism.

© 2015 The New York Times Company


3 of 3 3/25/15, 9:40 PM



The ground is lurching beneath the feet of European Jews, with anti-‐Semitism rising up around them. We American Jews are rightly concerned at this alarming turn of events. We fear the spread of this new, especially virulent form of anti-‐Semitism to our own shores. We feel disgusted but helpless. What can we do? I believe that each of us has an obligation to fight anti-‐Semitism, just as we should stand up to any other deeply ingrained prejudice that we encounter. To do this, we must combat the ignorance that nourishes this disease. The task is not as daunting as it may seem. There is something simple each of us can do this Passover, which is just a few weeks away. It won’t root out extremism instantly, but it will make a difference in the long term. Invite non-‐Jews to your seder this year. I am launching the “Invite a Non-‐Jew To Your Seder” campaign. Our goal is for as many Jewish families as possible to invite an average of two non-‐Jews to a seder this year. If every family does this, some six million non-‐Jews will experience a seder this year, and at the very least taste traditional Passover foods and learn of their significance—not to mention gain an invaluable window into Jewish values and a better understanding of the connection Jews feel to the land of Israel. (Here’s how I calculated this number: With some 14 million Jews on the planet today, I estimate there could be two million seders held on the night of April 3, the first night of Passover, and another million for the second seder the following evening.) I speak from experience because I am an inveterate inviter of non-‐Jews to seders. I grew up in a typical Conservative home, where seders were purely family affairs. But later, when I was a single mom, my son and I often found ourselves with no place to go if we didn’t travel out of town to join family. To fill the void, I held my own seders. Our guests were largely my son’s friends and their parents—the members of our local “family”—and most of them were not Jewish. The gathering was multi-‐generational: Our dear departed friend, James Bronson, an elderly African American, sat at the head of the table across from me. Of course, we always welcomed various other Jewish friends who were seder-‐less. In breaking down barriers between various faiths and strengthening the bonds between us, we learned together and invented our own family traditions. One of those was an annual discussion about slavery, the theme of Passover, led by Mr. Bronson. A descendant of slaves born into rural poverty in Georgia, he had suffered egregiously from prejudice throughout his life. We also colored in pictures of Moses and Miriam, read Isaac Bashevis Singer stories, loudly sang Dayenu, and, of course, ate and talked about what we ate. Jew and non-‐Jew alike learned the prayers and the songs. Today the children of our seder—Jewish and not—have gone out into the world and become amazing young adults. Each of them carries within the joy and lessons of these very special nights. There are other benefits to inviting non-‐Jews to your seder table beyond countering anti-‐Semitism. Including non-‐Jews is like hitting a refresh button, opening up new questions so that you discover new folds of the Exodus story and re-‐explore the themes of the Haggadah. It encourages us to make our seders lively and accessible and makes interfaith family members feel at ease. I know that what I advocate is contrary to traditional Jewish law. Technically, Jews are not supposed to invite non-‐Jews to their seder table. The primary reason for this prohibition stems from a ruling that permits a Jew to cook only for others who observe the laws of a holiday. The only exception to this is if Passover falls on Shabbat, when one is not permitted to cook in any case. Moreover, it can be deduced from Exodus 12:43 that the sacrificial lamb cannot be eaten by non-‐Jews. Some also believe it is inappropriate to share matzah with a non-‐Jew. But like many Jewish laws, these have been subject to a millennium of rabbinical interpretation. A majority of rabbis today would not censure a Jew who invites non-‐Jews to a seder and have even drawn on other traditional sources to circumvent this prohibition. I am from the school of Jewish thought that embraces inclusion over the letter of the law, and to my ears prohibitions such as these are painfully out of touch with the meaning of Judaism. I see inviting non-‐Jews to seders as a way of repairing the world, and in that vein, I ask you to join our campaign. Share our rituals and explain them. Include children, anyone who would benefit from a good meal or who is in need of community, and Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths, too. Visit us at momentmag.com/inviteanonjew2yourseder to tell us your personal seder stories! Let us know whom you plan to invite this year and what happens, or let us know what you have experienced in previous years. Share photos and videos of a non-‐Jew breaking matzah with you using the hashtag #inviteanonjew2yourseder. Together, we will embrace our freedom this Passover and work toward inoculating present and future generations with a booster shot against old and new strains of anti-‐Semitism.

50. Moment Magazine



51. Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon Haggadah

52. Leil Shimurim Haggadah R’ Yechiel Michel Epstein

(1829-1908)

Why did they go to B’nai Berak? To be with Rebbe Akiva, the eternal

optimist.



53. Festival of Freedom R’ Yosef Dov Soloveitchik

(1903-1993)



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Documents

SHABBAT HA’GADOL DERASHA - Boca Raton …rabbi.brsonline.org/ShabbosHagadol2015Antisemitism.pdf · SHABBAT HA’GADOL DERASHA ... Ancient Hatred to Modern Anti-Semitism ... Jews