It's not a new phenomenon. Hatred the Jew has existed since the beginning of the Jewish people. Chazal tell us, why is the mountain upon which the Torah was given called Sinai? Sinai is the same as the word sino שנאה, hatred.
When the Torah was given, hatred came down to the world towards the Jewish people. And even before Sinai, the sages tell us that Esav hates Yaakov. It’s a halachah. It's a fixed principle.
Esav is the forefather of the Roman Empire and the forerunner of the Western world. He hates Yaakov, the forefather of the Jewish people. It's a principle.
So, the world is behaving as it always has behaved. But this makes the question even more difficult. Why do they hate us? In other words, what is the ultimate source of anti-Semitism? This is a puzzle which has eluded historians and philosophers for years.
I would like to share with you what I believe is the real reason for anti-Semitism.
Let me first tell you a story of a young man I met about 30 years ago when I was teaching in Eretz Yisroel at a yeshiva for Baale Teshuvah. This young man was brilliant, very frum, but he was not born a Jew. He was a convert, a Ger Tzedek.
He was very talented. He had a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University. He was earning $1,000 an hour as a currency trader for Chase Bank 30 years ago. He gave up his job to learn more about Judaism, came to yeshiva for Baale Teshuvah.
I once engaged him in a conversation and asked him, tell me, which book did you read that influenced you more than any other to become Jewish? As a Ph.D. in philosophy, I expected him to say Moreh Nevuchim or some other philosophical work. But instead, without hesitation, he answered Pirkei Avos.
I was astonished. Pirkei Avos? I read it constantly, and it doesn't cause me to make radical changes in my life. He explained, when I read the Mishnah in Avos (4:21) that says: הקנא והתאוה והכבוד מוציאין את האדם מן העולם – Jealousy, physical pleasure, and the seeking of glory destroys a person's life. I was shocked. These were the things that I was living for. These were the things that my friends were living for. These were the things that society was living for. And here you have the Jews saying that these are the things that destroy life. In other words, the Jews were saying, you have it all wrong.
I was shaking to my core. How could the Jews stand up against the entire world and say they have it all wrong? But then I thought about it, I thought about it more, and finally I realized that the Jews have it right and that we indeed have it wrong. I wanted to join a nation that has it all right.
We Have It Right, They Have It Wrong
This young man converted to Judaism because he realized that the Nations have it all wrong. But the rest of the world is not ready to say that. They hate us for the same reason.
They resent the fact that we're saying they're all wrong. Even the non-observant. But he’s called a Jew. And the name Jew means that we consider ourselves to have the answers to life that they do not have.
How dare you, they say to us, declare that we have to turn our lives upside down. How dare you say that the pursuit of rights, pleasure, power is all wrong. How dare you claim that you're the only nation that has it all right. Every billboard, every advertisement, every movie, every novel, every psychological theory shouts out that הקנא והתאוה והכבוד – “envy, lust and glory” will make men happy.
How dare you have the chutzpah to declare that these goals are meaningless, that they are in reality the bane to successful life and the cause of human unhappiness. That's why they hate us. They also hate the non-observant Jew, because he carries the name Jew. He's proud to be a Jew.
They know that the Jew does not subscribe to their values, that we were always outsiders. We do not join with them in their holidays, in their philosophy of life, which is designed to supply man with “envy, lust and glory”.
We are a threat to their self-worship. We make them feel guilty for the pursuit of “envy, lust and glory”.
In full disclosure, let me add that this idea is not just mine, but Hitler's. In his Mein Kampf, he says the same thing. He writes that the Jew has to be destroyed because as long as one Jew remains, he feels guilty for indulging in his appetites. There you have it.
This is why hatred came down to the world at Mount Sinai. This is why Esav hates Yaakov. This is the source of anti-Semitism.
This is why college campuses scream out genocide, why the International Criminal Court accuses Jews of crimes against humanity. They want to get rid of Jews. They want to get rid of a nation that makes them feel guilty, which accuses them of having it all wrong.
There have been two reactions to anti-Semitism in the past two centuries since the Emancipation.
One was by Jews who were ashamed of being Jewish. And the other was by Jews who were proud of being Jewish. By ashamed or proud of being Jewish, I don't mean someone who is proud of Jewish food, or Jewish music, or Jewish jokes, or Jewish mothers. I mean someone who is proud of a yarmulke, of tzitzis, of a beard and pe’os, of keeping mitzvos, keeping Shabbos and Kosher.
And those who are ashamed of that, those ashamed of being Jews, began movements to combat anti-Semitism. They believed that by leaving go of Jewish distinctiveness, the non-Jew will begin to love us.
They wanted to blur the differences between the Jews and non-Jews. These are movements like Reform Judaism, which wanted to rid Jews of their mitzvos and customs, which separated us from the Goy. Haskalah was another movement which wanted the culture of the nations of the world to become part of Jewish culture.
And the most successful of all these movements by those ashamed of being Jewish was Secular Zionism, which wanted to turn Jews from a nation of servants of G-d to a political entity where being Jewish means merely living in a Jewish state and speaking Hebrew. These were movements that were designed to turn Jews into Goyim.
The other reaction was by Jews who were proud of being Jewish. They refused to join with those who were ashamed of being Jewish. They refused to accept Reform. They refused to accept Haskalah. They refused to recognize Secular Zionism as legitimate.
[In an aside, I want to add, to this day, the attempt of certain Charedi Jews to join the World Zionist Organization was rejected by Gedolei Torah and by Agudas Yisroel. In a statement it made, Eretz HaKodesh was taken to task and rejected because they joined the World Zionist Organization where they had to sign to join the organization where it says that the centrality of the Jewish people is the State of Israel, omitting completely that the centrality of the Jewish people is Torah and mitzvos.]
Jews who were proud to be Jewish cannot join with Jews who are ashamed of being Jewish.
The movements designed to make Jews into Goyim were all failures. Reform Judaism is moribund. Its major contribution to Jewish life is the many empty Reform temples which have turned into yeshivas and wedding halls. They are empty because their intermarried children are not interested in attending their services. Haskalah and its many writers have long been forgotten, except for some streets in Israel that are named after them.
Secular Zionism, as we saw on October 7th and its aftermath, far from solving anti-Semitism, it has created more global anti-Semitism than anything in history.
Those proud to be Jewish reacted to anti-Semitism differently. First, they created massive Chasidic courts. There was an explosion of the number of yeshivos. There's enormous spread of Kollelim and Torah learning. Perhaps the most noble of the reactions of Jews proud to be Jewish is the formation of Agudas Yisroel, where Jews proud to be Jews banded together to make sure their Judaism would not be compromised.
What about anti-Semitism? What was the reaction to anti-Semitism by those Jews proud to be Jewish? Anti-Semitism cannot be solved. It came down to the world with the Torah. Hashem knew that He was giving a Torah together with hatred of the rest of the world to the Jews.
He wanted Jews to be the conscience of the world. He wanted the world to recognize that there is something besides “envy, lust and honor”. He wanted the nations of the world to say: רק עם ח כם ונבון הגוי הגדול הזה – “Only this great nation is a wise and understanding people” (Devorim 4:6). Whatever is decent in the world, including some aspects of their religions, is the result of the Jews.
The Conscience of The World
Hashem wanted the Jewish people to be the conscience of the world. Without the Jews, the world would be a jungle without Jewish values. If we ceased to be a distinct nation, we would cease to carry out our mission in the world.
That's the cause of hatred. And if they hate us, we're sorry about that. We have to maintain our mission on earth, which is to be a distinct nation that has the values which declare that service of Hashem is the purpose of life, not seeking individual rights, power, and wealth.
What about the threat of anti-Semitism? Anti-Semitism is a physical threat. The Ribbono Shel Olam, who gave hatred with the Torah, also promised to save us. He is הגדול הגיבור והנורא, the great, mighty, and awesome G-d. He has promised to protect us.
There have always been 70 wolves, which is the metaphor used for the 70 nations. 70 wolves who want to devour the lonely sheep of Israel. But HaKodosh Boruch Hu doesn't let them, and he hasn't let them for thousands of years, and he will never let them. Until the Moshiach comes.
But he only protects us if we remain faithful to our mission, which is being different, which is being proud of being Jewish, which is saying that “envy, lust and honor” is not our value system. Our job is to devote ourselves to our neighbors, to our nation, to others. We have to serve Hashem by keeping His Torah and mitzvos, by davening to Him. If we do that, then Hashem says, I'll protect you from the 70 wolves. And if you don't do it, then the wolves will devour you.
Not completely. I have to have you around for Moshiach to come. But some of you will suffer. That's what we see before our eyes. This is a result; what's happening is a result of our lack of commitment to what a Jew is.
A lack of commitment. We're trying to get the Goy to love us by compromising our values. And HaKodosh Boruch Hu says, I won't protect you. I want you to be the conscience of the world.
And if we remain Jewish, proud of being Jewish, if we recognize the truth of Torah, if we reject compromises, if we bring home to ourselves that we can't live for “envy, lust and glory”, then the world will recognize the truth of Torah. Like this young man.
May the time come, speedily in our days with the coming of Moshiach, when Hashem will be supreme, when peace will reign over the entire world, and when the world will recognize what it means to have it all right. (This shiur was written out by R’ Eliezer Parkoff shlita)
