Right now, I should be preparing for Shabbat or Yom Kippur, finalising the service outlines; not that it changes much, if at all, year to year. Technically, I should be working on this info-graphic or running reports for work.
Instead, I’m sitting here at work trying not to burst into tears because of the recent news regarding these two poor Jewish boys who were bullied at school for their Jewishness and the man on the subway in NYC.
Seeing such blatant hate is disturbing and heartbreaking for me.
I want to rage at the world, demanding answers for why it has allowed this to happen, but at the same time I only have tears. I’ve raged before with only silence to answer.
Where are those who would stand with us and raise their voices in a cacophonous outcry against this? Where are the Greta Thunberg’s who would stand before international political leaders and rage at them for allowing antisemitism to rise again?
I thought we promised to never forget, to never again allow such hatred to blind us again to our shared humanity?
The thought of voicing my sorrows on a public platform is exhausting when this is nothing new. As I said on Twitter, Antisemitism is not dead. It did not die with Hitler, nor did it begin with him either. It is an age old song and dance as ancient as Hashem Himself, for from before the foundations of the earth were formed, He dreamed of Israel, of her existence.
Thus, as man has hated G-d, they have hated His creation, anything which bears His image.
Why else is there racism, sexist, ageism, discrimination of any kind? Why else is our world crumbling around us in ash and heat, succumbing to our lack of care and nurturing this Earth Hashem gave us to cultivate? Why else do animals suffer in slaughterhouses and zoos and mills? Why else is the ocean filled with filth instead of beauty? Why else does all creation, which was created to reflect the beauty of Hashem, groan in longing for Mashiach to return?
We all, each of us, Jew and non-Jew, were created with that glory, that spark hidden within us. Israel too.
You want to get rid of inequality, injustice, etc.? Get rid of antisemitism. That’s where all the others come from, and that’s where all this meshuggas began. Not because Jews are special unicorns, but because Hashem said, “Them,” and the world responded, “No.”
As we say at Pesach, it could have been anyone else who was chosen, but the Jews were the first who said, “Yes.” Hashem asked others, but they all said no.
This is why today I feel like Tevye, who aptly prayed: “I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?”
As we welcome Shabbat Shuvah this evening, and prepare for Yom Kippur next week — as the gates of heaven are opened during these Days of Awe — my prayer is that Hashem would see us all (Jew and non-Jew alike), have mercy, and that He would raise up those who would speak out against such evil.
This is not what He created us for, nor our purpose in this life. As we read last week,
I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life…by loving the L-RD your G-d, heeding His commands, and holding fast to Him. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure upon the soil that the L-RD swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.”
Devarim 30:19-20
My hope today, then, is in the promise one day there will be no more hatred, no more pain, no more tears to be shed, for “we will all be free.”
Shabbat Shalom.
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