As anti-Semitism becomes fashionable again (it never really disappeared, it just languished in the closet until it was allowed to come back into style), I find myself getting angrier at the baseless prejudice and hatred directed at Jews – and so I hate the haters back.
Not only is there no iota of appreciation for what Jews have done over the centuries to improve the quality of life of the nations among whom we live, but many actually want us to become extinct. So much so that the UN, the institution created to be the collective voice of the nations of the world, condemns the Jewish state – populated by people who through the ages were the hapless, vulnerable victims of those very nations – for defending itself.
For having the chutzpah to take preemptive action to protect its terrorized civilians. For having the gall to survive.
The spilling of Jewish blood elicits less of a reaction in post-Holocaust Europe than the kosher slaughtering of animals – which has become a cause celebre among those who tolerate the boiling of live lobsters, the forced feeding in tiny cages and stalls of geese and young livestock, and who allow fox hunts and circuses.
The collective hypocrisy brazenly displayed by both the political and social elite as well as the common guy on the street is infuriating. It’s hard not to seethe with rage when Holocaust survivors are beset with worry that the churban they endured can be the fate of their young grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In their old age, they cannot relax and enjoy their nachat.
I am not in a position to physically fight those nameless, faceless Jew haters who wish me and mine to be erased, but every son or daughter of Yaakov, through Hashem’s grace, has been given spiritual bullets. Prayers. We should use them often and to the best of our ability.
I have always have felt closest to Hashem when I cover my eyes and light my Shabbat candles. It is my private time with Him – the dancing, energetic light of the candles seem to beam my thoughts directly to Heaven.
In the past I would ask Hashem for blessings – for me, my family, my friends, and for Klal Yisrael. Nothing outlandish like winning the lottery or finding a no-effort weight loss diet, (although that would be lovely) just the usual requests: good health, parnassah, and timely shidduchim and children for those who are ready and anxious to reach these milestones in life.
But these days I go one step further when petitioning G-d. I ask that all evil plots, plans and schemes of destruction and mayhem directed towards the children of Yaakov and towards all people of good will who are tolerant and peaceful, be reversed, turned around and boomerang on the plotters themselves.
It’s not enough to just wish well for ourselves as we recite Tehillim, as we daven daily, as we bentch Rosh Chodesh, as we light our candles. We should take our cue from our Pesach sedarim, when we ask G-d to “pour out His wrath” on those who have “devoured Jacob.” Maybe we should add that request to all our prayers.
As Shlomo HaMelech pointed out there is a time to hate. As I see it, the time is now.
