Page 4 - HaMizrachi #33 Sukkot 2021 USA

justified. To be effective, evil must and prejudiced beliefs. The hatred at Perhaps Sukkot is the antidote. Sukkot
present itself as good. the heart of antisemitism is the lowest is a celebration of vulnerability. The
form of evil, and so it requires legitima- sukkah itself is a flimsy and transient
The Pharaoh factor tion from the highest sources of moral little booth, susceptible to the outside
authority. elements. Yet not only do we dwell in
Remarkably, this is precisely how the the sukkah, we rejoice in it! How can we
Ramban explains Pharaoh’s perplexing In the Middle Ages, the moral arbiter possibly celebrate our vulnerability?
strategy against the Jews in Egypt. of the age was the Pope, and so we had Through the power of faith.
Christian anti-Judaism. In post-Enlight-
Pharaoh did not overtly decree the enment Europe, it was science, which In Jewish mysticism, the sukkah is called
destruction of the Jews but instead resulted in the twin foundations of Nazi the “Shadow of Faith.” This “Shadow
devised covert and deceptive plans of ideology, Social Darwinism and the of Faith” is the immutable belief in
evil: “Come let us deal shrewdly with so-called Scientific Study of Race. Today, Hashem, who created and runs the
them in case they increase, and if war the highest source of moral authority world for good, and our belief that we
breaks out they may join our enemies, is human rights. This is why Israel – can and will overcome the challenges
fight against us and escape from the the only fully functioning democracy before us. It is the belief that good
land.” 2 in the Middle East with a free press health and wellbeing will ultimately
and independent judiciary – is regu-
Why did the all-powerful leader need to larly accused of the five cardinal sins triumph over disease and illness. It is
hide his plans? Why did he present the against human rights: racism, apart- the belief in the inherent goodness of
Jews as a fifth column and a threat to heid, crimes against humanity, ethnic human beings, who are all created in
national security to justify his intended cleansing and attempted genocide. the image of G-d. The “Shadow of Faith”
genocide? Why demand their labor and is the understanding that even the bril-
then initiate the secretive scheme of The new antisemitism has mutated so liant life-giving light of the sun will cast
midwives murdering babies at birth? that anyone can deny that he or she is many shadows on the earth below. It
What was he afraid of? an antisemite: “I’m not an antisemite. I is believing that spiritual and moral
have no problem with Jews or Judaism. light will ultimately supersede immoral
The answer, says the Ramban, was I only have a problem with the State darkness; that evil is transient, while
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Pharaoh’s need to bypass Egypt’s moral of Israel.” G-d and goodness are permanent.
defense mechanism on two levels.
Firstly, it would be treasonous and However, this defense does not hold Let us rejoice together in life’s inher-
immoral to murder a people without water. There are currently 56 Muslim ent vulnerability in our “Shadow of
cause, particularly when they were countries and 103 Christian majority Faith,” knowing that we will one day
welcomed into Egypt by a previous Pha- nations, but only one Jewish State. see an end to antisemitism when the
raoh. Even corrupt rulers cannot sud- Israel constitutes a mere one-quarter grandeur of the Jewish mission will be
denly exterminate people without any of 1% of the landmass of the Middle known to all.
moral pretext and sense of justice. Sec- East. And yet Israel is the only one of
ondly, many of his own people would the 193 member nations of the United
simply not have agreed to participate in Nations whose right to exist is regularly 1 My last two articles in HaMizrachi have focused
the massacre. Internal public opinion challenged, with Iran and many other on antisemitism as a virus. The first cited the
Vilna Gaon’s novel idea that there are three muta-
must be enlisted; otherwise, the indis- powerful groups openly committed to tions of antisemitism, each with biblical prec-
criminate slaughter of former friends its destruction. Anti-Zionism, which edents. Moav, who opposed Jewish values and
and neighbors would not be tolerated. denies only the Jewish people a right Judaism, Edom, who opposed the very existence
to their own country, is merely another
And so Pharaoh shrewdly found a way of the Jewish people, and the Philistines, who
opposed any Jewish sovereignty in Israel.
to penetrate the unsuspecting hearts form of antisemitism, for it denies Jews
the same rights as other peoples and
of his own people. The second article focused on deepening the virus
demonizes them in the process. analogy and paralleled the spread of biological
When practitioners of evil believe they As long as antisemites invoke human viruses and the virus of antisemitism over the
are acting for the preservation of their rights in their nefarious battle against last twenty years. There I discussed two traits of
viruses: 1. the ability to mutate, and 2. to quickly
society and the sake of a greater good, the Jewish people, no matter how per- spread contagion.
all moral checks and balances can be versely they apply these arguments, Here I focus on two more traits of viruses: their
sidestepped. The masses themselves the deception of the virus is complete. deceptive ability, 1. to circumvent the immune
become the very reproductive mecha- Vice masquerades as virtue and evil as system, and 2. to corrupt the cellular reproductive
nism of the virus of hatred and bigotry. ethical. mechanism.
2 Shemot 1:10.
Legitimizing hate: human Celebrating vulnerability 3 Ibid.
rights and human wrongs 4 4 These paragraphs are based on Rabbi Jonathan
Is there any hope? How can we possi-
Rabbi Sacks explains that antisemitism bly overcome the moral deception of Sacks’ teachings in Future Tense, pp. 99–100.
in all its mutations follows the very antisemitism in our time? We feel so
same mechanism of psychological and vulnerable to destructive forces beyond Rabbi Doron Perez is the Executive Chairman
moral deception to inculcate perverse our control. of World Mizrachi.

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