YIH/HJC - Shabbos Hagadol 5784 "B'Chol Dor Va'Dor..." 'Antisemitism: How Do We Respond?' What Does Our Mesorah Say About Yishmoel, Esav, Iran, and, Eretz Yisroel and the End-of-Days?

"...It was Sunday, September 6 — 5 Elul — 1970, when terrorists from the PFLP went on a hijacking spree, running through the isles of four international aircraft brandishing guns and grenades and taking over the planes: TWA flight 741 from Frankfurt to New York originating in Tel Aviv, and Swissair flight 100 from Zurich to New York were diverted to Zarka, a hot, sandy, out-of-use military airfield in the Jordanian desert; Pan Am flight 93 from Amsterdam was diverted to Beirut and then to Cairo; El Al officials thwarted an attempted hijacking on their flight from Amsterdam; and three days later, the PFLP seized a British Overseas Airways Corporation flight in Bahrain and brought it down in Zarka as well. The PFLP, under the leadership of George Habash, claimed responsibility for the multiple hijackings... [A]s the two giant airplanes sat alone on that giant stretch of Jordanian sand known as Dawson Field and renamed Revolution Airport by the PFLP — really no more than parched mud flats hardened under the desert sun — the terrorists began collecting passports and interrogating passengers, especially those they identified as Jews. Among the passengers on the TWA plane were the venerated rosh yeshivah Rav Yitzchak Hutner of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin and his wife zichronam l’vrachah, and yblch”t his only daughter Rebbetzin Bruria David of the BJJ seminary and her husband, Rav Yonasan David shlita, rosh yeshivah of Pachad Yitzchak in Jerusalem. Two of Rav Hutner’s young students, Yaakov Drillman and Meir Fund, were also on the flight. So were the Sephardic gedolim Chacham Rav Yosef and his brother Rav Avraham Harari-Raful of Brooklyn.

And a few rows back were two young kids traveling all alone, ten-year-old Yosef Trachtman and eight-year-old Tzipporah Moran, facing down a bunch of terrorists — the nightmare of every parent who sends their children on a plane by themselves. As soon as passengers realized the plane was being hijacked, Rav Hutner’s two talmidim moved from their own seats to sit next to the two unaccompanied children.

Eight-year-old Tzipporah was carrying documents from both the US and Israel. Yaakov Drillman was a young bochur at the time, but he knew that signs of Israeli citizenship would put the girl in danger, and so he took her Israeli documents, ripped them into tiny shreds, and swallowed them...

...It wasn’t such a far-fetched thought. For among the documents that the hijackers discovered were precious handwritten manuscripts of seforim that Rav Yitzchak Hutner had painstakingly compiled over years. The terrorists confiscated the manuscripts, claiming they contained secret plans for espionage. Years of efforts to retrieve those manuscripts proved fruitless — they were probably incinerated when the planes were blown up. The terrorists also discovered in his possession documents relating to the purchase of two apartments in north Jerusalem, one for him and one for his daughter. The terrorists were enraged by his plans to buy apartments in territory that had been “stolen” from them. “It’s ours! It’s ours!” they shouted repeatedly.

It’s possible that this was why the terrorists decided to subject Rav Hutner to “special treatment” and removed him from the plane one day before the other Jewish passengers were taken off the aircraft, on Thursday night of that week, the evening of the tenth of Elul. As Rav Hutner was brought down from the plane, he assumed they were planning to kill him, and he shouted “Shema Yisrael!” on the steps. Rav Hutner was kept separate from the rest of the group and was only reunited with them after their second week in captivity.

Meanwhile, by the end of the week the terrorists had already released many women and children — none of them Jews — and transferred them to the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman. The hijackers were demanding the release of terrorists imprisoned in Switzerland and Germany, as well as thousands of terrorists imprisoned in Israel.

For a week, close to a hundred of the remaining Jewish captives lived and slept in the hot, stench-filled airplane cabins. On Friday night a group of men, including the yeshivah boys and rabbis, were removed from the plane, and the next day the rest of the hostages were moved — after which all the aircraft were ceremoniously blown up. Women and children were released and sent to Cyprus for their return home, but for the Jewish men and others, the ordeal was to last until the end of the month.

For years, Tzipporah thought about those anonymous bochurim who acted so heroically. Thirty years later, married to an IDF Air force officer, with a family of her own, and living in a Tel Aviv suburb, Tzipporah was listening to a popular call-in radio program where listeners could ask for assistance in locating lost relatives or friends. The program was credited with reuniting many family members separated in the Holocaust. Tzippy called into the program and related that she was among the airplane passengers who had been held prisoner in Zarka. She was only eight years old at the time and had been visiting her aunt in Israel; she was flying back to America alone. As soon as the plane was hijacked, two chareidi youths approached her and placed her under their charge.

“Most of the time I was not afraid, mostly because of the two young men who calmed me and the other boy down,” she reported on the airwaves, but didn’t know their names. Would anyone be able to track them down thirty years later? The following day, her request was published in the daily Yediot Achronot. And Mishpacha solved her mystery.

While putting together a story for the thirtieth anniversary of the hijacking in 2000, Mishpacha’s Hebrew edition contacted Rabbi Yosef Trachtman, the ten-year-old traveling alone on the flight, who had made aliyah and was living in Tzfas. Did he remember the girl? Certainly, he said. Her parents were family friends from Chicago and the two children were assigned to travel together on the same flight.

And the bochurim? They were none other than Rav Meir Fund, now rav of Beis Medrash Sheves Achim (the “Flatbush minyan”) and Rav Yaakov Drillman, rosh yeshivas Beis Yosef Novardok and former maggid shiur in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin. Yosef Trachtman has remained close to Rav Drillman all these years.

The two rabbis were contacted and were happy to know they still had hero status after so many years. “I knew if I could conceal the little girl’s Israeli connection, it would be to her advantage, and we didn’t know what the terrorists were capable of doing,” Rav Drillman told Mishpacha when he was contacted after the radio program. “So I took her documents, ripped them into tiny shreds, and swallowed them, one after another.”

“I was a little girl, and I remember very little. I do remember that they took my passport, as well as an Israeli check that I had,” Tzipporah remembers more than four decades later. “The bochurim were removed from the plane on Friday night, and we were left there until the morning. So I never had a chance to thank them. It was fascinating learning who they were after all those years.”... The terrorists held a press conference in the heart of the desert, alongside the captured planes — and one of those interviewed was Rav Yonasan David. He told the journalists that the captives were being treated decently, but that the terrorists were circulating among their captives with biks (the Yiddish word for machine guns) in their hands. The reporters did not bother asking him for a translation of the word; instead, his answer — which was incomprehensible to anyone who did not understand Yiddish — was broadcast repeatedly on international news reports...

...Another one of the freed hostages was the oldest hostage of the group, an eldery man named William Coster, who related that he never stopped praying. “Anyone who says he was not afraid,” he remarked, “is either a liar or a fool, and perhaps both together.”

....Knesset member Rabbi Menachem Porush z”l chartered a private plane to meet the Hutners in Nicosia. At the time, Rabbi Porush reported that during his three weeks of captivity, Rav Hutner lost twenty kilograms (44 pounds). Rav Hutner’s son-in-law and his two students, Yaakov Drillman and Meir Fund, also appeared emaciated. Rebbetzin David had to be supported as she disembarked from the plane.

Rav Hutner’s tallis and tefillin, jacket and hat, and even his shirt had been confiscated sometime during the ordeal. Menachem Porush gave the Rosh Yeshivah his own shirt and tallis katan.

On Monday evening the group was flown to Europe, and from there to America. By Wednesday evening, the first night of Rosh HaShanah, they were all home, barely able to believe the horror, and the salvation, they had gone through over the past month...."

For a moment, and leaving aside 'Yishmoel', we must mention that antisemitism is a unique bigotry...a 'theory' far more than a 'hate':

From:

The 2,000-Year-Old Panic

The Atlantic, March 2008

Christopher Hitchens

....But notice that this is an anti-Semitism that is full of dread as well as of disgust and contempt. That is perhaps what distinguishes it from other forms of racism. Almost every tribe or ethnicity has a rival tribe or ethnicity that it views as inferior or dirtier or more primitive: the Hutu with the Tutsi, the Sinhalese with the Tamil, the Ulster Protestant with the Irish Catholic, and so forth. The “other” group will invariably be found to have a different smell, a higher birthrate, and a lazier temperament. These poor qualities are sometimes attributed even by Jews to Jews: elevated German and Austrian Jews once wrinkled their nostrils at the matted sidelocks and large families of the poor Ostjuden who had come from the backwoods of Galicia and Silesia; and Ashkenazi-Se­phardic rivalry in Israel sometimes recalls and resembles this hostility. But garden-variety racists do not usually suspect the objects of their dislike of secretly manipulating the banks and the stock markets and of harboring a demonic plan for world domination...

AND ON THIS NOTE, THE QUOTE BELOW SHOWS 'EIN DAVAR CHADASH TACHAS HASHAMESH":

George Orwell (letter to a freind):

"It is impossible to mention the Jews in print - either favorably or unfavorably -without getting into trouble"

Rabbi Moshe Taub

Mah Nishtanah?

America’s Hundred Year’s War

NYT Op-Ed, Submission - 2020

(Rejected-LOL!)

In 1924, Samuel Walker McCall, the 47^th governor of Massachusetts, published a book titled ‘Patriotism of the American Jew’.

Writing in the forward, Charles W. Elliot, then president of Harvard University, states “It is the main purpose of Governor McCall’s book to demonstrate beyond a question that the American Jew loves America, is grateful for his American refuge, and has been rendering great service to the United States ever since the Constitution was adopted - services military, naval, industrial, and financial…”

It becomes obvious to the modern reader who picks up this long-forgotten tome that he is missing context; this book was clearly written as a response to some new toxin being introduced to the American public.

Allusions to what this was are found in this same forward, “Although American Jews are interested in the new migration into Palestine…”

Ah, of course, ‘Dual Loyalty’.

America had a new import - from France, from Germany, from history: Antisemitism.

Historically, the concern toward Jews and their patriotism was precisely because ‘The Jew’ had no land was he therefore incapable of loyalty to any.

However, like all such diseases, it can easily be modified and reformed to fit a new reality. The Jew went from fidelity only to his faith and brethren, to, patriotism only toward Palestine, and soon to be Israel.

In 1920, not even two-decades from the shameful Dreyfuss Affair, the premier business magnate of the time, Henry Ford, began publishing his ‘International Jew’ series.

Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, Cardinal O’Connell and 116 others saw this cancer for what it was, and wished to stop it from metastasizing.

And so, on January 17, 1921 the readers of the New York Times were met with a short and crisp warning to the American People. “Probably no similar document ever bore such a distinguished array of signatures” commented The Times.

“The undersigned, citizens of Gentile birth and Christian faith, view with profound regret and disapproval the appearance in this country of what is apparently an organized campaign of anti-Semitism, conducted in close conformity to and co-operation with similar campaigns in Europe. …thus introducing into our national political life a new and dangerous spirit…American citizenship and American democracy are thus challenged and menaced…From the foundation of this Republic down to the World War, men and women of Jewish ancestry and faith have taken an honorable part in building up this great nation and maintaining its prestige and honor among the nations of the world…Anti-Semitism is almost invariably associated with lawlessness and with brutality and injustice…We believe it should not be left to men and women of Jewish faith to fight this evil, but that it is in a very special sense the duty of citizens who are not Jews by ancestry or faith. …In particular, we call upon those who are molders of public opinion—the clergy and ministers of all Christian churches, publicists, teachers, editors and statesmen—to strike at his un-American and un-Christian agitation.”

In today’s noble era of hyper-vigilance toward many prejudices, in an age of neologistic terms of sensitivity -about which we may all agree- I fear that certain bigotries are seen as too passé to protest, too outmoded to focus upon.

Whether its American crimes statistics –both recent and from previous years -, events in Europe, or simply daring to risk walking the streets of almost all of the countries of the world while wearing a yarmulke (I dare the reader to try), one must be blind to ignore the scourge of anti-Semitism as being alive, well-fed and waiting to revisit the world with great horror, as it always has throughout history.

And yet, even in this era of social-justice and extreme sensitivity I feel the Jews are left out, or, placed in their own unique category (Don Imus had more carefully worded obituaries than did Qasem Soleimani, as but one example).

Why is this nation different, always in a category by itself?

Mah Nishtanah Ha'Am Ha'zeh M'Kol HaUmos?

Who will be this generation’s Woodrow Wilson? Who will recognize history’s dangerous cancer –that never ends well for anyone –steady return?

Who will have the courage to be unoriginal?

Before seeing Twain's initial article that caused the hullabaloo, as well as Twain's reponse to the anger, note how another writer, years later, notes Twain's prediction of Nazism in his initial article:

"I longed, when I was young, to write as well as Mark Twain. It’s beautiful stuff and I always liked him. . . . He was a man of very great shrewdness. The earliest article on the Nazis, on Nazism, a sort of first foretaste, a prophetic view of the war, was an article by Mark Twain in Harper’s in, I should think, the 1890s."

Rebecca West, 1981, 'The Art of Fiction' series

The initial article that got Twin into some trouble, and where he predicted Naziism:

STIRRING TIMES IN AUSTRIA

BY MARK TWAIN

Harper's Magazine -March 1898

(Emphasis mine)

...I.-The Government In The Frying Pan:

Here in Vienna in these closing days of 1897 one's blood gets no chance to stagnate. The atmosphere is brimful of political electricity. All conversation is political; every man is a battery, …gives out blue sparks when you set him going on the common topic. Everybody has an opinion, and lets you have it frank and hot, and out of this multitude of counsel you get merely confusion and despair. For no one really understands this political situation, or can tell you what is going to be the outcome of it.

Things have happened here recently which would set any country…on fire from end to end, and upset the government…; but no one feels confident that such results will follow here….

IV. The Historic Climax:

…The government came down with a crash; there was a popular outbreak or two in Vienna; there were three or four days of furious rioting in Prague, followed by the establish there of martial law; the Jews and Germans were harried and plundered, and their houses destroyed; in other Bohemian towns there was rioting-in some cases the Germans being the rioters, in others the Czechs - and in all cases the Jew had to roast, no matter which side he was on…

….What next? But there can be no next; the play is over ; the grand climax is reached; the possibilities are exhausted: bring down the curtain.

Not yet.

That distant door opens again. And now we see what history will be talking of five centuries hence: a u uniformed and helmeted battalion of bronzed and stalwart men marching in double file down the floor of the House-a free parliment profaned by an invasion of brute force! It was an odious spectacle - odious and awful. For one moment it was an unbelievable thing-a thing beyond all credibility; it must be a delusion , a dream, a nightmare.

But no, it was real - pitifully real , shamefully real , hideously real. 'I'hese sixty policemen had been soldiers, and they went at their work with the cold unsentimentality of their trade. They ascended the steps of the tribune, laid their hands upon the representatives of a nation and dragged and tugged and hauled them down the steps and out at the door;…It was a tremendous episode…

CONCERNING THE JEWS

BY MARK TWAIN

Harper's Magazine - September 1899

(Emphasis mine)

Some months ago I published a magazine article descriptive of a remarkable scene in the Imperial Parliament in Vienna. Since then I have received from Jews in America several letters of inquiry. [One] letter reads as follows:

"I have read 'Stirring Times in Austria.' ...The show of military force in the Austrian Parliament, which precipitated the riots, was not introduced by any Jew. No Jew was a member of that body. No Jewish question was involved in the Ausgleich or in the language proposition. No Jew was insulting anybody. In short, no Jew was doing any mischief toward anybody whatsoever. In fact, the Jews were the only ones of the nineteen different races in Austria which did not have a party - they are absolutely non-participants.

"Yet in your article you say that in the rioting which followed, all classes of people were unanimous only on one thing, viz., in being against the Jews. Now will you kindly tell me why, in your judgment, the Jews have thus ever been, and are even now, in these days of supposed intelligence, the butt of baseless, vicious animosities? I dare say that for centuries there has been no more quiet, undisturbing, and well-behaving citizen, as a class, than that same Jew. It seems to me that ignorance and fanaticism cannot alone account for these horrible and unjust persecutions.

"Tell me, therefore, from your vantage-point of cold view, what in your mind is the cause. Can American Jews do anything to correct it either in America or abroad? Will it ever come to an end? Will a Jew be permitted to live honestly, decently, and peaceably like the rest of mankind? What has become of the Golden Rule?"

I will begin by saying that if I thought myself prejudiced against the Jew, I should hold it fairest to leave this subject to a person not crippled in that way. But I think I have no such prejudice. A few years ago a Jew observed to me that there was no uncourteous reference to his people in my books, and asked how it happened. It happened because the disposition was lacking. I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it.

I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being - that is enough for me; he can't be any worse. I have no special regard for Satan; but I can at least claim that I have no prejudice against him. It may even be that I lean a little his way, on account of his not having a fair show...In the present paper I shall allow myself to use the word Jew as if it stood for both religion and race. It is handy; and, besides, that is what the term means to the general world.

In the above letter one notes these points:

1. The Jew is a well-behaved citizen.
2. Can ignorance and fanaticism alone account for his unjust treatment?
3. Can Jews do anything to improve the situation?
4. The Jews have no party; they are non-participants.
5. Will the persecution ever come to an end?
6. What has become of the Golden Rule?

Point No. 1.

We must grant proposition No. 1 for several sufficient reasons. The Jew is not a disturber of the peace of any country. Even his enemies will concede that. He is not a loafer, he is not a sot, he is not noisy, he is not a brawler nor a rioter, he is not quarrelsome. In the statistics of crime his presence is conspicuously rare - in all countries. With murder and other crimes of violence he has but little to do: he is a stranger to the hangman. In the police court's daily long roll of "assaults" and "drunk and disorderlies" his name seldom appears.

That the Jewish home is a home in the truest sense is a fact which no one will dispute. The family is knitted together by the strongest affections; its members show each other every due respect; and reverence for the elders is an inviolate law of the house. ^..

Summed up, they certify that he is quiet, peaceable, industrious, unaddicted to high crimes and brutal dispositions; that his family life is commendable; that he is not a burden upon public charities; that he is not a beggar; that in benevolence he is above the reach of competition. These are the very quint-essentials of good citizenship. If you can add that he is as honest as the average of his neighbors - But I think that question is affirmatively answered by the fact that he is a successful business man.

The basis of successful business is honesty; a business cannot thrive where the parties to it cannot trust each other. In the matter of numbers of the Jew counts for little in the overwhelming population of New York; but that his honesty counts for much is guaranteed by the fact that the immense wholesale business houses of Broadway, from the Battery to Union Square, is substantially in his hands. I suppose that the most picturesque example in history of a trader's trust in his fellow-trader was one where it was not Christian trusting Christian, but Christian trusting Jew...

Yet in all countries, from the dawn of history, the Jew has been persistently and implacably hated, and with frequency persecuted.

Point No. 2.

...Still, almost bereft of employments, he found ways to make money, even ways to get rich...This history has a very, very commercial look, a most sordid and practical commercial look, the business aspect of a Chinese cheap-labor crusade. Religious prejudices may account for one part of it, but not for the other nine. Protestants have persecuted Catholics, but they did not take their livelihoods away from them. The Catholics have persecuted the Protestants with bloody and awful bitterness, but they never closed agriculture and the handicrafts against them. Why was that? That has the candid look of genuine religious persecution, not a trade-union boycott in a religious disguise...eighty-five per cent. of the successful lawyers of Berlin were Jews, and that about the same percentage of the great and lucrative businesses of all sorts in Germany were in the hands of the Jewish race! Isn't it an amazing confession? It was but another way of saying that in a population of 48,000,000, of whom only 500,000 were registered as Jews, eight-five per cent. of the brains and honesty of the whole was lodged in the Jews...the banks, the newspapers, the theatres, the great mercantile, shipping, mining, and manufacturing interests, the big army and city contracts, the tramways, and pretty much all other properties of high value, and also the small businesses, were in the hands of the Jews...Speaking of concentration, Dr. Herzl has a clear insight into the value of that. Have you heard of his plan? He wishes to gather the Jews of the world together in Palestine, with a government of their own - under the suzerainty of the Sultan, I suppose. At the Convention of Berne, last year, there were delegates from everywhere, and the proposal was received with decided favor...if that concentration of the cunningest brains in the world were going to be made in a free country...It will not be well to let the race find out its strength. If the horses knew theirs, we should not ride any more.

Point No. 4.

...

Point No. 5.

"Will the persecution of the Jews ever come to an end?" On the score of religion, I think it has already come to an end. On the score of race prejudice and trade, I have the idea that it will continue. That is, here and there in spots about the world, where a barbarous ignorance and a sort of mere animal civilization prevail; but I do not think that elsewhere the Jew need now stand in any fear of being robbed and raided.

Among the high civilizations he seems to be very comfortably situated indeed, and to have more than his proportionate share of the prosperities going. It has that look in Vienna. I...

Point No. 6.

...

(What follows is very well known; what proceeds it may be lesser known)

-TEACHERS using this sheet should save this for the closing-

To conclude. - If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent. of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star-dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.

He has made a marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

Twain was not alone:

What Is A Jew? –

Leo Tolstoy

This question is not as strange as it may seem at first glance. Let’s examine this free creature that was insulated and oppressed, trampled on and pursued, burned and drowned by all the rulers and the nations, but is nevertheless living and thriving in spite of the whole world.

What is a Jew that did not succumb to any worldly temptations offered by his oppressors and persecutors so that he would renounce his religion and abandon the faith of his fathers?

A Jew is a sacred being who procured an eternal fire from the heavens and with it illuminated the earth and those who live on it. He is the spring and the source from which the rest of the nations drew their religions and beliefs.

A Jew is a pioneer of culture. From time immemorial, ignorance was impossible in the Holy Land, even more so than nowadays in civilized Europe. Moreover, at the time when the life and death of a human being was worth nothing, Rabbi Akiva spoke against the death penalty which is now considered to be an acceptable punishment in the most civilized countries.

A Jew is a pioneer of freedom. Back in primitive times, when the nation was divided into two classes, masters and slaves, Moses’ teaching forbid holding a person as a slave for more than six years.

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A Jew is a symbol of civil and religious tolerance, “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” These words were uttered during distant, barbarian times when it was commonly acceptable among the nations to enslave each other.

In terms of tolerance, the Jewish religion is far from recruiting adherents. Quite the opposite, the Talmud prescribes that if a non-Jew wants to convert to the Jewish faith, then it has to be explained to him how difficult it is to be a Jew and that the righteous of other religions also inherit the heavenly kingdom. A Jew is a symbol of eternity.

The nation which neither slaughter nor torture could exterminate, which neither fire nor sword of civilizations were able to erase from the face of earth, the nation which first proclaimed the word of Lord, the nation which preserved the prophecy for so long and passed it on to the rest of humanity, such a nation cannot vanish.

A Jew is eternal; he is an embodiment of eternity.

A TALE AS OLD AS TIME...

Rabbi Moshe Taub

-Forthcoming Book on 'Jews in America'

In 1655 Peter Stuyvesant, New Amsterdam’s Director General, not only forbade Jews from helping fight and stand guard, but gave them the ‘privilege’ of paying a tax for those legionnaires who were allowed to fight in their absence!

Asher Levy was having none of this. He appealed back to Holland arguing to receive his, and every willing Jews’ right to fight, as no member of this colony should be treated differently simply based on their race, creed or religion.

They agreed, and so he fought and defended the island.

Thus began the American tradition of equality under the law,

instigated by a Jew from Vilna named Asher, who managed to retain his faith on the then deserted island of Manhattan.

One question though remains: why was Stuyvesant so adamant about the Jews not fighting?

Well, his history with the Jewish people went back to their days in Recife, as well as the growing community (at that time) of Curaçao, an island near Aruba that is still in the hands of the Dutch today.

This will be the focus of the upcoming chapter.

V.

Ol’ Silver Legs

et us open this chapter with a letter that could very well have changed the course of American, and Jewish, history.

“…The Jews who arrived would nearly all like to remain here. But learning that they-with their customary usury and deceitful trading with the Christians-were very repugnant to the inferior magistrates…we have, for the benefit of this weak and newly developing place and the land in general, deemed it useful to require them in a friendly way to depart; praying also…that this deceitful race-such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of C- -be not allowed further to infect and trouble the new colony…” [Translation, Oppenheim, ibid.]

Only the shrewdest anti-Semite and can claim that a mass deportation be ‘friendly’.

This awful and shameful letter was composed on September 22, 1654, just two weeks after the arrival of the twenty-three Jews to New Amsterdam- in addition to the few Jews who preceded them earlier that summer.

It was written by Peter Stuyvesant, the seventh and last Director General of New Amsterdam, and was addressed to the leaders back in Holland of the Dutch West India Company. Its goal, simply put, was that they may officially intercede and officially ban all Jews from this part of the New World.

His was not the only appeal against the Jewish arrivals.

Domine Johannes Megapolenis, New Amsterdam’s chief minister and clergyman, wrote back to Holland a few months later. He argued that those that follow the “unrighteous Mammon” .

would seek to take possessions of Christian land and assets and funnel all trade to themselves. He went on to call the Jews “…rascals, who are of no benefit to the country, but look at everything for their own profit, [and] may be sent away from here”

[Translation taken from ‘By Chance or Choice’, Hershkowitz]

The Jews were well aware of the hatred in the air, and were deeply distressed over Stuyvesant’s official petition.

In an intriguing twist, it has been posited by some (see, e.g. Wiernik, p. 64) that this is when some Jews in New Amsterdam went to Rhode Island where they would go on to soon found the Touro Synagogue, the country’s oldest Shul (see the previous chapter where we briefly make mention of how complicated it is to measure this claim, made by many varying shuls –if by founding, if by building, etc.).

This seems logical, as Rhode Island itself was founded just twenty years prior, in 1636, by Roger Williams, himself exiled from the Massachusetts Bay colony due to his own religious views. He initially called the land ‘Providence Plantations’ and declared it a home of religious freedom for all. Indeed, that is where the name of the city ‘Providence’, RI stems from (for more on Rhode Island, see VII. below).

While some claim that almost all of the Jews, save for a paltry few, left due to Stuyvesant’s anti-Semitism, this seems exaggerated. In fact, the Jews appealed to their friends and family –as well as Amsterdam’s askanim, some of whom were investors in the Dutch Company- for assistance.

It is reasonable to assume that even before Holland replied to Stuyvesant’s letter the Dutch leadership were already in receipt

of the following letter written by Amsterdam’s askanim in the Jews’ defense, composed in Amsterdam in January of 1655:

“To the Honorable Lords, Directors of the Chartered West India Company, Chamber of the city of Amsterdam:

“The merchants of the Portuguese nation residing in this city respectfully remonstrate to your honors that is has come to their knowledge that your honors raise obstacles to the giving of permits or passports to the Portuguese Jews to travel and to go to reside in New Netherland, which if persisted will result in the great disadvantage to the Jewish Nation. It also can be of no advantage to the general Company but rather damaging

“There are many of the nation who have lost their possessions in Pernambuco [Brazil, the territory that included Recife] and have arrived there in great poverty…and they can not go to Spain or Portugal because of the inquisition…

“It is well known to your honors that the Jewish nation in Brazil have at all times been faithful and have striven to guard and maintain that place, risking for that purpose their possessions and their blood

“…Therefore the petitioners request that the honors be pleased not to exclude but to grant the Jewish nation passage to and residence in that country; otherwise this would result in great prejudice to their reputation…”

With two very different appeals in their hands, and the future of American Jewry hanging in the balance, on April 26, 1655 the leadership in Holland officially replied to Stuyvesant’s request.

Many would argue that the following letter is the most important written composition as it relates to Jewish America:

“…your wishes and request that the new territories should be no more allowed to be infected by the people of the Jewish nation, for we foresee the same difficulties which you fear, but after having further weighed and considered the matter we observed that this would be somewhat unreasonable and unfair…

“…we have finally decided…that these people may travel and trade to and in New Netherland and live and remain there…you will now govern yourself accordingly”

They did however make their ruling contingent on the poor among the Jews not becoming ‘a burden’, and that the Jews should be supported only by their own community.

Stuyvesant, for his part, was not content with this decision. In October of 1655 he once again appealed back to Holland, arguing that “to give liberty to the Jews would be detrimental”.

And, again –on March 16, 1656-the directors back in Holland replied to Stuyvesant, reiterating their position that Jews were “to enjoy the same liberty that is granted to them in this country [Holland]” while limiting their ability to practice their religion openly (see V. above for some of the text of this letter). However, they do conclude that should the Jews ever request for public religious gatherings then Stuyvesant would indeed have to once again await a decision from Holland.

Stuyvesant’s stubbornness would not allow him to cede the matter. On June 10^th of that year Stuyvesant appealed once more, arguing that Judaism is “an abominable religion”. He also

prognosticated that Jews will take [earn?] too much of the fiscal and trade pie when he concludes ominously:

“What they [the Jews] may be able to obtain from your honors time will tell”

While it is impossible to fully understand Stuyvesant’s hatred for us, his background is an important first step in seeking to understand this man.

Before he turned thirty he was already the director of the ‘ABC’ islands - Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. At the age of 34, while fighting against the Spanish on St. Martin, he was hit by a cannonball, crushing his leg, and causing him to lose that limb.

He would use a silver-tipped wooden prosthetic for the rest of his life and gained the nickname ‘Old Silver Legs’.

Far from making him bitter, he saw his surviving that moment of peril as evidence that he was on a Divine mission, as being directly chosen by Gd to help direct the New World.

This may explain a strange quirk of history. In the 1630’s the young Stuyvesant was the director of another Dutch colony, that of Pernambuco, where the city of Recife is located. As we focused on in the chapters above, this is where the first Jewish community and the first rav of the New World were located. And yet, they seemed to have been at least tolerated then by Stuyvesant. In addition, Curacao –where he also served as Director- would also go on to have a sizable Jewish community.

Consequently, many historians have wondered why Stuyvesant’s hatred toward Jews suddenly became so

pronounced only in New York in the 1650’s (see, e.g. Marcus, p. 217, bottom).

Some suggest that these Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam were weaker-and therefore more susceptible to open attack-in that they came there without passports. He now had vulnerable Jews with whom he could take advantage.

Other possibilities exist. For one, while in Recife he was not yet ‘Ol Silver Legs’, Gd’s ‘chosen’. Perhaps only now he felt emboldened to teach, nay, enforce his beliefs.

I would suggest one final possibility, although, admittedly, a stretch. New Amsterdam was in a precarious position. Surrounded on many sides by the British colonies, there existed a thick cloud of uncertainty regarding when (not if) they would be attacked.

We know that Stuyvesant always felt vulnerable to such a confrontation, knowing war was inevitable.

Stuyvesant therefore –having lived among Jews much of his professional life-was well aware of their success in business and the like. So that perhaps he felt that an influx of Jews into this new Dutch colony may run the risk of being interpreted as a threat against the British, triggering them to attack (which they did, just several years later, in 1664).

We will close this chapter with an interesting observation. Over the past several years we have seen in the United States the demand that statues and the like of racists (and perceived racists) be taken down. Why, one may fairly wonder, have Jews not argued the same relating to Stuyvesant and all the statues and memorials in his honor?

Well, first of all, some Jews have protested. Last year it was reported how one Jewish organization appealed to Mayor De Blasio that Stuyvesant’s statues be removed and that:

“New York, which boasts such important Jewish history and claims such a present day vibrant Jewish community, should take the lead in denouncing Stuyvesant’s bigotry.”

However, such appeals are not just a waste of time but are, in my judgment, foolish.

I can’t think of tastier revenge than having hundreds of frum schoolchildren playing around his visage; kids with yarmulkes hiding during a game of hide-and-seek behind his ample body.

Sifrei, Bamidbar:

NOTE THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN YISHMOEL, ESAV, AMALEK, and The End of Days:

R. Eliezer says ... "from a distant (rechokah) way (korban Pesach)": There is a (diacritical) dot above the heh in "rechokah" (to indicate that he observes Pesach Sheni) even if he were on a non-distant way and did not observe (the first) Pesach with them. Similarly, (Bereshit 16;5) "May the L-rd judge between me (Sarah) and between you (Abraham) (uvenecha)": There is a dot above (the yod in) "uvenecha" — She spoke of Hagar alone. Others say: (She spoke of Hagar) who engendered strife between him and her. ...Similarly, (Ibid. 33:4) "And he (Esav) kissed (vayishakehu) him (Jacob)": There are dots above (all the letters in) "vayishakehu" — He did not kiss him with all his heart. R. Shimon b. Yochai says: It is a known halachah that Esav hates Jacob, but his mercy gained the ascendancy at that time and he kissed him with all his heart. (Ibid. 37:12) "And his brothers went to graze eth their father's flock in Shchem": There are dots above "eth" — They went only to graze themselves. Similarly, (Bamidbar 21:30) "We have laid it waste until Nofach which (asher) reaches unto Medva": There is a dot (above the resh in "asher")...Similarly, (Devarim 29:28) "The hidden things are for the L-rd our G-d and the revealed ones are for us and our children (lanu ulevanenu) forever.": There are dots (above "lanu ulevanenu.") He said to them: If you have done (i.e., violated) what is revealed, I (the L-rd), likewise, will apprise you of what is concealed...

Bereishis 16:12

(יב) וְה֤וּא יִהְיֶה֙ פֶּ֣רֶא אָדָ֔ם יָד֣וֹ בַכֹּ֔ל וְיַ֥ד כֹּ֖ל בּ֑וֹ וְעַל־פְּנֵ֥י כׇל־אֶחָ֖יו יִשְׁכֹּֽן׃^{(12) He shall be a wild donkey of a person; his hand against everyone, And everyone’s hand against him
He shall dwell alongside of all his kin.”}

But here is the AriZal:

(Rav Chaim Vital)

Etz HaDa'at Tov on Tehillim 124 (Rav Chaim Vital)

"You already know that the exiles are four: Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome (which stretched out from the 2nd temple destruction and apparently ended with the Holocaust.) However, the Jewish people are destined further in the end of days to be in the exile of Yishmael, as mentioned in Pirkei D'Rebi Eliezer, and in the Midrashim of our Rabbis, and in the Zohar end of Parsha Lech Lecha.

Behold, while in the fourth exile, they will say (verse 1) "If it had not been for the L-RD who was for us', Israel will say;", which means now in these four exiles we would have been destroyed completely, as he says afterwards "Then they had swallowed us up alive" (verse 3). And expound the verse as if it says "Israel will say 'if it had not been for the L-ord'", which means, now during these four exiles. But there is an additional fifth and final exile for all of them and which is harder than all of them. And this is the exile of Yishmael, who is called "Pereh Adam" ("A wild donkey of a man"), and he is not compared to a beast (like the other 4 exiles).

Then Israel will call out in a different manner, which is (verse 2) 'If it had not been for the L-ORD who was for us, when a man (Adam) rose up over us'. (the "man" refers to Yishmael, who is the "Pereh Adam"), because being that he is a man due to being the son of Avraham, and therefore he has the merit of his forefather, as we find, (Avraham praying for Yishmael to G-d): "would that Yishmael live before You (Bereishis 17:18)", and he also has the merit of the Mila (circumcision). Due to this also, he is called "Adam", therefore his exile is harder than the other four kingdoms, as our Sages have said: "Because for this he is called Yishmael, that in the future Yisrael will scream out, tremendous screams in the days of his exile, and the 'Yishma' - 'El' (G-d will hear), and will answer them.

And since other nations always had some form of rulership on other (smaller nations), unlike Yishmael, who dwelled alone in the deserts, and who would not deal with other nations...And afterwards Yishmael will rise and become king over the entire world, and over Yisrael. And this is what is meant by "when a man rose up over us" (verse 2), similar to what is said in the Zohar on the verse "a new king rose up" (Shmos 1), because at first he was lower than all the nations and now he rose to Kingship...

And this is what Israel will say then "If it had not been for the L-ORD who was for us, when a man (Adam) rose up over us", which is Yishmael, "Then they had swallowed us up alive" (verse 3), which means then during the fifth exile it will be different than all that passed over us. Because they will want to swallow us alive , in the manner of "and the sheathes swallowed them", (Bereishis 41:24), "and it was not noticeable that they were inside them", because G-d forbid, when their wrath will be kindled against us, they will desire to erase the name Yisrael from under the heavens, like something which is swallowed, whose existence is no longer noticeable at all, and as if it never existed.

Unlike the other four exiles which are referred to "Then the waters had overwhelmed us" (verse 5), because their exiles are easier and we were compared to one who was overwhelmed by water but his body still exists, and was not swallowed up completely.....

...and he will cause suffering to Israel, great and terrible sufferings, such that none like these had ever been seen, and we will not know what to do. And we will have no other hope than to trust in His great Name to save us from his hand. And this is what is meant in verse 8, "Our help is in the name of the L-ORD, who made heaven and earth. Which means who made heaven and earth for the sake of the Torah and Yisrael who as in the verse "if not for my covenant day and night (study of torah), I would not have appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth (Yirmiyahu 33:25)". Therefore He is forced to help us from their hands, and redeem us a full future redemption, in order that there will be a purpose for the existence of heaven and earth."

... In 1786, the new United States found that it was having to deal very directly with the tenets of the Muslim religion. The Barbary states of North Africa (or, if you prefer, the North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire, plus Morocco) were using the ports of today’s Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia to wage a war of piracy and enslavement against all shipping that passed through the Strait of Gibraltar. Thousands of vessels were taken, and more than a million Europeans and Americans sold into slavery. The fledgling United States of America was in an especially difficult position, having forfeited the protection of the British Royal Navy. Under this pressure, Congress gave assent to the Treaty of Tripoli, negotiated by Jefferson’s friend Joel Barlow, which stated roundly that “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen.” This has often been taken as a secular affirmation, which it probably was, but the difficulty for secularists is that it also attempted to buy off the Muslim pirates by the payment of tribute. That this might not be so easy was discovered by Jefferson and John Adams when they went to call on Tripoli’s envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman. They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves in this way. As Jefferson later reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:

The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

THEN COME THE MIXTURE OF ESAV AND YISHMOEL:

...The mixture of Esav and Yishmoel is the essence of Amalek.

Indeed, Amalek is a mix of these two, as stated in Zohar 2:120.

We see this also by Bilam and Balak, aside for the shafred Beis the ayin, lamed, mem, kuf -combine for Amalek: בל״עם ...בל״ק. (Zohar, 3:194).

The mystery of the this mixture -Chamor/Yishmoel and Shor/Esav accroding the Vilna Gaon (Sifra Dtzniusah, ch. 4) is the secret behind other Chukim, such as Shatnez, Kayin (Esav) and Hevel (Yishmoel), etc.

Is it not of note that even the term for the classic Chok, "Parah Adumah" is the same as "Perah Adam"?!

Accd. to Kabbalah, this is a deeper meaning to:

Yalkut to Yeshayahu #499... “Rise! Shine! For your light has come.” Rebbi Hoshaiah said: in the future, Yisrael will be made a lamp for the nations of the world, and they will go to its light. And for what reason? “they will go to your light.” And so Hashem says: “The mountain of the house of Hashem will be established…etc.”... Satan said before Hakodesh Baruch Hu: Master of the Universe, the light that is stashed under Your Throne of Glory, who is it for? He said: for the one who in the future will bring you back and humiliate you in shamed face. He said to Him: Master of the Universe, show him to me. He said to him: come and see him. When he saw him, he became horrified and fell upon his face and said: Surely this Mashiach will cast me down and all the ministering angels of the nations of the world in Gehinom...(And, regaring our enemies) As it says: “I will crush his enemies from before him,” even the rivers will cease from the sea: As it says: “I will set his hand upon the sea, his right hand upon the rivers.”...Moshiach said before Hakodesh Baruch Hu: Master of the universe, perhaps this pain would last many years? Hakodesh Baruch Hu said to him: By your life and by the life of your head, I have decreed 7 for you. If this grieves your soul, then I will banish them from now on. he said before him: Master of the universe, with gladness and joy of my heart, I accept this upon myself under the condition that not one will be lost from Yisrael. And not only the living will be saved in my day, but even those that are hidden in the dust. And not only the dead alone will be saved in my day, but even those that have died in the days of first man until now! And not these alone but even the stillborn/aborted babies will be saved in my day! And not the stillborn alone, but even those that You only thought of and they have not yet been created! This I want, this I accept. They said, the week that Moshiach Ben David comes, brings beams of iron and given to him [Moshiach Ben Yoseph] upon his neck until it has bent his stature and he screams and cries and his voice ascends to the supernal heights. He said before Hashem: Master of the Universe, how much will be my strength? How much will be my spirit? And how much will be my soul? And how much will be my limbs? Am I not only flesh and blood? ...From the day that the evil Nebuchadnezzar went up and destroyed My house and burned My sanctuary and exiled my children to the nations of the world, by your life and the life of your head, I have not entered My Throne...At that time, Moshiach Ben Yoseph said before Him: Master of the Universe, now I am appeased, for it is sufficient that the servant be like his master. Rebi Yitzchak said: the year that King Moshiach will be revealed, all the kings of the nations of the world will taunt each other. The king of Persia will taunt the King of Arabia. And the king of Arabia will go to Aram to get advice from them. And the king of Persia returns and destroys the entire world. And all the nations of the world trembles and is terrified and the fall upon their faces and gripped with agony, like the agony of childbirth. And Yisrael trembles and is terrified and says: to where will we come and go, and to where will we come and go? And He says to them: My children, do not be afraid! All that I have done, I have only done for your sake. why are you afraid? Do not be afraid, the time of your redemption has arrived. And the final redemption will not be like the first redemption. For the first redemption was painful for you and you were enslaved to other kingdoms after it. but the final redemption, there will be no pain and enslavement to other kingdoms after:

Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg, Mishpacha Magazine, November, 2023

...It is known that Rav Chaim never veered from the teachings of his revered rebbi and uncle, the Chazon Ish ztz”l. After the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Chazon Ish was often asked whether this time period heralded the reishis tzemichas geulaseinu, the initial flowering of the Geulah. And he would always answer (see Pe’er Hador and Koveitz Igros Chazon Ish) that while he could not authoritatively state that this period is the beginning of the Geulah, he could say with confidence that it is the sof galusa, the end of galus...

...

As we were waiting for the plane to come to a stop at the gate, we saw the door to the terminal open and watched as the gadol hador, Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l, took his place as the first to greet Rav Hutner upon his arrival. From my vantage point, I watched the Rosh Yeshivah emerge from the plane in very weakened condition, and I saw Rav Moshe literally run to him. They hugged each other while crying with much emotion and relief. I saw Rav Hutner whisper something to Rav Moshe, who nodded his head in agreement, and then Rav Hutner was escorted to the waiting ambulance.

On the way back home, I asked Rabbi Rubin what Rav Hutner had told Rav Moshe. He answered that Rav Hutner said, “I looked into the eyes of the captors and saw in them the burning anger at the fact that ‘lo yirash ha’am hazeh,’ they will never inherit the Land.”

Rabbi Moshe Taub

Shul Chronicles 698

The Chofetz Chaim’ Passport

Antisemitism and How/If to Respond

The first ‘Brisker’ beis midrash in America is likely older than one may think. In the early 1920’s Rav Simcha Soloveitchik moved to America and became the rav of Tifferes Yisroel-Anshei Brisk in New York.

Rav Simcha was the youngest son of the Beis HaLevi, and Rav Chaim Soloveitchik’s half-brother. His son, Rav Yosef Dov, is largely responsible for Monsey, New York becoming a frum community. Rav Yosef Dov’s son, Rav Simcha Soloveitchik shlit”a called me last week to share a brilliant idea relating to a kashah I’ve always had.

As our discussion was winding down, I offered that much of what he had just shared with me can be utilized for my Shabbos HaGadol derasha.

“What will you be speaking about? What is your topic?” he asked.

I explained that this year I felt there is only one topic that is on everyone’s collective minds: “B’chol dor v’dor omdim aleinu lachaloseinu” and, how a yid responds to this current war and to anti-Semitism.

In response, he shared some brilliant Torah on this theme, and then concluded the call with the following addendum to a known event in the life of the Chofetz Chaim.

It is well-established that near the end of the Chofetz Chaim’s life he was close to settling in eretz yisroel. In fact, he even commissioned a home be built for him in Petach Tikvah.

This was a dream of his that began when he was in his mid-forties, and now seemed to be plausible.

In 2018 a letter was uncovered that the Choftetz Chaim had written on blank stationary-so as to avoid ayin hara-discussing his delayed move. This letter was put up to auction and sold for over $40,000!

In this letter, the Chofetz Chaim shares the reason for his latest delay - his wife became ill, and they had to take her to a hospital in Vilna. Although frustrating his plans once again, he makes sure to share that this too was “…min hashomayim…”.

Sometime later, his daughter would become ill, preventing him once again to immigrate and fulfill his dream.

The Chofetz Chaim also had to contend with the gedolim of his time, such as Rav Chaim Ozer, who wished for him to stay in chutz l’aretz to lead klal yisroel.

Then, finally, it seemed, all the pieces were lined up and he was able to begin his arduous journey and fulfill his dream. However, there was one last hurdle: his immigration paperwork; specifically, a passport issued for him from the Polish government.

The Chofetz Chaim -nor many people at that time – didn’t have much in terms of birth certification and the like and asked what would be required to attain a passport. While some recordings of this event place him in his eighties at that time, others place him in his nineties. Either way, the official likely never met someone at this age who was in the need of their very-first passport. After all, few of any age would take upon themselves to travel a great and burdensome distance, and certainly not someone of this age!

So, the official came up with an arbitrary and haphazard decision: “Find someone who can testify to your age and birth -who knew you since you were a baby -and we can then issue you your needed passport.”

Of course, this would be near impossible! Not just because of his age, but even if such an older witness was indeed alive and with a clear-mind, how would the Chofetz Chaim go on to locate such an individual? This was, after all, a time before our current technological connective sinews.

The Chofetz Chaim turned to his students and lamented the capriciousness of this impulsive and impetuous order, explaining that this is the fate of the yid in galus at the hands of the whims of our host nations. We see this first by Lavan, the Choftez Chaim explained. When he was ordered by Hashem not to harm Yaakov upon his escape, Lavan still made sure to aggrieve and guilt Yaakov with the comment: “The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the animals are my animals, and all that is in your vision belongs to me…” (Bereishis 31:43).

Lavan knew he couldn’t harm Yaakov, so why say anything?

We are taught in the haggadah how Lavan is the birth-figure of our galus, who represents ‘b’chol dor v’dor’. We see from here that our enemies will do anything in their power to prevent a yid from even travelling in their galus, especially toward eretz yisroel, as Lavan did to Yaakov.

After reminding me of this story, Rav Simcha shared a hemshech, a further lesson to be gleaned. The Choftez Chaim was already an older man at this point in his life. Finding someone who is old enough to recall his birth would be near impossible! So too for klal yisroel; no nation, no institution, no people are old enough, nor have stayed the test-of-time, like us, so as to testify to our birth.

Therefore, no nation will ever be able to comprehend our needs, our birthright, our mission.

A brilliant point!

When I was child, I found a book on the life of the Chazon Ish. While the entire story of his life had a deep impact on me for years to come, one story stuck out and continuously came to mind throughout my teenage years.

The Chazon Ish was once walking with a student when someone noticed this rabbi with his long beard and coat and yelled nasty and antisemitic comments. The student took great offense to the remarks, especially since they were intended for a great tzadik, and so he began to respond sharply. The Chazon Ish stopped him and said, “Ah yid enfert nit- a Jew does not respond”.

The Chazon Ish was not saying that we should never explain our point of view when helpful, or that we should not correct mistaken beliefs. Rather he was sharing something far deeper, something Rav Hutner also discusses (Jewish Observer, cheshvan 1977): a Jew must never forget that all our sufferings stem from Lavan and our galus. It is not dependent solely on kocheinu v’atzum yadeinu; that if we just said the right thing, or acted in the correct way, all would be resolved. Indeed, the world will never be able to fully understand us.

My teenage child and I had to run to a store the other day. “I will drop you off at the corner and then come back around and meet you”, I said.

“Please, no!” was the response, followed by the explanation that she no longer feels safe in non-frum areas as a Jew!

What do I tell her?

I shared that according to many rishonim the very meaning of ‘v’hi she’umduh la’avoseinu v’lanu …b’chol dor v’dor…for us and our forefathers’, in that this is a havtacha of galus (see Ritvah, Tashbeitz, etc.); It is a miracle that makes no sense!

I am not therefore suggesting being resigned to pain and suffering, or that we should not defend and fight.

Chalilah!

Rather, as one frum writer published in an Israeli paper after October 7^th , to note the ‘miracle’ of anti-Semitism and that it “defies all logic and rationalism - though we keep trying to rationalize with the haters. They hate us because when we are successful and when we are poor. They hate us when we are weak and they hate us when we are strong. They hate us when we agree with them and they hate us when we disagree with them”.

This is what I shared with my daughter: First, no one else can ever understand our pain. Second, this too is a ness. And third, just as Rav Akiva laughed when he saw the negative miracles come true -as this was a sign of the more positive prophesies to come - a part of us as well must see this painful ‘ness’ as a reminder of the greater ness to come: “…V’Hakadosh Baruch Matzileinu M’Yadam”.

“And I'll close by saying this. Because anti-Semitism is the godfather of racism and the gateway to tyranny and fascism and war, it is to be regarded not as the enemy of the Jewish people, I learned, but as the common enemy of humanity and of civilisation, and has to be fought against very tenaciously for that reason, most especially in its current, most virulent form of Islamic Jihad. Daniel Pearl's revolting murderer was educated at the London School of Economics. Our Christmas bomber over Detroit was from a neighboring London college, the chair of the Islamic Students' Society. Many pogroms against Jewish people are being reported from all over Europe today as I'm talking, and we can only expect this to get worse, and we must make sure our own defenses are not neglected. Our task is to call this filthy thing, this plague, this—this pest, by its right name; to make unceasing resistance to it, knowing all the time that it's probably ultimately ineradicable, and bearing in mind that its hatred towards us is a compliment, and resolving (some of the time, at any rate) to do a bit more to deserve it. Thank you.”

"Bchol Dor V'Dor" appears TWICE in the Haggada - here, and when obligating each Jew to see themselves as if NOW they are leaving Egypt!

בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה יְיָ לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרַיִם. לֹא אֶת־אֲבוֹתֵינוּ בִּלְבַד גָּאַל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, אֶלָּא אַף אוֹתָנוּ גָּאַל עִמָּהֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְאוֹתָנוּ הוֹצִיא מִשָּׁם, לְמַעַן הָבִיא אוֹתָנוּ, לָתֶת לָנוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ.

In each and every generation, a person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt, as it is stated (Exodus 13:8); "And you shall explain to your son on that day: For the sake of this, did the Lord do [this] for me in my going out of Egypt." Not only our ancestors did the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem, but rather also us [together] with them did He redeem, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 6:23); "And He took us out from there, in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers."

So we Raise our Kos. Because we know how this story ends.

And so we raise our Kos.

May we see that Chapter soon!