Profile Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

the Jews and Their Enemies


The Jews and their Enemies
By Rabbi David E. Eidensohn

 

Jews as Enemies of Jews

Jews as Enemies of Jews, who are they? What Jew gains from being an enemy of other Jews? It is a good question, but the answer is that anytime that a Jew does something to antagonize others, Jewish or not, we have a problem. The Talmud teaches that the senior rabbi of the generation, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai, was always careful to greet everyone, Jew and gentile, when he walked down the street. This led to everyone respecting him, and also respecting other Jews who followed his example, as suggested by the rabbis.


The gemora[1] teaches that “one should always respond softly, and establish peace with his brethren and with his relatives and with all people, even a gentile in the marketplace, so that he will be loved from on high (Heaven) and beloved below (in this world), and so be accepted by everyone.”


The gemora continues there saying, “It was said regarding Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai, that nobody ever greeted him first, even a gentile in the marketplace.” Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai lived in the time of the destruction of the First Temple, something brought about by fanatic Jews who had no compunction with making war with the mighty Roman legions. The Roman legions finally defeated all who opposed them and were about to penetrate Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. Whoever opposed the Jewish fanatics in their hopeless struggles against Rome were threatened. But one of them was a relative of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai who knew that the rebellion against Rome would not succeed. He helped Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai to escape from Jerusalem and go to the camp of the Roman general.


Rabbi Yochanan was brought to this general and greeted him as Your Majesty. The general was shocked. He said that for that he can be killed by the king as he is only a general, not a king. But Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai told him that it was obvious that he was about to conquer Jerusalem, and that this power was only given by G‑d to the monarch of the attacking country. Just then somebody came to the general and announced that he had been selected to be the new king.


The new king then turned to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai and told him that he was the first one to realize this, and he must be a very holy man to know it, so what does he want the new king to give him?


Rabbi Yochana ben Zackai realized that the new king would never permit the Jews to maintain their hold on the Temple, so he did not ask this. He asked rather several things he was sure the king would agree to. One was that the king allow a city in Israel to be used by rabbis to study the Torah, and the king agreed. He then asked for a doctor for a holy man who fasted many days to prevent the destruction of Jerusalem, and it was granted. From that moment on the Romans in general had a very high regard for the pious rabbis although they slaughtered the rebels. Eventually, there was a new Roman king had such great respect for the rabbis that he himself, secretly, began to practice Judaism. He once gave the leader of the rabbis a huge sum of money, explaining that he knew that the time would come when the Romans would demand a lot of money from Jews, and he wanted them to have that money, which actually came from him.


One of the greatest rabbis in the world years ago when I was younger was Rabbi Yaacov Kaminetsky. He was a man of understanding and wisdom, as well as piety and honesty. Near his house was a covenant for Catholic women. These were older women dressed in their special garments and their grounds were now surrounded by many blocks of deeply Orthodox Jews mostly with beards and religious attire. Rabbi Kaminetsky, an old rabbi, would regularly greet these ladies pleasantly.


It so happened that our city had a powerful commissioner who hated Jews. Once a Jew came to him to get permission to build a building. He knew that this commissioner would give him a hard time. He was shocked when the commissioner greeted him warmly and quickly approved his requests. He was so shocked that the commissioner sensed his surprise and explained to him, that his close relative lived in that covenant, and that she and her friends who lived there always received the warmest greeting from Rabbi Yaacov Kaminetsky.


In the Second World War when the Germans began slaughtering Jews, a gentile postman began hiding Jews. If the Germans would realize this they would kill him. He explained that he had once gave a Jewish customer a large sum of money by mistake. The Jew returned the money. When the postman realized how honest the Jew was he resolved to hide as much Jews as he could and so many survived the war.


But just as Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai turned even ferocious Roman soldiers into people who honored the rabbis, and just as the postmaster saved many Jews from the Germans, so were there other Jews who did not merit to turn Jews and gentiles into beloved friends, but perhaps the opposite. It all depends how a Jew greets the other Jews and the gentiles.


In recent times many Jews who are not religious have entered Hollywood and turned it into a festival of disgusting anti-Torah teachings. Thousands of people of all ages have been destroyed by these very popular filth productions. When people notice that many of these Hollywood filth producers are Jewish, they often hate Jews, who teach people to do the complete opposite of what the Torah commands. The Torah is very clear that people who promote sin and evil are enemies of G‑d and all Jews must opposite them.


Rabbi Yaacov Kaminetsky once told me that when we find some Jewish politician or similar personality who is spreading anti-Torah anti-morality ideas, and there is a politician or similarity who believes in morality but who hates Jews, we must back for and vote for the anti-Semite. We have a G‑d and we have a Torah and anyone who spreads filth and opposes G‑d and the Torah must be fought and destroyed.There is now a movement in America to put any person who opposes anti-Torah propaganda either into jail or to fine him or punish him in other  ways. If they succeed, what will happen to our community?  Do we all have to flee the country and let America turn into the pure filth of the Hollywood terrorists?



[1] Babylonian Talmud Berochose 17A

No comments:

Post a Comment