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
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?
