In B'reishit (Genesis) there is a story about Yaakov (Jacob) the third of our forefathers. Yaakov's mother Rivka (Rebecca) sends him to her brother Lavan (Laban) to escape his angry brother Eisav (Esau). Yaakov begins to work for Lavan as a shepherd. As payment, Lavan promises Yaakov all the spotted and speckled goats and all the brown sheep. As soon as he makes this promise, suddenly all the baby goats born are spotted and speckled, and all the sheep born are brown.
The Torah is not a book of history, so why would this story be in the Torah? I see this as a prototype of the Jewish people. Whenever or wherever we live, Jews rise to the top. We manage to survive persecution and attempts to destroy us as a people. The Egyptians of ancient times, the Philistines, the Babylonians, the ancient Greeks, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition - all tried to destroy the Jewish people. They may have killed some Jews, but the Jewish people survive. And, despite laws prohibiting us from this job or that throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, or quotas in colleges and universities, Jews have risen to the top financially and educationally. Want to learn Old French? Look at Rashi, a Jewish commentator on the Bible. Want to know the most translated book in the world? It's our Torah.
Yet, the world hasn't learned the lesson. Instead of learning from our successes and devoting their time to learning the way to duplicate this success, the people of the world spend their collective time, the collective time of a large percentage of the 6 billion people of the world, trying to destroy us and, with us, the success that living according to the Torah accords.
Funny thing is, a vast majority of the 12 million Jews in the world don't even follow the Torah that has led to and continues to lead to the successes of the Jewish people. I personally don't understand this. I have to tell you, if I saw someone who was successful, I would do my best to emulate that person. And even if I weren't able to duplicate his success, I can't imagine why I would want to kill him simply because he was successful.
150 or so years ago, Mark Twain went to what is now Israel. He found it desolate and largely uninhabited. And it was this way until the influx of Jews, mostly from Europe, starting in the late 19th century and continuing to this day. Jews built up the land and Jews maintain it. With it, we have brought democracy and tolerance to an area of the world where tolerance and democracy are alien concepts. We have brought the ideals of peace and love to a region of the world that has, despite early golden days, sunken into the depths of hatred and murder. And for this, our reward is not only the hatred of the people in the region, we have earned the hatred and disdain of a large percentage of the world's population, including a large percentage of Jews and, strangely enough, Israelis.
Why is it that a majority of the people in the world have chosen to hate Jews and Israel? Maybe because it's easier to blame all your problems on someone else or someone else's success, rather than to look at these problems critically and look for answers? Maybe it's because the leaders of the Middle Eastern nations prefer to steal from their people, leaving them poor and ill-informed, filling them on a steady diet of hate-filled diatribes, to divert their attention from the truth?
It seems to me that success should be emulated, not destroyed. The world is heading down the road of destruction, when the answer is so simple. Will the people of the world see the truth before the world is destroyed? I sincerely hope so.
--------------------------------------------------------
Debbie Lynn is a graphic artist and writer living in central New Jersey.
The Torah is not a book of history, so why would this story be in the Torah? I see this as a prototype of the Jewish people. Whenever or wherever we live, Jews rise to the top. We manage to survive persecution and attempts to destroy us as a people. The Egyptians of ancient times, the Philistines, the Babylonians, the ancient Greeks, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition - all tried to destroy the Jewish people. They may have killed some Jews, but the Jewish people survive. And, despite laws prohibiting us from this job or that throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, or quotas in colleges and universities, Jews have risen to the top financially and educationally. Want to learn Old French? Look at Rashi, a Jewish commentator on the Bible. Want to know the most translated book in the world? It's our Torah.
Yet, the world hasn't learned the lesson. Instead of learning from our successes and devoting their time to learning the way to duplicate this success, the people of the world spend their collective time, the collective time of a large percentage of the 6 billion people of the world, trying to destroy us and, with us, the success that living according to the Torah accords.
Funny thing is, a vast majority of the 12 million Jews in the world don't even follow the Torah that has led to and continues to lead to the successes of the Jewish people. I personally don't understand this. I have to tell you, if I saw someone who was successful, I would do my best to emulate that person. And even if I weren't able to duplicate his success, I can't imagine why I would want to kill him simply because he was successful.
150 or so years ago, Mark Twain went to what is now Israel. He found it desolate and largely uninhabited. And it was this way until the influx of Jews, mostly from Europe, starting in the late 19th century and continuing to this day. Jews built up the land and Jews maintain it. With it, we have brought democracy and tolerance to an area of the world where tolerance and democracy are alien concepts. We have brought the ideals of peace and love to a region of the world that has, despite early golden days, sunken into the depths of hatred and murder. And for this, our reward is not only the hatred of the people in the region, we have earned the hatred and disdain of a large percentage of the world's population, including a large percentage of Jews and, strangely enough, Israelis.
Why is it that a majority of the people in the world have chosen to hate Jews and Israel? Maybe because it's easier to blame all your problems on someone else or someone else's success, rather than to look at these problems critically and look for answers? Maybe it's because the leaders of the Middle Eastern nations prefer to steal from their people, leaving them poor and ill-informed, filling them on a steady diet of hate-filled diatribes, to divert their attention from the truth?
It seems to me that success should be emulated, not destroyed. The world is heading down the road of destruction, when the answer is so simple. Will the people of the world see the truth before the world is destroyed? I sincerely hope so.
--------------------------------------------------------
Debbie Lynn is a graphic artist and writer living in central New Jersey.