[Part one of this article can be read at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=4332.]
Should We Be Ashamed With Judaism?
Sometimes, hearing it from the mouths of non-Jews themselves, can be helpful.
Nineteenth-century American president John Adams wrote: "I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation. If I were an atheist who believed or pretended to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance has ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization."
Another non-Jewish philosopher, Peter Kreeft, wrote these words: "The prophetic spirit of the Jew finds a meaning and a purpose in history, thereby transforming mankind's understanding of history. Their genius for finding meaning everywhere - for example in science and in the world of nature - can be explained in only two ways: either they were simply smarter than anyone else, or it was G-d's doing, not theirs. The notion of the chosen people is really the humblest possible interpretation of their history."
The Torah is the only thing that never let us down and never gave us false hopes. The Torah predicted thousands of years ago that if we forsook our identity as a "kingdom of princes and a holy nation," we would fail miserably. The same Torah also predicted that no matter what happens to us, we will outlive all our enemies and never vanish. The Torah possesses the most enduring, powerful and relevant truths available to humanity.
Telling The Truth
The State of Israel is one critical example. The Arab world has been thundering for 60 years that we are thieves; we have stolen their land and built a state on Islamic soil. Yet, in our response to the Arab accusations, we are always stuttering. Our leaders talk about Balfour Declarations and United Nations resolutions; we talk about self-defense and our readiness for peace. But we have no answer to the blatant outcry of the Arab world: The "Zionist entity" was built on occupied territory.
The Arabs present their message clearly: all of Palestine belongs to them. The entire State of Israel is one big settlement. That is why there was no peace before the 1967 war, a time of no Jewish settlements and no settlers. Gaza belonged to Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Jordan and the Golan Heights to Syria. Why did six Arab countries decide to invade and exterminate Israel that year? Because in their belief, all of Israel occupies Arab land. According to the Koran, Jews have no right to establish a self-governed homeland on Islamic soil. For a Muslim who believes the Koran to be the word of Allah (G-d), even if Israel conceded 95 percent of its soil to the Arabs, the remaining five percent would need to be snatched from them. Non-Muslims are forbidden to govern any land that once belonged to Muslims.
While Israel was once held in awe, today, 56 years after its miraculous founding, it has reached its nadir. Never before has it been so isolated, lonely, abandoned and maligned, today becoming the world's favorite punching bag. Even in America, Israel's only true friend, the intelligentsia on college campuses across the country continue to denigrate, humiliate and harm Jews by pressuring universities to divest from Israel. Not since Hitler, not since the 1930s, have we seen such overt anti-Semitism rear its ugly head the world over.
It's high time we cease being on the defensive and let the world in on our big secret. The only reason Jews came from Odessa, Vilna and Warsaw to the land of Israel is because G-d gave it to them - to us - because the creator of the heaven and earth chose to give his Holy Land to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as stated clearly in the Torah. There are three billion people in the world who believe in the Bible, who live with the Bible and who quote the Bible. But you will never catch any self-respecting Jew, the people who gave the world the Bible, dare even to whisper in public the obvious, simple and plain truth that our sole connection to the Land of Israel is because of the Bible.
History has proven numerous times that the acquiescence of Jews has never succeeded in gaining the affection of our non-Jewish neighbors. The world respects Jews who respect themselves and their tradition; the world dislikes Jews who dislike themselves and their Judaism. What we desperately need today are Jews who are not stuttering, who are saturated with the quintessential message of Judaism, that the G-d of heaven and the reality of earth are one. This is the road to peace and reconciliation between the Jewish and non-Jewish world.
Paradoxically, it seems the world is waiting for this. Not only the Christian and Islamic world, even the secular world seems to respect Jews who respect themselves and their faith. The world is waiting for Israel to treat the land the way it should be treated, as G-d's personal gift to the Jewish people.
The world's ongoing obsession with the Jew, according to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, is society's subconscious plea to the Jew to stop stuttering and share with the world what it heard at Sinai: that humanity is capable of building a world that will reflect the oneness and harmony of its divine creator, and that each and every one of us can transform our corner of the universe into a divine palace.
"Grant confident speech to those who yearn for You," we prayed five times this Yom Kippur. Let our people who deep down believe in You and yearn for You have the confidence to share with the world the revolutionary vision of Judaism that the spiritual and the physical can be seen as one. And that G-d, Israel and Torah are inseparable.
[Part 2 of 2; My thanks to Shmuel Levin, a writer and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.]
All contents copyright © 2004 Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson
Should We Be Ashamed With Judaism?
Sometimes, hearing it from the mouths of non-Jews themselves, can be helpful.
Nineteenth-century American president John Adams wrote: "I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation. If I were an atheist who believed or pretended to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance has ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization."
Another non-Jewish philosopher, Peter Kreeft, wrote these words: "The prophetic spirit of the Jew finds a meaning and a purpose in history, thereby transforming mankind's understanding of history. Their genius for finding meaning everywhere - for example in science and in the world of nature - can be explained in only two ways: either they were simply smarter than anyone else, or it was G-d's doing, not theirs. The notion of the chosen people is really the humblest possible interpretation of their history."
The Torah is the only thing that never let us down and never gave us false hopes. The Torah predicted thousands of years ago that if we forsook our identity as a "kingdom of princes and a holy nation," we would fail miserably. The same Torah also predicted that no matter what happens to us, we will outlive all our enemies and never vanish. The Torah possesses the most enduring, powerful and relevant truths available to humanity.
Telling The Truth
The State of Israel is one critical example. The Arab world has been thundering for 60 years that we are thieves; we have stolen their land and built a state on Islamic soil. Yet, in our response to the Arab accusations, we are always stuttering. Our leaders talk about Balfour Declarations and United Nations resolutions; we talk about self-defense and our readiness for peace. But we have no answer to the blatant outcry of the Arab world: The "Zionist entity" was built on occupied territory.
The Arabs present their message clearly: all of Palestine belongs to them. The entire State of Israel is one big settlement. That is why there was no peace before the 1967 war, a time of no Jewish settlements and no settlers. Gaza belonged to Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Jordan and the Golan Heights to Syria. Why did six Arab countries decide to invade and exterminate Israel that year? Because in their belief, all of Israel occupies Arab land. According to the Koran, Jews have no right to establish a self-governed homeland on Islamic soil. For a Muslim who believes the Koran to be the word of Allah (G-d), even if Israel conceded 95 percent of its soil to the Arabs, the remaining five percent would need to be snatched from them. Non-Muslims are forbidden to govern any land that once belonged to Muslims.
While Israel was once held in awe, today, 56 years after its miraculous founding, it has reached its nadir. Never before has it been so isolated, lonely, abandoned and maligned, today becoming the world's favorite punching bag. Even in America, Israel's only true friend, the intelligentsia on college campuses across the country continue to denigrate, humiliate and harm Jews by pressuring universities to divest from Israel. Not since Hitler, not since the 1930s, have we seen such overt anti-Semitism rear its ugly head the world over.
It's high time we cease being on the defensive and let the world in on our big secret. The only reason Jews came from Odessa, Vilna and Warsaw to the land of Israel is because G-d gave it to them - to us - because the creator of the heaven and earth chose to give his Holy Land to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as stated clearly in the Torah. There are three billion people in the world who believe in the Bible, who live with the Bible and who quote the Bible. But you will never catch any self-respecting Jew, the people who gave the world the Bible, dare even to whisper in public the obvious, simple and plain truth that our sole connection to the Land of Israel is because of the Bible.
History has proven numerous times that the acquiescence of Jews has never succeeded in gaining the affection of our non-Jewish neighbors. The world respects Jews who respect themselves and their tradition; the world dislikes Jews who dislike themselves and their Judaism. What we desperately need today are Jews who are not stuttering, who are saturated with the quintessential message of Judaism, that the G-d of heaven and the reality of earth are one. This is the road to peace and reconciliation between the Jewish and non-Jewish world.
Paradoxically, it seems the world is waiting for this. Not only the Christian and Islamic world, even the secular world seems to respect Jews who respect themselves and their faith. The world is waiting for Israel to treat the land the way it should be treated, as G-d's personal gift to the Jewish people.
The world's ongoing obsession with the Jew, according to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, is society's subconscious plea to the Jew to stop stuttering and share with the world what it heard at Sinai: that humanity is capable of building a world that will reflect the oneness and harmony of its divine creator, and that each and every one of us can transform our corner of the universe into a divine palace.
"Grant confident speech to those who yearn for You," we prayed five times this Yom Kippur. Let our people who deep down believe in You and yearn for You have the confidence to share with the world the revolutionary vision of Judaism that the spiritual and the physical can be seen as one. And that G-d, Israel and Torah are inseparable.
[Part 2 of 2; My thanks to Shmuel Levin, a writer and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.]
All contents copyright © 2004 Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson