With ever-increasing antisemitism and violence against Jews around the globe, articles throughout the media endeavor to explain the reasons behind the outbursts of hatred. Some attribute it to the global spread of radical Islamic doctrines; others claim it derives from Israel’s “over-aggressiveness" against the Arabs in the region; some cite the eternal accusation that Israel controls world economy; and hundreds of millions of Christians and Catholics still insist that the Jews crucified their messiah.
In contrast, many great Rabbis have revealed that the murderous antagonism of the gentiles surfaces when the Jews fall in love with galut.
In the Torah portion Bechukotai we find the verse: “But despite all this, when they are in the lands of their enemies, I will not despise them nor will I reject them to obliterate them, to break My covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God" (26:44). Commenting on this verse, the Torah Giant, Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (author of Meshech Chochmah and Or Samei’ach) explains:
Behold, ever since the Jews have lived among the nations - for so many years, during which no one believed that they would survive in such a unexplainable fashion… Divine Providence functioned as follows: The Jews find rest for close to a hundred or two hundred years.
Then a storm wind arises and disperses its myriad waves, utterly destroying, washing them away without mercy, until they are scattered about, all alone. They run, they flee to a far-off place where they unite and become a people once again. They intensify their Torah learning; their wisdom succeeds greatly, until they forget that they are strangers in a foreign land. They think that this is their place of origin and they no longer anticipate Hashem’s spiritual salvation at its designated time. Then, an even stronger storm will visit that place and remind him in a thunderous voice: “You are a Jew!"
Rabbi Yaacov Emden, in the introduction to his scholarly prayer book, “Beit Yaacov," writes that “When it seems to us, in our present peaceful existence outside the Land of Israel, that we have found another Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem, this to me is the greatest, deepest, most obvious, and direct cause of all of the awesome, frightening, monstrous, unimaginable destructions that we have experienced in the Diaspora."
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Naftali Berlin, well known as the Natziv of Volozion, wrote a treatise on the subject of anti-Semitism known as “Rina shel Torah." In this study, the Natziv offers an explanation for these waves of antisemitism. He says that antisemitism is the tool used by G-d to remind the Jews that they are Jews. Sometimes Jews may forget that we were created to be a special people with a Divine calling. When we forget ourselves, the anti-Semites rise up to remind us who we are. Rabbi Berlin further comments that the more we try to fit in with the gentiles, the greater the persecution will be.
In his book “The Jewish Idea" Rabbi Meir Kahane cites a Midrash regarding Noach:
“He sent out the dove.... It could find no place to rest its feet" (Gen. 8:8-9): Yehuda bar Nachman said in the name of R. Shimon, ‘Had it found a place to rest, it would not have returned. Just so, it says, ‘She dwells among the nations; she finds no rest’ (Lam. 1:3); and, ‘Among those nations you shall have no repose; there shall be no rest for the soles of your foot’ (Deut. 28:65). If Israel found rest in the exile, they would not return" (Bereshit Rabbah, 33:6).
He continues:
Not in vain did our sages (Mechilta, Bo, 1) compare the exile to a cemetery, for if Israel refuse to dwell in Eretz Yisrael, if they spurn it for the depravity of the exile, they have no future, but suffering, tragedy and annihilation. As the Prophet Ezekiel said (20:32-34): ‘As I live - says the L-rd G-d - with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm and with fury poured out, will I be King over you. I will remove you from the nations and gather you in from the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm and with fury poured out.’
HaRav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, “Eim HaBanim Semeichah," writes:
The sole purpose of all the afflictions which smite us in our exile is to arouse us to return to our Holy Land. The Holy One Blessed Be He says that when the People of Israel are not in Eretz Yisrael they do not cling to His heart and soul (Tosefta, Avodah Zarah 5:4). Therefore, we should not be astonished by what has happened to us in our times, or by the lack of Divine Providence that we are experiencing, for we live in the lands of the nations, and we do not cling to God’s entire heart and soul. However, when we strive to return to Eretz Yisrael, we will immediately cling to His entire heart and soul.
Addressing students at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook stated:
"When the time comes for Redemption, complications arise and large portions of the Nation are embedded in the tar of the Galut. The facts bear witness - multitudes of Jews grew accustomed to the impurity of the Diaspora and refused to extricate themselves from it. Thus begins a Divine surgery, a deep inner, esoteric purification from this decay, a treatment of amputation and healing. All of Israel’s millions are one single body, an indivisible organism, and when it is delayed from returning to health because of its clinging to a foreign land, then a cruel Divine amputation is needed. The time came for the Jewish People to return to their Land, but since they refused, there was no way to bring them back other than, ‘He took me by the side lock of my head’ (Yechezkel, 8:3), in order to bring them against their will to Eretz Yisrael.
When the end of Exile arrives, and all of Israel fails to recognize it, there is a need for a cruel Divine amputation and severance. We are not speaking here about a reckoning against this person or that person, since this is a secret matter of God belonging to the secret world of souls. We are speaking of a reckoning that encompasses all of the Nation, which arises from a situation of, ‘They despised the desirable Land,’ (Tehillim, 106:24). This is an amputation which causes the Nation as a whole to separate from the Diaspora and return to its life in the Land of Israel."
Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, he was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook, most recently The Torat Eretz Yisrael Anthology and with Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, the book Like Father, Like Son about Rav Avraham HaCohen Kook and his son Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook. His other books include: "The Kuzari For Young Readers" and "Tuvia in the Promised Land". His books are available on Amazon. He directed the movie, "Stories of Rebbe Nachman."
