Influential psychosocial theorists as diverse as Freud and Dan Ariely maintain that shadowy instincts drive human behavior, with our authentic motives remaining beneath our conscious awareness. Even the Talmud argues that we may be “triggered" by innocent people who remind us of our own shortcomings, though we can be blissfully ignorant of what is driving our antipathy (Kiddushin 70a).
Many of us scratch our heads wondering what is motivating Western youth to embrace patently self-destructive policies like open borders, unisex bathrooms, and historically doomed economic socialism.
I offer a theory that may make sense of this puzzling human behavior.
I would argue that the heavy burden of guilt the Western world carries is not over shameful slave ownership by our distant ancestors, our cars’ toxic emissions, disrespecting personal pronouns, or betraying any other catechism invented yesterday by society’s self-appointed victims. It is rather over something much more basic-the bread of shame-what the Zohar calls “Nahama d’kisufa" in Aramaic. Bread of shame is the guilt and disempowerment we feel when we receive too much of something for nothing.
Over the last century, our Western intelligentsia, from elite scientists to artists, has purged our moral landscape of a Creator, the very being Who has given each and every one of us life. Intellectual elites have further mocked and derided the explicit obligations-such as the Ten Commandments for Jews and the Noahide Laws for all humanity-given to us for our own good by that Creator. We have thereby turned ourselves into ungrateful children who gratify our selfish desires, often at one another’s expense. This is what I maintain is the real source of “White Guilt."
In addition to our lack of simple gratitude to God, our Benefactor, we carry a profound burden of guilt for betraying the moral code given us by our Creator in granting legitimacy and liberty to much of what the Creator forbids. (Hence, the advantage in denying that Creator’s existence.)
Weakening us and our world further, this legitimate but unconscious guilt is being exploited by nefarious actors-such as Islamists, radical trans advocates, and other sexual and financial predators-bent on turning others, starting with vulnerable and innocent children, into mirror images of themselves, for power, greed, satisfying their appetites, and to disperse their own guilt.
Instead of serving a just and good God, we are becoming slaves to the evil.
We can only reverse this Western societal decline by healing the root, through returning to our loving Creator and embracing His laws. In this way, we can replace unnecessary guilt with healthy pride and self-respect, enhanced by a nourishing relationship with God, our Provider.
In my own life, I transitioned from a religious skeptic to an ironclad believer in a biblical God; this change and everything it required greatly improved my sense of wellbeing.
Israel and the Jewish people have pivotal roles to play in resurrecting the awareness of God in Western culture, for the benefit of all. Let’s get started!
Amanda Chaitt is an American Jewish writer who emigrated to Israel. Visit her at www.antisemitismanswers.com to receive a compelling argument for the authority of the Hebrew Bible.