As the Jewish calendar ends the period known as the Three Weeks, or "Bein HaMetzarim," reflection naturally turns to the enduring nature of Jewish survival amidst centuries of exile and persecution.
Jay Shapiro opened his recent broadcast by sharing a thought-provoking piece about how figures from the ancient world would react to modern times. "Imagine Socrates walking through the streets of modern-day Athens, Greece. He wouldn’t recognize the marble ruins, now fenced off and silent. The language, the clothing, the customs would all be foreign to him. The spirited democratic debates he once thrived on would be gone, replaced by slogans, talking points, and scrolling headlines," the passage described.
The text goes on to compare this to Rome and Egypt: "Nero might land in Rome, searching for the Colosseum only to find it a monument rather than a stage. There would be no Imperial courts, no Roman legions, no Senate awaiting his command. He would see the shadows of past power, but not the real thing, because the Roman Empire is gone. Now take any figure from the ancient world. Take, for example, Cleopatra of Egypt. If she came back to Egypt today, she would be surrounded by people, but not her people. The gods she worshipped forgotten, the temples lie in ruins, the language has shifted entirely and not recognizable, not a single soul would know her name or speak her language. That is what would happen to Cleopatra."
The contrast between those vanished empires and the continuity of the Jewish nation is stark. "While empires vanished and their philosophies faded, the Jew in Baghdad prayed the same prayer as the Jew in Berlin. The Jew in Ethiopia faced towards Jerusalem just like the Jew in Vilna and New York. Nations built armies to survive, but the Jews built homes filled with Shabbat candles. The Greeks gave us logic, the Romans gave us law, but the Jews are still here," the passage continues, emphasizing what was imparted to humanity: "And we're here to tell you what they gave the world: morality, meaning, and the unshakable idea that every life matters, cause every life is made in the image of God."
The thought experiment expands on what these figures would encounter if they traveled to Jerusalem today. "Socrates, for example, would overhear a debate at a Shabbat table, not about politics nor conquest, but about the very same verses of Torah that were being argued in his own time. Nero might see children studying ancient text that existed long before him. Cleopatra could sit in a synagogue and hear a language she may have once heard on the streets of Alexandria. Hebrew is still alive-not revived, but alive because it was never dead." Yet, even beyond Jerusalem, another constant remains: "Outside Jerusalem, if they listened closely, they could hear something else: people still talking about Israel, still obsessing, accusing, and still singling out the Jews like in their time. Other people talking about the Jews. They would feel something familiar, strangely. Of all the things in the world, the most unchanged thing would be this: the world's fixation on Jews. Either to blame the Jews, to analyze, or to fear. The anti-Jewish obsession is the only universal tradition that never died."
Historical resilience stands out against the total disappearance of other ancient societies. "There are no Babylonians left, there are no Philistines left. No one today worships Zeus or sacrifices to Baal. But still, people scream every day 'Shema Yisrael'. They still light candles on Friday night, and they cry at the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. The world kept trying to bury us, but we are the ones who are still here, remembering, rebuilding, carrying on while they have faded into history. Anti-Semitism is the only prejudice that doesn't require Jews to be present. We were hated in Europe for being rich and in the Middle East for being poor, for being communists and for being capitalists, for blending in and for standing out. Even when we were gone, they blamed us. Even when we were silent, they feared us."
Reflecting on Moses, the contrast becomes complete. "Now imagine Moses returning. He won't land in an empire or city that forgot about him, he will find a nation that still holds his name sacred. People who still follow his laws and still read his words every week in synagogues on six continents. Jews who read differently and eat differently, because they dress differently and they marry differently and they think differently. Moses would see Mezuzot on doors, Tzitzit fringes hanging from pockets, and children named Moshe, Yosef, Miriam, and Yehuda. He would see that even after exile, and after genocide, and after dispersion, his people are still here, still Jewish, still his. Moses wouldn't just see Jews following the Torah, he'd see a people who have cried for 3,000 years yet never gave up, who danced at weddings with broken glasses, who kept faith alive in Auschwitz, who whispered blessings under threat, who buried their dead with dignity while being chased from continent to continent. He would see a nation still walking through the desert, but still carrying the fire that he, Moses, lit. While the rest of the world changed beyond recognition, while civilizations came and went, while gods were born and died, one thing remained consistent: Jews are still Jewish, and the world is still obsessed with them. If the ancient giants returned today, they would be strangers in their own lands. But if Moses returned today, he would simply be coming home."
Shapiro noted the relevance of these reflections during the traditional mourning period of the Three Weeks, leading up to Tisha B'Av, when Jews refrain from celebrations and read Lamentations ("Eicha") and elegies ("Kinot"). He recalled a pivotal moment in Zionist history from August 1903 during the Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel, where Theodor Herzl proposed the Uganda Scheme as a temporary "night shelter" for persecuted Russian Jews. The proposal sparked intense turmoil, leading Russian delegates to weep and sit on the floor in traditional mourning. Realizing the deep bond to the ancestral homeland, Herzl concluded his final congress address by raising his right hand and declaring in Hebrew: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning."
Reflecting on modern anti-Zionism and false allegations against the Jewish state, Shapiro underscored the deep historical roots of the Jewish connection to the land, citing Chaim Weizmann's famous remark to Lord Balfour: "We lived in Jerusalem when London was still a marsh." Shapiro noted that despite thousands of years of exile and persecution, the return of millions of Jews to Israel and the re-establishment of the state in 1948 remain an extraordinary reality. He concluded by citing the ancient testimony of Jerome, a Christian scholar who lived in Jerusalem in the late 4th century and documented Jews gathering annually at the ruins of the Temple to mourn-a historical proof of an unbroken connection that has today transformed from centuries of weeping into a thriving sovereign state.