With mixed emotions, Shoshana, our soon-to-be 14-year-old, was off for the summer to Camp Emunah in Ellenville, New York; a camp that hosted my mother of blessed memory as camper and head-counselor back in the day. As the charter bus made its way along Eastern Parkway, beginning the three-hour journey to the Catskills, I thought about the many benefits of this experience. As a recent graduate of Sacajawea Middle School, Shoshana encountered her fair share of ignorant, hurtful and, sometimes even, malicious, comments about Jews. In camp, she will not only learn Torah, do Mitzvot and have a blast in a super Jewish environment, she will be in a place where everyone loves Jews and Judaism, unapologetically.
In this week’s Torah portion, Balak, we read about the Moabite king Balak hiring the Midianite prophet Balaam to curse the Jewish people. Rashi points out that Balak said only, “and I will drive him out of the land”, but Balaam hated the Jews even more and wanted to annihilate them, not just expel them. The Rebbe explains that the Moabites obviously didn’t know that G-d had forewarned Jewry that they shouldn’t “distress the Moabites, and do not provoke them to war” and so the Moabites’ intolerable hatred was fear based. Yet, Balaam, hated the Jews, not because of fear, a previous beef or due to “Israel’s policy”; he hated Jews, just because; no reason needed.
Anti-Semitism is real and comes in many shapes and forms. We cannot be shielded from it and we need to stop looking for excuses to explain it. Sometimes there is no reason for Anti-Semitism; it’s pure unadulterated hate. So, what should we do? What can we do? We can, and should, remind ourselves and teach our children to have a healthy Jewish identity, a vast knowledge of Torah and put them, as much as possible, in environments that are conducive to Jewish growth. It’s hard, at times, to thrive as Jews when our Twitter/Facebook/Instagram feeds include plenty of Jewish hate, but if we’re healthy Jewishly, we can persevere, as have our ancestors going back to Abraham and Sarah.
Defying haters; one Jewish experience at a time!
May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Moshiach speedily. May He protect the armed forces of Israel and the United States wherever they may be. Shabbat Shalom! Chazak!!! L'Chaim!!!