Basic Class on Anti-Semitsm

Last Shabbos afternoon, Meir, the teenage son of a senior rabbi walked out of his home and an Arab man whom he had never seen before walked up to him and smashed him in his face with a club! There was tremendous pain. He had to have six stitches to control the bleeding. Most locals who hear this ask, “How could an arab walk through our insular, ultra Charadi neighborhood with a club and have the gall to do such a thing? He should have been afraid for his life!”

Meir is a fine young man. Besides being a very serious student, he collects charity every day and uses all of the coins to buy curtains for the arks that house the Sefer Torahs (scrolls) in various neighborhoods. He does not keep a single coin for himself.

Our first reaction to this is to curse the evil Arab, (may all of them be removed from our Land at once) which is a valid reaction. But then we have to ask, why would G-d allow such an unfair, horrible thing to happen? What did Meir do to receive such cruel treatment?

Now comes the really sad part of the story. The very evening before he was attacked (which is actually the same Hebrew day) there was a fight between religious Jews just a few blocks from his house. A group of younger “newcomers” is trying to take over part of a local synagogue, and the small community that has always prayed there is vigorously objecting. The fight became so heated Friday night that pushing and shoving started, and then someone picked up a club and started beating another Jew!

Here is what we have to learn from this horrible story. All Jews, wherever we are, are one. We each have a small portion of the one Jewish body. Whenever a Jew does something good, to some degree, we all share in his merit. And when, G-d forbid, a Jew does something evil, we all sadly share in that shame. We are responsible for each other. We are told that each generation that lives without bringing the Third Temple is counted as if they destroyed the Second Temple.

Certainly Meir was chosen to receive that blow for his own personal reasons. Only G-d and maybe Meir know why. But there is no escaping the truth that if those men fighting in that synagogue did not raise their hands against each other, the Arab would not have been able to raise his hand against a Jew. The infighting removed our protection and allowed our enemy to walk right in. They stand at our gates waiting for the opportunity to attack.

What is the purpose of this article? Each of us has the responsibility, and the ability to protect our Jewish body. We must go out of our way to do something to show love for a fellow Jew. Anything we do that brings any of us together will strengthen the barrier that stands between us and our enemies.

Do this and you will certainly be helping Jews wherever we are. Not only will you be helping to protect Jews in danger, but as an added bonus, you will get a new, or closer friend, too.

The above is an article i read on an email from a well known Jewish organization. Now let's ask the questions a Kabbalist would ask when hearing about Meir and the Arab.

What is the actual Tikune between Meir and the Arab?

Where does Meir's protection shield come from? Why did Meir's Protection Shield break down?

What is the true cause of anti-Semitism? What is anti-Semitism?

Here is the definition and Etymology of Anti-Semitism from Wikipedia.

Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. A person who holds such views is called an "antisemite".

While the term's etymology might suggest that anti-Semitism is directed against all Semitic peoples, the term was coined in the late 19th century in Germany as a more scientific-sounding term for Judenhass ("Jew-hatred"),[1] and that has been its normal use since then. For the purposes of a 2005 U.S. governmental report, anti-Semitism was considered "hatred toward Jews—individually and as a group—that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity."

Anti-Semitism may be manifested in many ways, ranging from expressions of hatred of or discrimination against individual Jews to organized violent attacks by mobs, state police, or even military attacks on entire Jewish communities. Notable instances of persecution include the pogroms which preceded the First Crusade in 1096, the expulsion from England in 1290, the massacres of Spanish Jews in 1391, the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Cossack massacres in Ukraine, various pogroms in Russia, the Dreyfus affair, the Holocaust, official Soviet anti-Jewish policies and the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries.

Though the general definition of anti-Semitism is hostility or prejudice against Jews, and, according to Olaf Blaschke, become an 'umbrella term for negative stereotypes about Jews,' a number of authorities have developed more formal definitions.

Holocaust scholar and City University of New York professor Helen Fein defines it as "a persisting latent structure of hostile beliefs towards Jews as a collective manifested in individuals as attitudes, and in culture as myth, ideology, folklore and imagery, and in actions – social or legal discrimination, political mobilization against the Jews, and collective or state violence – which results in and/or is designed to distance, displace, or destroy Jews as Jews."

Elaborating on Fein's definition, Dietz Bering of the University of Cologne writes that, to anti-Semites, "Jews are not only partially but totally bad by nature, that is, their bad traits are incorrigible. Because of this bad nature: (1) Jews have to be seen not as individuals but as a collective. (2) Jews remain essentially alien in the surrounding societies. (3) Jews bring disaster on their 'host societies' or on the whole world, they are doing it secretly, therefore the anti-Semites feel obliged to unmask the conspiratorial, bad Jewish character."

For Sonja Weinberg, as distinct from economic and religious anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism in its modern form shows conceptual innovation, a resort to 'science' to defend itself, new functional forms and organizational differences. It was anti-liberal, racialist and nationalist. It promoted the myth that Jews conspired to 'judaise' the world; it served to consolidate social identity; it channeled dissatisfactions among victims of the capitalist system; and it was used as a conservative cultural code to fight emancipation and liberalism.

Anti-Semitic caricature by C.Léandre (France, 1898) showing Rothschild with the world in his hands Bernard Lewis defines anti-Semitism as a special case of prejudice, hatred, or persecution directed against people who are in some way different from the rest. According to Lewis, anti-Semitism is marked by two distinct features: Jews are judged according to a standard different from that applied to others, and they are accused of "cosmic evil." Thus, "it is perfectly possible to hate and even to persecute Jews without necessarily being anti-Semitic" unless this hatred or persecution displays one of the two features specific to anti-Semitism.

There have been a number of efforts by international and governmental bodies to define anti-Semitism formally. The U.S. Department of State defines anti-Semitism in its 2005 Report on Global Anti-Semitism as "hatred toward Jews—individually and as a group—that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity."

In 2005, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (now Fundamental Rights Agency), then an agency of the European Union, developed a more detailed working definition, which states: "Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities." It adds "such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity." It provides contemporary examples of anti-Semitism, which include: promoting the harming of Jews in the name of an ideology or religion; promoting negative stereotypes of Jews; holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of an individual Jewish person or group; denying the Holocaust or accusing Jews or Israel of exaggerating it; and accusing Jews of dual loyalty or a greater allegiance to Israel than their own country. It also lists ways in which attacking Israel could be anti-Semitic, and states that denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor, can be a manifestation of anti-Semitism – as can applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation, or holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel.

1889 Paris, France elections poster for self-described "candidat antisémite" Adolphe Willette: "The Jews are a different race, hostile to our own... Judaism, there is the enemy!" (see file for complete translation)

Evolution of usage

In 1879, Wilhelm Marr founded the Antisemiten-Liga (Antisemitic League). Identification with anti-Semitism and as an anti-Semite was politically advantageous in Europe in the latter 19th century. For example, Karl Lueger, the popular mayor of fin de siècle Vienna, skillfully exploited anti-Semitism as a way of channeling public discontent to his political advantage. In its 1910 obituary of Lueger, The New York Times notes that Lueger was "Chairman of the Christian Social Union of the Parliament and of the Anti-Semitic Union of the Diet of Lower Austria. In 1895 A. C. Cuza organized the Alliance Anti-semitique Universelle in Bucharest. In the period before World War II, when animosity towards Jews was far more commonplace, it was not uncommon for a person, organization, or political party to self-identify as an anti-Semite or anti-Semitic.

In 1882, the early Zionist pioneer Judah Leib Pinsker wrote that anti-Semitism was an inherited predisposition:

Judeophobia is a psychic aberration. As a psychic aberration it is hereditary, and as a disease transmitted for two thousand years it is incurable.' ... 'In this way have Judaism and Anti-Semitism passed for centuries through history as inseparable companions.'... ...'Having analyzed Judeophobia as an hereditary form of demonopathy, peculiar to the human race, and having represented Anti-Semitism as proceeding from an inherited aberration of the human mind, we must draw the important conclusion that we must give' up contending against these hostile impulses as we must against every other inherited predisposition.

In the aftermath of the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, German propaganda minister Goebbels announced: "The German people is anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race."

After the 1945 victory of the Allies over Nazi Germany, and particularly after the extent of the Nazi genocide of Jews became known, the term "anti-Semitism" acquired pejorative connotations. This marked a full circle shift in usage, from an era just decades earlier when "Jew" was used as a pejorative term.[24][25] Yehuda Bauer wrote in 1984: "There are no anti-Semites in the world... Nobody says, 'I am anti-Semitic.'" You cannot, after Hitler. The word has gone out of fashion."

Here is a must see you tube video to truly understand modern antisemitism and then read the section below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWuAH3P9s1k

Anti-Semitism can not be fully discussed without some discussion regarding the "Elders of Zion".

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion is an anti-Semitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. Henry Ford funded printing of 500,000 copies that were distributed throughout the US in the 1920s.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis publicized the text as if it were a valid document, although it had already been exposed as fraudulent. After the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, it ordered the text to be studied in German classrooms. The historian Norman Cohn suggested that Hitler used the Protocols as his primary justification for initiating the Holocaust—his "warrant for genocide".

The Protocols purports to document the minutes of a late 19th-century meeting of Jewish leaders discussing their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the morals of Gentiles, and by controlling the press and the world's economies. It is still widely available today and even now sometimes presented as a genuine document, whether on the Internet or in print in numerous languages.

Here is a more detailed analysis of the document. The Protocols purports to document the minutes of a late-19th-century meeting attended by world Jewish leaders, the "Elders of Zion", who are conspiring to take over the world. The forgery places in the mouths of the Jewish leaders a variety of plans, most of which derive from older antisemitic canards. For example, the Protocols includes plans to subvert the morals of the non-Jewish world, plans for Jewish bankers to control the world's economies, plans for Jewish control of the press, and - ultimately - plans for the destruction of civilization. The document consists of twenty-four "protocols", which have been analyzed by Steven Jacobs and Mark Weitzman, and they documented several recurrent themes that appear repeatedly in the 24 protocols, as shown in the following table:

(i did not copy the table)

Some of these “themes” are Control through the Media, Control through banking, Making slaves of Non Jews, and other well worn modern sounding complaints by the have nots of the world.

Please compare the video above to the description from Wikipedia immediately following the link to the video. Now is the Elders of Zion true?

Kabbalistically nothing happens without a spiritual cause. In the spiritual world there is a metaphor of 70 Nasiim (Princes of the Nations) also called 70 Judges (Elokim) or Gods who decide what the world will do in order to manifest the plan of Creation. Does that sound like a Cabal controlling the world?

Of course we like to think that this Cabal is beneficial but are the other Nations beneficial to the world? There is much to contemplate in what has been expressed tonight..

What is the beginning of Anti-Semitism in World History? Is it Cain and Abel? Is it the Brothers selling Joseph into Egypt? The answer is in understanding what the Talmud explains. The reason for the destruction of the second Temple is Hinat Sinam or Hatred for No Reason.

What is Hatred for no reason?

Cain had a reason to be jealous. The brothers had a reason to hate Joseph. What is Hatred for no Reason. It is an aspect of the desire to receive for oneself alone. It is a manifestation of the energy of I want what you have and I do not want you to have it also. This is what is meant by the Talmudic term Hatred for no reason.

The Arabs / Palestinians want their own land but do not want Israel to exist. Hatred for no Reason – Anti-Semitism. There can only be hatred for no reason from a Jewish Soul. Yes the groups of ARABS are one of the lost Tribes of Israel.

What will cure Hatred for no reason?

There is a wonderful story told by and about the Baal Shem Tov. It is said he asked Elijah when would Mashiach come and the answer was when your teaching spread to the ends of the earth.

One teaching of the Baal Shem Tov is that when someone hates another person it is because a spark of their soul has been captured by the person they hate. When someone then treats that person with human dignity he releases the captured spark and returns it to himself. Any time he does not treat that person with human dignity he creates a thicker veil on that part of his soul and makes it more difficult to free himself.

What that means is the only way to achieve peace is for people to recognize that they are brothers and when they hurt their brother they hurt themselves. That is the lesson for all of us to learn.

Spending millions if not billions of dollars on Museums of the Shoah does not teach this lesson; it continues to create more separation. If you donate to these Museums you are creating separation not peace. To create peace one must live peace. I will tell you my personal story not that you need to experience this but that you will start to consider thinking about the truth of this teaching.

Love your Neighbor as Yourself means Expressing Unconditional Love to every person in every situation. Can an Arab hurt me? Not without permission of a court in the spiritual world. So why do I worry about what they do in this world?

Are you willing to try a different approach? Are you willing to live a different approach?

Have a good evening. A good New Month. A good life.

Kol Tuuv

Any Questions