The world hates Israel. Take a look at any newspaper or news website on the globe. Israel is the most hated nation in the world. What else is new? They hate us even more than they hate Isis. It’s been that way for years. In fact, it’s been that way since the beginning of time. Let’s see if we can figure out why?
Jew-hating started back in the days of Abraham. The half-breed, Ishmael, hated Isaac because he was Sarah’s favorite, and because G-d let her kick him out of the house. Esau hated Jacob because he stole the birthright from him, and because G-d assented – meaning that Jacob was to be the favored son, inheriting the mission of being a light to the world, carrying on the role of his grandfather Abraham. It is from this ancient sibling rivalry that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai states the halachah for all time: “Esau hates Jacob,” meaning that the descendants of Esau – Greece, Rome, the Europeans, the Russians, and the Americans, hate the Jews. You can find many righteous individual gentiles who like the Jewish People, and who do many things on our behalf, but in their national groupings, the nations which evolved from Esau hate the Nation of Israel. Period.
The Jewish People became a Nation during their servitude in Egypt. At first, Egypt hated the Jews because they were afraid of them – lest they multiply and take over the land. With the Exodus, Israel became G-d’s Chosen Nation, instead of being mere individuals who had a special connection with G-d. Naturally, this angered Pharaoh who wanted to believe that he was the supreme ruler of the world. Realizing that Israel’s connection to Hashem made Israel more powerful than he was, he sought to destroy them. As our Sages teach, with Hashem’s Revelation at Sinai, hatred (“sina” in Hebrew) came into the world – the hatred of Israel.
What was it about the revelation of G-d at Sinai that triggered such world hatred, a hatred that has continued to this day? When Hashem spoke to the Jewish People at Mount Sinai and gave them the Torah, it became obvious, once and for all time, that Am Yisrael was Hashem’s Chosen Nation. Naturally, this made everyone jealous. But why? The rest of the world didn’t want anything to do with the Torah, so why be jealous? They should have rejoiced when Israel was ready to accept the Torah and its holy obligations, thus freeing non-Jews of the burden.
Our Sages teach us that when G-d offered the Torah to the descendants of Ishmael, they asked, “What’s in it?” Hashem replied, “Thou shall not steal.”
“Then it’s not for us,” they answered. “Our whole culture is based on theft.”
When Hashem offered the Torah to the descendants of Esau (the Greeks, Romans, Europeans, and Americans of today) they asked, “What’s in it?” Hashem replied, “Thou shall not murder and thou shall not commit adultery.”
“Then it’s not for us,” they answered. “Our whole culture is based on murder and adultery.”
The problem is, as long as the Nation of Israel is in the world, and the Torah is in the world with us, then the nations of the world feel guilty, knowing, in their deepest psyches and historical genes, that their ungodly cultures are detested in the eyes of Hashem. They reason if they can destroy Israel, they won’t have to feel guilty any more. Without Israel, there would be no Torah, and no light of G-d in the world, so the nations could carry on with their whoring and murder in the shelter of world darkness, without worrying about G-d interfering in their robberies, mass murders, and orgies. But as long as Israel is in the world, G-d is in the world. Since they can’t kill G-d – the generation of the Tower of Babel already proved that when they tried to slay G-d with their arrows –they endeavor, in every generation, to destroy Israel instead. Their victory would prove that there is no G-d whom they have to obey, since if they can destroy G-d’s Chosen People, whom He has promised to protect, then they, the gentiles, are more powerful than G-d, so who cares what He says?!
The descendants of Ishmael and Esau don’t hate Jews don’t because we “stole” their land, or supposedly murdered their savior, or because we are successful moneymakers, or because we have horns on our heads and big noses. The nations hate the Jewish People because they don’t want our G-d in the world. Their distortions of G-d are tolerable for them because the G-d they worship doesn’t interfere with their lives. It’s the demanding G-d of Israel whom they refuse to crown King.
As Rashi teaches, those who war against Israel are really making war against G-d. They know that their missiles and A-bombs can’t destroy G-d, so they try to destroy His People on Earth, in order to erase G-d’s Name and memory from the planet. The nations of the world profess to love G-d, but as Rabbi Kook teaches, they are “forgetters of G-d in the innards, carrying His Name on their lips, upon their mouths and their tongues.” (Orot, Chapter 2:8.) They may talk about G-d, but they don’t follow His teachings. In one form or another, all of the world’s cultures are antagonistic to G-d. Some religions profess to spread the word of the L-rd, but in fact, they lead the world away from G-d in a treacherous path of deception, by exchanging the Torah and its Divine commandments for false doctrines and beliefs. Christianity rejects the Divine Choseness of Israel and the Torah, teaching its adherents that only belief in their messiah can rescue the world from damnation and sin. Islam, in the cause of world Jihad, inscribes the name of Allah on its missiles and daggers. Buddhism and Eastern cultures are laden with idol worship and mantras designed to anesthetize the brain and undermine the importance of human endeavor in sanctifying life here on Earth. Political movements and candidates either pay lip service to G-d, or deny Him completely. All of man’s philosophies, religions, and systems of government are man-made inventions, the imposition of human ego on the world, rather than submitting to the true word of G-d, which only exists in the Torah of Israel. And it is obvious that American culture, exported to every port, shopping center, and movie screen on earth, under the guise of “In G-d we trust,” glorifies money, power, violence, and sex – a far cry from the holy existence which the Almighty expects from His creatures (See our book, “War and Peace – the Teachings of Rabbi Kook,” Chapter Eight).
Today the world’s hatred of G-d is played out via the hatred of Israel. The nations still believe that by ridding the planet of Israel, they can rid the world of G-d. But the Creator of Heaven and Earth looks down upon their folly and laughs. In a Psalm about G-d’s anointed, the Nation of Israel, King David writes:
“Why are the nations in an uproar? And why do the peoples mutter in vain? The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together, against Hashem, and against His anointed, saying: ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in heaven laughs; Hashem holds them in derision. Then will He speak unto them in His wrath, and terrify them in His burning anger, saying: ‘I have established My king upon Zion, My holy mountain.’” (Psalm 2)