If you’ve been paying attention to Jewish Twitter lately, you know that many Jews have been pushing back against the accusation that we enjoy special privileges in society.
Rallying around the hashtag #JewishPrivilege, they have tweeted against our accusers with numerous examples of anti-Semitism in history and their own personal lives. A typical sarcastic tweet might read something like, “Having one third of your people murdered in the Holocaust. #JewishPrivilege.”
All over social media, we’re witnessing a minute-by-minute tracking of anti-Semitism – the speed at which we lament our lot in life. We are trying to appeal to leftist sensibilities and logic, but there is no logic to which we can appeal. But by speaking their language – “privilege,” “oppression,” “social justice” – we are playing their game. And this is not a game we will win.
Too many American Jews humiliate themselves by appealing to the woke social justice crew. They blather on about justice and equality, but they are kowtowing exclusively to leftist rules, when we Jews have our own rules to follow – those given in the Torah.
We are the blessed inheritors of a several-thousand-year-old blessing, which was first given to Avraham, then to his subsequent offspring through Yitzchak. We are their children.
When we play the oppression game in a fantasy world created by the elite, we don’t embrace justice or peace or any of those ideals they supposedly tout. We are tying the noose for ourselves. The leaders of these movements are counting on that. They are playing a game of manipulation and lies.
Words have value, words create realities. The entire world, after all, was created through the speech of G-d. If we utilize false words, we dive into a false reality that is destined to be destroyed – because it is sheker.
So let us only operate in the world of truth. And let us only speak words of truth. Instead of playing by the left’s rules and speaking in politically-loaded terms like “privilege” and “minority,” let us embrace our true calling. We are tasked with being a light unto the nations. Let’s act like it.
For when we shirk our calling and act like a victimized minority, we become a blight. And here we are, staring into the face of anti-Semitism, which is rearing its ugly head once again.
Why are we facing this primordial beast? Apparently, because we can’t seem to function without it. We need constant reminders to embrace our G-d-given role. We are called upon to be true to ourselves and stop imitating other nations. We must stop speaking their false language, imitating their ways, and imbibing their principles.
Anti-Semitism is merely the push for us to recall this simple truth: We are not like other nations, and we cannot be allowed, in the long run, to think, talk, or act like them. They won’t let us – because G-d won’t let us. He commands us to follow Him, not them.
Baruch atah Hashem elokeinu melech ha’olam, she’lo asani goy. “Blessed are you, Lord, our G-d, king of the universe, who has not made me a gentile.”
We have our guidebook, and we have our Guide. The rules are clear. And when we deviate from the rules, or attempt to reinvent them, He reminds us of them. At first, He reminds us in gentle ways; later, He knocks our door down.
We must pray for the gentle reminders, which are running out. We must pray to speak only words of truth. And we must pray for our collective return to Him and to our Land without which we cannot hope for a peaceful redemption.