This past week, my daughter Adina called me from the States and the first words she uttered to me were, “Abba, the world is going crazy.”
There is no question that truth is no longer a concept that a majority of people in the world ascribe to or care about. Outright lies have flooded our media, accusing the Jewish people of all sorts of atrocities that defy our understanding in that they are just not true. A terror organization, with all its lies, has gained credibility in the media, and people believe what they are told. Leaders in the educational field, professors in prestigious colleges and universities, spread these falsities, and it seems that few care about the truthfulness of their claims.
The Talmud (Bava Batra 10b) tells a story of Yosef, the son of Rav Yehoshua, who experienced death for a few moments. After he regained consciousness, his contemporaries turned to him and asked him what he had seen. He responded, “Olam hafuch ra’iti,” I saw an upside-down world – a world gone mad. He goes on to describe: What is important is unimportant; what is important is meaningless; what is a lie becomes truth; and what is truth becomes a lie.
I have spoken with many Jews who in the past questioned the veracity of the statement found in the Talmud that “Esav sonei l’Yaakov,” the non-Jew hates the Jew, and also the commandment found in the Torah that one must blot out the nation of Amalek. They viewed these statements as being at best prejudicial, if not outright racist. However, now their thinking has changed and they believe that there might be some truth to what the Torah is saying. People who ostensibly were our friends have turned on us, unwilling to hear the truth, even to listen or debate. Many proclaim that Hamas is a group of freedom fighters who are being persecuted by Israel, and they, the innocent player in this scenario, are only attempting to fight Israeli tyranny, while we who represent truth and morality are bigoted and immoral.
I’m reminded of a story which occurred with my wife years ago, when we were vacationing during the summer. Our youngest daughter, Elisheva, was enrolled at the day camp in the bungalow colony. One day she returned from camp searching for my wife, crying profusely, not able to be consoled. Finally, after much cajoling, my wife was able to get some information from her as to what had occurred. “Elisheva, what happened?” she asked.
Elisheva, still sobbing and unable to catch her breath, responded, “He hit me back!”
In our history, when the Muslims controlled our fate, if a Jew wanted to pay his taxes or any debt, he had to remember never to place the money into the hands of his lender. Instead the Muslim had to take it from the hand of the Jew while the Jew extended his palms with the money. If by chance the Jew forgot and gave him the money directly, the consequences could have been fatal.
I fear that this philosophy is still prevalent today. It is the notion that the Arabs, and in turn Hamas, cannot understand or accept that “He hit me back.” They cannot acknowledge the fact that the Israeli army is so powerful and is not subservient to them and that now they must recognize its superiority. Their hate that is taught from a young age becomes so intense that it cannot abate. Our sages tell us that “Sin’ah mekalkelet et hashurah” – hate has no bounds and no explanation. People will do irrational things when they are motivated by their hatred for someone.
We are living in an unprecedented time for the Jewish people. There have been many Messianic movements during our history. Nachmanides and Maimonides predicted when the Messiah would come. Shabtai Tzvi had the entire Jewish community convinced that he was the Messiah. And there were more. All were wrong!
There is a huge difference between the present situation and previous messianic predictions. For the first time in two thousand years, we have our own state of Israel where close to eight million Jews live and thrive. All the Messianic movements in the past came from outside Israel. We are witnessing the rebirth of Eretz Yisrael as predicted by our prophets. G-d in His infinite way is weaving Jewish history right now to reach the time when Moshiach will come. We don’t understand His ways, but we can feel in our bones that the end is close. Somehow all this ridiculousness is Almighty G-d’s way of shaping and determining Jewish destiny – our future!
This is our response to all the madness and the upside-down world that we live in. We are the actors playing the role that G-d wants us to play to finally witness the coming of Moshiach.
May it soon come to pass.
