Standing in the Presence of Kings; and Queens (Part 1)
This article is the result of years of pondering on the issue of why the Jews are so hated and persecuted. I would be grateful if it were received and perceived by all from the viewpoint of mine and my husband’s ‘love’ of a race that witness to the reality of the Creator (Echad, One) through their acceptance of receiving the Torah and living as Orthodox Jews…
Once upon a time, a race of people (The Jews) agreed to keep the Creator’s commandments without knowing first what they agreed to…
“Then [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do and hear [na’aseh ve-nishma] everything the Lord has said.” Ex. 24:7
It hasn’t been an easy road and they were warned that persecution would follow. Why then, considering the Jews only equal about 1% of the world population are they so well known and ‘religiously’ loathed and hated, even by other Semites?
Hit the rewind button. It’s the 1980s and my husband stumbles into a Jewish synagogue, not really sure why he had arrived but knew somehow that this was where the only truth in the world could be found; at least for him. Sounds very ‘religious’ doesn’t it? It wasn’t. Events took their course and he was ‘spat out’ not by the Jews but simply because he was little too premature. He continued to study, built a massive library of esoteric and Jewish and Christian texts and trained to become a psychoanalyst while working in Air Traffic Control, Gatwick. Many years later, in a fit of pique, he sold his beloved library and had a prayer answered: he needed a companion, a wife.
That’s me.
He continued his decades of study while we roamed widely across the sodden trenches of political and ecological machinations (Peak Oil), rolled up our trouser legs and dipped toes in Roman Catholicism (10 years) then left with even more unanswered questions but a wider political/religious understanding. We navigated shifting sands (sold our five bedroom house in East Sussex and hit the road in a motorhome), took early retirement in 2009 before arriving on a remote Shetland Island that would become our hermitage. At last, a chance to continue to study and ponder great texts and discuss our existence on the planet, what makes the world tick, whilst navigating human nature with the few people we shared the island with.
Fast forward. It’s 2024 and my husband has been studying with an online Jewish yeshiva for around ten years. Luckily for him, they accept anyone who wishes to learn Torah, teach mainly in English thus he was able to contribute to the classes, bringing forth ideas from decades of wide study. A trust developed and a relationship formed with an Orthodox Rabbi. This would blossom into a friendship of mutual sharing, leading to a proposed project of a bridge or a buffer between Gentiles and Jews.
This new frontier would answer the question for us, why is there such an irrational hatred of Jews? It’s early days as far as the friendship goes but it allowed us to examine our own feelings about Jews, more importantly, why do we feel we are in the presence of Kings, and Queens?
When you meet an ‘Orthodox’ Jew, a practising Jew, something happens. You feel metaphorically completely naked. You are not prepared, as a Gentile, for their ability to see through you. You see, they are a people who have strengthened their agreed covenant through centuries of persecution, this comes across as a strong conviction of who they are, individually and as a race of people. There is no doubt that they carry something within them, like an aura of light because they are so strangely ‘upright’ and ‘proper’ — not a comparison with British snobbery, Jews simply ooze that ‘they know’ and have something that we don’t. What happens next to the poor Gentile who isn’t quite ready to receive such an honest encounter?
Possibly two things:
Fear/shame. I’ll come back to this reasoning…
The second is awe. You just know that their surety of who they are, coupled with the Orthodox life steeped in Torah study is like stepping into a royal palace, and you might not resist the urge to curtsy. It’s not surprising. This race of stiff-necked people who agreed thousands of years ago to accept the Creator’s Torah have been tried by fire (one of many holocausts), tried by water (in a mass Exodus from captivity) and now they are back in their homeland and struggling against those who seek their complete annihilation from the face of the earth.
Of course the Jews know who they are. And their constant striving has made them extremely ‘human’. They live in a horizontal society. Even though it seems they are divided, they are not; at least on a soul level. This makes each and every one a king or queen and each and every one of them equal. They may not agree on how to follow their Rabbinic underpinnings of a Torah life but they don’t have the struggle that the Gentiles have, who live in a vertical society maintained only by position, power and wealth. When a Gentile meets another Gentile we generally define that person by their work ethic, rarely from their ‘heritage’. It’s a humbling experience in the presence of Jews to be accepted for who you are, for them to see you metaphorically ‘naked’ — complete with invisible fig leaves of shame attached.
Let’s tackle the fear and shame premise.
It’s very unfortunate, but centuries of Christian doctrine have not helped in this area. Incorrectly proclaiming for centuries that Jesus was killed by the Jews doesn’t help. Being told to believe in ‘Original Sin’ also has its consequences over the centuries. The West is steeped in a divided Creator that’s led to a divided world. The Jews do not believe in such a concept. They do not believe in Original Sin and therefore do not intrinsically loathe themselves. Even if your roots are not Christian, evidence everywhere in the Western World reminds us that we’re mere worms crawling across the face of the planet with a Devil in hot pursuit further torturing us, that we’re intrinsically evil and consequently always wrong. The Devil is apparently an ‘adversary’ of the Creator! Not only that, but if you identify as a Christian, you have to further divide the Creator by saying that the man Jesus is also the Creator and he died for YOUR sins! Did you know that the concept of Jesus as God didn’t come into existence until 325A.D. (Council of Nicea). That’s a long time after Jesus died!
NEWSFLASH FOR GENTILES!
A person who is not born a Jew doesn’t have a Covenant, they can commit crimes against the law of the land, or perceive their actions go against their own conscience or against the basic Noachide laws but they cannot sin in the same way as Jews can sin. But still, the Western world loves to keep the Gentiles crawling on their bellies, wallowing in the dust of worthlessness! Jesus’s message was for THE JEWS not for the Gentiles! Christianity did not exist when he walked the earth.
“I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” Matthew: 15:24
When a Gentile who brings all this embedded self-loathing meets a Jew who keeps the Covenant with the Creator, not weighed down by the concept of original sin, it’s as if a fig leaf automatically flies into place, the Gentile sees in the Jew what HE/SHE SHOULD BE; not loathsome, but beloved by the Creator.
Gentiles are not responsible for the entirety of their lives for the so-called ‘Sins of Adam’. In some ways, us non-Jews are just like ‘cattle’ — only that we are innocent, we simply eat the grass of the field, and if we choose, we can raise ourselves from the banalities of life by learning, or expanding the gifts given to us by our Creator, we can even study Torah and align ourselves with the Jews! There is a movement happening in the world as more and more people recognise the Torah of the Jews is worth reading, that it brings many spiritual blessings, also much relief and correct alignment. More people are seeking this ‘Jewish Light’ — unfortunately, for there to be balance, it seems the hatred becomes stronger; a sort of enantiodromic existence.
Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden and imagine The Creator is questioning the Gentile:
Who told you you were naked? The correct answer: The Western world is telling the Gentile that he/she is naked, not The Creator!
There’s a phrase often used, especially in the UK: …For my sins
British English, spoken as an expression, used to suggest jokingly that you have to do something as a punishment:
“I work at the head office now, for my sins.”
It’s no joke. Gentiles really do think they are disgusting sinners and it’s detrimental on a deep soul level and has been since the Christian Gentile world decided its truth.
Don’t we too want to live without fearing God’s judgement on us every minute of the day?
Don’t we wish that it doesn’t matter how much money we earn, that every member of the community accepts us, warts and all?
Don’t we wish for a right of passage for our young men (and women) through some kind of bar-mitzvah celebrated by the community, don’t we want this wholesome rite of passage?
Do we not notice that Jews are the most decorated in the world for Nobel Prizes? But most of all, we witness that their Torah study gives them a direct connection with their Creator, OUR Creator; if only we had what they had!
This can go down two ways. You accept what they have, stand in awe and maybe even decide to learn their beloved Torah so at least you can bask in some of the light of The Creator, some people have even been known to convert to Judaism… apparently this has been on the rise for decades…
Or, you become jealous. You intuit that they they have something that you feel you cannot attain, after all, only the Jews accepted the Covenant. Jealousy turns to hate. A person might even feel an irrational hatred towards the Jews, even though standing with Hamas will inevitably sound the death knell for all so-called ‘infidels’ across the globe. Submission is the key to the faith of Islam. Submit or die. *Gulp*
Here’s a true case of fear, possible shame and probably jealousy.
A British Protestant Christian, an ordained Minister known as a Reverend visited Israel. He approached the wailing wall in Jerusalem where an Orthodox Jewish male was saying prayers. The Reverend complained to the tour guide that the Jew wouldn’t speak to him. The tour guide replied, something to the effect of: What would you say to each other? You don’t exist in his eyes! Upon hearing this story related to us and bearing in mind that this Reverend showed a vague interest in dialogue between Christians and Jews, my husband and I were stunned. He also mocked the Jewish prayers stuffed into the walls and basically sulked that this Rabbi wouldn’t speak to him! First of all, he presumed he was a Rabbi (I guess they all look the same to him) and second, it’s no different than a person stumbling up to the pulpit while a Christian minister is giving a sermon and expecting them to drop everything and talk, would this be acceptable behaviour?
This ignorance of Jewish Orthodoxy very easily leads to hate. It’s not just the Jews who are hated, but this hatred spills over to anyone who stands with the Jews, who studies Torah, or as we put it, those who have a ‘Jewish soul’. They are ostracised or envied, mistrusted or irrationally hated. My husband and I have suffered from anti-Semitism most of our lives. We know that most people don’t know they’re doing it, it seems to be an unconscious act. It’s one reason why we live in exile on a remote island and largely keep ourselves to ourselves.
We’ve had residents of our island enter our front room and cover their faces with their hand when passing our extensive Jewish library! I mean seriously!? We’ve known complete strangers to bring up the Jews in conversation for no reason at all, I mean, how did they know that we have them in our hearts? Often questions are asked that are downright disrespectful, sometimes flippant about the holocaust. After years of this it can become burdensome, especially as we don’t have the support network that the Jews have, that wonderful racial network that crosses all human boundaries. A Jew can turn up in a foreign country and before long, another Jew will find them a place in their home. Life can be difficult out here when you have Torah stamped on your forehead!
I’ve gone on long enough, and I’m grateful if you’ve understood our reasoning. I hope our explanation strikes a chord with those who give a damn about such a persecuted people. Part 2 is being hatched…
I’ll end the post with more reading, a great article by Rav Mordechai Greenberg Nasi Hayeshiva: The Source of Anti-Semitism from a Torah Perspective: Part I
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