The destruction of the Beis Hamikdosh was one of the
worst expressions of the hatred that nations of the world
have for the Jews. Its presence allowed the Jews to live a
life focused on the service of Hashem in the ways that Hashem
Himself arranged. It was the conduit for Heavenly beneficence
that radiated to the whole world. It was a source of guidance
and wisdom that had the potential to help all humanity.
The Beis Hamikdosh was wantonly destroyed —
twice — on Tisha B'Av. The land upon which it was built
was plowed under with salt, to utterly destroy the area and
to try to ensure that it could never be rebuilt.
After the tremendous and stunning outpouring of hatred
towards us from the Nazis, there was a significant dampening
of those feelings of hatred for many years. If someone
expressed antisemitic sentiments, one needed only to remind
him of where those feelings had led the Nazis in order to
silence him.
This is no longer the case. Antisemites are no longer
intimidated by the mention of the Holocaust. One suspects
that some are even encouraged by the thought of how
"successful" Hitler actually was. Moreover, much of the moral
power that the memory of the Holocaust had was expended on
the long legal wrangling over the past several years that led
to various payments and property restitution. For the
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the
participants in the Nazi crimes, who are now in the seats of
power, the message of the Holocaust is tinged with the cash
of reparations.
And the hatred has revived.
After the bombings that left over 50 innocents dead in his
city, the Mayor of London chose his words very carefully when
talking about Islam. Presumably he was careful with what he
said about Israel, too. However he did not condemn the
Islamic ideology that motivated the bombers; he condemned
Israel. "I think the Israeli hard-liners around Likud and
Hamas [members] are two sides of the same coin," he said. He
expressed sympathy for Palestinian suicide bombers, if not
for London bombers: "Palestinians don't have jet fighters,
they only have their bodies to use as weapons. In that unfair
balance, that's what people use."
This view is by no means unique in today's society. There are
even many Jews who talk the same way. They write articles
explaining why Israel has no right to exist, and how they
understand the suicide bombers.
A very famous Israeli poet and novelist by the name of A. B.
Yehoshua once asked, "I ask myself a question that we must
all ask: What is it in the interaction between Israel and
other peoples that creates such an irrational hatred? What
brought the Germans, and what brought the Palestinians, to
such a hatred of us? I look with fear at the suicidal hatred
with which the Palestinians relate to us. The Germans related
to us with the same sort of hatred. This is something that
needs to be clarified; what happens between us and the other
peoples among whom we live?"
Truly a perceptive questions that any reasonable person
should ask. Why has the Jewish people — throughout the
generations from the Destruction of the Temples until the
suicide bomber in Netanya — generated such hatred
directed at itself?
The answer of most of the world — including secular
Jews — is that if the common factor is the Jews, then
the Jews can do something to stop the hatred. True it does
not seem to help, and even when we are poised to wrench out
thousands of Jews from their homes the bombers continue their
efforts — mostly unsuccessful but a few tragically
successful. The hatred is just as active. "But if only"
Israel would withdraw more, maybe from all the territories
over the Green Line, the Palestinians would begin to love us.
Rational people continue to make these rational suppositions,
even though the phenomena are clearly not rational at all.
The hatred of the Jewish people is not rational. It revolves
around the hatred that descended at the Revelation on Har
Sinai. At the giving of the Torah, we became the object of
hatred from those who rejected it. There is no other
explanation for this hatred.
What is our response?
We mourn.
We do not hate back and we certainly do not try to exact
revenge.
We mourn our losses and strengthen our link to our precious
Torah. We turn to ourselves and examine our own deeds and how
we can improve them. This is not what we expect of saints but
of every Jew. If we mourn Jerusalem properly, we know that we
will merit seeing its happiness. That is the way — and
that is the only way.
