Mount Sinai and the Hatred of the Nations
Opening A Jew sits down and opens the newspaper. What does he see? Hatred again. Threats again. Once again, someone wants to destroy us. His heart sinks. He asks: What is going on? What do we do? And how will this end? So we tell him: Let’s look for the root. Not in the newspaper. In the Talmud. Hatred That Comes with the Package The Talmud asks: “Why is it called Mount Sinai? Because from there, hatred came down to the nations of the world.” Stop for a moment. The mountain of the great gift, the Torah and its commandments, is also the mountain from which hatred came down into the world. These are not two separate facts. They are one fact. The hatred came in the same package as the Torah. The two are not connected by chance. At their core, they are one and the same thing. Why? Because the Jewish people is a nation that was set apart. The Torah says: “Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and is not counted among the nations.” This is not the result of history or circumstances. This is who we are. And whatever is set apart draws a reaction. You cannot receive the Torah without stirring up hatred, just as you cannot light a candle without casting a shadow. Hashem’s Fence But right here lies the deep new idea. A Jew who walks the Hasidic path needs to hear it well: The hatred is not a punishment. It is a fence. Hashem planted a vineyard, and He put a fence around it. From the outside, the fence looks like a threat. But its job is to protect what is inside. The hatred of the nations is the fence Hashem built around His people. It keeps them from dissolving, from blending in, from disappearing among the seventy nations of the world. This is nothing less than Hashem’s personal providence: Hashem guiding every detail. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, explains this in the part of the Tanya called “The Gate of Unity and Faith.” Hashem is the vitality of everything that exists. There is nothing in the world, not even the most bitter thing, that is not a vessel in His hand for good. That includes the hatred. That includes the suffering. An Example from History This is one of the hardest things to hear. It may also be one of the truest: In Germany in the 1920s, on the eve of the great destruction, the rates of intermarriage and assimilation among Jews were the highest Europe had ever known. Jews felt at home there. They felt safe there. They felt German there. Another generation or two, and there would not have been much left to erase. And then the hatred came down. In the middle of it came a gathering in. This instruction was already given once, when Queen Esther said: “Go, gather all the Jews.” When a harsh decree grows strong, it brings the Jewish people back to itself. This is not chance. This is Hashem’s providence at work. Maimonides, the great medieval sage, explains this in his Laws of Fasts. When troubles come upon the community, we must not say, “It is just chance.” Instead, we must cry out and understand that this is a call from Hashem. The trouble itself is the message.
Putting It into Practice
So what do we do when we feel the hatred? When antisemitism rises and threatens us? There is no point in fighting the fence from the outside. The fence is not the enemy. It is the protection. The right direction is inward. Learn more. Strengthen the Jewish home. Add more joy in doing the commandments. Bring one more Jew closer. In every way you can, return to the very reason the hatred came down in the first place: the Torah. Antisemitism will not disappear until the true and complete redemption. But it will never win. In Hashem’s great paradox, the hatred itself is what makes sure the Jewish people will still be here when the redemption comes. Take this inside, my friend. And be strong.
Questions and answers
Q: Where should a Jew look for the root of antisemitism when he sees hatred in the news?
Rabbi Landau answers: A Jew sits down and opens the newspaper. What does he see? Hatred again. Threats again. Once again, someone wants to destroy us. His heart sinks. He asks: What is going on? What do we do? And how will this end? So we tell him: Let’s look for the root. Not in the newspaper. In the Talmud.
Q: What does the Talmud mean when it says hatred came down to the nations from Mount Sinai?
Rabbi Landau answers: The Talmud asks: “Why is it called Mount Sinai? Because from there, hatred came down to the nations of the world.” Stop for a moment. The mountain of the great gift, the Torah and its commandments, is also the mountain from which hatred came down into the world. These are not two separate facts. They are one fact. The hatred came in the same package as the Torah. The two are not connected by chance. At their core, they are one and the same thing. Why? Because the Jewish people is a nation that was set apart. The Torah says: “Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and is not counted among the nations.” This is not the result of history or circumstances.
Q: How can the hatred of the nations be a fence that Hashem built around His people?
Rabbi Landau answers: But right here lies the deep new idea. A Jew who walks the Hasidic path needs to hear it well: The hatred is not a punishment. It is a fence. Hashem planted a vineyard, and He put a fence around it. From the outside, the fence looks like a threat. But its job is to protect what is inside. The hatred of the nations is the fence Hashem built around His people. It keeps them from dissolving, from blending in, from disappearing among the seventy nations of the world. This is nothing less than Hashem’s personal providence: Hashem guiding every detail.
Q: What does Jewish assimilation in 1920s Germany teach about the purpose of antisemitism?
Rabbi Landau answers: This is one of the hardest things to hear. It may also be one of the truest: In Germany in the 1920s, on the eve of the great destruction, the rates of intermarriage and assimilation among Jews were the highest Europe had ever known. Jews felt at home there. They felt safe there. They felt German there. Another generation or two, and there would not have been much left to erase. And then the hatred came down. In the middle of it came a gathering in. This instruction was already given once, when Queen Esther said: “Go, gather all the Jews.” When a harsh decree grows strong, it brings the Jewish people back to itself. This is not chance.
Q: What should Jews do when antisemitism rises and threatens them?
Rabbi Landau answers: So what do we do when we feel the hatred? When antisemitism rises and threatens us? There is no point in fighting the fence from the outside. The fence is not the enemy. It is the protection. The right direction is inward. Learn more. Strengthen the Jewish home. Add more joy in doing the commandments. Bring one more Jew closer. In every way you can, return to the very reason the hatred came down in the first place: the Torah. Antisemitism will not disappear until the true and complete redemption. But it will never win. In Hashem’s great paradox, the hatred itself is what makes sure the Jewish people will still be here when the redemption comes.