If I Were Jewish
10 min read
GOOD MORNING! The ongoing “student protests” at college campuses all over the United States have created a threatening environment for Jewish students, and an uncomfortable sense of unease in the broader Jewish community.
These coordinated protests, most of which, unsurprisingly, contain an outright call for the elimination of the State of Israel and other genocidal expressions of hate, are reminiscent of 1930’s Germany. Given that we are only 90 years post-Holocaust and a mere seven months since the worst attack on Jews since then, this has caused unpleasant flashbacks in the collective memory of the Jewish people with many suffering PTSD symptoms. I even heard someone mention last week that they think we are close to a Kristallnacht moment – God forbid.
If I may, I’d like to give everyone a piece of advice. As someone who has lived in South Florida for 50 years, I always have to be mindful of impending hurricane disasters, particularly because I have ultimate responsibility for three school campuses down here. Over the years this has caused a lot of hyper-attention to every possible hurricane (often several per year) and much needless handwringing. So, take it from someone who has wasted way too much time, energy, and resources worrying (not to mention that the greater Miami area has only had one direct hit in some 60 years): it’s simply not worth it.
A person can only prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. Stop obsessing. Make sure that your passports are up to date and you have a plan for self-protection in place, then turn off the news and stop watching the social media postings regarding these disgusting displays of antisemitism. Go outside, take off your shoes, and walk on the grass. If you live by a beach, go there and bury your feet in the sand while staring at the ocean. Stop buying in to the media that will saying anything to get your attention and hold you captive – and go connect to the real world.
The facts are that these incendiary protests have actually made rational people more aware of the foolish nature of the far left liberals and the woke movement. A poll taken at the end of last week showed that the vast majority of Americans support Israel as the war rages on in Gaza and that these protests are actually having the opposite of the intended effect. The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that 80% of registered voters support Israel more in the war, while only 20% said they support Hamas more.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the far left, formerly elite, universities are now reaping what they have sown for the last three decades. As the aphorism goes, if you plant corn, you get corn. The clueless administrations of most of these schools are obviously ill-equipped to handle the situation, only acting when they begin to fear being grilled by a congressional committee. Ironically – for them – according to another poll, the insanity of these protests is actually driving many undecided voters to vote against Biden (in the belief that Trump would handle the situation better – though unsurprisingly most feel that neither would do a good job).
To understand how we got here we need to understand the effects of cognitive bias as it relates to the concept of illusory superiority. Illusory superiority is when someone begins to believe that their abilities (and belief systems) are far superior to those of others. Zoë Chance, a professor at Yale University, demonstrated this in a clever 2011 experiment. As you’ll see, she showed that many people employ self-deception to boost their egos – even when it has an actual cost to themselves.
One group of participants were asked to take an IQ test, with a list of the answers printed at the bottom of the page. As you might expect, these people performed considerably better than a control group who did not have the answer key. Remarkably, they did not seem to internalize how much they had relied on the ‘cheat sheet’ because they were then asked to predict how they would do on a second test – a test featuring another hundred questions, but without an answer key. Almost every one of them predicted they would do equally as well. Somehow, they had fooled themselves into thinking that they had known the solutions to the problems without needing any help.
To be sure of this conclusion, Chance repeated the whole experiment with a new set of participants. This time, however, the participants were given a financial reward for accurately predicting their results in the second test and overconfidence would come with a penalty. If the participants were conscious of their behavior, you might expect this incentive to reduce their overconfidence. Surprisingly, it did little to puncture the participants’ inflated self-belief; they still fooled themselves into thinking they were smarter than they were, even when they knew that they would lose money. This suggests that the beliefs were genuine and deeply held – and inspired a confidence that was wholly unwarranted.
Of course, we have a highly relevant passage in this week’s Torah portion.
“You shall not take revenge and not bear a grudge […] you shall love your fellow man as yourself […]” (Leviticus 19:18).
Rashi (ad loc) describes the Torah’s definition of revenge (though I have updated the illustration for a 21st century audience): Robert asks his neighbor Joe to borrow his lawnmower, but without an explanation Joe refuses. The next day Joe (cluelessly) asks Robert to borrow his hedge clippers and Robert responds, “Just as you didn’t lend me your lawnmower, I am refusing to lend you my hedge clippers.” This is the definition of taking revenge.
Let's drill down a bit into this situation. When Joe refused to lend his lawnmower to Robert (presuming he had no reason not to lend it to him other than he didn’t want to help Robert) he violated a positive Torah commandment – that of not “loving your friend as yourself.”
Yet, when Robert refused to lend his clippers to Joe, he was transgressing both a positive commandment (“loving your friend as yourself”) and also a negative commandment – that of “not taking revenge.” This seems rather unfair. After all, on the face of it, Robert seemed perfectly justified in refusing to lend his clippers to Joe; why shouldn’t he treat him the same way that he was treated and let Joe learn how painful it feels to be refused?
It reminds me of the mother who ran into her children’s bedroom when she heard her seven-year-old son screaming. She found his two-year-old sister painfully pulling his hair. She gently released the little girl’s grip and said comfortingly to the boy, “There, there, she didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know that it hurts.” He nodded his acknowledgment, and she left the room. As she started down the hall, she heard the little girl screaming. Rushing back in, she asked, “What happened?” The little boy replied, “Now she knows.”
In our example one may argue that Robert felt very justified in his behavior, insofar as he was teaching Joe a lesson in how to treat a fellow Jew. Why is Robert then subject to an additional violation of a negative Torah commandment?
Robert receives an additional transgression for exactly this reason. In his mind, Robert is justifying why it is right to do an improper thing. Joe is, at worst, an unkind person. On the other hand, Robert is feeling wholly justified in his mistreatment of Joe; he is making his refusal to Joe a “mitzvah” – he wants to teach him a lesson. Justifying a wrong is far more severe than missing an opportunity to do something right.
It’s not hard to see how this readily applies to what’s going on today on college campuses. The overarching issue is one of antisemitism. They have turned the plight of the Palestinians suffering at the hands of Hamas into a referendum on Jews as reflected by the State of Israel.
As human beings, we are naturally limited by our biology, upbringing, and other innate biases. We often make mistakes based on bias and a lack of objectivity. This is why open communication and respectful engagement are so important. There are areas in which our colleges of higher education have failed miserably. By solely inbreeding liberal views with woke activism there was never a chance for their students to actually have an opportunity to hear and learn any other “truth.” Obviously, people at a protest have no interest in a real dialogue – the anger and not-so-latent hate on the faces of the protesters is so grotesque that it is actually jarring.
This could very well be the beginning of the dismantling of higher education as we know it. Their epic failure is open for the entire world to see. As one of my college professors once told my class, “You must learn from your mistakes, but it is far better – and far less painful – to learn from the mistakes of others.”
All of us must carefully look at the world around us and learn from the mistakes of others. We can avoid our personal biases. It begins by having a higher truth that is outside of yourself and your own personal desires; it is called the Torah. Furthermore, by taking steps to often question your opinions, intentions, and assumptions, you generate the additional perspectives needed to understand the world around you. When you seek differing views while also consciously considering alternatives that you hadn’t previously thought of, it will likely lead you to a more ethical outcome.
Understanding that we all have a responsibility to treat one another as we would like to be treated is an area in which we can ALL improve because this perspective is difficult to maintain. Perhaps this is why Hillel, the great sage who lived at the end of the Second Temple period, felt it necessary to add a modification of this verse in the Torah by mandating, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend.”
This is the portion that invokes the Jewish people to be holy! It then proceeds with the spiritual directions on how to achieve holiness, closeness to the Almighty. Within it lie the secrets and the prescription for Jewish continuity. If any group of people is to survive as an entity, it must have common values and goals—a direction and a meaning. By analyzing this portion we can learn much about our personal and national destiny. It is truly a “must read!”
Some of the mitzvot (commandments): Revere your parents, observe Shabbat, no idol worship, give gifts to the poor, deal honestly, love your fellow Jew, refrain from immoral sexual relationships, honor old people, love the proselyte, don’t engage in sorcery or superstition, do not pervert justice, observe the laws of kosher, and more. The portion ends, “You shall observe all My decrees and ordinances […] you shall be holy […] I have separated you from the peoples to be Mine.”
Dedicated with Deep Appreciation to
The Steinberg Family
