GOOD MORNING! Theodor Reik was a Jewish psychoanalyst who trained as one of Sigmund Freud’s first students in Vienna, Austria, and later became a pioneer of lay analysis in the United States. In 1965 he wrote an essay titled “The Unreachables” (his alternate title was “The Repetition Compulsion in Jewish History”).

In this essay he details how certain groups repeatedly fall victim to the same trials and tribulations throughout history. He uses the history of the Jewish people as a prime example of this and succinctly sums up this hypothesis:

“There are recurring cycles, ups and downs, but the course of events is essentially the same, with small variations. It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.”

What I think Reik means to say is that though details and circumstances change, events in the life cycle of a group will essentially recycle in similar patterns. It’s important to note that Reik himself barely escaped the atrocities of Nazi Germany and this clearly influenced his worldview (he fled Germany shortly after the Nazi party came to power).

This week’s Torah reading contains one of the origins of the world’s hatred toward the Jewish people:

“Eisav harbored hatred toward Jacob because of the blessing that (their) father had given him […]” (Genesis 27:41).

In the beginning of this week’s Torah portion we find the incident in which Eisav sells his birthright – he was the firstborn child and entitled to certain “perks” – to his brother Jacob for a meal of lentils. One of the privileges that came with the birthright was to receive a distinct blessing from their father; one that would affect who would be entrusted with the worldly blessings of wealth and prosperity endowed by the Almighty.

Eisav, who was primarily concerned with the pleasures of the physical world, was very aggrieved by the fact that these blessings were given by his father to his brother Jacob. Thus, the Torah informs us of the source for this enmity of Jacob and his descendants. Jacob’s name is later changed by the Almighty to the name Israel and the nation of the Israelites are called upon his name.

Sometimes referred to as “the longest hatred,” antisemitism has persisted in many forms over several millennia including “innovative” defamatory accusations such as blood libels and other excuses to incite pogroms and such. My brilliant brother Rabbi Akiva Zweig, in a lecture given at Oxford University, explains the etymology of the word antisemite and its meaning and relevance in our times. You can find it here.

The racial antisemitism of the Nazis turned hatred of Jews into a genocidal mandate. But we must never forget that the seeds of the eventual Holocaust began with mere words and ideas. It mushroomed into sinister cartoons and stereotypes and a few short years later became codified into law – The Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

The Nuremberg Laws outlined who was to be considered a Jew (a Jew of the “first degree” were those with at least three Jewish grandparents) and those who were considered “half Jews” from a mixed marriage (mischlinge). In many, if not most, circumstances they were treated as one and the same. The goal of Nazi Germany was to make Germany (and all of Europe) “Judenfrei – free of Jews.” Unsurprisingly, they were arbiters of who was to be considered a Jew. For the most part it didn’t make a difference whether a person lived or even identified as a Jew – the extermination order applied to whomever the Nazis deemed as such.

Here we are, a scant 90 years from the rise of Nazi Germany, and the Jewish people are facing a similar existential threat. As mentioned, rhymes can be quite powerful, and the hate-filled slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” means exactly that – a country free of all Jews. They want to eliminate every Jew out of “their” country. It is self-evident that if the Israelis put down their weapons there would be another Holocaust. By contrast, if the Arabs put down their weapons there would be peace.

For those who wished to believe that the Holocaust was gone and buried, they now have to come to terms with the fact that it was merely in hibernation. It is somehow stunning to this demographic that such latent hatred has now come to the fore. The self-hating Jews on the far left and the far right (i.e. those who deny the legitimacy of the State of Israel and/or her right to defend herself) have somehow deluded themselves that this hatred doesn’t apply to them but rather only to the State of Israel. They are, very sadly, mistaken.

Amazingly, sixty years ago Theodor Reik predicted that the atrocities of Nazi Germany could very well take place in America someday.

American Jews who thought that they were sending their children to the safe environments of schools and universities are beginning to realize that they have actually sent their children into the lion’s den. Even worse – the very administration of these institutions of higher learning and of supposed ethical and moral values have been slow to reject the blatant Jew-hatred on their campuses. Even once they were shamed into it by donors and the media, some of them only put out lukewarm criticisms of the antisemitism and then promptly folded it into standard woke ideology and terminology.

But, as with most difficult situations, there is often a remarkable silver lining to be found and this rise in antisemitism is no different. The younger Jews of Generation Z (those born between 1996 and 2010), who had previously been preoccupied by social activism, climate change, and social engagement though social media, are beginning to see how the world really perceives them. All this enmity is actually forcing them to confront the fact that they are Jews and the question of what it means to be a Jew in 2023.

They are beginning to realize that although they may have grown up unaffiliated and perhaps mostly disinterested in their heritage, the rest of the world has not forgotten that they are Jews and that they are different. Most of them were either not alive or too young to remember 9/11 – the more modern example of an ultimate expression of hate for the sake of hate. This new realization is quite a wakeup call.

But it’s not just Gen Z that has to confront this new reality. Unfortunately, the vast majority of American Jews are either marginally affiliated or totally unaffiliated. Until now they have done an extraordinary job of pretending that their Judaism doesn’t really matter much and doesn’t materially affect their lives. Like the overarching lesson of Nazi Germany, they are learning that it’s not really up to them to define who they are – it’s being done for them.

The question, of course, is what they will do with this new perspective on their self-identity. I teach a business class in our high school and one of the first lessons I drive home to my students is that life isn’t static, it’s actually very, very dynamic.

In other words, nothing in this world stays the same – there is constant motion. An axiom of life is that if you aren’t moving forward then you are, by the very nature of this world, moving backward. The classic example of this is money. If a person takes $1,000 and puts it under his mattress, at the end of a year he doesn’t have the same $1,000 that he put there. Inflation has eaten into the innate value of that $1,000 and it is now only worth between $920-$975 depending on the real rate of inflation.

The same is true of everything in life – our health, our businesses, our personal relationships etc. This should be easily self-evident, e.g. if a person doesn’t make an effort to get proper exercise their health doesn’t stay the same, rather it slowly but surely deteriorates. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.

What many people don’t realize is that this axiom applies to a person’s connection to their religion as well. If one isn’t making the efforts to grow their relationship with the Almighty, then, like every relationship, it begins to dissipate. It isn’t enough to just “be” Jewish, you have to make an effort to grow your Judaism and relationship with the Almighty. That means you have to learn more, do more, and be involved more.

Everyone has to face the following question: At this time, when we are being told by the world that we are Jewish, what are we actually doing to be Jewish? What are we doing to continually grow as Jews? Continuing to do the same things that we have always done is simply not enough. Particularly not now.

Everyone wants to know what they can do in response to the campaign being waged against the Jewish people. The answer begins with making every element of Judaism a central part of your life. Pray more, study more, get involved in acts of charity and kindness. In this way we show the world what Judaism really stands for, and it sends a message to the world that we alone define what it means to be a Jew.

Toldot, Genesis 25:19 - 28:9

Rebecca (Rivka) gives birth to Esau (Eisav) and Jacob (Yaakov). Esau sells the birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil soup. Isaac (Yitzchak) sojourns in Gerar with Avimelech, king of the Philistines. Esau marries two Hittite women bringing great pain to his parents (because they weren’t of the fold).

Jacob impersonates Esau on the counsel of his mother in order to receive the blessing for the oldest son from his blind father, Isaac. Esau, angry because of his brother’s deception caused him to lose the firstborn blessings, plans to kill Jacob, so Jacob flees to his uncle Lavan in Padan Aram – on the advice of his parents. They also advise him to marry Lavan’s daughter.

Esau understands that his Canaanite wives are displeasing to his parents, so he marries a third wife, Machlath, the daughter of Ishmael.