The Lesson Of Zeidy's Glass Jar: The World Doesn't Care
When two Muslim terrorists storm the headquarters of a satire-magazine and kill 12 innocent people the world was -justifiable so- in uproar. But when two days later mere hours before Shabbos a kosher supermarket is being held hostage and four Jews are murdered the world is once again silent.
All those people on the internet and in the newspapers -but most specifically all the brave social justice warriors- who stood up, decried the barbarous attacks and showed their solidarity with the majority of the Muslim community. All these fearless fighters for justice, equality, harmony, brotherhood and peace. These amazing people who never shoo away from a confrontation to defend what it is right, to “call out” [a word I learned from Tumblr] racists, bigots and anyone else who might disagree with them. All of these people suddenly seemed to have faded away like the current Jerusalem-snow, or perhaps a better comparison would be “the big and scary all devastating snow storm” that we -Jerusalem residents- were warned for. There was some snow. True. But it was far from the doomsday storm that everyone expected. Our Sages taught us everything that happens in the world is “for us”. We can learn from every single thing that happens around us. So what can we learn from the “Jerusalem snow storm”?
What we can learn from it is that the same thing can be said of the world. Yes, there are some goyim who are sincerely upset and are “with us” but, just like the snow, there are only so very few of them. In fact, most of them are just like the reports on the “neverending Jerusalem snowstorm”. The valiant knights of the Order of Social Justice are never silent in their condemnation and threats of anything that’s slightly offensive. But once it comes to the Jews… it’s all nothing. When Jews are being killed by Muslims in the name of Islam, and especially when Zionism is being blamed on Jews not even living in the State of “Israel” and who have no power or whatsoever within Israeli leadership, these normally loud knights are oh so silent; so silent that it’s deafening.
So silent it made me think of when I was a yingel (little boy) playing in my grandparents’ house somewhere in Europe. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old as I roamed through the house and stumbled upon a large glass jar filled with money. It contained bundles of different currencies, French francs, Belgian Francs, Dutch Guilders, Spanish Pesetas, British Pounds, American Dollars, and probably even more that I don’t remember.
“Zeidy [grandpa], what’s this for?” I asked him when he suddenly stood at my side. His answer?
"You never know how people are. One day they are nice and act like your friends. And the other day they’ll kick you out of the country or throw you in prison. Today everything might seem all nice and quiet but you never know how long this will last. Never trust them. Always remember this. Do not forget it.” With these words my zeidy took the jar and put it somewhere else.
Throughout the years since then I’ve seen with my own eyes how true this little life-lesson from my zeidy is. Antisemitism is deeply rooted in European society. But at the same time one cannot deny most of the recent violent attacks against Jews in France, or anywhere else in Europe, have been perpetrated by Muslims. I personally have been attacked, spat at in my face, and have seen cheider (Jewish elementary school) children being attacked by stone-throwing youths while playing in the schoolyard. Not to mention all the verbal assaults. All of these “incidents” (as police or the media would like to call them) were not done by native Europeans, rather 100% of the perpetrators were Muslims. And of course, not once did any of the brave Social Justice warriors say even one word about it.
Am I surprised by all this? No, I’m not. After all, Chazal already said "עשו שונא ליעקב”.
But now I think of it, perhaps that’s not fair to say. They did say something about it. I’ve heard people say how they could “understand” I, my friends, and even our cheider children were being attacked because of “what Israel is doing”.
The famous goyish saying says, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Like with many other things the goyim say, I would personally also disagree with this statement. I would say, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my enemy but also most definitely not my friend.
About six years ago after a terror attack close to our house my little brother returned home from cheider and said, “You see, mammy! All the goyim hate us!!!"
“All the goyim?” she asked him, “what about John Johnson?*”
"Oh… yes. That’s true. Not all of them are bad” my brother finally said and went off playing.
This John Johnson and his wife are most definitely to be considered real Chasidei Umos Ha’Olam. They are a non-Jewish couple who -despite the fact both of them are handicapped and are not very wealthy- do literally anything and everything they can to help the Jewish people -no strings attached, they’re not even Christian. The Haredi communities of both Eretz Yisroel and certain places in Europe are very blessed to have such friends as this hardworking non-Jewish couple whose whole life is that of giving and helping. So, do I believe all goyim hate us? No I don’t.
But while the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my enemy, unless proven differently, he is also not my friend.
___________________________________
*Name changed for privacy
stormborns
izzy806
ellievsbear
annaxmalina
jbbartram-illu
dededos
tangentwithtanner
