10 Dec THE DUAL DANGERS OF ANTISEMITISM

This week’s parsha
relates the encounter of
Yakov with his dangerous
and murderous brother
Eisav, and Yakov’s
admitting that he was
fearful of Eisav. These
events connect directly to
our contemporary multiplicity of antisemitic
incidents and horrors all over the globe.
Whether it is distribution of hundreds of
leaflets which proclaim, “Jews: leave or
be slaughtered,” in the peaceful Jewish
London suburb of Hendon, the brazen arson
of a popular and much used synagogue
in Australia, the pogrom like behavior in
Amsterdam, or the swastika graffiti that keeps
on cropping up in America, the proliferation
of antisemitism is chilling to all of us. This
is especially true for children of Holocaust
survivors who feel a frightening foreboding of
nightmarish deja vu.
At the recent national convention of the
Agudas Israel of America, the Ner Yisroel

Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Feldman, shlit”a, said that
after the events of October 7, 2023, we would
have expected a massive reaction of sympathy.
How surprised we were to see the opposite:
the absurd accusations of genocide and even
the condemnation of the prime minister of
Israel as a war criminal. While this leaves
us scratching our heads, Rav Feldman said
we should not be surprised because this is a
rule of nature. “Halachah b’yaduah she’Eisav
sonei es Yakov – It is a known fact that the
descendants of Eisav hate the descendants of
Yakov.” Note that regarding the revelation
at Mt. Sinai, the word sinai is similar to the
word sinah, hatred, because from thence there
would be hatred toward us from the world.
At the same convention, in a Question and
Answer session with Rabbi Yisroel Reisman,
shlit’a, he reminisced how years ago some
goyim broke into the Yeshiva of Torah
V’Daas in Brooklyn, took hold of a Sefer
Torah and threw half of it out of the window.
In the morning, the students woke up to
the horrible sight of a Sefer Torah hanging

exposed, halfway on the ground. The then
Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Pam, zt”l, zy”a, told
them to take the Sefer Torah to be respectfully
repaired but to have no other response, as
not to retract any copycat behaviors. (Rabbi
Reisman was quick to add that currently our
institutions have to do whatever hishtadlus
they see necessary.) On an individual level,
we should understand that this is the way
Hashem made the world, that Eisav harbors a
hatred for Yakov. Rabbi Reisman further said
that since the Torah says, “V’hayah k’asher
tarid, uferachta ohl mei’al tzavorecha,” when
Yakov deteriorates in spirituality, Eisav will
kick free.” Our individual response must be
to elevate our Yiddishkeit which will rein in
any terror from Eisav.
While we are frightened over the sinister rise
of global antisemitism, Yakov warns us in this
week’s parsha that we should be even more
frightened about something else. Yakov says,
“Hatzileini na mi’yad achi, mi’yad Eisav –
Save me (Hashem) from my brother, from
Eisav.” The obvious question is, we know that
Eisav was Yakov’s brother, so what other
Eisav was he talking about? The Rokei’ach
says a remarkable pshat: Eisav had a son
who he named Achi, my brother. He did
this so he should never forget what Yakov
did to him, and Eisav gave this son Achi the
exclusive mission to kill his uncle. This was
the danger that Yakov meant when he added
the words, “Hatzileini na mi’yad Achi,”
save me from my murderous nephew, Achi.
The Beis Halevy however gives a famous
answer to explain the superfluous word
achi. He says that Yakov was pleading with
Hashem to be spared from two dangers that
his toxic brother Eisav posed. Of course,
save me from the murderous side of Eisav.
But even when he acts like achi, like my
brother, also protect me from learning and
imitating his sinful ways. From the fact that
Yakov prefaced achi to Eisav, it is clear that
Yakov felt that the danger of assimilating
his brother’s heinous ways was the more
dangerous of the two possibilities.
This is oh! so true in our contemporary
times especially since the portals of the
internet and all kinds of social media bring
the ‘values’ of western civilization into our
homes. We have to realize that they are much
more dangerous than painted swastikas
and racial slurs. They bring promiscuity
and the vulgarity of pop music, the sense
that the younger generation has more
sophisticated knowledge through podcasts

and environmental norms as to what ‘true’
happiness really consists of, the breakdown of
respect and a feeling of responsibility to one’s
elders, the deterioration of a sense of shame
and human dignity. These are but a few of
the toxic poisons that are coming from our
exposure to our brother Eisav.
When we say in Havdalah that there is a
difference between night and day, and between
Yisroel and the nations, we need to educate
our children that our way of adherence to the
wisdom of the Torah and its moral compass is
as different from today’s ways of looking at
things as the difference between night and day.
Just as we know that antisemitic incidents
have put us on high alert, the need is also to be
on high alert to protect our families from the
styles and values of an increasingly decadent
and amoral society.
In the merit of our spiritual cautions, may
Hashem bless us with long life, good health,
safety, and true Yiddishe nachas.