Week One - Between Memory and Meaning
We were not placed on this earth to fight antisemitism, and other thoughts...
This past Shabbat, in several conversations with a friend, I realized that I don’t write enough. I write for work, I write for school, but never for myself. I’m challenging myself to write - maybe once a week, once a month, we’ll see where this goes. Truthfully, this is an exercise for me to stop using Chat GPT (apologies for any mistakes) and to try to fully formulate my own thoughts. I’m putting this out there in case anyone wants to read it, but honestly, I’m happy if no one does. On that note, here we go.
Often, I listen to podcasts where antisemitism is talked about. I keep hearing the words “in a post October 7th world” and hear people’s stories about different awful awful antisemitic or anti Israel experiences. I often get sucked into this void of Twitter scrolling or reading the horrible comments on Instagram of people saying insane things about Israel and the Jewish people. But this morning, I was listening to a podcast that reminded me that we were not placed on this earth to fight antisemitism. Judaism was never supposed to be an “anti” religion. It’s a truly beautiful and positive religion, with the Torah as a guidebook to living moral, beautiful lives.
On a personal note, I’m studying Holocaust and Genocide studies at the moment. The history of the Holocaust and genocide at large fascinates me - how could something so horrific happen? How could regular people carry out such insane acts? What is it about the Jewish people that creates such a hatred and need to blame us for the world’s problems? But I think I need to stop focusing on the minute history, and ask myself why I care so much, and why I’m studying the Holocaust in general.
With this substack that I guess I’m building, I want to start exploring how the memory of antisemitism and the reality that we’re living in can help positively impact my own personal Judaism and our community at large. I don’t think anything that I’m going to write here is going to be particularly new or enlightening, but I hope it’ll be an interesting read, and an impactful exercise for myself.
So I guess for now, I’ll end with my Zaidy z’l’s favorite Pesach seder dvar torah. The Belzer Rebbe explained that if you take the verse of והיא שעמדה, and switch around the comma (very Chassidish thing to do), you can read it like so:
In every generation… because we are not one, they rise up against us to destroy us…
Meaning that the cause of this hatred and antisemitism and destruction is because we are not united as a people, not because of anything else.
Going into Elul this year, I want to keep reminding myself of this. That achdut, Jewish unity, is the end goal here. And that only through unity will we get through all of this hatred and negativity in the world. Living in Tel Aviv over the past three years, I’ve experienced so many waves of both baseless hatred and baseless love of fellow Jews. Today, it’s moving back into the category of hatred, which scares me more than it did pre-October 7th. But then, I leave my apartment, stop reading the news, and walk on the boardwalk on the beach, and see people of all denominations, religions, races, etc, just soaking up the gorgeous Tel Aviv sun and vibe. And that’s honestly what gives me hope.
Okay sorry this turned into a dvar torah and for being cheesy, maybe next time I’ll veer more towards academia and won’t have a nice fluffy message.
And with that, Shavua Tov!
Xoxo,
Liat