Last week, while attending the International Chabad Convention in Brooklyn, a reporter asked me why there is an explosion of antisemitism throughout the world now. I responded that instead of trying to understand hatred, let’s eliminate it, similar to dispelling darkness by creating light because understanding it won’t fix the problem.
An interesting episode in this week’s parsha illustrates this point in a few short verses.
Due to a famine in the land, our second forefather Yitzchak moved to the Philistines region ruled by a mighty king named Avimelech. Years earlier, his mother Sarah was abducted by the ruthless monarch and was saved only due to dramatic Divine intervention. Yitzchak’s wife Rivka barely escaped the same fate and after Yitzchak became fabulously wealthy through growing crops, Avimelech banished him from the region. Even then, the Philistines continued harassing him over ownership of water wells he dug. Simply put, their antisemitic credentials were rock solid. Suddenly, Avimelech and his general Fichol initiated a visit to Yitzchak, and this is how their conversation is recorded in the Torah. (Genesis 26: 27-29) And Yitzchak said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and you sent me away from you?" And they said, "We have seen that the L-rd was with you; so we said: Let there now be an oath between us, between ourselves and you, and let us form a covenant with you. If you do [not] harm us, as we have not touched you, and as we have done with you only good, and we sent you away in peace, [so do] you now, blessed of the L-rd." Yitzchak was not impressed with their overtures and did not consider the possibility they had stopped hating him. After all, how does one rehabilitate someone from having such an irrational and silly perspective? However, even though Avimelech did not deny his antisemitism was still strong, he formed an alliance with Yitzchak because he respected and revered his connection to G-d. The lesson is clear. To live peacefully side by side with neighbors or nations who may be antisemitic one does not need to understand their hatred or purge them of it. Gaining their respect is what’s necessary and as Rabbi Jonothan Sacks famously said, “In my extensive world experience I observed that non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism.” Strengthening and advertising our connection to G-d through doing more mitzvot openly and proudly and unabashedly sharing the Torah worldview is the best way to ensure peace with our neighbors. Lest you think I have no hope for a time when antisemitism will disappear from humanity, fear not. Our prophets foretold that in the Messianic era, “the wolf will lie with the lamb” which is a metaphor for the fact that all nations will dwell together in peace without hatred or strife. And since, as Maimonides famously declared, one good action, spoken word, or even thought can usher in the blessed Messianic era of redemption, let’s work together to make it a reality by increasing in acts of goodness and kindness, and rid the world of antisemitism forever.