Is Your Judaism Antisemitism ?

[music] >> I want to ask a pretty uncomfortable, [music] maybe even politically incorrect question. Why are so Jews today so obsessed >> [music] >> with anti-Semitism? Everywhere you turn, it's articles, podcasts, WhatsApp chats, panels, seminars, legislation, strategy [music] sessions about anti-Semitism. How do we fight it? How do we respond? What's [music] the next move? This has become the conversation of our times. But here's the question. Why does there seem to be a correlation [music] between how much Torah and mitzvahs are in someone's life and [music] often time how much they're consumed about anti-Semitism? Why is it that people who are deeply [music] immersed in Torah and tefillah and mitzvahs for the most part are not glued to every headline, they're not emotionally shaken by every article, [music] they're not spending their day talking about what the nations of the world think [music] of us. While the people who are the loudest, marching, screaming, posting, reacting nonstop [music] are often the ones who are the least connected to practical Torah and mitzvahs. >> [music] >> Why is that? Maybe the answer is a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe the answer is that if a person doesn't have Torah as the foundation of their Judaism, then what's left? How do you express that you're Jewish? So it becomes this. I fight anti-Semitism. I stay informed. I speak out. I protest. And slowly, without even realizing it, fighting anti-Semitism [music] becomes a substitute identity. It becomes a litmus test. How Jewish are you? How much are you battling those who [music] hate us? And there's an almost an emotional comfort in this. I might not be keeping Shabbos. I might not be learning Torah. I might not do most of the mitzvahs. But hey, I care about anti-Semitism. I show up. I fight. I read. I post. And [music] therefore, I am as Jewish as any Jew, perhaps even more so. But that's a mistake. And it's a big one. I'm not saying ignore anti-Semitism. Of course it exists. Of course it [music] matters. We're not naive. But if the best way you can think of spending hundreds of millions of Jewish dollars [music] is to put up billboards that say, "Don't hate Jews." Then I believe we have our priorities out of whack. If your entire Jewish identity is built around reacting [music] to those who hate you, you've completely missed the point. Being Jewish was never meant to be defined by what we're not. It was meant to be defined by what we are. >> [music] >> It's not about constantly addressing the outside world. It's about building something on the inside, [music] like Torah and mitzvahs and a real relationship with Hashem. Anti-Semitism [music] does not define us and obsessing over it doesn't strengthen us. What does strengthen us is becoming who we're meant to be. You want to be more [music] Jewish? It's not through better arguments. It's not through more articles and more posts. It's not through louder protests. It's through only one way. Torah and [music] mitzvahs. It always was and it always will be. Hashem is not sitting there in shamayim waiting for us to win more arguments. [music] He's not waiting for better PR and better campaigns and louder voices. Hashem is waiting for something much deeper. He's waiting for Jews to become a little more Jewish. >> [music]