Anti-Semites Don't Know Our Secret. They Keep Failing

As important as it is to be ingrained in our collective memory that they tried to destroy us and kill us and that was a cycle that got repeated. Every time they did, we bounced back stronger, bigger, greater, more unified, and having more faith. As more things change, the more they stay the same. And if you want to understand anti-semitism and anti anti-semites just open our because this is a story that unfortunately has many sequels and continues to tell itself over and over again and because you know on social media online as a pastime now some people in order to show the difference you know they'll have sidebyside screens and it's the Tucker Carlson in 2017 and Fox News Tucker Carlson today right just this week they're doing it about Venezuela he was calling for taking out the leader of Venez Venezuela and how terrible Venezuela and how much Venezuel and now oh Venezuela is very conservative and right side by side and you could do that about most significantly the Jewish people and what happened Qatar what happened going viral more followers more influence more advertisers more money Kelly sadly the same thing people who were greatest offenders people who understood and stood by us advocates of our people could so radically shift and change meladash. It's brand new. I don't know who they are. I don't recognize what they're saying. It's not just that their words and their policies, it's not just that their pundits whose take on everything changed. They changed. They changed because when a person says, "I'm going to lose my position of pro prominence." Para's advisers said, "You're done. We're taking you down. We're putting up we're putting up in the primary someone against you unless you follow our advice. Unless you adopt our policies against the Jews, you're out. And what happens when that happens? People resign. When the when the when the people when the deep state says, "We're not going to be supporting you," then they have no future. And not only do they change their policies, they become different people. They become different people. Not only literally a new king, but now we understand based on this insight and based sadly on our own experience that you can have the same social security number, the same birthday, the same fingerprints, the same person and they become a new person unrecognizable because when they want to continue or increase their influence and their power and their fortune, they become a new person, a meladash. Sadly, that was true of the anti-semite of your parro who now is synonymous with tyranny and goes down as a villain of our people and is true in our day. It's true in real time. It's happening today. Rabbi Saxs and the new Rabbi Sax Kish, how long can I keep calling it the new Rabbi Sax Kish? In the new sax also has a description and he says y this new parro whether literally or figuratively didn't know Yseph bracious ends on an almost serene note Jacob has found his long- lost son family's been reunited Yoseph has forgiven his brothers under his protection an influential family has settled in Gan one of the most prosperous regions of Egypt they now have homes property food protection of Yoseph in the favor of parro it must have seemed one of the golden moments of Aram's family's history. The yet when the curtain went down last week just last Shabas people when the curtain went down in oh finally harmony and peace reunion and unity finally that shala that Jacob was bikes that serenity that he so badly craved and longed for finally when the curtain came down he had it and it seemed like one of the golden moments of Aram's family's history and then as has happened so often a political climate change. The family falls out of favor. Parro tells his advisers, "You see, the Jewish people are many, more powerful than we. Let us deal wisely with them in case they increase." And so, the whole mechanism of oppression moves into operation. Forced labor that turns into slavery that becomes attempted genocide. The story is engraved in our memory. We tell it every year and in summary form in our prayers every day. It is part of what it is to be a y a Jew. Yet there's one phrase that shines out from the narrative. Look at yb. If you're watching and you see me waving wildly, it's not because I see someone I know. It's for some reason there are flies who are the reincarnation of those who skipped the para class and Hashem makes them now attend every week and torture me. Should be a kapara for all of us, the flies and me. We reference it at the seder. The more they oppressed, the more we increased and spread. And the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. Writes are by Saxs. This no less than oppression itself is part of what it means to be a Jew. Let me say that again. This pock that the more they oppressed us and the more they tortured us, the stronger, the bigger, the more faithful we became is in itself no less than oppression itself part of what it means to be a Jew. The worse things get, the stronger we become. Jews are the people who not only survive but thrive in adversity. Jewish history is not merely a story of Jews enduring catastrophes that might have spelled the end to less tenacious groups. It is in fact that after every disaster, Jews renewed themselves. They discovered some hitherto hidden reservoir of spirit that fueled new forms of collective self-exression as the carriers of God's message to the world. What an important point Rabbi Sax is making. When we read the beginning of Pashmos, so if you're good, you're already taking notes for the peser. You're already taking notes for pes for your detra. And what do we always focus on? They tried to kill us. miracles, 10 plagues, splitting of the sea. We survived, but we're missing part of the core story, central theme of the story. As important as it is to be ingrained in our collective memory, that they tried to destroy us and kill us and that was a cycle that got repeated. So too, maybe even more importantly, to ingrain in our collective consciousness that every time they did, we bounced back stronger, bigger, greater, more unified, and having more faith. And why do I share this insight? Because it's beautiful and it's true and you can track it through our history, including in the aftermath of the Holocaust. But have we not in the last two years since October 7th? And it brings to mind that great expression which is not Jewish in origin. They tried to bury us, but they planted us instead. On October 7th, they tried to bury us, but they planted us. The IDF, our heroes on the front lines. The Jewish people came roaring back, fought and continued to fight. Lest we think it's over, there are still heroes in Gaza and Lebanon and Syria and pulling off incredible missions. Incredible missions. In fact, Israel just captured Maduro from Venezuel. I'm joking. Shalom. Of course not. Wasn't Israel. Israel had nothing to do with it whatsoever except for probably teaching the knowhow about how to pull off such incredible incredible missions. It's okay to laugh and if the government is I don't know monitoring or Candace is watching the parashir that was a joke. There's no conspiracy here. But that's what Rabbi Sax is telling us in our collective consciousness must be not only the suffering that we've endured through the generations, but also the tenacity we have inside ourselves to bounce back after every period of darkness in our history. There was an enormous burst of light. Maybe most notably, profoundly in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the unimaginable at the time birth of the state of Israel in the aftermath of October 7th, almost as unimaginable, the destruction of Hezbollah, Kamas, the Houthis, change of the entire landscape of the Middle East. Every time after the darkness, there's a burst of light. And that happens because the Jewish people are tenacious. And that's this y the more they torment us, we will bounce back. The population explosion in the DP camps following the Holocaust was the unbelievable expression and demonstration of courage and of faith that the world was worth yet bringing people into. That's a challenge from our para too. Omrram didn't understand it. He wants to give up. There's no future. There's no hope. How could we have more children? He separates from his wife and it takes his daughter Miriam to say, "There's going to turn around. There's going to be a light after this darkness. This world is yet worth believing in and bringing children into." And we've repeated that cycle over and over