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<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: cantorwolberg@cox.net<BR><BR><BR>On Aug 9, 2013, at 1:43 PM,
avodah-request@lists.aishdas.org wrote:<BR><BR>> one could also suppose that
He warned us off it and not them, because He loves us more.<BR><BR>>>
That's the kind of comment that incites anti-Semitism.<BR>It's also the type of
statement that fundamentalists of other religions articulate.<BR>To say He loves
us more is an insult to all non Jews.<BR>One has to be careful about comments
that initiate negativity.<<<BR>ri<BR><BR><BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You may be saying:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[1] Don't say "G-d loves us more," because it's not true.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Or you may be saying:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[2] Don't say "G-d loves us more" in public because it makes other people
hate us, so let's keep it quiet, just among ourselves.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If your issue is [1] then you are just wrong. Hashem tells us over
and over in the Torah that He loves us more. It also says in Pirkei Avos
that Hashem loves us more. "Ratzah Hakodosh Baruch Hu LEZAKOS ES YISRAEL
lefichach hirbah lahem Torah umitzvos." Also, "Hu (R' Akiva) haya omer,
Chavivin Yisrael shenikra'u vanim laMakom....shene'emar 'Banim atem laShem
Elokeichem.'" (Although I must point out that Hashem loves all of mankind,
as it also says in Pirkei Avos "chaviv Adam shenivra beTzelem.")</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If your issue is [2] then the answer is, there is no reason to hate us (and
btw anti-Semites need no excuse, they hate us for breathing, for occupying space
on Planet Earth). Anyone who wants to can join the Jewish people, if he is
willing to accept all the extra mitzvos he will have to keep and if he is
willing to share our fate, which may c'v include wars, terror attacks,
pogroms, expulsions, massacres, fulminating New York Times editorials and
UN anti-Israel votes -- which have been aptly characterized as
"Seventy wolves voting on the fate of one sheep." If he is willing to
be the sheep and not one of the wolves, we not only welcome
the convert but we teach our children that the Torah says many, many
times that we must love converts, must not oppress them with even mild words
that might hurt their feelings, etc etc.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As for the claim of other nations, "G-d loves us and has rejected you" --
why yes, of course they make that claim. Does that mean our claim is
false? Remember the two women who came to Shlomo Hamelech and each said,
"The living baby is mine, the dead baby is hers." Does the fact that they
both laid claim to the same baby somehow prove that they were /both/
wrong?!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There is a beautiful Shabbos zemer, "Tzama nafshi" (with the refrain "libi
uvesari yeranenu leKel chai") which poetically interweaves the story of the two
mothers claiming the same baby with the story of the shifcha (Hagar,
mother of the Arabs but here also metaphorically the mother of Christendom)
who claims she's the real wife and her children are the true heirs of
Avraham. "'Re'eh ligeveres emes, shifcha no'emes, lo ki venech hameis
uveni hachai."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Look at us, Hashem, see us and show us favor, we who are the true Wife to
You -- see how the concubine mocks us and says, 'No, your son is dead and mine
is alive.' See how our enemies claim that our religion is dead and theirs
is alive, and answer them."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I would like to add that in some huge cosmic sense, the very universality,
irrationality and persistence of anti-Semitism shows that the whole world
believes, deep-down, that the Jews really are the most important people in the
world and Israel really is the most important country in the world. Why
else would the 70 wolves be so incredibly obsessed with the lone sheep?
Every time the UN votes yet again to condemn Israel, it is all the
countries in the world getting together to declare, once again, that Israel
is the most important country in the world.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B>--Toby Katz<BR>=============</FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000
size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------------------
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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