Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Real questions, submitted by actual OU Torah followers, with their real answers. NOTE: For questions of practical halacha, please consult your own rabbi for guidance.
Q. My friend insists that Jews are the enemies of Christians and Muslims alike, and in particular that Orthodox Jews are the "Synagogue of Satan." His argument in favor of this is the claim that Orthodox Jews believe that, when the Messiah comes, he will enslave all other races for the Jews, and therefore Jews want to enslave all other races. I have found no evidence regarding these ideas, but that's the problem: I have no idea where he's getting his information. I would like to debunk these claims and steer my friend away from this path, but I simply don't have any knowledge base with which to do so, and trying to search it myself has proven fruitless. I am particularly interested in any scripture or historical record which might have been used to formulate these views.
A. Thanks for your question. I can’t address your friend’s assertions per se because they’re completely fabricated. Ask him for an alleged source and if he is able to provide one, I will debunk it.
A simple reading of any Biblical prophecies regarding the messianic era, such as those in the book of Isaiah, will reveal a very different picture. The same is true of the discussion surrounding these topics in the Talmud. For simplicity’s sake, I will give you the codification of these matters from the Medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides in his Laws of Kings, chapter 12:
* He explains that Isaiah 11:6 – “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid” – is a metaphor for Israel dwelling securely with the nations that used to persecute them (12:1).
* The Jewish sages taught that there won’t be any difference between the current era and the messianic era except that Israel will no longer be subjugated by other nations (12:2). Please note that is doesn’t say that the tables will turn so that we will subjugate them!
* We are explicitly told that the reason we await the messianic era is not to rule the world or to party. Rather, the reason we are eager for the messianic era is so that we’ll be relieved of pressures that distract us from Torah study (12:4).
* We are also explicitly told that the messianic era will be a time without war, hunger, greed or rivalries (12:5).
So everything that I’ve ever learned in decades of study is in direct contradiction to what you’re being told.
As far as the assertion that “Jews are the enemies of Christians and Muslims alike,” I turn your attention to one chapter earlier in Maimonides’ Laws of Kings (11:4). He writes there that all the deeds of Jesus and Mohammed served to turn huge portions of the world to monotheism, in anticipation of the messianic era. He quotes Zephaniah 3:9, in which God says “I will turn the nations to a purer language so that all will call upon the name of God and serve Him with one purpose.” That doesn’t sound particularly hateful to me.
Rabbi Jack's latest book, Ask Rabbi Jack, is now available from Kodesh Press and on Amazon.com.