Equilibrium

With all the unprovoked anti-Semitic sentiment flaring all over the world  many of us will no doubt try to make sense or even come to terms with the situation around us.

How could the world be angered at the Jewish People for mere self-defense? How has the oppressor been turned into the oppressed? These are questions that have raced through the minds of many.

The Sages of the Land of Israel believed that the attitude of the Nations towards the Jewish People cannot always be explained in terms of reason.

The Scriptures state: “and Egypt wept for him for seventy days” (Gen.50:3).

Rabbi Abahu said: The entire seventy days (of hostility) between each letter (of Haman and Mordechai) are counterpart to the seventy days that Egypt did kindness with Jacob (=mourned for him) (Talmud Eretz Yisrael, Sotah 1:10).

The relationship between Israel and the Nations is like a scale. When acts of goodness towards our people tip the scale, the scale is balanced out by acts of ill-will. The same is true conversely!

The attitude of the Nations towards the Jewish People is a function of the Universe! We should not always seek out reasons within ourselves to explain the hostility of the Nations or even within the Nations themselves.

May God minimize the ill-will of the Nations towards our People by minimizing our dependence on their goodwill!