When I hear a view from within one in-group, I like to wonder out loud how it would be received if the identical view was expressed by another in-group.
I’m listening to a Dec. 25 lecture by Orthodox rabbi Shlomo Einhorn on Judaism and other religions.
What is one reason that Hasidic Jews don’t learn Torah on Christmas Eve? “The forces of impurity are awaken in the world on the birth of [Jesus]. Because they are magnified, we don’t want to do anything to give extra oomph to the powers of impurity. Wherever you have greater levels of holiness, therein you have greater impurity.”
So, how would it go over in America today if Christians said that the birth of some leading Jew represented the awakening of forces of impurity in the world? These Christians in particular and Christianity in general would be denounced for anti-Semitism.
So what is the term for Jewish contempt of Christians? There is no term. There is no sin. There is no bigotry. On Christians, it is open season. The goyim are always fair game. Jews? You may never criticize Jews as a group.
When you compare the sacred texts of these two groups, there’s equal contempt. The one difference is that you don’t have much instruction in the Jewish tradition about doing physical harm to Christians.
Rabbi: “Pragmatically, it was a dangerous night for Jews to be in the Bais Medrish (House of Study). There was drinking. There were festivities. And the non-Jews were out for blood. They were angry for Jews who they blamed for the death of their savior and they went down the streets looking for a Jew.”
And yet they weren’t out for blood everywhere at all times in Christendom. I wonder if in places with higher average IQs, there were fewer pogroms? I wonder if Jewish behavior had anything to do with whether or not the goyim were out for Jewish blood in a particular town?
A major reason this time was dangerous for Jews was that the goyim had particularly strong in-group identity on Christmas. All strong in-group identity contains hostility to outsiders (even though not every member of the in-group may share this at all times). So a strong and united goyim is more challenging, perhaps, for Jews while a goyim who don’t feel their racial, religious and national identity strongly are easier to deal with.
A goyim that is 99% white, like Nazi Germany, is a formidable enemy while a goyim that is only 62% white like America today is not.
As for the remark about goyim getting drunk on Christmas Eve, I wonder who was making and selling the alcohol? Much of the time it was Jews who were making money from goyim getting drunk (just like today Jews are disproportionately in the hospitality business, in entertainment, bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants, discos, movies, TV, pornography, music, prostitution, etc).
Later in the lecture, the rabbi notes that we are not allowed to drink wine that’s been touch by an idolater, but if any restaurant or hotel were to say it does not serve Jews, oy vey, the tumult we would cause! We Jews are allowed to shun non-Jews and their food and drink, but if non-Jews ever say they want to shun Jews, that’s anti-Semitism? Well, what’s the word for Jewish animus towards goyim? Or can Jews only be victims and never perpetrators of hate?
All civilization depends upon discrimination. Jewish civilization depends upon discriminating against outsiders and Christian civilization depends upon discriminating against outsiders.
