The one thing I want all Jew haters to know

Opposite the terror bus stop. (courtesy)

Jews are like an egg. Most foods, when you cook them, become soft. Eggs get hard from cooking. In other words: It is no use to make our lives difficult. It will only make us stronger. It used to be that there was a sure way to kill us. By being nice to us. But you can fool some people all of the time, all people some of the time, but not all people all of the time. Appeasing us to death with nice words is now a passed station too.

So many haters of Jews have gone to their graves, convinced that soon all the Jews will be dead. No setback could make them give up. But why hate us, many Jews ask. The answer is that the haters have no power on their own. By choosing evil, they let G^d do His dirty work via them. (And, why is there evil in the world? If the world was already perfect, we could not work with G^d to perfect it, and so earn much reward. And when we do good deeds in pain and with effort, we earn 1000 times more reward.)

I say it with a soft voice because of the people hurting from yesterday morning’s terrorist attack, but it could have been so much worse. I don’t say this to say that we should not be shocked, in mourning, hurting, and protesting to G^d that we need better. I’m only saying that we’re not as divided as we used to be. Compare the hatred and divisions in post-Trump US. G^d disapproves of Jews infighting for no reason; and then sends Jew haters for no reason to take our sweetest and holiest to unite us again.

Israeli political bickering has been much worse than what we have now. We’re on the right path. We’re not each other’s enemies. We’re passionate but don’t hate each other really. Next to the work of the IDF, police, and security forces, the best next thing to protect us is to give undeserved love. Random acts of kindness. Doing someone a favor. Giving freely of oneself.

In Western culture, it’s almost ‘natural’ to assign blame or take revenge—on someone, anyone. Yet, it doesn’t help. Especially counterproductive is Jews blaming Jews for Jew-hatred. The best revenge is for us to live well.

***

Yesterday evening was the eve of the first day of the New Month of Kislev, the Month of Chanukah. There are monthly meetings at the gravesite of Reb Shlomo Carlebach, to usher in the new months with singing, dancing, and some drinks and food. Because of the terror attack, the Kumsitz was moved to the pedestrian path opposite the bus stop of the main attack.

Many guitars emerged. Charedim from the adjacent neighborhood joined in the singing or watched and hummed along. Down, at the opposite side of the main road to Tel Aviv, young people had gathered at the terror site. They were audibly angry. We lit candles, ate hot soup, and sang from the depths of our hearts. But, in the beginning, they were more lullabies than songs of protest. Perhaps it was hard to sing with full happiness after the callous murder of a yeshiva boy, someone of their age. But, I remembered the story of Moishele Gut Shabbos. He said to the chazan: Your prayers go down—they need to go up. I can’t do any better, the prayer leader said. So, Moisele took over… Louder, I urged, we’re up against a lot of anger.

A camera crew from NBC installed its sophisticated camera close to where we were sitting. I went to talk to them. NBC, that’s not as bad as the BBC, I volunteered. They laughed. Were they waiting for a violent confrontation between the demonstrators and the police? It didn’t happen. I invited them to shoot 10 seconds of our peaceful meeting, meant to bring down more peace, more unity, more love, more hope, and more tears instead of keeping them in. I said: try it. Maybe your editor-in-chief in the US will like it. You never know. Would you really be fired if you included that? They admitted they liked the singing but apparently, they didn’t dare to.

Only after many hours, one of the famous Breslov (Rabbi Nachman) vehicles with blaring loudspeakers stopped at the crossing. Breslovniks emerged dancing, jumping, and singing. There is nothing more whole than a broken heart. Nothing dispels anger and pain as well as happiness.

There is so much we Jews can all do to stop terrorists who want to kill us although/because they don’t even know us. Being happy, social, moderate, speaking peacefully, doing the Commandments happily from a good heart.

May the bereaved be comforted from Heaven, the wounded recover fully, and we all have a joyous, light-filled new month for a better world for all.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1