Does Jewish Self-Hatred Worry You?
The matter of Jewish self-hatred deeply worries me. It is the reason why the nations of the world hate us: because we hate ourselves. As a Jew, I cannot stand by and passively witness how disunity has infected every corner of the Jewish world when a solution exists to stop so much suffering, not only from external enemies, but from those among us.
I strongly feel that now is not the time to remain silent. There are numerous factions and fractions among Jews; we are divided by ethnicity, culture, accent, education, place of residence, politics, social strata, level of religious observance, and the list goes on. We have yet to discover a meeting point between us. Separation is the venom that lurks behind every disdainful look we give one another, behind every harsh word we utter, and every harmful action we inflict on each other.
“It is a well-known fact that Esau hates Jacob,” it says in the Midrash, so our sages were well aware of our nature as a people. For this reason, I am not surprised that self-hating Jews cannot see anything good in their own people. On the contrary, they see nothing bad in antisemites, regardless of how extremist they are and the atrocities they commit.
I have lived long enough to witness how antisemitism is steeply and noxiously on the rise globally. It is spreading among entire nations like flashbacks of the horrors of the past. Wars, pandemics, and economic and social crises come and go, but the common denominator in all these states is the world’s blame on the Jews, in spite of the fact that we only make up 0.2% of the world population.
Throughout the years, as a people, we have tried to identify and combat antisemites, but all our efforts have largely been in vain. Why is this? The reason for our failure to successfully fight antisemitism is that there is no way to eradicate it from the world unless we tackle the problem at its root: our Jewish self-hatred. When we hate each other we not only legitimize the hatred of others against us but we also undermine our very foundation which is unity.
As long as our negativity toward the connection between us continues, the animosity toward us will only grow. And if we think that some remote place like Patagonia will keep us safe, we are terribly wrong. As we have seen from examples in our painful history, our enemies always find us. Thus, it is important to take a new approach to deal with our ancient problem of antisemitism.
As a scientist and a Kabbalist, I have dedicated most of my adult life to the research of human nature and its different manifestations, one of which is the hatred against Jews. This has led me to explore an even deeper layer of human nature: the specific phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred, also known as Jewish antisemitism. It is not enough to look at the external threats to the Jewish people. We need to look within ourselves as a people, dare to look into the way we treat each other, and carefully examine how from ancient times to the present, unfounded hatred has always been the source of our ruin.
In the words of wisdom from my teacher’s father, Rav Yehuda Ashlag (a.k.a. Baal HaSulam for his Sulam [ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar), “A union that exists due to an outside cause is not at all a national union. In that sense, we are like a pile of nuts, united into a single body from the outside by a sack that envelops and unites us. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body, and each movement applied to the sack produces in them tumult and separation. Thus, they consistently arrive at new unions and partial aggregations. The fault is that they lack the inner unity, and their whole force of unity comes through outside incidents.”
If we pay attention to our nation’s most traumatic tragedies, we will see that the common denominator that unfolded prior to the eruption of each calamity was a total disruption of our common identity and essence as a people. I care about the future of Jews in America, Europe, and everywhere else. This is why I decided to write this book. I am convinced that there is another way to tackle what seems to be the eternal persecution of Jews. Once we become aware of this solution, we will be able to prevent the recurrence of antisemitism in the future.
Whenever Jews unite, the serpent of antisemitism hides its head. It is an antidote against adversity. Both Israel and the Jewish people are basically standing alone in the world with only ourselves to rely on. Therefore, the only place to find a real solution to the hatred we face is between us, in our willingness and capacity to unite. And once we do this, we must share that example of unity with the rest of the world, as this is our appointed work, the essence of our being “a light unto nations” (Isaiah 42:6).
It is time we heed the call, activate the remedy, and fulfill the role that has been given to us thousands of years ago.
Based on the book, “Jewish Self-Hatred: The Enemy Within — An Overview of Jewish Antisemitism,” by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. The book is available for purchase at Laitman Kabbalah Publishers and Amazon.