How Do I Know if I Meet a Self-Hating Jew?
When we analyze how the process of Jewish self-hatred takes place, it is the common understanding that the rejection of one’s identity can be triggered by external factors such as antisemitism and the resulting desire to distance oneself from negative stereotypes about Jews.
We may even come to believe and adopt these stereotypes in the hope that if we justify Jew-haters, we will be treated not as traitors but as justice-seeking people. In our view, a holier-than-thou approach toward “erring” Jews would buy us some indulgence, a sort of insurance policy.
Almost 100 years ago, in 1930, Theodor Lessing noted in his book Jewish Self-Hate,
“The Jewish people are the first — and perhaps the only — nation that has only sought solely within themselves the blame for world events … Jewish doctrine has, since ancient times, responded to the question ‘Why are we not loved?’ with ‘Because we are guilty,’ interpreted as both communal attributions of guilt and communal responsibility.”
And he added,
“The tendency to interpret every misfortune that occurs as atonement for sin lies deeply rooted in every Jewish soul. If one asks why this is so, I can only point out the terrible fact that for almost three thousand years, Jewish history has been an uninterrupted thread of hopeless, irredeemable suffering… Within this concept of suffering as punishment lies the beginning of understanding the concept of Jewish ‘self-hate.’”
But the concept of Jewish guilt does not explain why the self-atonement and selling out of our own people have failed to absolve Jews from persecution and murder. The reason is that the principle of world fixers is certainly deeply rooted in our people, but the task has been wrongly executed.
The prevailing understanding of Tikkun Olam [correction of the world], an old-new principle according to which Jews carry responsibility for correcting the entire world, is that the term speaks of the obligation of Jews to pursue social justice and support equal rights to the underprivileged and minorities.
These are all worthy goals, and the right to equality is given to every human being. Nevertheless, placing the correction of the world solely on these values will bring the same results as today: no results. The correction of the world will only happen when we first correct the relations between people.
At a time when humanity’s interdependence is tightening and showing itself as the basis of all our human-made systems, there is a dire need to build new relationships of mutual consideration among all people. In fact, the numerous crises we are witnessing in all areas of life point to a terrible lack of healthy and positive connections between citizens of the world.
The first step toward Tikkun Olam is raising awareness around the globe of the need for unity. Every person in the world must recognize the natural, integral system that binds us and requires us to be considerate of each other. The Jewish people carry the idea and must reawaken it.
Think about it, no other nation has conceived such a notion as Tikkun Olam, certainly not as one of its core values and goals. No nation has pinned its entire essence on the love of others to the point where one must love one’s neighbor as oneself. No nation has made mutual responsibility such a deeply rooted principle that its members feel entitled to demand it of one another. And finally, the sages of no other nation blame their defeats on unfounded hatred among the members of the nation, instead of blaming external enemies, as the following quote illustrates:
“The people of the generation of the ruin of the Second Temple were obstinate and perverse… Therefore, because of the unfounded hatred that they held in their hearts for one another… they thought that anyone who did not act as they saw fit concerning fear of the Creator, it is a commandment to kill such a person. …From this emerged all the evils in the world until finally, the house was ruined.” — Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin.
As soon as we became a nation, we also became a chosen people — chosen to exemplify those core values just mentioned: Tikkun Olam through the love of others and mutual responsibility. Is there anything the world needs more than these?
Yet, instead of living up to our vocation, we have become the opposite due to an internal breakage of our Jewish collectiveness and our rejection of any serious thought of rebuilding that connection. Instead of providing a shining example of love of others and mutual responsibility, we display our self-loathing, inner division, and mutual derision for all the world to see.
We gladly bond with other faiths and practices, but when it comes to loving people of our own nation, we do not even speak of social justice, let alone love. And no one loves a nation whose members hate each other, all the more so when that nation was forged to be the trailblazer toward unity.
We enthusiastically embrace the concept of Tikkun Olam, but we are unable to fix anything when our own internal mechanism as a people is broken. Correcting the world begins with admitting that first and foremost, we must fix the hatred and division between us.
If we reject our calling, who will pave the way? Today, Jewish activism against other Jews and against Israel is undermining our own future. But there are prominent examples of Jewish self-hatred in the form of Jews who became Nazis, which puts into perspective the gravity and the extent of this phenomenon. I elaborate on several such examples in the third chapter of my book, Jewish Self-Hatred: The Enemy Within.
As much as the possibility of Jews who hate themselves for being Jews seems to be shocking at first, it is not surprising. Every Jew possesses a duality of self-love and self-hatred, even though it manifests differently in everyone.
Those who feel closer to unification are drawn to develop differently than those swept into the rat race of the masses; they are drawn to positive connections in society. As Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) explains: “In every person, even secular, there is an unknown spark that demands unification with God. When it sometimes awakens, it awakens one to know God or deny God, which is one and the same” (“The Solution”).
That unknown spark Baal HaSulam refers to is called the “point in the heart,” meaning the unique spark aspiring for the love of others. A person who resists such development and instead lets the ego determine life’s goals and pleasures also struggles against unification and is more prone to become an antisemite, even if that person is a Jew.
Two opposing forces are etched in the roots of the people of Israel: an inclination toward unity embedded in them from time immemorial and a deep egoistic opposition to unity. These two points, which constantly alternate, are not exclusive to the Jewish people and actually exist in every person.
However, Jews have a much more prominent differentiation between these two points. On the one hand, Jews inherited the ancient method that unites people above their differences, and on the other hand, they have a more inflated ego that resists such unity and makes them disproportionately successful in egoistic endeavors compared to individuals from other nations, which is a matter of pride to some and a source of envy to others.
Nevertheless, these achievements have done nothing to erase the hatred toward Jews, including self-hatred. The world expects something different from us: for Jews to actually deliver connection and peace to the world. It begins with us first as we set that good example of corrected relationships of positive, mutual connection for the rest of humanity to follow. Once we accept this as the sole reason for the continuing animosity toward us, humanity will begin to embrace us and our particular role. As it is written,
“Any exile into which the children of Israel enter is only to elicit holy sparks within the nations. The children of Israel are guarantors in that they received the Torah in order to correct the whole world, the nations, too” (Yehuda Leib Arie Altar [ADMOR of Gur]).
(Based on the book “Jewish Self-Hatred: The Enemy Within — An Overview of Jewish Antisemitism” by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.)