Recrudescence? Is that the right word? It means a breakout of a disease after a dormant period. Perhaps it should be resurrection, meaning rising from the dead. Or should it be resurgence, which means arising again with renewed force?

Certainly the recent outbreak of overt anti-Semitism around the world might call for all three. We had hoped that perhaps it was dead, but it has arisen with renewed force. Nevertheless, my choice remains “recrudescence,” because dormant it was, but never, despite our hallucinations, quite dead.

Anti-Semitism is as old as human history, and will remain with us until the end of history. We can fight it, we can try to treat it, but it will not go away. And here’s why:

In the beginning, when G-d created the world, He also created the possibility for mankind to defy Him. Thus, there exists in His world both light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong.

Ultimately, G-d will choose one people — the Jews — to be His standard-bearer in this world. To be chosen means to carry G-d’s message to mankind: not only obedience and loyalty to the One G-d, but also resistance against the impulses and instincts of the physical, and, beyond all else, elevation of the physical to a spiritual level. These are the forces of light.

In opposition to His message, G-d placed in His world a countervailing force: the forces of physicality, impulse, and instinct. These are the forces of darkness.

It is the nature of things that the dark hates the light, the evil hates the good, and that the forces of physicality will fight bitterly that which threatens its appetites and desires. The “Yes, I must have it” despises the “No, you may not have it.”

So has it been since the beginning of time. So it was when the serpent whispered into Eve’s ear: Pay no heed to G-d’s restrictions. Do what you like. Eat of the fruit. Indulge yourself. No one can tell you how to live your life.

Thus the battle is joined: Which will be dominant, man’s desires or the desires of the One Above? When the Torah depicts the enmity between the serpent and mankind (Bereishis 3:15), this is the chiaroscuro of the eternal struggle: to succumb to the physical, versus to elevate it and make it spiritual.

The Jew represents the way of spirituality in This World, the way of discipline and self-denial. This is in direct opposition to human nature unfettered, for whom the physical and the earthly is king, and any attempts to impose restraints on it, to sanctify it, is an enemy to be fought to the death.

Although the serpent has won a victory, he is not satisfied. He will return in various guises. Kayin kills Hevel because Hevel stands in the way of Kayin’s physicality. Later, Avraham represent spirituality, and the enemy appears as Yishmael, son of Avraham. Sarah sees him for what he is, and has him banished.

The serpent appears again in the form of the son of Yitzchak: Eisav, the twin brother of Yaakov, struggles with Yaakov beginning in the womb, and never relents. Eisav is cunning and immoral, focused on himself and his pleasures. His brother, Yaakov, is everything that Eisav is not: He is a servant of G-d, ready to do G-d’s bidding. Eisav has the right of primogeniture, which carries with it enhanced service of G-d, but he casts it off for a pot of porridge. I am hungry. What good is all this spirituality? (Compare Bereishis 25:32.) The body is dominant.

Why does Eisav hate Yaakov? Because only Yaakov stands in the way of Eisav’s complete conquest of the world. Destroy Yaakov, and the entire world is mine. Eisav hates what the Jew classically typifies: morality, self-restraint — all the virtues that tame a person’s animality and bring him closer to G-d.

Thus is the bitter struggle reenacted within each generation. This is the midnight angel wrestling with Yaakov. This is Amalek, descendant of Eisav, eternal enemy of G-d and the Jews. And this is why the Torah enjoins us never to forget Amalek but to battle her and eradicate her. The hatred is built into the bloodstream of mankind, part of its DNA. No wonder the Sages say “halachah, Eisav hates Yaakov” (Sifrei Bamidbar 9:10).

Like it or not, the Jew is G-d’s deputy. Those who hate G-d must also hate the Jew and what he represents. The anti-Semite is the anti-G-d. Amalek is Eisav is Yishmael is Kayin is the serpent — all the precursors of the modern anti-Semite.

Organizations fighting anti-Semitism need not fear for their jobs. The battle is l’dor dor — forever (Shemos 17:16). It might be dormant for a while, and, yes, recrudescence is the right word.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 750)