In my last column I shared with my readers a talk I had with a young American during Pesach in which I quoted historian Paul Johnson’s approach to the invaluable gifts the Jews bestowed on the world. But the conversation didn’t end there. Here is the rest of it:

“You know what?” I told my new friend “I want to share something even more powerful than the passage by Paul Johnson I showed you before. This one is by Thomas Cahill another American historian. He wrote a book called The Gifts of the Jews — and he takes Johnson’s approach a step further. Look at how he understands the Jewish presence among the nations.”

To Cahill the Jewish people have not only made great contributions to the world but in fact he declares “We are all Jews.”

Here is what he writes:

“The Jews gave us the Outside and the Inside — our outlook and our inner life. We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes. Most of our best words in fact — new adventure surprise; unique individual person vocation; time history future; freedom progress spirit; faith hope justice — are gifts of the Jews.”

The subtitle of Cahill’s book is How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels.

So when anti-Semites claim that we control the world they’re right — but not for the reasons they give. Actually they point not so rightly to our supposed corrupt domination of world politics finance and media. But indeed we have effected profound change in the way the Western world thinks and feels – change for the better a partial fulfillment of Hashem’s blessing to Avraham Avinu: “All the families of the earth shall be blessed through you.”

***

Even the concept of democracy which the Western world is so proud of and tries to impose upon Third World nations by force or other means is rooted in a Jewish idea. As Cahill puts it “Democracy . . . grows directly out of the Israelite vision of individuals subjects of value because they are images of G-d each with a unique and personal destiny. There is no way that it could ever have been ‘self-evident that all men are created equal’ without the intervention of the Jews.” (Cahill p. 249)

You tell me then: Do I have reason to be proud that I’m a Jew? To be proud of the power invested in me? To be proud of the seriousness with which I’m enjoined to fulfill my mission?

***

“Okay — terrific!” the young man replied. “So we’ve won then. According to your definition our mission is complete. We’ve achieved spiritual rule over the world. What more do you want?”

“No my friend” I explained to him “We have not won. Far from it. Our mission hasn’t been fulfilled and no victory has been achieved. It could be that we’ve barely begun…”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what you say three times every day when you daven Aleinu: ‘Lesakain olam b’Malchus Shakai – to rectify the world with Hashem’s kingship.’ The goal is to bring all humanity under the benevolent rule of the Mashiach. As the pasuk says “I shall bring them to My holy mountain and I will cause them to rejoice in My house of prayer… for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Yeshayahu 56:7).

“Let’s look at what another historian has to say.  Arnold Toynbee was a great historian and no small anti-Semite. He wrote:

“I dare say that Judaism will bring a new message to the world. Looking from the outside it seems extraordinary that twice in the course of history the Jews have allowed outsiders to run away with their religion to spread it over the world in garbled form. I am talking of course of early Christianity and Islam. It is something almost comic that outsiders should seize some of the essential truths of Judaism and make a worldwide religion of them while the Jews themselves kept their religion to themselves. Is not the real future of Jews and Judaism to spread Judaism in its authentic form rather than its Christian and Moslem forms over the whole world and human race? After all the Jews must have a more authentic form of Jewish monotheism than the Christians or Moslems have. And is that not going to be the ultimate solution of the relations between Jews and the rest of the world?” (Arnold Toynbee quoted in Paul Eidelberg  A Jewish Philosophy of History)

This non-Jew is speaking of the fact that we have a further mission in this world. I don’t know how but somehow he perceived what we believe will happen what must happen when Mashiach comes. Perhaps he had “historical antennae” as he supposedly claimed. In any case it shows that the non-Jewish world expects something from us.

***

Let me share a story from my own experience. Some years ago I went to daven Minchah at the Kosel. In the plaza a group of non-Jewish tourists was gathered listening intently to a talk by their group leader. It was in a foreign language that I was completely unfamiliar with and I didn’t understand a word. When he was finished speaking they split up into separate groups of men and women each going to their designated side of the mechitzah. Clinging close to the Wall they prayed so fervently and tearfully that it touched the heart of every onlooker. Then I heard one of them speaking Hebrew. I went over to him and asked him who his group was and what prayer were they offering so fervently.

It turned out that this man was studying in the Hebrew University. “We are from Japan” he told me “and we belong to a religious movement called Makuya that believes in the Torah of Moshe. We are praying that the Jewish people will return to its calling and fulfill the commandments of the Torah because the redemption of the whole world depends on the Jewish nation.”

I was stunned.

Before I had fully taken that in the group finished praying and went back to the Kosel plaza where they sat down on the ground and began to sing softly. The melody was enchanting and the words accompanied by an accordion were in Hebrew: “Achas sha’alti me’es Hashem; osah avakeish. Shivti b’veis Hashem kol yemei chayai lachzos b’noam Hashem ulevaker b’heichalo.” I’m sure you’re familiar with those words no? People were standing around listening frozen in place as if they were witnessing a scene from the End of Days as promised by the nevi’im.

Then they stood up formed a circle and began to dance pulling in all the onlookers. And the song was “V’yeasu kulam agudah echas la’asos retzoncha b’levav shaleim. (And they shall all be made one alliance to do Your will with a whole heart).” I’m sure you know those words too.

Not one person looking on at that scene remained unaffected. Two teachers from a Beis Yaakov Seminary stood there unable to hold back their tears. Inevitably I suppose there was one young bochur who looked on mockingly. I asked him “You just davened Minchah right? Didn’t you notice that you were praying for a scene like this to take place?”

“Me?” he said. “Mah pitom? Where did you get an idea like that?”

“Didn’t you say Aleinu? Didn’t you say the words “Lesakain olam b’Malchus Shakai”?

He looked surprised for a moment. Then he said “That isn’t what it means.”

***

“You see I want you to feel the a sense of the mission that’s been placed on your shoulders — unlike that bochur by the Kosel —  and that is why I’ve given you this little speech.

“Actually I just remembered the time I lectured about this before a group of Israeli students who were studying in Vienna. And afterwards I heard from Rav Nechemiah Rottenberg the coordinator of kiruv activity there that one of the girls in that group had broken off with her non-Jewish boyfriend as a result of my talk. She’d begun to feel that sense of mission as a Jew and that brought her back to her roots.

“So  are you trying to tell me that everybody feels as you do?”

“No. Definitely not. And that is the tragedy.”

Forgive me dear readers that for lack of space I must stop here although I haven’t yet come to the bottom line of this entire discussion we began weeks ago which is to talk about the threat posed by the Internet. This is just the prologue. Next week we’ll get to the meat.

Food for Thought

How pitiful it is to be a miser living in poverty in order to die wealthy

(Rebbe Yechezkel of Shinova)