Every time I see a something like this, it reinforces my views that there are influential rabbis who have no clue about the Chilul HaShem they are responsible for in expressing what passes or ‘authentic Jewish values’. The attitude expressed in this particular instance (see below) is no doubt based on centuries of antisemitism throughout Jewish history.
He is not the first or only one to do so. There have been so many instances of religious figures of varying degrees of stature expressing unbridled hatred of ‘the Goy’ that I am beyond just being disgusted by it. I believe it affects the very fabric of the Jewish soul and in the process can cause great harm to the Jewish people.
Yes – antisemitism has been with us since biblical times. Jewish history is replete with a variety of instances of that ranging from mere negative stereotyping all the way to the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust. Which was preceded by centuries of overt antisemitic acts such as pogroms.
That instilled fear and hate into the hearts of the Jewish people. There was a deep rooted suspicion of the Goy – believing that almost all of them were antisemites at heart – even if it might not always seem that way on the surface. The historically justifiable feeling among most Jews in Eurpoe was that the Goyim hated us and at best tolerated us for whatever they thought they could get out of us.
As I have also said more times than I can count, America is different. Yes antisemitism is alive and well in this country as we all well know. But the vast majority of Americans in the 21st century are not inherent antisemites. (Why I believe this is the case is beyond the scope of this post and a subject I have discussed many times.)
The problem is that the message of hating the Goy – at least in your heart has not changed. I have seen this more than once and have mentioned some them in the past. Just to mention a couple of instances:
A minor Chasidic Rebbe had made a recording and distributed it as widely as he could saying that although one must deal respectfully with the Goy on the surface for purposes of Shalom, one must hate them in their heart.
Another instance was when I inadvertently heard a recording of a right wing Yeshiva high school Rebbe giving a Hashkafa Shiur and speaking about the Goy in the most derogatory way one can imagine. And telling his students that this should be our attitude about ‘Goyim’.
What makes something like this more insidious is when a respected religious figure uses a source and interprets it to suit that hateful narrative. This is what troubled Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer about what he read in a widely distributed Parsha sheet.
Rabbi Bechhofer’s desire to counter the negative message of this individual as part of an article he was asked to write was denied.
What is it that fellow said that upset us so much? It was in the context of returning a lost object to a non Jew and based on his interpretation of a Gemarah in Sanhedrin. His message was that God would in effect punish you if you did that. In trying to explain why that would be such a terrible sin he described what he believes is the typical Goy:
I’ll tell you what (Goyim are) thirsty for. You walk in the streets early in the morning in a Catholic neighborhood, a respectable upper class Catholic neighborhood, and lying stretched out on the ground is a good Catholic. He’s drunk and he’s been sleeping on the street all night. I walked in the Catholic neighborhoods forty years ago and I saw that many times.
Drunk all night, fast asleep in the gutter; and then he gets up in the morning, staggers home, and tells everybody, “Ooh wah! What a time I had last night!” He’s proud of himself.
And did they expel him from their homes or from their churches? No! Never! It wasn’t even considered a chisaron. Many people admired him; they were jealous of him. It was an exploit! He would tell his friends about it: “Did I ever tell you about the time that I slept drunk in the gutter the whole night?!” A goy is satiated with drink! He wants mitzvos like he wants a hole in his shoe…
Yes, there are people like this. Some of them might actually be Jewish. And some of those might actually be Orthodox. Even Charedi!
There are unfortunately plenty of Jews from the wide spectrum of Orthodoxy that suffer from alcoholism (and other forms of substance abuse). They too may find themselves in a gutter after a drinking binge. This fellow might have a more sympathetic approach to them saying they need help. But when it comes to the ‘Goy’ - that is his natural state. His drinking habits define him and even brags about it
To describe this as the typical ‘Goy’ is a lie. Unfortunately it is a lie he probably believes. And he preaches it as a respected Torah scholar.
To say I am outraged is an understatement. This narrative needs to be more than countered. It has to be publicly condemned. It undermines the wide respect we get from our non Jewish fellow citizens and fuels the fires in the belly of the virulent antisemite that does exist. Do we really need to feed their narrative about us with a biased interpretation of a Gemarah?
I for one absolutely condemn what this fellow said and believes. I can’t even begin to describe the harm someone like this does to our people. He promotes a negative stereotype and perpetuates the hatred of the ‘Goy’ that originated in Europe. And he uses his reputation to hammer these thoughts into the psyche of – who knows how many of his readers. Does he think that a Parsha sheet written in English cannot possibly find its way into the hands of an antisemite? Does he think a non Jew that might happen to see that will not be negatively affected?
This is truly sick. Furthermore by denying Rabbi Bechhofer the oppotunity to respond in publicly they have in essence contributed to this false narrative.
Rabbi Bechhofer did however respond on his blog in the following way:
It is difficult to know where to begin to critique these passages. They purport to be based on a gemara in Sanhedrin. This may or may not be a valid assertion. There are several legitimate understandings of that gemara that would not lead us to those assertions. But, much more to the point, the author of those passages utterly disregards the diametrically opposite approach that emerges from the words of Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach in the Yerushalmi, Bava Metzia 8b.
This is the same Gemarah used by Rav Ahron Soloveichik in his book Logic of the Heart Logic of Mind. It shows how terrible the attitude of this fellow is and the possible Chilul HaShem that can result:
Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach dealt in linen. His students said to him: “Rebbe, desist from this trade. We will buy you a donkey [to make an easier living as a donkey driver] and you will not have to toil so much.” They went and purchased a donkey from a bandit. The students subsequently found a precious stone dangling from it. They went back to Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach and said to him: “From now on you need not exert yourself.” He asked: “How so?” The students responded: “We purchased a donkey for you from a bandit and a precious stone was dangling from it.” Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach asked: “Did the donkey’s seller know that the stone was there?” They answered: “No.” He then said to them: “Go return it.” The students remonstrated with Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach: “Although theft from an idolater is prohibited, is one not permitted to keep an object that an idolater has lost?” He responded: “What do you think, that Shimon ben Shetach is a barbarian? More than all the wealth of the world, Shimon ben Shetach desires to hear [the non-Jew say]: “Berich Eloko d’Yehudo’ei” (“Blessed is the God of the Jews”).