A Model for Preserving Jewish Identity

One wouldn't think that within Avraham's purchase of Ma'arat Hamachpelah one could find a model for Jewish resilience in the face of intermarriage and assimilation, but that notwithstanding, there is in my humble opinion, stark similarity between Avraham's strategy to Jewish future, and that which Joseph employed in the land of Goshen. 

In choosing Goshen, and instructing his brothers to convey this desire before Pharaoh, Joseph meticulously chose a place where his brothers would be viewed as an ethnic minority that could not integrate into the masses, and that would not lose out on its special identity. One could make the logical conclusion that it was from Avraham Avinu that he learned this approach. 

"You are a prince among us," the Hitites tell Avraham. Avraham's recurrent rebuttal has two parts: but I am different, am a stranger among you, and secondly, I would like, because of my inability to jell and be one with you, an ancestral heritage of my own. 

Read the narrative carefully, paying attention to the nuanced requests of each and every side. It wasn't simply a matter of financial gain, haggling over property, but rather an ideological tug of war that shaped the destiny of all generations until this day. 

In this fashion, the Netziv acutely interpreted the words of Bilaam the sorcerer: 

There is a people that rests apart,

Not reckoned among the nations.

"If they are a nation unto themselves," teaches the Netziv, "then they will know rest - and tranquility." But, "if they strive to assimilate among the nations," they will "not be reckoned, and lose their importance." 

Shabbat shalom,

Yoav


Comments

  1. kaballah99November 19, 2022 at 12:30 PM

    b"h

    the netziv is as right as right can be. and screw bilaam harasha. in spite of his evilness, bilaam harasha actually knew what was up.

    we jewish people are a people who rest apart, and are not reckoned among the nations of the world. and when we do this, we live in tranquility.

    this is so apparent today. the stinking leftists, who have no G-d, no Shabbos, and no mitzvos in their life, try to be just another nation in the world.

    and what tranquility do they have? absolutely none. where is meretz? getting ready to dissolve. and where is labor? 1 seat short of missing seats in the next knesset.

    but we jewish people who recently voted to annihilate the leftist, and adhere to a life based on Torah, Hashem. and the mitvos know what's up. and we live in a state of tranquility

    all those, especially the stinking reform, conservative, reconstruction, and the mezotri who think they know much more than we observant jewish people do, will vanish into assimilation, and will have "lost their importance."

    it is time for the jewish people, regardless of the impotency of our leaders to stand up, and proclaim to the nations of the word, that in the words of the netziv that "there is a people who rests apart, (and is) not reckoned among the nations."

    it is incumbent on all the people of the state of israel to tell the rest of the world, especially the us, the eu, the un, and all who hate us, to stick it up to a place where the sun doesn't shine.

    the bottom line is that we jewish people are being redeemed before the eyes of the many goyin, the clueless leftist, reform, conservative, reconstructionist, and metzori people, who don't have a clue.

    oh that melech Moshiach comes to redeem us tonight or tomorrow. why wait?


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