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Old November 25th, 2016 #1
Karl Radl
The Epitome of Evil
 
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Default The Seder of Hate: The Haggadah on Jews and Non-Jews

The Seder of Hate: The Haggadah on Jews and Non-Jews


The Haggadah is one of the central texts of Judaism, which sets forth the order, rituals and what prayers are to be said at the Pesach (i.e. Passover) seder. Thus it is of interest to know what this important and almost universally accepted document has to say about gentiles or non-jews.

To begin at the start of the sequence; the first prayer states:

'Blessed are you, O God our Lord, King of the world, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Blessed are you, O God our Lord, King of the world, who chose us from all nations and raised among every language, by making us with His commandments.' (1)

The above clearly suggests that the jews are to be regarded as a superior people – an elect – who have been chosen by the creator of the universe to be his priests. Not only that, but Yahweh has also made the jews a holy people as we can see when we read on:

'For it is us You have chosen, and us You have made holy afrom all the nations, giving us an inheritance your holy Sabbath as festivals with love and favour, gladness and joy. Blessed are You O God, sanctioner of the Sabbath, Israel and the seasons.

[...]

Blessed are You, O God our Lord, King of the world, between Israel and the nations, and between the seventh day and the six working days.

[...]

You have sanctified your people Israel with Your own holiness. Blessed are You O God, who distinguishes between holy and unholy.' (2)

Notice that this holiness is considered an inheritance conferred on the jewish people as a nation not as a blessing given to those who are not rotten with sin and faithful to their covenant with Yahweh. This necessarily informs us that the Haggadah views jewishness as something that is inherited from one's ancestors (i.e. jews are a nation not a religious confession) and thus that the (holy) jewish people are biologically superior to the (unholy) non-jews.

In the next element of the Haggadah we read once again of the holy election of the jewish people:

'At first our fathers served idols. But now God has brought us close to Him that we may serve Him alone.' (3)

However this divine mission to serve the creator of the universe is then immediately juxtaposed with the evil non-jews who try to thwart the divine mission of the jewish people.

We read:

'It is this promise that has stood by our fathers and by us! For it was not one man alone who stood up against us, but in every generation they stand up against us to destroy us – and the Holy Blessed One saves us from their hand!' (4)

In addition to:

'Go and learn what Laban the Aramean wanted to do to our father Jacob. Pharaoh only wanted to kill the young boys, but Laban wanted to uproot the whole Jewish nation, by killing Jacob.' (5)

This characterization of non-jews as not only unholy lesser beings, but also inherently genocidal and always plotting against their jewish betters is both vicious and dangerous. For it fosters the belief – which we so much today among both Israeli and Diaspora jews – that non-jews are both lesser beings and wild animals who seek to extirpate those who brilliance and holiness they are unable to comprehend. (6)

Further evidence of this can be found in the next prayer in the Haggadah.

To wit:

'Therefore, how much good, doubled
And re-doubled, has God done for us!
He brought us out of Egypt,
Judged against them,
Destroyed their idols,
Killed their first-born,
Gave us their treasure,
Split the Red Sea,
Brought us through it dry,
Drowned our foes in it,
Helped us forty years in the desert,
Fed us the mana,
Gave us the Sabbath,
Brought us to Mount Sinai,
Gave us the Torah,
Brought us to the land of Israel,
And built for us the Holy Temple
To atone for our sins.' (7)

The above is a veritable hymn of hate against non-jews, which promises the jewish people that Yahweh will destroy the temples of and murder their enemies, while granting the jews all their material wealth to dispose of as they please.

If that doesn't terrify you then listen to the next passage from the Haggadah:

'Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, and the kingdoms that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid to his habitation. Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let your fierce anger overtake them. Pursue them in wrath and destroy them under the heavens of the Lord.' (8)

Thus we can see that the Haggadah – the key Pesach text for nearly every denomination of Judaism – views jews as a holy tribe delineated by ancestry that has been chosen as the elect of the creator of the universe. This in turn informs a view of non-jews as an unholy violent and stupid morass who Yahweh will murder on behalf of the jewish people and then make them a gift of their wealth.

In other word: Pesach is a festival steeped in the hatred of non-jews and gentiles.


References


(1) Jonathan Sacks, 2003, 'The Chief Rabbi's Haggadah: Hebrew and English Text with New Essay and Commentary', 1st Edition, Harper Collins: London, p. 7; checked against Jonathan Safran Foer, 2012, 'Haggadah', 1st Edition, Little, Brown & Co: Boston
(2) Sacks, Op. Cit., pp. 7-9
(3) Ibid, p. 22
(4) Ibid, p. 23
(5) Ibid, p. 25
(6) This is a common view in Judaism up till the present day. See for example Jacob Neusner, 2004, 'Making God's Word Work: A Guide to the Mishnah', 1st Edition, Continuum: New York, pp. 64-65
(7) Sacks, Op. Cit., p. 43
(8) Ibid, p. 69

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This was originally published at the following address: http://bit.ly/2gI0fk9
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Old November 25th, 2016 #2
littlefieldjohn
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Any intelligent discussion re: "hate speech" should begin right here.
 
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