Part I. Planned Separation

The Shortcut

When the Bnei Yisroel, after forty years of wandering in the Midbar, finally came to the border of Edom they hoped that they’d be able to pass through Eretz Edom directly into Eretz Canaan. It was on their march route after all and they imagined that their long lost brother – Edom you know are the descendants of Eisav – would let them pass through peacefully.

And so our people sent messengers to the Melech Edom asking permission to march through his country: “You won’t have any trouble from us,” we promised him. “All we want is to pass through the land. We won’t trespass at all; we’ll stick to the main road and not walk through any fields. And if we drink any water from any wells we’ll pay you full price for it” (Bamidbar 20:17). An innocent request from a long lost brother.

So what happened? Edom sent back a message to the Bnei Yisroel: “Don’t even think about it!” לא תעבור בי – “Don’t try to pass through my land, פן בחרב אצא לקראתך – or I’ll go out with a sword against you” (ibid. 18). And he came out with an army to show he meant business.

That was the kabalas panim we got; a smack in the face. וימאן אדום נתן את ישראל עבור בגבולו – Edom refused to allow Yisroel to pass through his borders (ibid. 21).

Tempting Shortcuts

Now you can be sure that the Bnei Yisroel were embittered about that. Is that the way to talk to us? All we want is to go through, nothing bad. And it caused a great deal of discomfort, that refusal. We had to make a big detour around Edom now. If we could have made that shortcut we would have saved ourselves so much wandering in the desert. But וימאן – Edom refused. And so there was no choice: ויט ישראל מעליו – the Bnei Yisroel turned away from Edom.

Now we have to spend time appreciating that story, what it means, because it wasn’t a simple matter. We attribute it simply to the meanness and inhospitality of the Edomim but we must understand that it’s not so.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu is behind the scenes and whatever happens He is pulling the strings. And so וימאן means that Hashem caused them to refuse our request. And with a viciousness! ויאמר לא תעבור – Edom said, “You will not pass through our land!” ויצא אדום לקראתו בעם כבד וביד חזקה – And then they went out towards Bnei Yisroel with a massive force and with a strong hand (ibid. 20:20). That’s Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s doing.

Dangerous Shortcuts

You have to understand what kind of danger it would have been to pass through. Edom looked like us, after all. They spoke like us more than any other nation; a little different dialect, but it was lashon kodesh. And even some of our minhagim they still had; Edom was a son of Yaakov after all. They circumcised and their women went out in veils. They practiced hachnasas orchim, other things. It would be tempting to fraternize with them.

Ooh, to fraternize with gentiles? You remember what happened when the bnos Moav, when the daughters of Midyan flirted with the Am Yisroel, how many tens of thousands were destroyed as a result? You remember that story? Twenty four thousand Shimonites were killed in a mageifah!

Edom is even more of a temptation. What happened in Midyan was nothing compared to what could have happened in Edom.

Not So Innocent Conversation

Suppose Edom would have invited them in. So the Bnei Yisroel would have been enchanted.  “Look!  People look like us and talk like us! Fellow human beings! Nice people too.”

The Jewish women, the Bnos Yisroel, would be so happy. They would go out to draw water for the family and they would carry cash with them to pay for the water like they promised; but they’d stop and talk with the daughters of Edom. The men too; they’d see the Edomite men and make conversation. Innocent conversation, exchanging ideas.

Ooooh! Exchanging ideas?! Exchanging ideas with a goy is like exchanging body fluids with a toeivah person. Who would exchange body fluids with a toeivah person? This is worse! A thousand times worse. This is mental fluids, neshamah fluids. Oh no! With a gentile, even a good one, the less you converse the healthier you are.

Good Bad Pastors

Once a good pastor from Manhattan came in front of our shul. He was a mesiras nefesh pastor; a man who was fighting toeivah. And our people were standing and talking to him. When I passed by they said “Rabbi Miller, here he is.” So I shook hands and wished him success and I left right away.

Later I told my people, ‘Don’t hang around with him. Make it short and snappy. Be friendly but don’t hang around long. “Hello, thank you, much success, goodbye.” That’s all. Absolutely you must be friendly. Absolutely you must leave with a good impression. But don’t spend any time! The less you have to do with goyim the better you are.’

And so what do you think would have happened in Eretz Edom? And there are girls there, women there. Men mingling with men is one type of tzarah but women are an entirely different problem. The sakanah would have been very great.  And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu came to the rescue! He caused the king of Edom to come out with his army: “Nothing doing! You won’t set foot in my land!” And so ויט ישראל מעליו – Yisroel turned away.

Happy Disappointments

Now you have to realize they turned away sadly. It meant turning back towards the desert, a detour into the wilderness. It was a disappointment. Maybe they even wept.

A disappointment?! They should have made a big kiddush. They should have said hallel on the yeshuah gedolah. They were rescued from mixing with Eisav! A great misfortune could have happened but Hashem saved us.

וימאן was a blessing, a tremendous chessed! Hakadosh Baruch Hu rescued them from a terrible calamity.

Gentile Clubs for Kikes

You remember when the Jews from Germany came to America and they wanted admission to the gentile clubs.

So the gentiles said, “No! We refuse! וימאן! We don’t want to mix with the kikes!”

Now, the German Jews, had they learned the lesson of this possuk, they would have rejoiced.  But instead they appealed to the courts. “וימאן?! You refuse?! We won’t stand for that!”

And finally they won!  They won their way into the gentile clubs!

It was the biggest ruination that could have happened to them.  They became more and more removed from Torah living. Their children began to intermarry. Today they’re all gone. There are none left from those families. The fact that they broke their way into gentile society was their greatest misfortune!

Walls Work

We’re learning here a very important principle and I’m going to quote from Tehillim something that explains it.  In kapitel 125 it says ירושלים הרים סביב לה – Yerushalayim is surrounded by mountains (Tehillim 125:2). Dovid says that there’s a wall of mountains around Yerushalayim, protecting it from the outside enemy. Mountains are natural fortifications.

It’s true but it’s only a mashal because Dovid continues: וה׳ סביב לעמו – Hashem surrounds His people, מעתה ועד עולם – from now and forever (ibid. 3). You see how these mountains of Hashem that surround Yerushalayim like a thick wall? Same thing, Hashem surrounds His people like a wall.

Now, what’s the purpose of this wall? כי לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים – So that the tribe of the wicked should not rest, cannot encamp together, near the lot of the righteous (ibid.). That’s the principle.  Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not want the wicked to mingle with the righteous.

Why?  למען לא ישלחו הצדיקים בעולתה ידיהם – In order that the righteous should not stretch out their hand to do wickedness. Because once you associate with them, even the good ones will stretch out their hand and do wrong things too. You’re working in the same office, living on the same block, in the same clubs and schools; when he does wicked things, so eventually you’ll also do wicked things. His wicked ideas will eventually become your wicked ideas.

Hashem Builds Walls

And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes a wall between us and the nations of the world. He manipulates history so that the evil ones should not be together with the good ones.

You hear that? Hashem causes things to happen. Always. Here you applied for a job and you were capable, especially capable. But you weren’t accepted. And you go back and wonder what happened. Were my credentials not good? My resume was not good? They didn’t like my face?

The answer is that in that office there was somebody who was not good for you. He’d be friends with you. Or even worse, she might. And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu saved your life by having you not accepted in that place.

Policy of Refusal

When they refuse, that’s a yeshua! Because the biggest good fortune is כי לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים; they don’t mix with them. We don’t begin to realize how many times in our careers we’re given a salvation min haShomayim in order that we shouldn’t be in a certain place or among certain people.

It’s a tremendous lesson we’re hearing here, a principle of history, that the Hand of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is guiding our nation and He is attempting to ensure the purity of the Jewish people.  That’s His policy.  To protect the virtue of the righteous, it is imperative that lo yanuach; that those not as good as us should refuse our attempts to mingle.

The History of Segregation

And it’s מעתה ועד עולם; even today that process is going on. It’s not only one time that he’s talking about; מעתה ועד עולם means that it’s forever and ever. If you study our history you’ll see that Hashem is always making walls around us to separate us from the gentiles.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu is always guiding the righteous nation: יורה בדרך – He teaches them on the way to go. And included in that is that He’ll always put into the heart of Edom to say, “No!” וימאן! And so we’ll have to detour. וימאן! We’ll be exiled from this land and that land. They’ll libel us. They’ll throw slurs and rocks. We’ll be refused employment. וימאן! We’ll have to live only in the Pale of Settlement or the ghettos. Whatever it is, they’ll refuse and refuse and refuse and we’ll be saved and saved and saved!

Part II. Forced Separation

Hilchos Anti-Semitism

Now, included in that eternal principle of וימאן and לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים is the very misunderstood subject of anti-Semitism. It has to be explained and so we’ll start with an important observation that our Sages made: הלכה עשו שונא את יעקב – It’s a halachah that the gentile hates the Jews. Halachah? What does that mean? It means that it’s one of the ways of Hashem in the world. Hashem made it that Eisav should hate Yaakov.

Don’t you see in the world that all the nations are hostile, are enemies of the Jews? Wherever we go, we have enemies. Not merely because of the Christians or Mohammedans; long before Christianity the Greeks were bitter enemies of the Jews. Josephus – he was before Christianity – wrote a book called Contra Apionem and he speaks about the hostility of the Greeks against us, the lies they invented against us. There hasn’t been a literature of hatred, of animosity, since the world began, as is the great literature of anti-Semitism.  More has been said and written against the Jewish people than against any other people in the world.

What About Them?

Now why should that be? There was nobody else to hate in the ancient world? After all, there were actually wicked nations. There were Indians in India that used to have human sacrifices.  In Central America also, human sacrifices.  Recently, the Chinese used to kill girl babies down to 1910.

All over the world there was wickedness going on and yet there was no other nation that suffered from such a huge torrent of vituperation; nowhere near the tremendous outpour of writing against the Am Yisroel, why?

And the answer is, it’s a kindliness. It’s for our benefit. The primary purpose of anti-Semitism is to keep us separate from the goyim. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees that the Jewish people are in danger of being influenced by the gentiles, let’s say because they are fraternizing too much with them, so He causes anti-Semitism to increase. After all we’re human beings and if we’ll marinate in an atmosphere of tolerance from the gentiles, who knows what might happen? And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates a wall of separation, a wall of refusal to mix with the Jewish nation. Throughout all of our history it’ll be that way – it won’t help what the ADL will do; there will always be an undercurrent of anti-Semitism.

The Secret of Strife

Now I learned this from a Gemara. The Gemara in Kiddushin (71b) says like this: אם ראית שתי משפחות המתגרות זו בזו – If you see two families that are always fighting with each other there’s a good reason for that. Sometimes you see such a thing. I was once in a small town in Lithuania and there was a family that was fighting for years and years against the rav. The great grandfathers were fighting and the grandfathers were fighting and the fathers too. I knew three generations that were fighting with the rav.

Why? What’s the reason for that? So the Gemara says there’s a secret reason, a reason min haShomayim: שמץ פסול יש באחת מהם – One of these two families is possul; they’re mamzeirim or something else, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is protecting the other family from intermarrying with them. He’s protecting the kosher ones. And how does he protect them? By making them fight. If they don’t get along they’ll never marry.

You hear that chiddush? Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends a sinah not because of any other reason except to prevent contact and intermarriage between the two families because He doesn’t want the righteous family of good lineage to defile its yichus by intermarrying with the bad family.

From this I learned that one of the reasons for anti-Semitism is כי לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים; so that the righteous and the wicked shouldn’t mix. Hashem makes hostility to protect the kosher ones.

Dirty Jews Forever

That’s the story of our history. The nations will never love us because Hashem wants to keep us apart from them. And that’s why there’s so much anti-Semitism. It’s a very big matanah.

And so, when you pass down the street and somebody says, “Dirty Jew,” you have to know it’s a chessed made to order for you. He doesn’t say, “Dirty black man,” or “Dirty Chinese,” or “Dirty Puerto Rican.”  No. It’s always the ‘dirty Jews’ because it’s a halachah – it must be so. Just like you must keep Shabbos, and you must wash your hands before bread and you must fast on Yom Kippur; without that there’s no Jewish people. Without this halachah too, there can’t be a Jewish people.

Chessed in the Ghetto

And now we begin to realize, at least a little bit, what a great chessed Hakadosh Baruch Hu did for us in our history. The expulsions, and the hatred, the vitriol. The libels and accusations and all names we were called. The pogroms and the rocks thrown at our heads. The ghettos! Yes, the ghettos. How much of a kindness Hashem did for us by keeping us in the ghettos in Europe!

Everybody knows that for a very long time the Jews were allowed only in a certain part of the town, a small area set apart by a wall from the gentiles. וימאן – the gentiles refused to let us live anyplace else. We couldn’t come in or out unless with permission. There were guards outside, gentile policemen, and every night they locked the gates like a prison.  All over Europe; in Italy, in Germany, in Poland, everywhere.

Now everybody bemoans that period of our history. It was crowded in the ghetto and sometimes it was unsanitary too and so we pity our forefathers. “Ooh, what terrible times, the Middle Ages! How much we suffered from the ghetto.” There was no moving out of the ghetto to the suburbs. Even if you wanted to, the gentiles said ‘Nothing doing’. You couldn’t move away to Long Island and live in a house on a nice street, with nice trees and nice grass and nice gentiles.

The Flatbush Ghetto

I was once talking to a woman who lives in the suburbs. She was telling me about some trouble she was having with her children and I said to her, “Why don’t you move back to Flatbush?”

She said, “I should go back to the ghetto?!”

“Well”, I told her, “Hakadosh Baruch Hu made the ghetto on purpose.”

She didn’t understand that it was min haShomayim; people think that the goyim made the wall to keep the Jews penned in, locked up, but it’s not so. Hashem made that wall to keep the goyim out. That watchman there who didn’t let the Jews out didn’t let the goy in either. You hear that? He didn’t let the goy in! And because of that wall we flourished in the ghetto.

Inconvenient Truths

Now, I understand that you balk at such a statement but that’s because today you measure things only by convenience. And it’s true that it wasn’t convenient. No question; the ghetto had very narrow streets.  There was no place to build; you couldn’t build new homes.  When they got married, they had a problem finding a dirah.  It was inconvenient, no question about it.

But convenience, that’s not the true measure of life. We’re in this world to become better, to become more and more perfect, and the more we are separated from the gentile world, the more we can succeed. And they succeeded very much in the ghetto. In the ghetto you did whatever you wanted. You were a frum Jew. You lived a Jewish life. You had no embarrassment from goyim. You had no connection.

Benefits of Isolation

Of course, you couldn’t go out and make a good living. You couldn’t have a farm. You couldn’t do whatever you wanted. But still it was a brachah min haShomayim because they were blessed with the brachah of isolation. They lived their own lives. They had no contact with the goyim around them.  There was no influence of the umos haolam in the streets.

What influence was there? Only the ruach haTorah. All you could see was frum Jews. All you could see was people doing the minhagei Yisroel, dressed like Jews. They were stewing in their own juice for hundreds of years and it helped them maintain the original spirit. The ghetto became a makom kadosh; the streets were actually holy streets.

In the holiness of the crowded and isolated ghetto, Jewish families stayed together. No child was lost from a Jewish family. The parents had all the sons and daughters, the grandsons and granddaughters, the great grandsons and granddaughters. All frum, all holy. All nachas!

A Ruined Nation

Today we left the ghetto; it’s a rachmanus. I met an old Orthodox Jew whom I had known sixty years ago, fifty five years ago.  He told me with great glee, “You know, Rabbi Miller,” he said, “I have two grandchildren!” He’s my age! He was proud of his accomplishment. A simchah, a nachas; two grandchildren!

One is in Long Island. He’s not married yet. He’s forty years old. The girl, she has her own apartment in Manhattan. What does she do? He doesn’t want to talk about it. Ah yay yay. Isn’t that a ruined nation?

And where did we get that downfall, that catastrophe, that an old frum man has only two grandchildren, both unmarried? Because he was in America all these years and his wife acquired the American spirit – N.O.W. and spacing and other gentile ideals – and they were ruined.

Locked Up In Greatness

But in the olden days when Jews were locked up in ghettos, they increased and they multiplied. They didn’t have any gentile ideas. ה׳ סביב לעמו – Hakadosh Baruch Hu was protecting them. We were excluded, closed off, from gentile society and it was a blessing.  

And that’s the answer for all of the forms of anti-Semitism that we encounter in our history; it’s a fulfillment of the principle of וימאן. It’s other things too, absolutely; Hakadosh Baruch Hu has various intentions with His ways in the world but there’s no question that this is the primary function of anti-Semitism. כי לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים – So that the tribe of the wicked should not encamp near the lot of the righteous, למען לא ישלחו הצדיקים בעולתה ידיהם – in order that the righteous should not stretch out their hand to do wickedness.

Part III. Voluntary Separation

“America Iz Andersh”

And so we come now to America. ‘America is different’, they say. In old Russia, you know, a Jew was despised. And it wasn’t something behind closed doors – it was out in the open; good old anti-Semitism. The government made laws to consider Jews second-class citizens. We weren’t admitted to government positions. Certain jobs we couldn’t have. We had to live only in certain areas. וימאן – they refused to let us learn from their ways

And the Russian Jews chafed at that. They complained among themselves. But actually they were enjoying the blessing of Hashem. They didn’t realize it maybe, but that’s the truth.

Escape to Freedom

What happened finally? They left Russia and came to America. Ah! America! They were received with open arms. You can become anything in America! And they became nothing. It was a big catastrophe, a big misfortune. More Jews were destroyed in the freedom of America than in the crematorium of Germany.

Now, we don’t blame America. We say ‘God bless America’. By all means Hashem should bless America. Such a good country! Of course many Jews, liberal Jews, are trying to ruin it but we say הוי מתפלל בשלומו של מלכות – Pray for the success of the government. And we should show it. It shouldn’t be only the Italians who hang out the flag! I’m telling you right now, you should go out and buy a flag and hang it out on legal holidays. Show your appreciation for this great country.

But when all is said and done we have to know that it’s a very big danger when Eretz Edom opens up its borders and welcomes us in. In America the entire Jewish community is standing on the precipice of the disaster of  ישלחו הצדיקים בעולתה ידיהם. And that’s why Hakadosh Baruch Hu steps in. Even in a place of tolerance, He’s on the job; He’s pulling wires, the strings of לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים.

The Policy of Antisemitism

How? Very many ways. Oh, could I give you examples. If we had the time to sit together and study the history of the Jews in America we’d see so many ways that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is fulfilling this policy of separation. But of all of Hashem’s ways of keeping us separate, the most prevalent one is the principle of עשיו שונא ליעקב. It’s a halachah; it’ll always be so because the hatred from the gentiles is a policy of Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s.

Most of you don’t remember – you’re too young – when the Nazi party first started in America; a long time ago. Remember Fritz Kuhn, the head of the German American Bund? That was Hakadosh Baruch Hu sending a notice: ‘Wake up Jews!’ Or George Rockwell, alav hashnubbel? Eventually he was shot down by a fellow Nazi but Hakadosh Baruch Hu was sending another notice:  ‘Jews wake up!’ ויט ישראל מעליו – Yisroel has to turn away from Eisav.

Hashem did other things too.  There was the time when McCarthy was talking on the radio against Jews. Henry Ford published a newspaper, “The Dearborn Independent,” against Jews.  It was a world scandal – an American millionaire, a famous man, was publishing a newspaper against Jews! Not in Germany; in America! How could it be?

But we understand that it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu; He was the One doing it. At that time, however, He was still soft-pedaling. And therefore, the Jews instituted a lawsuit against Henry Ford and he lost out. He stopped supporting “The Dearborn Independent” or he stopped issuing anti-Semitic articles there. So it simmered down. But it’s always there, a flame that’s burning.

“America Iz Nit Andersh”

And don’t think it can’t get worse. There’s a newspaper today, “The Thunderbolt”, an anti-Semitic newspaper and it’s getting bigger and bigger.  They have millions on their side today.  Governor Wallace is a moderate compared to them.  They think he’s too easy.  There’s a whole volcano.

The more the Jews ignore the warnings, the warnings of Hakadosh Baruch Hu to remain separate, the more the flame, chas veshalom, can grow.

Don’t say ‘America is different, it can’t happen here.’ Anti-Semitism was dead in Germany too. “Oh no,” they say, “Germany always had that anti-Semitism.”  That’s what they want to say, that Germany is different.

Listen to me and listen well – every place is different. Did they dream of anti-Semitism in Spain? Spain was under the Moors. The Moors were tolerant; there was no anti-Semitism under the Moors. But who said the Moors have to always be in power?

Saving the Sefardim

So when the Jews began to cast their eyes on the non-Jewish population, and they began to bring the gentile culture into their homes, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “Before it’s too late, I’m going to have to stop this.” And He kicked out the Moors and brought in the Catholics and that settled the problem. All the tolerance was finished and all the good times came to an end. The Church moved in with its wrath and animosity and it began to make decrees; they began to persuade the king and the queen that we don’t need the Jews anymore.

The Galus Shpanya! The Galus Shpanya rescued the Sefardi tahor. They wouldn’t have remained tahor long. Had they remained in Spain however they would have become Sefardi lo tahor. They would have gotten lost. The anti-Semitism was a yeshuas Hashem!

So you say, “Well, in America the Constitution is our rock and our salvation.” Forget about that. All we need are some judges who will interpret the Constitution according to their own ideals – and they’re doing that all the time now. The Constitution gives equal rights to everybody and the judges say affirmative action and this and that and blacks get everything. If you’re not black so you’re closed out. So you see that the Constitution is just a plaything in the hands of judges.

So don’t think it can’t happen here. In America it’s easier to happen. It can turn Socialist, no question. Under Socialism, we’re finished. Or chas veshalom it’ll turn into a fascist country. Finally the gentiles in the Midwest will get so disgusted with the liberals and they’ll make a revolution and who knows what will be then. America, a fascist country, chas veshalom?! Who knows what kind of gas chambers can be here? They can make better ones in America than the Germans did.

The Low Flame

And don’t think the congressmen and the senators who speak so politely about the Jewish people will save you. Today in America, it’s the style, baruch Hashem, it’s still in fashion not to speak against Jews.  Not because of a special love for Jews – it’s just an American tradition; it’s considered obscene to attack any individual people, even blacks. I shouldn’t say ‘even blacks’; blacks surely have gained the greatest consideration. Halevai Jews should be treated like blacks – we’d be lucky.

But we shouldn’t be lulled to sleep by the American style. When you invite a congressman to the Jewish banquet and he comes and says compliments, you can be 100% sure it’s not piv v’libo shoveh.  When he comes home, it’s, “Those damned Jews.”  Don’t have any question, any doubts about that.  He can’t help it. It was in his mother’s milk and that’s how his children and his grandchildren will continue to speak. In their hearts, all the goyim despise Jews.

And we have to know that the little flame of anti-Semitism is a brachah, if only we’d listen. That flame is a yeshua. Baruch Hashem!  That’s a reminder! וימאן; even when it’s only on a low flame it keeps us separate. Even if we live among them and do business with them and we smile at each other but we know what’s bubbling underneath, that’s a salvation for us.

The Flame Grows

And today it’s more open. Terrible, terrible things have happened since we met last.  A Jewish girl was killed walking in Manhattan; a black boy threw a brick on her head. A Jewish girl today was pushed off a subway, her hand was severed. We have to wake up!

But not to wake up and go back to Israel. No, that’s not the purpose of the notice. Not like our friend Meir Kahane said when he put an ad in the New York Times, that it’s ‘time to go home.’ Because you’re missing the purpose then. We have to know that there is a fundamental reason why it’s happening. It’s because Hashem is worried about us and he wants ויט ישראל מעליו – that Yisroel should turn away from Eisav. And the same Eisav you’ll find in Eretz Yisroel today. Even worse.

But after all is said and done, the question is why is it happening?

The answer is we’re too much involved in gentile ideas, and it’s necessary to erect a wall. And if we don’t build the wall then Hakadosh Baruch Hu does. And he builds it with the bricks and mortar of anti-Semitism. Always it happens, again and again in history – when Jews start getting lost among gentiles then it’s time for the gentiles to begin building a wall to prevent that.

And therefore the first reaction to anti-Semitism has to be not to punch the goy in the face. The first reaction has to be not to contribute to the Simon Wiesenthal Center or other organizations that combat anti-Semitism. No, no! In most cases those organizations cause anti-Semitism. The result of anti-Semitism has to be what Hashem said in this week’s sedrah: ויט ישראל מעליו – that Yisroel should turn away from Eisav.

Rav Miller’s Kol Korei

The way to combat anti-Semitism is to understand the purpose of anti-Semitism. It means that we have to build more yeshivos where children will be taken in for less sechar limud; tuition should be made very low. The yeshivos should be so prosperous that they should be able to afford to take in children almost for nothing. That’s the ideal. And the Jewish child, sitting in the yeshiva, learning Torah attitudes, learning the great ideal of בין ישראל לעמים, he’ll be the one who is fighting against anti-Semitism in the most efficient manner.

And to live only among Jews. To live in a Jewish ghetto. The more you live among the frum Jews – and the frummer the better – the more you’re living successfully. You’re not being influenced by the gentile culture and ideals and attitudes.

How important it is if we could get this message throughout all of Long Island and all of New Jersey! They should all move back to Brooklyn. You think it’s ridiculous? It’s a life saver. Back to the ghetto! If it was possible, I would say that we should issue a kol korei from some headquarters – let’s say Agudas HaRabbanim or some other rabbinical headquarters – a public proclamation for all Jews to move back to Brooklyn. “Come back to the frum neighborhoods of Boro Park and Flatbush”.

There are other fine places too. Whatever it is, move to the places where frum Jews are concentrated, where you’re walled off from the gentiles. Move to a place where the gentiles refuse to mix with you. And that’s how you’ll remain forever with the Jewish people. You’ll marinate with the frum Jews, you’ll stew in good Jewish juice, and together with your family you’ll become better and better. And your great-great-great-great-great descendants will continue to be with the Klal Yisroel and with Hakadosh Baruch Hu forever!

Have a Wonderful Shabbos

This week’s booklet is based on tapes:

577 – Keeping Away from Eisav | 828 – Learning From Substitutes | 855 – The Kiss of Eisav | E-256 – Ashrecha Yisroel

Let’s Get Practical

Separating From Eisav

In this week’s parshah, we learned a valuable lesson: Hashem intentionally distanced Eisav from us for our own benefit. Eisav’s hatred and separation from us are, in fact, a blessing in disguise. This week, I intend bli neder to take a few moments each morning to reflect on this insight and consider ways to maintain my spiritual purity and separation from Eisav’s harmful influence. By doing so, I hope to protect myself from his negative impact and cultivate a stronger connection with Hashem.