Q:
You said before that it’s part of the plan of Hashem that all the goyim should hate us. But don’t we see that sometimes in history the goyim help Jews?
A:
Let me tell you. אין למדין מן הכללות – We can’t apply a general rule to all scenarios and all situations. Sometimes there are exceptions. Sometimes there are exceptions, yes. When we say ‘all’ it doesn’t mean every single one. There are exceptions.
I want to make an announcement right here. I think that the people who founded this country, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, others too, were not Jew-haters. They didn’t love Jews, no. They didn’t love Jews but they were not Jews-haters. They had a principle of equality; Hakadosh Baruch Hu put a ruach in them, a spirit, to found a nation with equal rights for everybody. It wasn’t their own idea. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge. פלגי מים לב מלך ביד השם – Like channels of water is the mind of a king in the hands of Hashem, על כל אשר יחפוץ יטנו – towards whatever He desires, he will turn it (Mishlei 21:1). It means that even kings’ minds are influenced by Hashem. I have a feeling that the founders of this country were influenced by Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be equal and fair and that’s why I don’t think they had any especial prejudices against the Jews. Never does it mention anything from them that was against the Jews. It was only the people in general, the Christians in general, they can’t help themselves because their religion is full of hatred against the Jews. Everywhere you look in the New Testament they speak against the Jews.
And therefore I have a certain respect for the founders of the Constitution. Maybe I’m wrong but I have a feeling that they didn’t have any kind of animosity against the Jewish people. Now, they wouldn’t go all out and embrace the Jew and kiss him and say achinu atah – ‘You are my brother,’ but still they gave the Jew a full chance, a fair chance. That’s what I think.
And it wasn’t only due to them. Hakadosh Baruch Hu was in charge of that. He was the one who made America. Why did He make America? So we should be here today; so that we should have a place of refuge.
You know when Spain expelled the Jews, at that same time Columbus discovered America; the same time. It was the yad Hashem. The same King and Queen who made the gezeirah to expel the Jews from Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, they’re the ones who furnished the expedition of Columbus to discover America. You see the connection? America was discovered as a haven for the Am Yisrael. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge.
TAPE # E-225 (March 16, 2000)
