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Curse Those Who Curse You
Last Shabbat, I gave a sermon on Antisemitism. If you’d like to watch it, you can find a link below. Since headlines seem to have very short lives these days, I thought that by this week there would be something else to discuss and there is plenty to talk about: the election in Israel this past week (which we’ll talk about Shabbat morning), the election coming up this week here at home, the 13 year old girl shot in the West Bank, and .
This week, however, has been non-stop news about antisemitism. On Saturday night, A message reading “Kanye was right about the Jews” was projected onto the back of a scoreboard at TIAA Bank Field after the game. The same message was projected onto the 11 East Forsyth historic structure in downtown Jacksonville on Saturday. Last weekend prominent basketball player, Nets guard Kyrie Irving, defended his support of an antisemitic documentary that he posted on twitter. He was suspended by the Nets indefinitely.
On Thursday, I attended a meeting with area rabbis where we discussed these and several other issues regarding antisemitism taking place. Later, I received a text from a friend and colleague saying that he was just informed that there is credible information of a broad threat to synagogues in New Jersey and how he had spend the afternoon coordinating with local police, the federation, security and calming down many parents who had just sent their children into Hebrew School when the news came out.
This morning, I received a text from another friend and colleague who told us that a small fire was set at his synagogue overnight and as he and his Executive Director walked around the building to inspect it, they found a bag hidden behind some bushes. The police inspected it and determined that it was alarming. I spent the next while watching a live feed of the synagogue as the bomb squad removed the bag and and bomb sniffing dogs surrounded the campus.
In this week’s parsha, Avram (who has his name changed at the end of the parsha to Avraham) received five blessings. In that first blessing, God says, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse the one who curses you.” Our commentators wonder why those who bless are in plural and the one who curses is written in singular form. Thirteenth century commentator Radak explains that “it is not customary to use the plural mode when speaking of curses. Seeing that there would be very few people, if any, who would curse Avram, this is hinted at in the use of the singular mode.”
May Radak’s explanation of our text be true. We pray that there are so few people who would want to curse Avraham’s people in the world and many more people who come to bless the Jewish people as is promised in this week’s parsha.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Blatt
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