You can read my Substack offering “Dear Mayor Mamdani” here.
Category Archives: Anti-Semitism
Shemos – Pathetic Persecutors
As the Jewish population in ancient Egypt swelled, the Torah tells us that vayakutzu – The Egyptians “were disgusted” (Shemos 1:12). Rashi explains that “they were disgusted with their [own] lives.”
A superficial reading of vayakutzu would lead to a simpler understanding, that the Egyptians, out of fear (as pesukim 8 and 9 describe), found the Jews, not themselves,disgusting. What is the significance of Rashi’s comment?
The Mei Marom (Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlop, 1882-1951) posits that the pasuk as Rashi explains it is imparting a psychological truth: It is impossible to embitter the life of another unless one is embittered with himself. Anyone who appreciates and cherishes his own life will perforce be concerned about the lives of others.
And so, Rabbi Charlop concludes, if one sees someone oppressing another, one can surmise that the oppressor’s cruelty is fundamentally sourced in self-loathing.
© 2025 Rabbi Avi Shafran
Truculent Troika’s Tribulations
Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes are, blessedly, like contentious crustaceans brawling in a bucket. To read what I mean, please click here.
Animus and Ignorance
Last week, New York mayor-elect Mandani not only demonstrated, once again, his hatred for Israel, but also lifted the hood on the engine of his animus: an abysmal ignorance of both history and law.
To read how, click here:
Foul Fringes on the Left and the Right
I’m as chagrined as anyone about the ugliness we are witnessing on the extremes of both American political parties. But there have always been isolationists and bigots in Congress.
Does a respectable mainstream, at least presently, dominate in each party?
My take is here.
Reconstructing the Gazan Mind
While the world watches to see whether the tunnel-ridden wasteland along the Mediterranean called Gaza can be restored to a livable place, what can’t be ignored is the most important part of the reconstruction effort: the rebooting of the Gazan mind.
To read more about that, click here.
A Test for Mr. Trump
A piece I wrote about President Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Kuwait is at Religion News Service and can be read here.
What Alone Protects Us
A Sukkos-themed piece of mine appears at RNS and can be read here.
TUNJUR! TUNJUR! TUNJUR!
Sometimes a folktale can be something more than a mere folktale. Time and context can make a difference. To read what I mean, please click here.
Haazinu – Nations, Be Warned!
Most commentaries understand Devarim 32:43 as “Nations! Sing the praises of His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants; He will bring retribution upon His enemies and He will appease His land and His people.”
It would thus refer to the end of history, when the nations of the world will be dazzled by a clarity that eluded them until that point. And so harninu, “sing the praises,” is an imperative (or a prediction, in the sense of “they will sing the praises”).
Rav Hirsch and the Alshich read the pasuk differently (and perhaps in a more grammatically defensible way). In Rav Hirsch’s words (the English translation of the German original), the words refer to the ongoing present: “Therefore, nations, make the lot of His people a happy one.”
As his commentary on the pasuk expands: “The treatment accorded to the Jews becomes the graduated scale by which the allegiance accorded on earth to Hashem is measured…”
So the words, read that way, are not a prediction but rather a warning – an informing of the nations of the world that they will be eventually judged by how they treat the Jews. Rav Hirsch adds that “It was anticipated – as has actually occurred – that this Book of Hashem’s teachings would become the common property of the world, through the hands of its scattered bearers.”
And that its “principles of the equality and brotherhood of all men and the duties of respecting justice and the rights of man… [be] brought into practice.”
Even if the ultimate judgment of the nations of the world will take place only in the future, the passing into extinction of some of the world’s most Jew-oppressive regimes has already occurred. The ancient Romans and Greeks, and more recent oppressors like the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, all molder in history’s compost bin.
Today, unfortunately, there persist not only nations but also forces within otherwise benevolent countries, including our own, that seek to slander and attack Jews, both verbally and physically.
They are all warned.
© 2025 Rabbi Avi Shafran