Shalom Freedman's 1993 book Life as Creation: A Jewish Way of Thinking About the World presents 780 aphorisms divided into six sections, with each section containing 10 chapters of 13 aphorisms each. The sections are "Mankind in Creation," "Jewish Creation," "God and Creation," "Creation and Everyday Moral Life," "Creation and the Life of the Mind," and "Literary Creation." In "An Additional Word to the Reader" (p. xv), Freedman explains, "The reader can begin anywhere, with any subject or entry that is of interest. But a line of argument does run through the work, and therefore the reader is advised to attempt a consecutive reading. Wisdom literature of this type does not lead itself to swift-paced, once-over-lightly reading. This is the kind of work that challenges the reader to interpretation and rereading."
The "line of argument" is that God created humans to emulate Him by creating freely. Humans can create in several ways, including partnering with God in realizing "the divine plan for the world," creating in the moral realm by "doing justice and mercy," and producing great creative works in philosophy, literature, science, and other fields. Part of the divine plan requires believing that "present evil is transient and that, of all evils that have been, there will come a compensation in greater redemption for the injured innocent" (p. 4).
It is inspiring to believe that we humans can partner with God both by "doing justice and mercy" and by using our individual gifts to create works of enduring value, but it is disturbing and puzzling that evil is so prevalent, even if we believe (or merely hope) that evil is "transient."
"Transient" means something much different to God--who by definition exists outside the boundaries of time and space--than it does to humans. Antisemitism is an evil that has existed for millennia, and has become more prevalent in recent years. The virulent persistence of antisemitism is as disturbing as the survival of the Jewish people against long odds is remarkable; antisemitism does not seem transient in Auschwitz' gas chambers, nor does it seem transient to those who narrowly escaped such a fate but mourn the loss of family members and friends.
In chapter 17 of the "Jewish Creation" section, Freedman provides 13 aphorisms under the heading "Jewish Creation and Hatred of the Jews":
1 God chose the Jews even though He knew this would make them the most hated people in the history of mankind. No people wants to know that it is less valued, less loved, than another.
2 Jewish physical weakness, combined with spiritual greatness and later intellectual distinction, created the conditions by which evil hatred could lead to repeated efforts at the Jews' physical destruction.
3 The hatred and resentment the Jews experienced from other peoples helped them to create mechanisms of survival and adaptability that frequently worked. But there was no way to use these devices to escape from the systematic destruction devised for them by the European people, which prided itself on being supreme in all things--and was surely supreme in one--the doing of evil.
4 Christianity and Islam each has its own separate tradition of repaying with evil those who provided them with their first understanding of God.
5 The price the Jews have had to pay for being loved so strongly by God has been being hated so strongly by humanity.
6 It is natural to resent those who are more successful than us, those who do better than us. But the wish to destroy them comes only when we sense they are depriving us of our own world. Thus, the closer the Jews came to being at the center of creation in various European societies, the more strongly they were hated.
7 The Christian son accuses the Jewish father of having tried to murder him so he can justify his own desire to be rid of the father's conscience.
8 Not only do other peoples envy the Jews, the Jews also envy other peoples. This has played a part in Jewish creation, in the Jewish learning to take upon themselves the character of other peoples. Time and again the Jews have known how to imitate and become the others in the effort to belong to worlds they eventually discovered were not their own.
9 Most peoples consider themselves chosen at some point in their history. How difficult it must be for a people to relate to a prior claim of chosenness, especially one based not on position or power but on closeness to God.
10 The Christians envied the Jews for what no people in antiquity would have thought to envy: their suffering.
11 Envy of the Jews appears to be a constant theme of human history that will not disappear until the messianic age when all know God is One.
12 The projection of one's own forbidden impulses upon the scapegoat is the simple psychological device of much hatred of the Jews. The Jews are frequently accused of everything the others inwardly know is wrong with themselves.
13 The effects of others' hatred of the Jews is also expressed in desperate efforts on the part of Jews to re-create themselves as others. In other words, hatred of the Jews also leads to that cowardly kind of Jewish response known as assimilation, the sacrifice of one's true self for a promised self that will never be completely real.
It must be emphasized that the Jewish belief in being the "Chosen People"--which is referenced in Freedman's first aphorism--is a very misunderstood and misrepresented concept; this has nothing to do with Jews believing themselves to be superior or believing non-Jews to be inferior: it is a core Jewish belief that the Jewish people were chosen by God to have additional responsibilities involving not only the observance of 613 Biblical commandments (non-Jews are only bound by the seven Noahide laws) but also being a "light unto the nations" (in the words of the prophet Isaiah).
Freedman's first aphorism does not explain antisemitism other than suggesting that antisemitism's existence is somehow part of the divine plan, without indicating why antisemitism is a necessary part of the divine plan.
It is true, as suggested by the second aphorism, that the combination of collective Jewish physical weakness and significant spiritual and intellectual achievements by Jews created the necessary preconditions for antisemitism to develop and spread.
Freedman's third aphorism is correct that during nearly 2000 years of exile the Jewish people developed many different collective and individual survival techniques; it is a cruel paradox that the very techniques that were at least somewhat successful for so many centuries were woefully inadequate--and, in fact, counterproductive--in the face of the Nazis' overwhelming technological power paired with genocidal intent. Enemies of the Jewish people prior to the Nazis did not possess the technological means to kill every Jew, and most of those enemies preferred to degrade and terrorize Jews as opposed to annihilating the Jewish people. Negotiation, ransom paying, and acceptance of discriminatory laws without overt rebellion enabled the Jewish people to survive two millennia of Christian antisemitism rooted in the notion that the Jews should suffer "perpetual servitude" but not total annihilation--but the only way to survive the Nazis was to escape or fight, because any form of accommodation merely delayed the inexorable genocide.
Freedman's fourth aphorism highlights the sad reality that Christianity and Islam--two religions with deep Jewish roots--both have long histories of virulent antisemitism (and those histories have not ended, particularly regarding Muslims but also regarding significant numbers of Christians as well).
The fifth aphorism rephrases the first aphorism.
The sixth aphorism addresses the heart of the matter: a major root cause of antisemitism is envy.
The seventh aphorism speaks a blunt truth that is painful for Christians of good conscience to hear, but it must be stated: organized Christianity (in varied forms, including but not limited to the Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations) promoted (and, in many instances, still promotes) antisemitism based on the Christ-killer slander. The historical reality is that the Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth was executed by Roman authorities, not by the Jewish people who were occupied and oppressed by the Romans. Jews could not order Romans to execute or not execute someone in the Roman Empire, just like Jews could not order Nazis to execute or not execute someone; to suggest otherwise is bizarre and ahistorical.
The eighth aphorism delves into the psychology of Jewish people responding to antisemitism by trying to be more like non-Jewish people, without realizing that antisemites will never let Jews assimilate; some of the worst outbreaks of antisemitic violence take place against Jewish communities with high rates of assimilation/secularization. Nazi Germany is the most obvious example, but it should also be noted that a large number of the victims of Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack were Leftist, assimilated Jews.
The ninth aphorism alludes to envy of the Jewish people because of the Jewish people's perceived or actual closeness to God, echoing and amplifying the sixth aphorism; one of the root causes of antisemitism is the belief/fear that Jews are special.
The 10th and 11th aphorisms discuss suffering and envy. Christianity focuses a lot on suffering--starting with Jesus' agonizing death on the cross--and it is not surprising that collectively Christians envy Jewish suffering, because Jesus is supposed to be the supreme example of suffering but history shows that the Jewish people have suffered (and continue to suffer) immensely.
We often see examples of the 12th aphorism in both traditional media outlets and social media platforms, as Israel's enemies who attempt genocide against the Jewish people falsely accuse Israel of committing genocide.
The 13th aphorism reinforces the eighth aphorism and summarizes the psychological impact of antisemitism: many Jews respond to relentless hatred by suppressing or denying their identity.
Much has been written and said about the underlying causes of antisemitism. Freedman's aphorisms attribute antisemitism to a combination of collective Jewish physical weakness, envy, and projection of one's own forbidden impulses. Antisemitism is often described as a puzzling or even mystical phenomenon, but antisemitism can be understood in simple terms: antisemitism is rooted in a combination of fear and shame. Antisemites simultaneously reject Jewish values and feel shame after rejecting those values, as I explained in The Fear and Shame at the Heart of Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism:
Freud once wrote that Jews are not really hated because of the Christian accusation that the Jews killed God but rather because the Jews created the concept of God by giving humanity the monotheistic idea. Freud argued that, subconsciously, people prefer to live like cave dwellers--without any strictly defined moral code--and thus people do not want to hear about a God who admonishes that you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. Freud believed that Jews are hated for being the messengers of God's moral code.
Adolf Hitler's private conversations with associates, as reported in Hermann Rauschning's book The Voice of Destruction and quoted in Adam A. Winston's article "Criteria for the Distribution of Unclaimed Assets" (published in the September/October 1999 issue of Midstream), support and amplify the viewpoint of antisemitism functioning as a rejection of Jewish values. Hitler is quoted is saying the following:
"Conscience is a Jewish invention. It is a blemish, like circumcision."
"Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing men from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge: from the dirty and degraded self-mortifications called conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence, which only a few can bear."
"Thou shalt not steal? Wrong! All life is theft."
"Against the so-called Ten Commandments, against them we are fighting."
It is worth noting in this context that even when Nazi Germany was losing on the battlefield to the Allies, Hitler refused to divert the resources being used to exterminate the Jews to bolster the war effort; for Hitler, killing as many Jews as possible was more important than winning the war on the battlefield.
This is an example of why the scapegoat theory does not adequately explain the persistence and virulence of antisemitism. Yes, the Jewish people are often used as scapegoats for a host of ills, but that is a result of antisemitism and not the root cause of antisemitism. As Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin put it in their book Why the Jews?, "Antisemitism was not a vehicle for the Nazis; Nazism was a vehicle for antisemitism" (p. 74).
The fear aspect of antisemitism stems from the fact that the Jewish people and Jewish history are not normal. The Jewish people have not merely survived in the face of overwhelming obstacles; they have thrived, making significant contributions to art, literature, science, and many other human endeavors. How is it possible for a tiny, persecuted minority to not only produce so many successful individuals but also to rebuild their homeland nearly two millennia after being exiled? The powerful Roman Empire destroyed the Second Jewish Commonwealth, but today the State of Israel lives long after the Roman Empire disappeared--and, unlike the rebirth of Jewish nationhood, the Roman Empire will never rise again.
The Leftist version of history that has conquered large swathes of academia--thanks in no small part to Qatari funding--classifies individuals and nations as either "oppressors/victimizers" or as "oppressed/victims," with those categories strictly defined, usually by race; the Jewish people do not fit neatly into this paradigm, and Israel's rebirth in the 20th century refutes the notion that it is impossible for oppressed people to overcome their dire circumstances, forcing the Left to either reject their preferred narratives or else classify Jews as "oppressors/victimizers." Tragically--for both Jews and for those who are really being oppressed but are ignored as the Left relentlessly slanders Jews and Israel--the Left has chosen to classify Jews and Israel as "oppressors." I discussed this in The Fear and Shame at the Heart of Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism:
Israel has accomplished so much in just a few decades despite being surrounded by large, hostile neighbors who have repeatedly attacked Israel with the stated goal of destroying Israel--and several of the countries in the region still actively finance and foment terrorist attacks against Israel and against Jews around the world.
Why has Israel been so spectacularly successful while so many other former British colonies are mired in poverty and ruled by totalitarian regimes? Israel's neighbors--and developing countries around the world--too often do not look at Israel as a role model, but rather as a success story that they fear, and that makes them feel ashamed at their own failures. As a result, many have decided to demonize Israel and to discount Israel as an illegitimate country whose successes are not the product of hard work and ingenuity. Israel has become the personification of the Jew in the world. The irrational fears that many people have about the disproportionate success of individual Jews have now also been directed against the disproportionate success of the Jewish State.
In the February 1988 issue of Commentary, Hilton Kramer noted that deep-seated hostility toward Israel often emanates from "the political culture of the international Left. It is based on, among other things, that lethal combination of guilt, fear, cynicism, and sentimentality toward the Third World that is now one of the most destructive and disabling issues in world affairs--destructive and disabling, that is, to the democracies (It is a boon, of course, to totalitarianism.). As a model of post-colonial democratic government, Israel is a standing reproach to the ongoing political debacle of the Third World. That isn't the only reason Israel has become a target of the international Left, but it is one of the primary reasons."
It is not a coincidence that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are connected to anti-American sentiments, because those who hate America are often jealous of America in much the same fashion that those who hate Jews and/or Israel are jealous of Jews and/or Israel: "Jealousy is a powerful human emotion. Hatred is a tremendous emotional release. Blame is cathartic. At this time in history, the United States is humane, free, and powerful. The Arab Islamic world is just the opposite. Our success is infuriating to people who value their own culture, who love their traditions even though they no longer work, and who look at our enormous success with inchoate envy...In the future, we'll get around to recognizing the neuroses, if not psychoses, that are far too prevalent within the Arabian heartland of the Islamic world...The transition from women as property to women as full participants in society has been the greatest revolution in human history, and its reverberations will be felt for centuries. Repressive cultures are horrified by it because it calls into question their most fundamental biological, sociological, and religious ideas. However, the oppression of women anywhere is not only a human rights violation, it's a suicide pact with the future" (Ralph Peters, "The Shah Always Falls," interviewed by Fredric Smoler in the February/March 2003 issue of American Heritage).
It has become fashionable for antisemites to assert that they only hate Zionists, not Jews, but, as I noted in Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism, "It is important to emphasize that Anti-Zionism is Indistinguishable From Antisemitism Because Israel is the Jewish Homeland. It is absurd to assert that a person can hate Israel and deny Israel's right to exist but not hate Jews. Further, the denial of a nation's right to exist is a unique form of hatred directed only at the Jewish State and not at any other nation no matter how heinous that nation's actions."
Antisemitism threatens not only Jews but it also threatens the stability of the nations that foment such hatred. Nations that welcome Jews tend to be free and prosperous, but nations that persecute Jews tend to be tyrannical and unsuccessful (or heading in those directions, away from freedom and prosperity, as their persecution of Jews increases); it is not pleasant for anyone to live in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, or any nation shackled by the harsh dictates of Sharia.
Therefore, antisemitism is not merely a Jewish problem; it is a problem for humanity--perhaps humanity's ultimate problem if one considers that disproportionate energy fueling antisemitism at the United Nations, in academia, in media outlets, and in the streets. This hateful, wasted energy could be channeled toward addressing suffering around the world that is ignored or minimized because it does not fit the convenient narrative of "If it's Jews, it's news." If I were a Nigerian Christian or a Uyghur Muslim in China, I would be very disheartened that my real suffering is ignored while false genocide accusations are hurled at Israel.
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