Chaired by Dr. Ellier Russ. This committee coordinates programs and classes to engage members in lifelong learning. Events include our yearly Scholar in Residence program, Talmud Study, and more. Guest speakers, online webinars and Shabbat morning discussions additionally provide congregants with opportunities to expand their knowledge of Judaism and living a Jewish life.

toldot 5786: echoes in time - rhythms of rhyme

Shabbat Shalom Weeklyby Rabbi Yitzchak Zweig NOVEMBER 22, 2025
GENESIS  TOLDOT (25:19-26:22) Triennial 1

GOOD MORNING! Recently my brilliant brother Rabbi Akiva Zweig, a well-known speaker and philosopher on social issues, was a scholar-in-residence at a synagogue in Los Angeles. During a Q&A session following one of his lectures, a woman asked, “It has been said that Jews have only another twenty years in America. What is your opinion of that statement?”

The question was referencing a 2024 article written by Franklin Foer in the left-leaning publication The Atlantic. In it he argued that the period of exceptional security, prosperity, and cultural acceptance enjoyed by American Jews from the late 20th century through the early 2000s is coming to a close. He attributed this to rising antisemitism from both the far right and the far left, an erosion of the liberal democratic order that enabled Jewish upward mobility, and cultural shifts that place Jewish identity and Zionism under new scrutiny.

Notwithstanding that some of his presumptions as to why Jews have been exceptionally secure and comfortable in the United States for the last sixty years are debatable, the very question itself is highly triggering for a nation with severe PTSD ingrained in its national psyche when it comes to existential threats. I’m sorry Mr. Foer, but Jewish identity and Zionism did not generate this current crisis. It is clearly driven by Islamic hatred and jealousy; there is no real desire in Hamas/Palestinian leadership for peace – they simply want what Israel has (and for there to no longer be any Jews). This “Pro-Palestinian” movement has re-awakened latent antisemitism, and triggered a new wave of anti-Israel, anti-Jew sentiments.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, the Jews are just “the canary in the coal mine.” Radical Islam has designs on world domination, and it looks like some of the dominos are starting to fall. There are some cities in Europe where over 40% of children in primary school are Muslim. London and Paris already “feel” decidedly Muslim (when I visited Paris, I was cautioned not to wear a yarlmulke in public).

This reminds me of a joke I heard from Israeli comedian Yochai Sponder, “When you’re in high school in Israel, they give you an option to choose between French and Arabic as your second foreign language (English is already required). All my friends chose French because they wanted to tour Paris after their time in the army. I am the only one who chose Arabic – and you know what? Today I am the only one of my friends who can visit Paris!”

Theodor Reik was a Jewish psychoanalyst who trained as one of Sigmund Freud’s first students in Vienna, Austria, and later became a pioneer of lay analysis in the United States. In 1965 he wrote an essay titled “The Unreachables” (his alternate title was “The Repetition Compulsion in Jewish History”). The essay detailed how certain groups repeatedly fall victim to the same trials and tribulations throughout history. He used the history of the Jewish people as a prime example of this and succinctly summed up this hypothesis thusly:

“There are recurring cycles, ups and downs, but the course of events is essentially the same, with small variations. It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.”

What I think Reik means is that though details and circumstances change, events in the life cycle of a group will essentially recycle in similar patterns. It’s important to note that Reik himself barely escaped the atrocities of Nazi Germany and this clearly influenced his worldview (he fled Germany shortly after the Nazi party came to power).

This week’s Torah reading contains one of the origins of the world’s hatred toward the Jewish people:

“Eisav harbored hatred toward Jacob because of the blessing that (their) father had given him […]” (Genesis 27:41).

In the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, we find the episode of Eisav selling his birthright – he was the firstborn child and entitled to certain “perks” – to his brother Jacob for a meal of lentils. One of the privileges that came with the birthright was to receive a distinct blessing from their father; one that would affect who would be entrusted with the worldly blessings of wealth and prosperity endowed by the Almighty.

Though he gladly sold what he considered his worthless birthright, Eisav, who was primarily concerned with the pleasures of the physical world, was later aggrieved by the fact that his father gave these blessings to his brother Jacob. Thus, the Torah informs us of the source for this enmity toward Jacob and his descendants. Jacob’s name is later changed by the Almighty to Israel, and the nation of the Israelites are called upon his name. It is this ancient jealousy that has seemingly filtered down and fuels today’s antisemitism.

Sometimes referred to as “the longest hatred,” antisemitism has persisted in many forms over several millennia including “innovative” defamatory accusations such as blood libels and other excuses to incite pogroms and such. The racial antisemitism of the Nazis turned hatred of Jews into a genocidal mandate.

The goal of Nazi Germany was to make Germany (and all of Europe) “Judenfrei – free of Jews.” Unsurprisingly, they were arbiters of who was to be considered a Jew. For the most part it didn’t make a difference whether a person lived or even identified as a Jew – the extermination order applied to whomever the Nazis deemed as such.

Incredibly, sixty years ago Theodor Reik predicted that the atrocities of Nazi Germany could very well take place in America someday. Certainly, this was what preoccupied the mind of the woman attending my brother’s lecture.

One of the classes I teach is a high school business class, and the first lessons I drive home to my students is that life is not static; it is actually very, very dynamic. Nothing in this world stays the same – there is constant motion. A crucial axiom of life is that if you are not moving forward then you are, by the very nature of this world, moving backward. The classic example of this is money. If a person takes $1,000 and puts it under his mattress, at the end of a year he doesn’t have the same $1,000 that he put there. Inflation has eaten into the innate value of that $1,000 and it is now only worth between $920-$975 depending on the real rate of inflation (not to mention the lost potential had the money been invested).

The same is true of everything in life – our health, our businesses, our personal relationships, etc. This is easily evident in the following example: A person who doesn’t make an effort to exercise or eat well does not maintain the same level of health, rather their health slowly but surely deteriorates. This applies to all aspects of our lives: if we are not moving forward, we are absolutely moving backward.

What many people don’t realize is that this axiom applies to a person’s connection to their religion as well. If one isn’t making the effort to grow their relationship with the Almighty, then, like every relationship, it begins to dissipate. It isn’t enough to just “be” Jewish, you have to make an effort to grow your Judaism and relationship with the Almighty. That means you have to learn more, do more, and be involved more.

The woman in my brother’s lecture was asking the wrong question.

Living in a theocentric world we know that everything that happens is part of a grand design and guided by the Almighty with the intention to move the world in a certain direction. A shortsighted concern regarding one’s personal safety or having a “safe space” in the US two decades from now is a futile preoccupation.

The question we should all be asking is: During these trying times, when we are highlighted by much of the world as Jews, what are we actually doing to be Jewish, i.e. what are we doing to continually grow as Jews? Equally important, what are we doing to fulfill our national mandate as Jews to bring the Almighty into this world? What are we doing to move the enterprise known as “The Jewish Nation” forward?

Continuing to do the same things that we have always done is simply not enough. Particularly not now.

Instead of wondering how much longer we have in the US we need to look inward and take an honest inventory as to what are we doing in response to the campaign being waged against the Jewish people.

The answer to the world’s unbelievable pre-occupation with the Jewish people is to be sure that we define for ourselves what it means to be a Jew. This begins with making every element of Judaism a central part of your life. Pray more, study more, and think less of yourself and more of others by getting involved in acts of charity and kindness.

In this way we let the world know what Judaism really stands for, and it sends a message that we alone define what it means to be a Jew. By doing this we will continue to fulfill our national mission, the one that has been set out for us in the Torah, and we will be prepared to fulfill whatever it is God asks of us – wherever that may be.

TORAH PORTION:TOLDOT
NOVEMBER 22,  2025   5 KISLEV 5786 Torah   GENESIS 25:19-26:22) Triennial  1
  Haftorah: 
We believe that in times of great strife, words of Torah can provide stability and comfort in our lives.
We know that you join us in praying for the safety of our soldiers and citizens, and that together we mourn the terrible losses already suffered.
We stand together for a strong and secure Israel.

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