Safed, Israel – According to Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the crux of the matter lies in the gentiles’ “jealousy of God’s chosen people.”
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In a lesson held at the Machon Meir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Eliyahu claimed that the brutal shooting of a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday was a clear indication that the world hates Jews because God chose them for his patronage.
“This attack, and others like it around the world, prove that this is not a battle against the people of Israel within their country,” the rabbi posited.
“All Jews are proof that Gold Almighty exists in the world… They hate us because we are ‘called by the name of the Lord.’ That’s the only reason and there is no other.”
Eliyahu maintained that anti-Semitism does not exist “because we bombed children in Gaza, or because we abuse the Palestinians.”
What stands behind Jew hatred, the rabbi said, “is the saying ‘Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name,'” referring to the passage in the Book of Exodus where God promises to defend the people of Israel from the Egyptian king.
To the media, please stop quoting rabbanim statements as if they have ruach hakodesh and can read peoples minds. Rabbanim make statements like this to help us understand tragedies and improve ourselves and our communities or as divrei nechama. It is not meant for worldwide consumption.
I’m sorry to say it, but Rabbi Eliyahu, appears to be living in a dream-world of his own.
This was said at a shiur. It was meant for the shiur, not public consumption via newspapers and websites. This does not help matters for us.
It’s ironic but Muslims have absolutely no jealousy of us, they think we are not following the correct path and we don’t deserve Eretz Yisroel.
Overall, a pretty stupid comment all round.
This “rav” shows a mind-numbing lack of common sense at such a time of tragedy and his comments only will be repeated and quoted as a basis c’v for further tragedies. These arab terrorists don’t hate us because of our relationship with the Ebeshter any more than Hitler and the nazis, yemach shmom, hated ius because we were the “chosen people”. I know ER is a democracy but isn’t there some way to “muzzle” some of these rabbonim who don’t stop to consider the broader consequences of their words in an era where such comments are broadcast worldwide within minutes.
That’s why Obama is holding back on striking Iran.
First of all Hashem did not chose the Jews, the Jews chose Hashem. The other nations of the world were given the same offer, but they didn’t want it. Second of all there are a multitude of reasons why we are hated and jealousy is only one component.
Bewildering…his comments are neither astute nor helpful, and can be expressed only by a person who thinks his daled amos is the whole world. And at a time when much of the western world is expressing empathy for us such statements risk undoing good will that we should be nurturing.
Say what you want of Rabbi Eliyahu and his quote that was probably taken incredibly out of context but the man is a big tzaddik.
The Jews are to be a light to the nations too. So the only real way to do that is to have Torah and to keep a Torah lifestyle overall. If you are a light to the nations, the antisemitism will be dissuayed. So maybe its our fault for being abberrant to our ways and keeping the ways of Moses far from our homes and our capacity.
not everything you know has to publicized.nothing good can come from such statements
maybe he can explain why the same guy shot some French soldier. was it their relation to G-d too.
or was it the reason that he stated? If so, why is it so hard for this guy to believe he killed the Jews for his reason that he stated?
it might not make sense to us but apparently to this killer it did
““All Jews are proof that Gold Almighty exists in the world”
A very interesting – and a very Freudian – misprint!
G-d bless all of you who have came on here to defend gentiles whom this Rabbi may have offended w\his remarks but…I actually AGREE w\the Rabbi! Let me explain: coming from a x-tian background, I can tell you 1st hand, that x-tians most certainly DO sneer or jeer at the thought of the Jews being the “chosen people”.
The very notion of it brings an eyeroll or a heavy sigh at the least… and as we can see, at the worst, even violence or death! So I DO agree w\the Rabbi that there’s a TON of “haters” out there, when it comes to Jews! Many who don’t believe they are “haters” maybe… but when you talk to them in detail about the differences in faiths, oh boy! You find out real quick what they REALLY think of your people, know what I mean? Make no mistake about it!
Where I think the Rabbi could have worded things differently perhaps, is he could have maybe said, “They hate us [Jews], because WE CHOSE G-D above all else- above any other religion or prophet”. That might have helped to clarify things. *shrug* After all, that’s the truth! 🙂
But he’s a tzaddik & I’m a nobody, so I’m not gonna correct the man! (lol)
Point is: the Rabbi is correct – quoting scripture in fact!