With Allies Like These
This isn’t representative of course, but I wonder how marginal it is. It’s a sentiment you would have never heard voiced by the more secular Zionists of two generations ago. Now it’s at least part of the Israeli governing consensus.
Israeli Sephardic leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in his weekly Saturday night sermon said that non-Jews exist to serve Jews.
“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world; only to serve the People of Israel,” he said during a public discussion of what kind of work non-Jews are allowed to perform on Shabbat.
“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat,” he said to some laughter.
Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party and the former chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, also said that the lives of non-Jews are protected in order to prevent financial loss to Jews.
“With gentiles, it will be like any person: They need to die, but God will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money. This is his servant. That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew,” said the rabbi, who recently turned 90.
An audio recording of some of the rabbi’s remarks was broadcast on Israel’s Channel 10.
The American Jewish Committee condemned the rabbi’s remarks in a statement issued Monday.
“Rabbi Yosef’s remarks — suggesting outrageously that Jewish scripture asserts non-Jews exist to serve Jews — are abhorrent and an offense to human dignity and human equality,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “Judaism first taught the world that all individuals are created in the divine image, which helped form the basis of our moral code. A rabbi should be the first, not the last, to reflect that bedrock teaching of our tradition.”
http://jta.org/news/article/2010/10/18/2741341/rabbi-yosef-non-jews-exist-to-serve-jews
This is a question I’ve had about Judaism:
If you take yourself seriously as “God’s Chosen People”, I’m not sure why you *wouldn’t* value your tribe, the people through whom God will introduce the Messiah, higher than everybody else. It seems logical; in fact – it seems a little blasphemous *not* to hold this opinion if you are Jewish.
Not that you’d necessarily, like this rabbi, infer the right to abuse everybody else. But it seems that you either take your identity as “God’s Chosen Tribe” seriously or you are not being a very good Jew.
Anyway; that’s what it seems like to me; an upstanding member of the goyim.
The rabbi is deluded and dangerously so because most middle eastern descended Israelis hold him in reverence. However, it must be noted that the Old Testament does permit the keeping of slaves and their descendents (called “servants”) and even the beating to death of slaves so long as they are not Jewish.
Here is the good rabbi’s explanation of the Holocaust:
“He called the Nazis “evil” and the victims “poor people,” but he concluded that the six million ‘were reincarnations of the souls of sinners, people who transgressed and did all sorts of things which should not be done. They had been reincarnated in order to atone.’ “
In some ways this is mere and vulgar chauvinism, fairly typical of the various families of man.
But in the special case of Israel it is also a result of the welfare mentality, similar to that of the infant or juvenile dependent. As the child or welfare recipient is encouraged to consider that adult support and largesse is his right, he thinks thoughts like those above. They are his world view, and they are not unfounded.
So long as Israel is permitted to live upon the US taxpayer, so long as American soldiers are sent to die in wars for or about Israel, so long as Israel is permitted the pretense that it is a developed nation and a member of the “West”, despite all evidence to the contrary, and so long as Israel’s agents in the United States pay no price for espionage and interference in US domestic politics, the view above will persist, even thrive. Because it will be true. We will be the donkey, doing the Israeli effendi’s bidding. We will work and fight. He will watch. And eat.
McConnel: “I wonder how marginal it is.”
In Israel, Yesef is apparently quite mainstream.
“Yosef is considered a major religious leader in Israel who enjoys the allegiance of hundreds of thousands of followers. Shas is a chief coalition partner in the current Israeli government. Yosef, also a former Chief Rabbi of Israel, was quoted by the right-wing newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, as saying that the basic function of a goy, a derogatory word for a gentile, was to serve Jews.”
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/non-wisdom-from-the-talmud-like-the-donkey-non-jews-were-created-to-serve-jews/
I think its time we faced facts: Israel and its Zionist supporters — Left to Right, Jew and Gentile alike — are Jewish supremacists, through and through. Worse than that, they support the concept of institutionalized, state-enforced Jewish supremacy. It’s taken awhile, but their true faces are finally becoming obvious — and in retrospect, its been obvious in US policy for ages.
We sure seem to serve Israel.Iraq wasn’t much of a threat to the US.Don’t think Iran is much of a treat to America either.Sure hope we don’t invade Iran but I’m not sure we won’t
As though in confirmation of the above, MSNBC is reporting that 544 new settler homes are being built.
Here’s how the peace process works: we bribe and arm-wrestle everybody to the negotiating table, the Israelis lift the settlement ban, houses are built (often with money sent from the US), the US is embarrassed, pressures the Israelis to halt the settlements, the Israelis say “yeah, but” and explain that the US will have to pay for all the costs of the disappointed settlers, suspended construction projects etc. The builders and construction outfits have been through this process before. They know how the game is played and how easy it is to profit from it.
The end result is that all Israelis conceivably involved in the scam get paid off by Uncle Sugar, the Israeli government is applauded and rewarded for its forebearance and statesmanship by Congress, Palestinians get jack, US taxpayers get ripped off, and more US soldiers get killed by the increasing numbers of Muslims who hate us.
That’s why it’s called the Great Game, you see.
Seems much ignorance on display by the Rabbi’s comments as translated, and by the comments here.The expression if you ask two Jews you get three opinions has some truth and I’m sure there are other valid interpretations . Most Jews have a very limited knowledge of their heritage[Torah/Bible -Five books of Moses and commentaries and
I'm not qualified to shed much light but nobody else is trying. First one has to define chosen.Google it at word iq.com and you'll see that there is no uniform definition agreed upon .I was taught it's the role of the Jews sealed with the covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah and thru their son Issac and his seed. Initially all mankind was to live on a holy level but after the failure of mankind in general resulted in the great flood, and the next 10 generations after Noah also failed, God chose Abraham and Sarah and their descendants thru Issac to teach ethical monotheism to the world. Taking ones role seriously as a Jew means following the commandments given to Moses which include Oral Law and the Rabbinic interpretations. Some are Zionist and some not. Any sincere convert can become a Jew but as Judaism teaches that the righteous of all nations have a share in the world to come by following the 7 Noachide laws it's not necessary.Taking on the yoke of heaven is tough lifetime work which an Orhodox conversion entails.]Jewish conversions within non Orthodox branches can be quick and easy without a commitment to observing the commandments and Orthodox Jews consider those invalid conversions. While much to criticize re US foreign policy I don’t see a connection with the Jewish religion, or chosenness. The majority of Zionists[ those who believe in a Jewish homeland in Israel wherever they may personally live]and Israelis are secular and God’s choosing the Jews to be a holy nation [goy kadosh in the Hebrew]of priests is true wherever they may be and has nothing to do with Israel or Zionism other than in messianic times Jews will have returned there and be a model society.A light to the nations. The term goy means nation and is applied to Jews in the bible as stated above. Some vulgar folks will use it in a derogatory manner , but it’s not a derogatory term per se. The seemingly miraculous circumstances resulting in the rebirth of the Jewish State in Israel after 2000 years,the in gathering of Jews from all over the world and victories against a much more numerous enemy is viewed by some as heralding the dawn of the messianic age.
While the bible permits slavery it’s said one who takes a slave takes a master.If only one pillow in the house the slave gets it.Food need to shared equally. The slave is freed after a period of time and if chooses to leave is sent away with monetary gifts of value to get started as a free man. It was never common and as far as I know was more like an indentured servant. If a thief spent the money and was then apprehended he’d work it off. No prisons.
The 90 year old Rabbi’s comments are often mistranslated and taken out of context. He may at times have also been mistaken. God is all powerful and all good and all his ways are just according to the sages. TheJews who were murdered by the Nazis where almost all innocent victims in this life as were the innocent victims of other attrocities throughout history.Why the righteous suffer and wicked often prosper only makes sense when one realizes this one lifetime is a brief window of the soul’s existence. How Rabbi Yosef comes to make his statements is beyond my understanding and as said he may be mistaken or mistranslated but if Einstein stated something that seemed bizarre to me re mathematics I would not dismiss it out of hand.
Maybe the next Ovadia Yosef sermon will be all about that memorable day in 1982 when 800 Palestinian refugees in Beirut’s Sabra-Shatila camps all died within a few hours from appendicitis or something. It must have been appendicitis, because we all know that Ariel Sharon was twiddling his thumbs the whole time.
If you take yourself seriously as “God’s Chosen People”, I’m not sure why you *wouldn’t* value your tribe, the people through whom God will introduce the Messiah, higher than everybody else. It seems logical; in fact – it seems a little blasphemous *not* to hold this opinion if you are Jewish.
The thing about Judaism is that it’s ethics are tribal, but they’re tribal ethics that got created at a time when Jews were facing oppression. How is this interpreted today? Well, contemporary Jews have two options, and fall into two basic categories: one group believes that the “chosen people” must always come first because they’ve been chosen, while the other group believe that Israel’s God always sides with the oppressed, and that since His deliverance and care for the Jews was a single example of that, then Jews need to “go and do likewise,” and also side with the victim in every circumstance.
The first group are more likely to be religious, right-wing, Russian, and Zionistic, while the second group are more likely to be secular, left-wing, and dispersed. These are generalizations, not hard-and-fast rules, of course, but I think the patterns are worth pointing out.
How wide-spread is this sentiment?
And, perhaps more important, does this sentiment color the policy positions of the state of Israel.
America, historically, attempted to maintain an even-handed policy between Arabs and Israel, “the honest broker”, while still recognizing and supporting Israel.
Obviously, it’s a tough balancing act.
As an ally, does Israel make America’s balancing act even harder.
Since the 1967 middle east war, where Israel gained control of the West Bank, the United States has opposed expansion of settlements, holding settlement expansion as illegal and acknowledging it as an obstacle to the peace process.
Yet, Israel continues settlement expansion.
Could it be that Israel’s settlement expansion policy is due, at least in part, to this sentiment expressed by this apparently mainstream Israeli rabbi?
Sadly, the Neocons support Israel’s continued settlement expansion policy.
Does this make America safer?
Young Geezer: In the Old Testament itself, though, Chosenness is as much an obligation as a honor. The pious Israelite will be rewarded, but the Israelite who fails in his duties will be punished severely, more so than pagans (except for the Canaanites in the early stages of conquest), who are regarded as being able to claim what Catholics call “invincible ignorance.”
Most of the Hebrew Bible is an account of how the Israelites frequently broke the Covenant and only really got with the program en masse after having to go into an exile a second time. Rabbi Yosef probably knows the text of the OT backwards and forwards, but the deeper meaning seems to have failed to sink in.
They may be chosen, but the questions arise: chosen by Whom and for what purpose?
Disregard my comment in favor of those of Andy and James, who both exhibited a better grasp on the question than I did.
Nevertheless, I have to wonder, Andy, whether those who defend the Rabbi by claiming that his words were mis-translated and de-contextualized are able to accept the possibility that Ahmadinejad suffered the same fate. I hope so, but I doubt that such openness to nuance is widespread in that particular situation.
One nut does not represent a whole culture or nationality just like a dozen nuts from Al Qaeda do not represent moslem people or culture (s). Is Sharon Angle representative of you?
Almost every race on earth is or has considered itself to be Chosen at some point. Nothing wrong with that unless they start acting like they’re Chosen. Round the time they start thinking that being Chosen is a permanent or hereditary condition is usually when they get it in the teeth, with or without God’s help.
A bigger point is that Neocons love to cherry-pick extreme quotes from Muslims and posting this is at least as valid. Probably much more so.
Funny how everyone wants to debate what “chosen people” means. Actually the term is am segula (people that are treasured and/or people who are a sign), nothing to do with being chosen. Want to know what it means? Ask the people who brought it into English and gave it a dumb translation.
But this speech is reprehensible, I agree.