Why I Deleted a Comment

One of the nice things about having a blog is that I can read the reactions of its readers when they leave a comment. Most of the remarks are supportive and make me smile. Some, though, are offensive.  Recently, Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. Anonymous posted one of the latter. He/She didn’t refrain from signing his/her name because of shyness or fear of being overly exposed in cyberspace. No, the comment was unsigned because the writer is a coward. The statement was a tirade of anti-Semitic poison blaming the Jews for all the world’s evils and claiming we would be totally destroyed in the near future.

Since this comment had nothing to do the article it was posted on I can assume that Anonymous didn’t even read what I wrote. Most likely he/she scans the computer for Jewish content and spews hate indiscriminately. It’s too bad I was a target but with one quick press of my finger the venom was deleted.

Still, I haven’t forgotten the words and I wonder if Anonymous has emotional problems or just never learned world history. For no one can destroy the Jewish people. Many tried: the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Spaniards, the Cossacks, and the list goes on and on. Countless pints of Jewish blood have been spilled and yet the Jewish people continue to exist.   

Why we have suffered and still suffer so much persecution is a quandary that has troubled scholars for generations. Recently I heard a very interesting parable from Rabbi Zev Leff, shlita. He compared HaShem to a surgeon. The doctor wears a mask and sometimes in order to save a person from a terrible disease has to cut away at healthy parts of the body.  There are times we feel HaShem is hiding His face from us, so to speak behind a mask. Some of the surgeries He’s performed on the Jewish people have been excruciating. I believe, though, that in the end we’ll understand that they were for our own good.

It was on my article, Losing Weight, that the anti-Semite left the comment. I’d written that I felt much lighter after finally forgiving someone. Anonymous, though, will not be forgiven by me unless he/she makes a big change and stops with the anti-Semitism. Nor do I intend to waste any brain space or emotional energy worrying about what he/she wrote. I have far better things to do with my time.

Yom Kippur is behind us and I now look forward to celebrating Sukkot holding the four species in victory. For I know that on The Day of Atonement HaShem forgave the Jewish people as a whole. Am Yisroel Chai. The Jewish people are alive, well, and here to stay. 

courtesy of wikipedia