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There is no example in all of humanity of a people or a nation that so desperately pursues to undermine and inflict pain on themselves as the Jewish people. As if antisemitism had not given rise to enough enemies, history is replete with examples of Jews who hated their own people so vehemently that they dedicated their entire lives to its ruin.
This peculiar characteristic of Jewish self-loathing was highlighted by novelist and Holocaust survivor Aharon Applefeld, who said: “Antisemitism directed at oneself was an original Jewish creation … The Jewish ability to internalize any critical and condemnatory remark and castigate themselves is one of the marvels of human nature. Day and night the flame of that feeling produces dread, sensitivity, self-criticism and sometimes self-destruction … Only one thing may be said in its favor: it harms no one except those afflicted with it.”
Before we delve into the intriguing phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred, it is imperative to scrutinize what hatred is and what constitutes its root. Hatred is our inherent nature, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). At the same time, the rest of nature also consists of a good inclination, and the two are balanced everywhere except in humanity. We are created this way to compel us to want the good inclination consciously, of our own volition, and to choose to balance our inclinations rather than remain in our inherent wickedness.
Except for people, there is not an iota of hatred in all of nature. Animals do not hurt or maim other animals—especially not their own species, for their enjoyment or entertainment. If an animal aggresses another, it is to provide itself or its cohort with food, to protect its pack from becoming food, and to maintain its species’ natural hierarchical order and strength in breeding. Dolphins swim under wounded animals of their own species to support them and bring them to the surface. Similarly, the red deer species protect their herd by producing a barking sound as an alert to escape from predators.
It is therefore evident that hating one another is a uniquely human vice. But there is a profound reason that only humans hate each other and do so with such passion. Within us there is envy, which is innately human and which grows within us all the time, driving us relentlessly in pursuit of power and respect and pitting us against one another on our path. Over our history, this has led us to become increasingly unforgiving of each other.
Human nature is a self-serving egoistic desire that considers only its own benefit at the expense of others. The more we develop, the more our egoistic qualities grow and transform into expressions of increasing hatred. In other words, hate is a natural and easy release of our inner self-serving state, and the vitriolic explosions we see throughout society are all manifestations of this intensifying hatred breaking through the surface.
In the past, you could see children playing together and enjoying each other’s company. Today, they play against each other, and the focus is on surpassing and winning. If you compare people who lived two centuries ago to our generation, you will find that we are far more self-centered, careless, and entitled people than our great-grandparents were. From generation to generation, we are becoming more bellicose, hurtful, and also more sophisticated and cunning in our malice, as multiple scientific studies reveal.
In their compelling book The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, researchers Jean Marie Twenge and William Keith Campbell conclude that over the past few decades, we have seen exponential growth in narcissistic tendencies among young people and the general population.
They explain that “The United States is currently suffering from an epidemic of narcissism. …narcissistic personality traits rose just as fast as obesity.” Worse yet, they continue, “The rise in narcissism is accelerating, with scores rising faster in the 2000s than in previous decades. By 2006, one out of four college students agreed with the majority of the items on a standard measure of narcissistic traits.”
The US National Institutes of Health also explored narcissistic lifetime prevalence and discovered that narcissistic traits are found in almost 10% of people in their 20s, compared with 3% of people in their 60s.
Researcher Pat MacDonald, author of the paper “Narcissism in the Modern World,” wrote about his worrying finding, “…narcissistic traits have reached epidemic proportions with serious consequences. Ever-increasing levels of greed, self-obsession, superficial relationships, arrogance, and vanity are apparent everywhere and not making us any happier, with common mental health problems on the rise, especially among the young.”
But there is a good reason for this perpetual decline: We are the only species capable of consciously correcting our nature. The reason for the spike in the levels of hatred in recent years is that this hatred must increase in fierceness and become so unbearable it compels us to seek a way to mend it.
The more hatred increases, the more we will come to realize that we cannot overcome it by ourselves, yet we must overcome it or it will extinguish us and civilization as we know it. This, in turn, will drive us, even if against our will, to work on healing our egoism together. And this compulsory cooperation against an enemy that dwells inside each of us will foster within us profound love for one another. Were it not for the intensity of the hatred, there would not be a necessity to love. Were it not for our defeat in battling hatred alone, we would never turn to one another with hearts hungry for love. We will be able to truly love only when we understand the role and significance of hate. And then we will see that all of us—all colors, races, faiths, and cultures—were created so ferociously only so as to willingly turn hatred into love.
The purpose of these opposites—hate and love—is to provide an opportunity for us to consciously build a bridge of connection, a balanced state, above these contrasting situations in which humanity can eventually find safety and calm.
Until such balance is achieved, the world will fall deeper and deeper into unbridled selfishness and mutual animosity. And the more humanity feels trapped, the more it rebels against us Jews and blames us for its troubles. While humanity cannot articulate its grievances against us, the fact that it accuses us of domination and warmongering proves that it believes we are intimately connected to its plight and can somehow eliminate belligerence. Subconsciously, people recognize that the solution to this intractable problem is unity and that the people of Israel are inextricably intertwined with attaining this state. As a result, they feel they are dependent on the Jews. This, in turn, causes them to blame the Jews for every problem in the world and to infer that they also possess the key to humanity’s happiness.
Indeed, the Jewish people can open the floodgates to a good future by restoring the internal unity between the members of our nation above all our divisions. By this, we become a “light unto nations” and provide the positive force the world lacks. The people of Israel have experienced constant internal struggles, but since their inception as a nation and for 2,000 years, their unity overcame their moments of division and was the key element that held them together. This is why The Book of Zohar (BeShalach) writes, “All the wars in the Torah are for peace and love.”
If we restore our broken relations, we will become the model that the world demands we become. When such a transformation takes place, the worldwide rise in rejection toward Jews will be inverted to its positive form: a supportive, respectful, and even loving attitude toward a people who positively influence the rest of the world and bring a new, off-the-chart sensation of happiness and togetherness to all.
Sadly, many Jews lack awareness of their noble role and the height of their responsibility to the world. Indeed, some Jews who feel deprived and pressured by antisemitism or anti-Israeli sentiments become the most virulent Jew-haters themselves, trying to escape the hatred toward them. They are the ones who not only sign public letters of support for antisemitic organizations, but even lead them.
I focused on this topic in my book, Jewish Self-Hatred: The Enemy Within – An Overview of Jewish Antisemitism, in order to reveal the shockingly stark reality of this phenomenon with examples from history and fascinating individual case studies that reveal the complex and enthralling process that creates the Jew-hating Jew. It aims to shed clarity on the source and uniqueness of Jewish self-hatred, including the role played by Jewish guilt, the desperate attempts Jews sometimes make to dissociate themselves from Jewish identity to fit in society and be accepted, and how this approach fails to protect them from antisemites.
The bitter development process of the self-hating Jew poses an enormous threat to the Jewish people and to the entire world. Wondrously, like a jewel to be discovered, the surprising remedy for Jewish antisemitism—and any kind of antisemitism—is hidden within the essential collective wisdom of our Jewish heritage.
The enemy is within us. More precisely, our detachment from one another is what weakens and transforms us into easy targets. In response to adversity, Jews have succumbed to the blame game within our ranks instead of holding each other tight, and when our unity crumbles, hatred against us strengthens. Put simply, the more we Jews hate each other, the more the world will want to eliminate us.
Conversely, when we Jews unite, we become a positive example of human connection that is felt internally—consciously or subconsciously—by everyone worldwide. The fruit of such an outcome is that antisemitism will dissipate, as will all boycotts, demonstrations, and accusations against the Jews. For this to happen, though, we need to focus on healing our relationships with fellow Jews by rising above mutual hatred and transforming it into brotherly unity instead of allowing that hatred to inflict wounds upon ourselves. This work within us is essential to our well-being and tranquility, as our very existence depends precisely on this, as does the world’s.
Based on the book, “Jewish Self-Hatred: The Enemy Within – An Overview of Jewish Antisemitism,” by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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