“The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more.”

Wilson Mizener – American Playwright

Kriat Shema al Hamitah continues: Hashem said to the Satan, “May Hashem denounce you, O Satan! May Hashem, who chooses Yerushalayim, denounce you again! Indeed, this [man] is like a firebrand rescued from a fire.” (Zechariah 3:2)

According to the Ibn Ezra, our verse is an inspirational and resounding message that attests to the enduring and eternal nature of the Jewish Nation. Hashem announces that anyone who tries to stop the Holy Temple from being rebuilt will be crushed and destroyed. Hashem then declares that it is enough that His chosen nation has been continuously forced into the fires of exile and persecution throughout history

Much to the astonishment and bitter disappointment of the evil empires that have risen and fallen throughout history, the Jewish People have been snatched from the fires of destruction over and over again. Despite their best efforts to rid the world of the Jews, the anti-Semitic nations of the world have failed. Yet, without pausing even for a moment to wonder if there is any logical or rational explanation for the failure of their cowardly and despicable efforts, they renew their attempts to annihilate Hashem’s nation. And our illogical and unnatural existence enrages the anti-Semites of the world, motivating them to keep trying to achieve the impossible.

Paradoxically, the Bishop of Bristol, Thomas Newton (1704-1782), wrote, “The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of Divine Providence. And what but a Supernatural Power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved. Nor is the providence of G-d less remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, than in their preservation… We see that the great empires, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of G-d, are all come to ruin… And if such hath been the fatal end of the enemies and oppressors of the Jews, let it serve as a warning to all those, who at any time or upon any occasion are for raising a clamor and persecution against them.”

Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz was once asked by the mayor of Metz why the Jews celebrate Purim if the Torah states that it is forbidden to take revenge. Rabbi Eibeshitz answered that we are not celebrating our revenge on Haman. Rather, we are warning all the present day “Hamans” what fate awaits them if they try to harm us!

Or, as Marceline Loridan-Ivens (1928-2018), Auschwitz survivor and French award-winning author, wrote, “Our history, the history of European Jews, is that they [the non-Jews] will never forgive us for the evil they have done to us!”

On Seder night we jubilantly sing Vehi Sheamdah. And we sing the words “…Sheb’chol dor vador, omdim aleinu l’chaloteinu – in every generation they rise up to destroy us.” Make no mistake, Vehi Sheamdah is not a song that is sung only on Seder night. Far from it. Vehi Sheamdah encapsulates the very essence of our history. In effect, it is on a loop, being “sung” every moment of every day. And its final words define, to the disgust of all those who hate us, why we are still here. “VeHaKadosh Baruch Hu matzileinu miyadam – the Holy One, Blessed be He, delivers us from their hands.” If only the world would take note. If only the world would finally comprehend that there is no way that they can succeed in eradicating the Jewish nation. If only the world would stop trying to change the ending to the song and actually listen to what is being sung.

The Russian Count, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), considered to be one of the most influential writers of secular literature in the nineteenth century, wrote, “What is the Jew? What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish? What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors? The Jew is the symbol of eternity. He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.”

Outside of the traditional Jewish sources, perhaps one of the most evocative and stirring descriptions of what it means to be a Jew was, ironically, penned by a non-religious Jewish writer, Vikki Baum (1888-1960): “To be a Jew is a destiny.”

Words so poignantly and irrevocably true.

*To be continued…

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