THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

His words express no condolences and no empathy, only a distinction between Usand Them, the People of the Torah and the “Negroes” of the world who have noGod. This is what happens in the process of restricting human wisdom to Jewishwisdom only: The narrower one’s lens, the tighter one’s limits. It leads to arroganceand patronization, a short way from racism and discrimination. Rabbi Yosef is proofthat a giant of Torah scholarship can be a humanistic dwarf.The late Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last Chabad-Lubavich Rebbe—whoseHebrew title, Admor, means our master, our teacher, our rabbi—stretched the limitsof his Hasidic sect’s dogma beyond legitimate Jewish boundaries. When his followersproclaimed him a Messiah while he was still alive, no one protested. Even when hisbody was lowered to the grave, some denied his death. “The Rebbe is alive,” theydeclared. A poster proclaiming “Long live our master, our teacher, our rabbi, theMessiah King forever and ever,” is still among the most conspicuous memorabilia inIsrael and New York. They turned the dead rabbi into the second messiah, who diedand was resurrected. The first messiah was also a Jew. His name was Yeshua, orJesus Christ. On their bodies new religions were born, none of them in the leastJewish. With his death and rebirth, the Rebbe’s theory of faith did not die. On thecontrary, it is alive and kicking. It is the faith of the extreme Right.From the first days of our patriarchs, two trends rose in Jewish history: exclusivityand inclusiveness. The exclusivists separated themselves from the world and detestedthe gentiles’ being and inputs; the inclusivists were open to adopt positive spirits andideas from other cultures. These trends began a long time ago, when Judaism wasconceived. The first was Abraham the Hebrew, the Ivri, who came from across theriver, where we originated. But this geographical expression became psychological,positioning us on one side of the balance and the entire world on the other side.Throughout Jewish history, our forefathers never succeeded in erasing thesignificance of the gentiles in our lives. Judah, the patriarch of the House of David,was the first Israelite to have a mixed marriage outside the patriarchal family. Hemarried “a daughter of a Canaanite man, whose name is Shua, and he took her andcame to her.” 4 Ruth the Moabite slept overnight at the feet of the Israelite farmerBoaz, who later married her according to Jewish custom. The couple created a