DEADLY ENTICEMENTS – by Raphael ben Levi
Shortly before the expulsion from Spain, Jews eagerly assimilated among their Spanish hosts, and considered Spain the new Jerusalem thinking that the presence of so many Jews including some who were Messianic in the inner circles of the court, municipalities, and even the Catholic church, could provide protection and avert exile. They were wrong.
Similarly, German Jews believed that if they assimilated, they would be safe from the anti-Semitism that relentlessly pursued them. We all know how this assimilation ended. Strangely enough, even Adolf Hitler wondered how it was that the Jews had survived thus far. In Mein Kampf, he wrote the following words, “When over long periods of human history I scrutinised the activity of the Jewish people, suddenly there arose up in me the fearful question whether inscrutable destiny, perhaps for reasons unknown to us poor mortals, did not, with eternal and immutable resolve, desire the final victory of this little nation.”
These examples of the past contain lessons that should play a part in our vision for the future applied in the present. God has some truly amazing things ahead for us but every believer must press forward with integrity, perseverance and confidence, secure in their identity rather than exchanging it for a weak imitation as did the Israelites on many occasions for ‘two pieces of silver.’ Assimilation is biblically the scourge of identity both physically and spiritually and the ultimate betrayal and rejection of a godly relationship with the living God.
The sages teach that Torah (relationship with God), Israel (identification with the Land and the people) and eternal life are the three things that can only be acquired through great hardship (Talmud, Brachot 5). What this means in context for the believer is something often overlooked – the cost of discipleship. This might appear intimidating, before we realise, as it has been said, “Like a Jaffa orange, the juice is well worth the squeeze!”
