I shouldn’t have, but I did. I’d like to think that I’m more selective when choosing which news stories I click and spend my time on. The caption was too compelling, and it drew me to click quickly on the picture of the African American lady sharing a piece of her mind with a captive audience on a NY subway.

It’s not new to us. It’s actually the oldest script we Jews have as a people. You people think you are superior; chosen. You think you can make your own rules and be ‘above’ the law…well, we’ll show you!

Avraham Avinu was promised by Hashem that his children were destined to journey through strange lands where people who would persecute them. And there’s not a single inch of the globe where Jews have not wandered and been subject to the prying eyes of the natives sneering, pointing and cursing us. We know it to have been true 5000 years ago, and now, with our very own eyes, we see the pendulum swinging back in our, and our children’s direction…even in America!

How many of us saw the video last week of the lady unloading on Jews, mocking us, and spewing profanity all over that subway car, and felt that feeling rise up inside of us to shoot back at her, to put her in her place, to justify feelings of hostility and anger back at her and ‘her people’? Of course you did!

But hold on a second. As with everything that we experience in life, we are meant to experience it through the eyes of Hashem and His Torah. And this is no different. We can’t listen to what she said and take that at face value. That would be what any other person in the world would do. That’s all they could do! But we’re Jews, and that birthright is our unique privilege to have a real, dynamic relationship with our Creator! No, He hasn’t turned His back on us and “unchosen” us, and yes, we have an obligation to hear the messages He is sending to us cloaked in the mundane, every-day language of those around us. He is talking to you and me.

We would be missing the point entirely if all we heard was this lady ranting and raving about how despicable the Jewish nation is, and let that get to us. Step back and ask yourself, am I doing the best job I can carrying the banner of Torah in the world? Am I interacting with the world on a more refined level than my non-Jewish co-workers? Am I modeling kindness, self control, and politeness when I step into a store on black Friday, or comb the crowded NY city blocks in search of a parking spot? Or graciously allow another to check her two-items out in front of my own packed shopping cart at the grocery store? Or how showy the plans to renovate my house are? Or how far out of my way do I go to return a mistaken tax refund to the government that was not entirely due to me? Do I feel the responsibility on my shoulders that comes along with being a part of “the chosen nation”? Do I recognize that people are watching me and my Family? Do I realize that my behavior becomes the standard that all Jews are measured against? You know what? Don’t ask yourself if you are living up to these standards. Ask them! They, nations of the world grade us on how well we are playing our role.

Do I agree with what that angry lady said? How she said it? Absolutely not! But that doesn’t give me permission to shoot back and engage in a war of words. What is she saying? Listen. Why is she saying it? ….pause…. What may Hashem be trying to tell me through this shaliach? Bilam was a Navi for the goyim. Did he have truths to convey? He was granted that permission from Above.

Don’t get lost in the content. What is the process Hashem is trying to mechanech us to engage in and correct in our own little worlds? Hale’vai we should hear that message loud and clear.

NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.

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