Which Came First?

  
   It's simply amazing how many gifted writers and thinkers have given serious quality time pondering that greatest of all causality dilemmas, namely "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" 

• Aristotle was greatly puzzled by the idea that there could be a first chicken or a first egg, and concluded that both must have always existed.
• Plato got around having to answer the question as asked by declaring that "Everything before it appeared on earth had its first being in spirit."
• Stephen Hawking, argued that the egg likely came before the chicken, but that the real importance of the question has greatly faded since Darwin's "On the Origin of the Species," and his accompanying Theory of Evolution.

      Before getting on to my answer, permit me to pose a similar dilemma of causation:

    Which came first . . . the Jew or the anti-Semite?

   Believe it or not, over the course of decades, I have given a lot of thought to this question, and have somewhat cheekily concluded the following: That if God, in his or her infinite wisdom had not created the Jew as an eternal witness to all of human history, the anti-Semite, in his or her infinite wickedness would have done so just in order to possess an eternal target for baseless, ignominious blame. 

   Well, I did say my conclusion was a might cheeky, didn't I?  

   One might think that after the Holocaust, humanity would have smothered anti-Semitism; that that particular strain of malevolent psychosis would have been extirpated.  But no, it did not. And while I am not one of those who see an anti-Semite lurking behind every rock or shadow, it nonetheless staggers me to realize how many people do continue to fear, loath or hate the sons and daughters of Israel.  And what is even more staggering is the realization that some of the worst fear and loathing exists in countries and among people who have virtually no daily contact with individual Jews, let alone the Jewish community. Many around the globe have convinced themselves that its not Jews they revile; its the Zionists. 

   There are, of course, tens of millions -- if not hundreds -- who have their doubts about whether the Holocaust truly occurred or was just some sort of Zionist invention. There are also untold millions who possess an unvoiced "knowledge" that all Jews know and communicate with one other; that there is truth in the conspiracy "revealed" in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. And many more believe that we Jews think ourselves to be superior to other peoples; that this is why we call ourselves "The Chosen People."

   Yes, yes, I can hear you at this juncture blurting out "But we don't call ourselves The Chosen People, its God who does."  Of course; you're absolutely correct.  But remember: I'm not reporting on what we say or believe. Rather, I am recounting the idiotic prevarication of our detractors. One question that is rarely asked -- by Jews or Gentiles -- is: "Chosen for what?"  If one were to pose that question to an anti-Semite he or she would likely respond "Chosen to rule the world," or some such nonsense. I think the real answer to the question "Chosen for what?" is simply, "Chosen to exist.  Chosen to be a witness to history in all of its pain and glory."  I firmly believe that at the end of time -- whenever, however or even if that will come about -- at least one Jewish person will remain.  And in that "still small voice" of which the Prophet Elijah spoke, that one Jew will say something like, "You see, all we were trying to tell you was to be nice to one another . . . to feed the hungry, cloth the naked and take care of the stranger, the widow and the orphan.  To make peace where there was strife and to bring light where there was darkness.  But for whatever reason, you just didn't listen . . ." This is not the scenario of a people who are in any manner superior.  What it is is the destiny of a people who have witnessed that which is best and worst in human history.  

   Believe it or not, Jews told jokes during the Holocaust.  There is even a collection of jokes and stories told in the Ghettos and camps.  In one of the most famous, two men meet on the street in Berlin during the dark, dark days of the Depression.  One man asks the other:

   "Why are things so terrible?  Who's to blame?"  The other man responds,

   

  "The answer to your question is simple; there are two groups to blame."

  

   "And who might they be?" the first man asks, all ears.

  

  "Why the Jews and the bicycle riders," he said.

 

    "What in the hell do the bicycle riders have to do with all our problems?" the second man asked.

 

   "Beats me," the first man said, "What do the Jews have to do with all our problems?"

 

   As with most "black humor," this little story carries an underlying truth that is both painful and cogent.  To wit, that for anti-Semites, the Jew is a "straw man," or a "scapegoat" -- a convenient bit of misdirection that keeps peoples' eyes and minds diverted from the true sources of human misery. 

 

   Misdirection, however, can go both ways.  For just as some point an accusing finger at "the pernicious, conspiratorial, venal" Jew in order to have an object of blame, fear and hostility, so too are there those who point accusing fingers at others and call them anti-Semites. Of late, there are a bunch of emails going around the Internet "proving" that President Obama and his administration hate Jews and are intent upon destroying Israel; that the president is a Muslim, that Secretary of State Clinton is an ardent anti-Semite, and that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a self-hating Jew.  The purpose of these emails, so far as I can fathom, is to convince as many Jews as possible that the only hope for Israel is supporting the Republican Party -- the only party that truly loves, understands and supports the Jewish State.  

 

   Yes, misdirection can indeed go both directions.

 

   I don't have a snappy answer to the question "Which came first, the Jew or the anti-Semite?"  All I know is that for as long as the Sons and Daughters of Israel have walked this earth, there have been those who have feared and dispised us. Why, I really don't know.

 

   However, when it comes to the chicken and the egg, I think I do:

 

   Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

 

   Neither one.  What really came first was . . . the question!  

 

©2009 Kurt F. Stone

 

Comments

[Alan Weiss]

I think we should start an "anti-Goi" movement!