There’s some controversy about President Barack Obama’s Passover message. The key passage is this:
“The story of Passover…instructs each generation to remember its past, while appreciating the beauty of freedom and the responsibility it entails. This year that ancient instruction is reflected in the daily headlines as we see modern stories of social transformation and liberation unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa.”
Ironically, of course, Israelis and Jews who support that country generally see that transformation as being in a negative direction from their standpoint and the forces being liberated involving a good deal of anti-Jewish ones.
I think the greater problem here is the endless universalizing of specifically Jewish experiences that are never seen as sufficient in their own right, as well as the basic opportunism of making Passover into an event backing Obama administration policy.
But a peculiar personal experience of mine has given this controversy a special meaning for me. Some years ago I attended a dinner in Washington that was one of those endless — and always futile — events bringing together Arabs and Israelis for “dialogue.” Since it was during Passover, the thoughtful hosts had placed matzo on the table.
One of the Egyptians, a relatively moderate diplomat who had built a whole second career in the peace process industry, said in an annoyed voice something like: “Isn’t this a Jewish holiday that celebrates a victory over the Egyptians?”
I had a fraction of a second in which I knew I had to think of the perfect answer. And it came to me. I replied, “That was during Jahiliyya times.” He nodded with understanding and the problem was solved.
The Jahiliyya era, for Muslims, was the time of pre-Islamic paganism and ignorance. In the Koran, the pharoah was a villain. So if it happened then he could see the “Egyptians” as having nothing to do with him and accept that the pharoah was a bad guy who deserved to be drowned in the sea.
Here’s the problem. When radical Islamists killed President Anwar al-Sadat, they said, “I shot the pharoah.” One of the reasons that Sadat was assassinated was because he made peace with Israel. Another reason was that he opposed making Egypt an Islamist state. Now that President Husni Mubarak has been overthrown, he’s referred to as the pharoah for reasons including those two.
No surprise. Bush understood.
Having Obama celebrate the Passover Seder really is a mockery of what it represents. Here is a man who sides with the enemies of Israel, who aides groups openly opposed to Israel’s existence. I’m wondering how well this ploy for Jewish contributions to his campaign is going to work. Many of the liberal Jews, who once supported Obama, now have seen the light and are wise to him. Last polls about a year ago showed a shift of support from 78% to a fifty fifty push. I dare say that the shift has been even larger at this point. People like Samantha Powers and others like her are helping the shift come about.
His action and comments are a desecration.
Most Jews, of every faction, have realized that he is a virulent anti-semetic. The p.r. stunts can’t hide the truth. All, but the Jews on the far left, are leaving him. Those numbers will sink to new lows.
Throughout the millennia of our history, nations who have harmed the Jewish people have failed, and fallen. And once again, we see it happening. Sadly, it is happening to a nation we care so much about, and where we have felt safe for a while. It is the sign that we are soon going to “Come Home.”
HaShem promised- He gave us His Word that His Sacred Covenant with the Jewish people was everlasting, even at times when we misbehave. It is eternal. Men and their nations will lie, revise and contrive. HaShem does not. Only the arrogant, filled with hubris, think otherwise.
By HaShem’s own hand, we are witnessing His promise fulfilled, once again, as we have through many a bad time. That is why we are still here, and thrive as we do. Just look at Israel, look at the Jewish people, and consider the odds.
Yes, Obama made a mockery of a most sacred event in Jewish history. See it for the evil that it is, and never forget it. HaShem will see to him, as He has with all who have come to harm us. Remember HaShem’s words:
“And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name, and [you shall] be a blessing.
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.”
- Bereishit 12: 2-12: 3 (Genesis 12:2-12:3)
Obama supports the Islamist side in EVERY conflict or dispute, both at home and abroad.
Obama hates Christians and Jews, except those who betray their heritage and principles to side with him.
For decades, the sanctioned wisdom has been that this so-called “Arab Spring”, or some variant, is the necessary and inevitable step the which the barbaric Arab culture must eventually pass through in order to move from tyranny into modernity…
That “wisdom” has always been catastrophically wrong. Many of these so-called “wise” analysts even have advocated that it is ultimately positive if we see these “oppressed” Arabs, once tossing off the yoke of tyrants, pass through a dalliance with what is politely termed “Islamism”. They magically assert, without the slightest evidence, that Islam is simply a phase Muslims are going through, as if it has no real staying power when juxtaposed against the glories of democracy and secularism. That “wisdom” is also catastrophically wrong. We now have evidence, widespread, that Muslims who escape their various flavors of Islamic tyranny and arrive in the West, continue to tenaciously (and some might say bitterly) cling to their Islam like limpets on rock.
Muslim attempts at modernity and secularism during the 20th Century have been abject failures. Every experiment has ended or is ending in complete failure. Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, and many more, all have attempted to roll back the most retrograde forces od Islam, often with the wise men of the West objecting, only to falter in the endeavor.
The tyranny in the ME is due to Islam, and nothing but Islam.
The barbarity of the Arabs is due to Islam.
Until that poisonous cancer is removed from earth, the world will suffer and escalating orgy of nightmares at Muslim hands.
Why is that so hard to comprehend?
islam is a hateful ideology. and obama supports it.
Very well put Mr. Doodslag.
“Until that poisonous cancer is removed from earth, the world will suffer and escalating orgy of nightmares at Muslim hands.
Why is that so hard to comprehend?”
I have been asking myself that same question for quite some time, and I can’t arrive at an answer for otherwise intelligent people being so resistant to the EXTREMELY obvious.
Recent events in the Middle east have caused me to think back to an interview with an official of the Salvation Army I saw many years ago. This official was asked why the Salvation army never took a stance on political issues. His short answer contained as much insight into the current Middle East situation as talk of an “Arab Spring” contains foolishness.
I do not remember his exact words, but the gist of it was this: “We don’t believe that you can make a better world by making better laws; you can only make a better world by first making a better man.” It is abundantly clear that Islam will never make “a better man”, for as Winston Churchill correctly observed about Islam: “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”
The problem is Islam first, last and everything in between, yet Obama finds a way to equate a most important event in Jewish history with Muslim uprisings.
Unbelievable …that Americans elected this man to be our President.
I enjoyed your passover read Mr Rubin, but I take issue with your statement on radical Islam. What is that?
There is no radical Islam unless someone is writing about Apostates in Islam. They are the true radicals. Islam, as I bet you already know, is following Muhammad. What did Muhammad do? Yes, we know.
Also, Allah is a purely Arabic word meaning the god. Allah Akbar. Allah, or the god is greatest. The god is greatest of what? The god is greatest of all other gods at the Kabba, or zero point. Islam is still very much a pagan religion following a mad man, worshiping a moon god called Sin, with Israel in the cross hairs.
Have a great Passover Sir, and stay armed.
Well, that’s no surprise. Obama’s Easter message misses the point of Easter.
But his Ramadan message was spot on.
It seems to me that the euphoria is less for an Arab Spring than an for an Islamic End-run. Get rid of the ludicrous term with its stench of a “Springtime For Hitler” without any sarcastic humor.
The issue goes far beyond a lack of sensitivity, This empty suit – and his sophomoric team of writers. truuly have no education in, or awareness of, history and its nuances in dealing with foreign affairs, or American affairs either. In instances of references to Urdu poetry or Pushkin prose it is merely risable; in international or interfaith matters, it can be fatal.
It is not only Obama who is clueless about the meaning of Passover. There are far too many self described Christans who do not understand it as well. I am no expert and certainly will not try and edify the explanation given in the article. I would only say this is a good time of year to dust off that Bible and read the Passover Story.
It is interesting that during this breakfast Barry called himself a Christian, but went on with comments that betrayed a complete mis-understanding of Biblical history and tradition. Rubin is too kind.
I would temper this article with the comments of Avi Lipkin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhfB0WRjvE&feature=player_embedded#at=1317
The Passover commemorates the event in which the Angel of death passed over the homes of those who painted their lintels with the blood of the lamb, and killed the firsborn of all the households who did not obey Gods command to paint their lintels. This mass execution compelled Pharaoh to let Israel free from their enslavement of 430 years and permit them to leave Egypt.
The point is, that obeying God frees us from slavery to sin, and that God applies the death penalty to those who disobey Him.
Most do not get the point because, like Obama, they have no intention of obeying God. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God and His Blood, and His alone, can wash us clean of our sins. He is Lord and Savior. We can’t have one without the other. If we would have Him as our Savior from sin, then we must obey Him as Lord. And very few will choose to do so. Pity.
Um, so Tiger, what do we Jews do today? Continue to follow and obey God as we’ve done for 3,000 years or convert to Christianity?
No. I don’t think so. I’ll stay with God who has been with the Jews since the beginning, thank you very much.
I respect your faith; please respect mine.
You just disrespected his – and mine. We leave you alone is your folly (disbelieving God and rejecting the Christ) – but support you because we obey God. But when you folks go out of your way to take a hit at us it just shows us you want our blood (our sacrifice for you) as long as we SHUT OUR MOUTHS!!!!!
Lest you forget – this is OUR most HOLY WEEK – not yours! I believe Yom Kippur is YOURS.
Lolly,
Tiger speaks of “those who painted their lintels with the blood of the lamb” but never mentions their faith.
Then Tiger proclaims that “Christ is the Lamb of God and His Blood, and His alone, can wash us clean of our sins.” But Jews and others do not believe, as you and Tiger do, that only through Christ can they be cleansed of their sins. And yet, for Tiger, somehow that’s the point of the Passover story.
If you can’t see that Tiger’s post was indeed disrespectful of the Jewish faith, if instead you see Grantman’s declining to convert to Christianity as somehow “disrespecting” your faith, then there’s a religion of supposedly 1.5 billion faithful who will welcome your conversion from Christianity. (Just don’t try, ever, to switch back.)
In the meantime, may you and Tiger celebrate your Easter holidays with unbound joy. (Just don’t try to do so in the place of Jesus’ birth.)
What you call the Holy Week of Christians coincides with the Holy Week of Passover for Jews, for Jesus was a Jew, and according to the accounts in the New Testament, celebrated the Passover, called in the Bible, the “Last Supper.”
what a small-minded comment! “yours” and “ours” “you folks”? leave ours alone and stick with yours? what kind of church do you attend that would teach you to talk that way to JESUS’OWN PEOPLE (because of course as even you must know, Jesus was Jewish)?
if you knew anything about Christianity, you’d know that the Jews are God’s chosen people. maybe He didn’t run it by you first, but I’m pretty sure God’s got it worked out. the Jews are gonna be fine, but thanks for asking.
Seeing that my comment has spent 24 hours in moderation, I suppose I should try and restate my point in less pointed terms.
White Tiger’s post not only misrepresents the Pesach message, but also misnames the events. G-d’s commandment to the Israelites was to mark their doors with lamb’s blood. He never commanded the Egyptians to do the same. The Egyptians could not be punished for a commandment they did not receive. The killing of the first born was not an execution. Just as the 9 other plagues, this final plague was a result of Pharaoh’s refusal to let the Israelites go. There is no logical basis for extrapolating White Tiger’s interpretation of those events. So, you’ll excuse me for suggesting that you have done with Passover the same exact thing that Obama has. You used it to rationalize your faith, even as logic, reason and fact points in other directions.
To extrapolate further, that those who refuse to believe in the tenants of the Christian Church, like the Egyptians, deserve death, is not only absurd on it’s face, but disrespectful towards those who do not share your faith. Beyond this, there are plenty of laws which, if broken, do not lead to execution. Plenty of sins are cleansed through rituals and are resolved with rituals far less extreme then ones involving the death of a human being.
Finally, and this is primarily for Lolly, Christianity is just as, if not more, guilty of co-opting Judaism then any other religion or culture in the world. You call your bible, the New Testament, as a blatant message of supersession to the “Old” Testament. You use prophesies of the Hebrews, to the Hebrews in order to justify your faith in a Hebrew as a messiah.
You choose to support Israel for no other reason then because you believe that is what G-d wants of you. If you thought G-d wanted us all dead, that is what you would want as well. You wouldn’t be the first Christian to think thus and to act thus. Your sacrifice is not for us.
This is a free country and you may speak as you wish. That does not mean you aught to say what you wish as some thoughts are more meaningful then others. There are elements to your religion which I respect and there are elements that I find repulsive. I am sure you feel the same way about me and mine. Count me in the camp of folk that does not look forward to the Temple being rebuilt and the resumption of sacrifice. So, there are significant elements to my own religion I do not have high regard for. Back to the issue of keeping mouths shut- replacing the world Muslim, with muzz is degrading to your own teachers’ message of loving thine enemy. You need not degrade your enemy in order to fight him, nor do you need to degrade him to win. You need not reprimand us for any folly you perceive in our faith. Remember that you live in a glass house and plenty of stones lay about as metaphors for follies enacted in the name of your Hebrew savior. Just as Islam should be able to handle a few cartoons that parody their faith, you aught to be able to hear my or Grantman’s denial of yours without taking offense, no matter how holy the week on which we speak.
White Tiger – the bad news is that the Muslim countries opened themselves up to further darkness by expelling their Jewish populations. The good news is that it is not well known but there are increasing numbers of Muslim converts to Christianity in every Middle Eastern country.
Gee, I thought you claimed to be a Jew? Some Jew! Please tell us more about the Federal Reserve and the international Jewish conspiracy to control it.
I was just reading the Thebes Gazette. Let me paraphrase it for you. Pharoh’s wife, “Look at what the Jews are doing. They are painting their door frames with lambs blood.” Ramses, “Oh, they are just decorating.”
White Tiger,
You must be a Messianic Jew. As to “Obama’s Passover Message”, what else would you expect from a Muslim. He doesn’t like Christians or Easter either.
Does Obama lift his wine glass and say, “L’Shana Haba’a B’yerushalayim” at his “seder”?
Great Post.
Hag Sameach
‘This mass execution compelled Pharaoh to let Israel free from their enslavement of 430 years and permit them to leave Egypt’
There was no mass execution, it’s a story. Jews have the right to their own myths without them being turned into war crimes.
Hello, liberal American leftist Jews, are you there? Do you hear your hero this time?
Obama stealing Passover for the muzz is what the muzz do to everything Jewish – they co-opt it.
What the tools on the left see as a muzz spring I see as the fulfillment of biblical prophesy – i.e. Ezekiel 38 & 39. To prove this read some articles out of Moscow. The “yobs” there hate non-russians with a passion and their favorite book is “The Elders of Zion.”
That’s rich from someone who calls Judaism “folly” and pimps blood libel (“you want our blood”). Not working, punk.
“their favorite book is “The Elders of Zion.””
Looks like it’s yours too, blood-libeler.
So the president as usual has no problem making statements about stuff he knows nothing about.
He could have just had Seder, eat, drink, say some stuff from the hagada,, remember all that with just joy and not too much speeches. It is elegant enough in itself. This is matzoh…yes but aunt miriams soup is ready now. At the end of the night we are family now.
No he wants to make it into policy and tie it into…does not belong there. Easter is happening now. Time to concentrate on dinner for those relatives we haven’t seen or a while. Still we love them.
Happy Easter. This is happy time to enjoy together. Forget the government.
Shalom,
Spindok
Obama understands as much about Israel and being Jewish as I do about performing calculus in Chinese
he needs a big steaming mug of STFU
And Happy Passover to all our Jewish friends, here and around the world
Obama is an embarrassment and a disgrace. and it shouldn’t surprise us that he managed to find a way to give a shout-out to the Muslims at a Passover seder.
would someone please buy him a clue?
and please…my Jewish brothers and sisters across America…PLEASE, do not vote for this clown again…he does not mean you well.
“I established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan…”
Barry, that passage WAS on the Jumbotron, er, teleprompter, when The Other Barry was speaking. Thinking quickly on his feet, The Other Barry used his superior intelligence, Constitutional knowledge and historical expertise to determine this was a typo (Canada). When did God give the 57th state (aka Canada) to the Jews?, he wondered. TOB adroitly sidestepped that mistake. (Whew! That was close.)
The problem has always been that we Jews have been viewed as strangers in the midst of whatever land we are in. Even in the “democracies” of Europe, we were a separate group of people, always looked at with suspicion and subject to be turned on at any time. The US alone has allowed Jews to become true citizens. This is not to say that there is no antisemitism here- obviously there is, but it is not institutionalized into our government. However, the left’s anti-Isreal leanings threatens that, and if Isreal is destroyed, we will have no safe harbor. Jews must turn away from the left, and support Isreal and those Americans who support it.
Palin 2012!
Nice to see PJ Media honoring the holidays by giving their usual low brow crackpots a chance to rave pointlessly
Mr. President -
Passover has NOTHING to do with the sons of Ishmael, the disinherited, contentious One.
Dr. Shalit
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