Remember Who You Are | Rabbi Blum Anchel

Shalom. I thought the era of the blood libel was over. But in our time now with mass media and pundits who are anti-Semitic and lie, even some Jewish ones who don't have an inkling of their heritage, so we shouldn't be influenced by what they say. We have to look at what the Torah says about our people. Dovid Hamelech says, "Mi k'amcha Yisrael?" Who is like the Jewish nation? And Yeshayahu said, "V'amech kulam tzaddikim." Your nation are all righteous. In the Gemara it says that there isn't an empty Jew who doesn't isn't full of good deeds like a pomegranate. And the Kodosh Boruchu says, "V'atem li segulah." You will be by me special. Yirmiyahu Hanavi said, "Kodesh Yisrael l'Hashem." Jews are holy to God. The Gemara says if you want to know if somebody is Jewish, take a look and see if he is if he's shy, if he's merciful, and if he does acts of kindness. If not, then it's a question of his ancestry. We say in the davening, "Ohev amo Yisrael." God loves his nation of Yisrael. And every morning I say thank God that he created me a Jew. So I'm not saying this that you should have a debate with other people. I'm saying this you should feel proud to know who you are. But what about the criticism in the Torah when it criticizes the Jewish people or in the Tanakh? The answer is like this. If you have a child who brings an A+ on every course every time, now all of a sudden one time he's going to come with a B. So you're going to say, "What happened here?" And that's the situation. Every criticism in the Torah, even Rabbi Miller says this, every criticism in the Torah is really a compliment. You don't find them criticizing other nations, only the Jewish people because you expect the best from them. So every criticism, like I said, is a compliment. We mentioned earlier that a Jew is shy and he he is merciful and he does a lot of good deeds. But what happens if somebody tells you, "Well, what about this guy? What about the other one?" The other example. The answer is if you have ex- you have exceptions to every rule. And just because somebody might come up with an exception, it doesn't change the rule for the majority. So, thank you for giving credit where credit is due, and please remember who you are. Thank you.