Q&A: Rabbi, look what an amazing text
Rabbi, look what an amazing text
Question
Nietzsche on the Jews in Dawn:
The psychological resources among contemporary Jews are beyond all estimation; rarer than among all the inhabitants of Europe is the tendency, in times of distress, to seek escape in a cup of intoxication or in suicide, […] In the history of his fathers and forefathers every Jew has at his disposal rich mines of exemplary deeds of composure and the most settled perseverance in situations of terror, of the most refined cunning and the exploitation of disaster and circumstance; their courage beneath the cloak of miserable submission, the heroism of soul shown in contempt for the fact of their being despised […] For two thousand years they were treated with contempt […] they were degraded and defamed into dirtier livelihoods—and indeed, under such treatment they did not become cleaner. But despised? They never ceased seeing themselves as destined for the highest things […] In the way they honor their parents and their children, in the intelligence latent in their married life and customs, they excel all the peoples of Europe. Then they will be regarded as inventors and trailblazers for the peoples of Europe, without this any longer being considered an affront to their honor. For into what channel other than this could flow that abundance of mighty impressions that has accumulated, with which Jewish history fills every Jewish household, that abundance of passions and traits and decisions and abstentions and struggles and victories of every kind—where is this mighty stream to pour itself if not into great men of spirit and action! Then, when the Jews will be able to point to such precious stones and golden vessels as the work of their hands, the like of which European peoples, whose experience is shorter than that of the Jews and not as deep, were not and are not capable of creating, when Israel exchanges the vengeance of all its generations for an eternal blessing upon Europe—then that seventh day will rise and come again, when the ancient God of the Jews will once more rejoice; He will be able to delight in Himself, in His creation, and in His chosen people—and all of us too, surely, will rejoice and be glad with Him.
What do you think?
Answer
What’s the question? That’s what he thought. Good for him.