Choni Davidowitz
As my friends and I enjoyed ourselves, a report came through that the Purim celebrations in Belgium had been cancelled and rabbis had told congregants not to wear masks, due to the terror attacks that had taken place a few days before.
This Purim clearly showed that for the last nearly 2 000 years, the Jews of the Diaspora have been living in an ongoing masquerade. For the Jews in exile, it’s been Purim every day, dressing up in foreign fashions, speaking foreign tongues, eating foreign food, identifying with foreign nations and cultures, in order to pass off as good South Africans or Americans, or Frenchmen, etc.
It is time to realise that the exile is one giant mask. Jewish life in the Diaspora is make-believe; it isn’t the real thing at all. For nearly 2 000 years we had no choice. We could not go home to our own Jewish land. We could not return to the true place where the Torah is meant to be kept. So our children had no choice but to dress up as our host countries and live a masquerade in order to get on with the goyim.
Tragically, as years dragged by, memories of Zion have faded, especially among the younger generation. I spoke to quite a number of young Jews and found that most of them were in a state of Diaspora dementia. Along with forgetting Zion, they have forgotten that we are living a make-believe life.
Whoever doesn’t believe me, should ask 10 young observant Jews what their identity is, and at least eight will say: “I’m a South African Jew.” I profer that our young Jews have become like the Jews of Shushan, who wanted to be “Persians” like everyone else.
How sad that our wonderful youth love their masks and are not being taught that the masquerade ball of exile is over and that Israel is where they really belong, where they are really loved and welcomed as Jews.
Golden Acres, Johannesburg
