The Meaning of ‘Righteous among the Nations’
With the Associated Press running a news story regarding yet another fanciful tale of ‘Holocaust Survivor’ love: I thought it apt to briefly remark on an aspect of the story that might have passed many by. (1) That aspect - to be precise - is the idea of the ‘Righteous among the Nations’. This idea stems of course from the fundamental assumptions of Judaism, but we can quickly show that it is not quite as innocent as it might at first seem.
When one see’s the term ‘Righteous among the Nations’ one assumes that it is a fairly quirky and innocuous label, but the logic of the term is what is suggestive to us. By awarding people this title the awarders - in this case broadly the jews as a people and Yad Vashem in particular - are stating by implication that the nations (i.e., non-Israel/gentiles and therefore non-jews) are not as a rule ‘righteous’. Therefore gentiles are inherently unrighteous and by that logic: ‘evil’ or prone to ‘evil deeds’.
This is implicitly directly contrasted with Israel (meaning the biological community of the jews in this case: as it does in Judaism) who are by implication inherently righteous and therefore ‘good’ or prone to ‘good deeds’.
This is of course rather less complementary than it at first seemed. As the award of being ‘Righteous among the Nations’ merely means you are no longer assumed to be inherently ‘evil’, but rather have some semblance of ‘good’ in you. What Yad Vashem - and the jews in general - are saying is in effect: you have aided the jews therefore you are good, because we as the people of G-d say you are. However if you merely aided other gentiles then you would still be inherently ‘evil’ or prone to ‘evil deeds’, because you didn’t aid the Chosen of Yahweh/Hashem (who alone can award this status and will do for their own benefit not because of a humanitarian or humanist ideology).
If we follow this line of thought for a second we can see that it becomes even more ominous in its implications in so far as by awarding the status of being ‘righteous’ to one assumed to be ‘evil’ or prone to ‘evil deeds’. Yad Vashem - and the jews in general - are assuming the mantle explicitly given to them in Judaism whereby they become the priests of the world and world’s intermediaries with Yahweh/Hashem. Thereby they - as a biological group of Messiahs - and only they can deign to lift a non-jew out of their status of being inherently ‘evil’ or prone to ‘evil deeds’ and inform Yahweh/Hashem that this non-jew is really a ‘good servant’ of the jews and thus is to be rewarded.
Is this not assuming the mantle of Godhood falls upon the jews? After all who is determining what is ‘evil’ and what is ‘good’ in this case? The jews of course and the basis for this arbitrary determination is rooted in the jewish self-proclaimed status as the ‘Chosen People’ of Yahweh/Hashem. This seems silly and absurd to us, but that is what the individual jew and the sum of jews think they are: G-d or rather the divine representative(s) of G-d (and therefore gifted in knowing G-d’s mind). So the question we must logically answer is: whether you are interested in appeasing Yahweh/Hashem as your God? If not then why must you appease and kneel before the jews?
Ask yourself that and follow that thought-experiment to its ultimate conclusion and you will realise that where reason takes you is into the realm of rational opposition to the jews as a people or as we should call it: anti-Semitism.
References
(1) Monika Scislowska, ‘Former inmate recalls daring escape from Auschwitz’, 20th of July 2010, Associated Press. This is available at the following address: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100720/ap_on_re_eu/eu_poland_escape_from_auschwitz_1