The Truth About Jewish-Muslim History

Lately there's this uh thing going around it's not a new idea but it's become more popular in the last few months because of what's happening in Israel this notion that you know Jewish Muslim relations before the state of Israel were always very good that you know the Muslims treated Jews very well especially compared to Christians that the only reason that there's a supposed conflict between Jews and Muslims is Because of the state of Israel because of Zionism and there's always there's this often this refrain that oh I'm not anti-semitic I'm anti-zionist and if it wasn't

for Zionism that like Jews and Muslims everything would be just fine and we've probably all heard this idea it's become very popular and even like you even hear Jews saying it the the Nur Carta those like Ultra Orthodox anti-zionist Jews talk about all the time lately it comes up on my YouTube Feed a lot like they're these n Carta and they're always saying this that like no it's because of the like evil Zionist entity that Muslims now hate Jews and and before that Jews and Muslims always got along and Muslims always treated Jews so well

and we lived so peacefully so we hear that a lot lately and I want to explore that is that actually true or is it a myth so that's that was the the idea I wasn't originally planning to do this class but I pushed off the other Topics because I it keeps coming up over and over again and I think it's important to actually address it like is that true were Jewish Muslim relations throughout history over the last like 1400 years that is Islam has existed have they really been good did Muslims really treat us well

or better than Christians did and so on so that's that's the question and I want to start with a letter that was written by the ramban myones the great Rabbi mosha Ben MyON uh just to recap he was born in the year 1138 he passed away in 1204 he was renowned found not only as one of the greatest rabbis of all time and the chief Rabbi of the Egyptian Jewish Community but also he was a great philosopher he's known as myones and he played a very instrumental role in bringing together ancient Greek philosophy particularly Aristotle

together with religion you know with monotheism so he was able to To bridge together Greek wisdom with like the abrah traditions and that's also why Christian Scholars also would cite myones so for example aquinus a lot of people have heard of aquinus he cites myones in his works at least two or three times and many others so he was known as his great philosopher a great scientist and also a physician he was a doctor and he was the personal doctor of the very famous Saladin Sultan Saladin who was the leader of Egypt at the time

And of course famously fought the Crusaders and was able to recapture Jerusalem for the Muslims from the Christians so the rambam was also the personal physician of Saladin and the court physician of his entire Dynasty the AED Dynasty and so a really great man a great legislator you can see statues of him around the world there's a monument to him in Cordova in Spain where he was born there's actually even a relief of his face in the the uh Capital building in the US House of Representatives in Washington so you can see a a relief

of my Mones there as somebody has a great legislator and philosopher and thinker and physician and his medical treatises are still studied today and there are hospitals named after him in various places around the world so a really important Monumental figure is myones in Judaism in particular he wrote some really important works and he wrote really the Only complete Jewish code of law the mishna Torah Remains the only comprehensive and complete code of Jewish law that covers everything there are other codes of Jewish law like the which is like more popular but the only covers

the laws that apply today the rambam's Mish Torah covers all laws even laws that apply when the temple is built when about mashiah about all these things uh sacrificial rules all the stuff that Don't apply today that we haven't done since the Temple was destroyed the rambam codified even that so he covered everything and I want to devote a separate class to the mission Torah and how the rambam completely transformed Judaism there's a popular saying that that from Moshe the first Moses Moses in Egypt mosu until Moses myones until the Ramba there was none other

like Moses so from Moses to Moses there was none like Moses that Moshe that the Rambam was as great as mosu he was like the Moses of his generation you know there's like the mystical idea that there's a Moses in every generation that there's like a a leader of the Jewish people like Moses in every generation so the rambam was certainly the Moses of his generation and maybe some even on a More cabalistic Level would say that he was The Reincarnation of Moses so the rambam was The Reincarnation of Moses so he was a Really

important figure so he was born in Cordoba at that time Cordoba in Spain was ruled by the Muslims as we know this was before the Reconquista of the Spanish and so he was born there he lived the first 10 years of his life in Cordova and he I mean he he was aware of what was happening right next door in the Catholic part of the Iberian Peninsula he happened to be living under the Muslim part and when he was 10 years old there was a new Dynasty new regime Took over the almohads and the almohads

were very ex extremist and they started persecuting Jews and they basically forced everybody to either accept Islam or die and they repealed What's called the whole idea in Islam of being a dii of a dii is somebody who's not a Muslim but like not a pagan so like Jews and Christians namely were demies so they allowed the Muslims would allow Jews and Christians to like live in their lands but they'd have to pay a a tax the Jia Tax and they basically have to be like second class citizens so they were inferior to the Muslims

and certain restrictions were imposed on them so they couldn't build any new churches or synagogues and they couldn't depending on the time and place the status of a dii and what that meant varied in some places being a demi meant you couldn't own land or you couldn't buy any new land or you were excluded from certain professions or you didn't have certain Rights uh often you couldn't ride a horse you couldn't ride anything you couldn't ride a camel or even a donkey in the city you'd always have to walk and maybe you'd have to walk

on the other side of the street or if you walked by a Muslim you'd make have to like put your head down uh or you'd have to wear some identifying feature uh in fact you know the earliest known the the whole idea of the yellow star like the Nazis had this yellow star the have the Jews wear a yellow badge the earliest known version of that is actually from the Muslims for the demies that were expected to wear a yellow badge to identify themselves and they couldn't proze so like Jews and Christians couldn't spread their

religion in any way you couldn't ring a church bell or blow the chaar you couldn't do any of these things and you had to pay uh a sizable tax as well to maintain your status so I'll just read from one decree From Baghdad in the year 1121 which said that for Jews they had to wear two yellow badges uh one on their headgear and one on their neck and each Jew must hang around his neck a piece of lead weighing 3 G with the word Demi on it he also had to wear a belt around

his waist the women have to wear one red shoe and one black shoe and have a small Bell on their necks or shoes so these kinds of restrictions were placed on Jews and also on Christians to basically Humiliate them to make them you to kind of like force them ultimately to want to take Islam to make their living conditions better uh that was the idea so like yes you can live among us but you will know that you are inferior that you are a second class Citizen and the idea was eventually you will Embrace Islam

Jews lived with that status in Muslim lands the rambam and his family did as well he came from a long line of rabbis so they lived in Cordoba things Were okay but when the alahad took over they repealed this whole idea of H being a demi you either accepted Islam or you were going to be killed so the family fled at that point and they moved to Morocco which was still under the al- noad rule but but it was a little safer over there and they lived there for a time he became a physician he

wrote his first great book the commentary on the mishna over there and already started to make a name for himself as as a great Scholar and then in 1165 one of his rabbis was called rabuda haken ibben Susan he was the chief Rabbi of Fez in Morocco and he was actually publicly forced to convert to Islam or be killed he was kind of put on display as the leader of the Jewish Community you know the the Muslim authorities thought you know if the rabbi converts then that'll Inspire the entire or that'll make the entire Community

Jewish Community convert to Islam too and of course RAB Yehuda refused and was P publicly executed and so things got really bad in Morocco as well so the rambam fled and his family fled once again and this time they tried to go to Israel which at that time was ruled by the Christian Crusaders and the thing is that the the Crusades and the wars between the Christians and the Muslims and all that actually had a really terrible impact on the Jews and Jews were also slaughtered by both sides By the Crusaders and by the Muslims

at very various times and the whole Jerusalem Jewish Community was like decimated and the rambam found not not much there and the Jewish Community didn't really have any infrastructure and there weren't many of them left and it was not a good place so ultimately they didn't stay in Israel and then the family moved to Egypt and they settled in Egypt in 1168 when the rambam was 30 so interestingly enough he soon Became the court physician and became the personal doctor of Saladin and in 1187 Saladin recaptured Jerusalem so it's just interesting to point that out

I often think that if the rambam didn't take good care of Saladin Saladin probably wouldn't have been able to recapture Jerusalem in 1187 so the Ramba must have done a good job cuz Saladin was in good health for for a very long time so he served the royal family for for a long time for at least two three Decades even he continued to serve uh he continued as Court physician even after saladine passed away so for the Jews he was soon recognized as the greatest Rabbi in the world and he would receive letters from all

over the place and he would send his responses and the yeminite community was particularly attached to the rambam and and really respected him and asked him corresponded with the rambam regularly and in Yemen there was again another uh A dynasty the ruling the regime in Yemen was also very hostile to the Jewish people and there was one particular leader called abdal Nai IB Mii who was also very fanatical and was trying to basically either have everybody convert to Islam or be killed and the Jews were experiencing the yemenite Jews were experiencing a great deal of

persecution so in the year 1172 their Chief Rabbi yakob ibben alum me he wrote a letter to the rambam and He asked him for advice and for help and so the rambam wrote a very lengthy letter and it was written in Arabic in judeo Arabic which is kind of like the Jewish dialect of Arab the dialect of Arabic that Jews spoke and he wrote a very long letter with it was like a it was like for to inspire them to strengthen their faith to tell them that everything will be fine and to give them a

blessing that all will be well and amazingly his Blessing kind of came true Because the very following year in 1173 that dictator iban Mii was deposed and actually the persecutions of the yemenites subsided for a little while and and the community was not destroyed so the ramam gave them a blessing that you know have faith everything will be fine and within a year things actually got better and uh because of that the the yemenites were actually so grateful to him it's a very well-known little Thing that the yemenites added to their kadish the r the

rambam's name so you know how when we say say and they would say we say right so they also added so they actually put his name into the kades so that every time they recite kades they they wished the rambam well so he wrote a very lengthy letter it covers a lot of things I think it's an absolute Masterpiece and he even gave a little calculation there for when he Thought mashiach would come it's very funny because he writes there that of course you're not supposed to calculate you're not supposed to try to predict when

the Messiah would come and but then he did it anyways right which is which is the truth with everybody right like many of the Great rabbis said like hey you shouldn't make predictions you don't want to give people false hope but you know it might be this right so when we when I posted that last class that we Did will mashiah come this year like a lot of people were saying like why are you doing this like why are you giving like making these like predictions I'm like listen I'm not a prophet I didn't say

I said maybe it's a suggestion it's okay to give people hope and like you know in the past all the great rabbis said like don't make calculations and they did all anyways so the ramam gave his own calculation as well in that letter so maybe I'll come back to that At the end so I want to go through the letter I want to go through the two paragraphs where he specifically talks about the relationship between Judaism and Islam between Jews and Muslims the house of Jacob and the house of Ishmael because it's absolutely fascinating and

I think every sentence here is so powerful and like really needs to be explored deeply because he encrypted it so beautifully and weaved it together with Biblical passages Biblical verses It's like it's really poetic it's really beauti so I want to go through it step by step and keep in mind that the rambam again he he knew what life was like under Muslim Rule and what life was like under Christian rule under Catholic rule in Catholic Spain under the Crusader Kingdoms in Jerusalem he he lived all over the place in Spain in Morocco in Israel

in Egypt under both Muslims and Christians so this is keep that in mind this is what He says so he starts like this remember my brothers that on account of the vast number of our sins God has hurled Us in the midst of this people the nation of Ishmael who hate us and persecute us severely and passed banful and discriminatory legislation against us as scripture has forewarned us and he's quoting from paru from Deuteronomy from our enemies themselves shall judge us okay this is the verse I'll read the entire verse Inu there is one of

the remember paru is Moses's like last song to the people to the Israelites before he passed away so it's at the very end of the Torah and he really gives it to them to the to the Israelites and the song is really deeply powerful encrypted with a lot of information there used to be it used to be customary for Jews to actually read regularly some even every day or even to memorize it so one of the verses Inu it says like This so how can one pursue a thousand and two can are able to push

away you know 10,000 how can it be that we find in history and in recent history in Israel when you think about let's say the war of independence right Israel declares independence and immediately a handful of Arab Nations declare war on Israel and Israel was outnumbered you know 100 to one you know There was only 600,000 Jews in Israel at the time and hundreds of millions of Arabs and it's outnumbered more than 100 to one it has to fight Five Armies five professional armies and they're able to win the war of independence it's an an

absolute Miracle nobody thought they could win the Arabs thought that it would be super easy the Arabs thought the Jews are crazy we're going to destroy them we're going to drive the Jews into the sea we're going to Obliterate this new Israel they didn't even think of a of a any alternate scenario they were so sure that what when benuron declared the state of Israel they were certain that it was just suicidal and they would destroy Israel very quickly and nobody thought that Israel would win I mean till this day they call it the nakba

the catastrophe you know it was so had they couldn't even fathom that such a thing could happen that Israel with basically Nothing with old weapons that they smuggled from Europe they only had four their Air Force the Israeli Air Force at the time had four old falling apart Czechoslovakian airplanes that they had to like disassemble smuggle into Israel reassemble and if you read the accounts of the war there's absolute Miracles just one Miracle after another with a small handful of Jews are able to push away hundreds thousands of Arabs even with the Air Force just

four little Airplanes were able to take on larger air forces from the Arab Nations and we see this throughout and God is saying here in in the Torah God is reminding the Israelites like you've seen these Miracles how is it possible that one of you can make a thousand flee right or two of you can make 10,000 flee don't you realize that it's because God is helping you it's that simple in the same place God is saying in he says Just look back in history and you'll see there's nothing more miraculous than Jewish history right

that's the best proof that you C you know there's an old saying that the King Louie asked Pascal blae Pascal the philosopher and mathematician he says give me one piece of evidence you know that God that Miracles are real that God exists and he said you know just look at the Jews right look at Jewish history so this is what it says here in the Torah God is Saying just look back at your own history and you see all the Miracles and you'll know that I am with you it reminds me of a story I've

shared it before but I have a neighbor who's an Iraqi Jew and his father came to visit who's already in his 80s his father came to visit and we had them over for sukot and he was a veteran uh and he fought in the Yon kipur war and because he was Iraqi and he spoke Arabic fluently he was born in Iraq so they had him they Stationed him with all the Egyptian he was stationed at the Sinai and they had him watch all the PS the Egyptian PS and they told him to like gather intelligence

listen in on their conversations in Arabic cuz they didn't know that he speaks Arabic and like you know pass on the what do you hear from the soldiers there from the officers and uh so he said he told me that like he heard them saying that it's impossible we can't win That like the god of the Jews is like protecting them it doesn't make sense like no matter what we try to throw at them it doesn't work right they they always win so and I asked him I said you know you always hear these stories

that like they're their Rockets wouldn't work and all these Miracles that like hundreds of their tank divisions would just Flee for some reason I'm like is this true or it's just like Hocus Pocus you know baloney that people like to Make up stories and he told me he said listen if I wasn't there and I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't believe it this is 100% true so I saw it with my own eyes right Rockets flying and then suddenly just falling to the side plopping over like weird stuff like you think it's going to

it's about to hit and doesn't work right he said he saw with his own eyes Miracle after miracle and he told me he said if I wouldn't have seen it I wouldn't have believed it Right so these are the kinds of things that we see throughout Jewish history and even in recent history and in Israel so going back to zenu to this verse in the Torah it says how could it be that you are so small and yet so powerful that you're going to you're able to hold off people who outnumber you 100 to one

and to this day Israel's outnumbered you know then there's at least 100 Arabs for every one Israeli Jew right and at least 100 Muslims for every one Jew in the World and that then verse continues it says their rock is not like our Rock and this is a key word here that's that's what the rambam is is uh citing what does that mean that that their rock is not like our rock this is the ramban being encrypting a very powerful message why the what does that mean the rock is one of the names of God

in the Torah is the the rock of Israel here in it begins if you remember by Saying that God is like the righteous Rock he's the rock of Israel and so this verse is actually beautiful because it's saying that their rock is not our Rock right our rock is the rock of Israel is God you know and their Rock isn't so it's interesting that the ram quotes this you might miss it when you read it like why what does this have to say because if you think think about the relationship between Islam and The Rock

you know Islam is centered in Mecca in The kabah which is a shrine with our Stone and they go and they Circle it and whatever and there's always like discussions is this some kind of pagan ritual left over from the pre-islamic Arabs that used to also worship this Stone and that got carried over into Islam I'm not going to get into that but it's interesting to point out that the two most famous Muslim shrines on the plan planet is the kabah in Mecca and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem so There's this association between

Islam and The Rock and there's an association between interestingly enough in the Torah there are a few verses where God tells us Don't Stray after the gods of wood and stone Don't Stray after those religions of wood and stone so of course theat the simple meaning there is you know don't worship idols made of wood and stone fine but there's a deeper meaning there that our sages noted that this is an illusion To Wood and stone is an illusion to Christianity and Islam Christianity is all about the wood the cross the wood and cross and

Islam with the rock like those are symbolic of these two faiths that were these two religions that are offshoots of Judaism that detached from Judaism and kind of took our scriptures and made it their own it's kind of like the original cultural appropriation and you know add it to our scriptures and and and adopted it and Adapted it so our sages saw those verses when when God cautions us not to stray into religions of wooden stone that it was actually secretly alluding to Christianity and Islam one of which is symbolized by a wooden cross and

the other by a stone it's interesting to point out so the rambam is actually cryptically alluding to this here in this verse where saying hey their rock is not our Rock right their rock with a lowercase our and our Rock with an Uppercase R and the verse Ends by saying that our enemies judge what does that mean our enemies judge the it seems really ambiguous what does that mean so it's he's saying that our enemies he interprets us as if our enemies are God uses our enemies to judge us so it's something that again appears

in the Torah in a few places God says if you guys go astray I'm going to use the Nations around you to punish you right it's all coming from me and this Will happen if you start going astray I'm going to wake you up and I'll use the Nations around you to judge you that's there's this idea and I'll come back to that idea a little later at the end because I want to bring also a famous Prophecy from the zoor that talks about this so the rambam quotes this verse just to to justify to

say like this is why this is happening to us so the isim you know the house of Ishmael is treating us really poorly you know Ultimately it's because we were sinful and and God is using them to judge us okay he continues and he says like this this is the important part the rambam says never did a nation oppress degrade debase and hate us as much as they and he says when therefore when David king of Israel inspired by the Holy Spirit and Visage the future tribulations of Israel he bewailed and lamented their lot only

in the Kingdom of Ishmael and prayed on their behalf for their Deliverance as is implied in the verse so he's quoting here from Psalms from T Psalm 120 woe is me that I sojourn with mesek that I dwell beside the tents of Kadar that's the verse who is M and Kadar the r says note the distinction between Kadar and the children of Ishmael because Muhammad is from the lineage of kadal as they readily admit so the Muslims themselves say that Muhammad is a descendant of Kadar and Kadar is the son son of Ishmael that's The

lineage that's how Abraham Ishmael connects down through Kar to uh Muhammad and Muslims themselves admit that Muslims say that Muhammad came from Kad the son of ishma he is going back to the Torah in Genesis and bit chapter 25 where where we read about the sons of Ishmael and it says is is had 12 sons is so his oldest son was and then those were his 12 sons they were 12 sons they became 12 princes these are the forefathers of the Arab peoples and their Clans that's the verse in Genesis so the rambam's quoting he's

saying you see when King David was in t saying woe to those people who dwell with MES and King David was alluding to this King David foresaw being a prophet that the Jewish people are going to end up living under the Dominion of kadal of the person who came from kadal of Muhammad and woe to them because they're going to have to suffer under their Oppression and the ramam continues although we were Dishonored by them Beyond human endurance and had to put up with their Fabrications yet we behaved like him who is depicted by The

Inspired Prophet again he's quoting from King David but I am like a deaf man I do not hear like a mute who does not open his mouth that's from Psalm 38 similarly our sages instructed us to Bear the perversions and lies of Ishmael in silence that's what the rambam says our S just told us you know don't don't fight it don't struggle with Ishmael just bear their what they're doing to you they found a cryptic illusion for this attitude in the names of his Sons mishma Duma and Masa right we just read he had 12

sons three of his sons names were mishma Duma and Masa what does that mean so the r says it was interpreted to mean listen mishma means to listen LMA Dum means do means to be quiet be silent and Masa what is a Masa Masa is a Bur burden it's a burden something heavy on you so the rambam says you know our sag just told us this this is what it means that Ismael had three sons named mishma Dum and Masa the deeper meaning there is just you know whatever listen be quiet bear the burden just

endure don't fight it don't speak up we have acquest the rambam says both old and young to inur ourselves to humiliation as Isaiah instructed us so now he quotes from Isaiah chapter 50 I Submitted my body to those who Smite and my cheeks to those who pluck so the ra is saying we kind of just we're taking their pain their their s their persecution and their humiliation and we're just silent so he's saying to take it or he's saying that's what we've become he's saying the Jews have be started to do that we just we

stopped fighting them and we're just taking this pain okay but not to actually do it on purpose no he's saying it's unfortunate He's saying our sages like kind of told us to do this and we acquiesced and unfortunately we're in this POS position now where they have the authority and they do whatever they want with us and they mistreat us and they harm us and they persecute us and we just take it we just take it in silence and he continues and says all this notwithstanding we do not Escape their intense oppression and ongoing attacks

no matter how much we suffer and Elect to remain at peace with them they stir up strife and Sedition as David described for us and he's quoting again from Psalms Psalm 120 I am peace but when I speak they are for war that's straight from King David same verse so that the whole verse in in in Psalms goes like this like woe to me that I live with me had to live with that I had to live with Kad which is an illusion to Muhammad and Ishmael and or Muhammad and the house of Islam shom

that I you know I too long I'm living with these people who hate peace I just want peace and they always want war that's what King David is saying and that's what the rambam is saying that this is what we have to deal with we just want to live in peace but they can't live in peace they're constantly causing War and the rambam is alluding to a concept in Islam which is that the purpose and goal of Islam is to Create a global caliphate the whole world must be Muslim there's no place in Islam for

other religions you know for Jews we don't mind that there are other religions like you can be a Christian if you need to be a Christian you can be a Muslim if you need to be a Muslim just be a righteous person you know there's like seven fundamental noahide laws just basic moral principles of mankind just be like a good moral person and you're good you'll be in God's good graces and There's a place for you in the afterlife like we don't try to make everybody Jewish like you you can do your thing but in

is they they don't have that like everybody has to be Muslim in in the Jewish world view there's room for everyone but in the Muslim World viw there isn't room for everybody and in fact the Muslim World divides itself up into the and the Islam the the house of Islam and the house of har the house of War if you're Not in the realm of Islam you're in the realm of War that's it that's how the Muslim world is lined up like you're either in the Islamic world or in the world of war and you

will be Islamic one way or another we will make this Global calipat and that's why the truth is like wherever there is Islam there's there's war and conflict and the same thing with the Arab Israeli conflict right this whole idea is the past 70 plus 100 Years of the Arab Israeli conflict it's Constantly Israel making overtures for peace wanting to live peacefully and the Arabs constantly rejecting it over and over and over again they were given so many opportunities going back to 1948 the Arabs rejected the partition plan they rejected everything you know after 1967

they said they're three NOS we don't negotiate we don't no peace no negotiation nothing they don't want they don't want anything to do with us in 2000 at the camp David meetings you know AUD Barak and Bill Clinton gave yaser Arafat everything they literally gave him everything he wanted and he just walked got up and walked away and started an ntif right after no re no and you can see you can google google build Clinton talking about it there's a speech there's uh you can see this video where Bill Clinton's asked about this and he

says he he literally says these are his words he says I killed myself to bring peace to that region we gave yaser Arafat everything he said 97% of the West Bank and land exchanges for the other 3% everything they wanted he just walked out just got up and left the table no explanation and started on intifa they're not interested they're not interested in peace right the Israel has no peace partner so we're always trying to give them stuff you know we disengage from Gaza we completely pulled out and they it was supposed to become the

new Singapore of The Middle East and what did they make out of it just a base for a bunker a launching pad for missiles instead of using all the stuff that they're getting all the billions of a dollars and all that concrete to build skyscrapers they could have been Dubai and instead they buil hundreds of miles of underground tunnels and weapons and Rockets just they're not interested in peace that's the problem that's what King David is saying I'm always trying to find peace I Am for peace but they are for war and they say at

themselves that's the funny thing the Palestinians themselves admit it all the time right and somehow the Western World fails to see it I'll quote just one because he said it so well you know zir musin who was one of the PLO leaders he said it in a 1977 interview this is what he said I'm quoting he said the creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the State of Israel for our Arab Unity in reality today there's no difference between jordanians Palestinians syrians and Lebanese only for political and tactical

reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism he admit like they admit it they say it themselves the Palestinian people only exists to fight design that's it it Was a created this whole idea of a Palestinian people was created solely to fight the Jews and to destroy the state of Israel that is their whole existence the famous golden mayor quote basically says it best you know if the Arabs put down their weapons there would

be peace immediately right there would be no more war if the Jews put down their weapons there would be no more Israel if the Arabs put down their weapons there would be no more war if The Jews put down their weapons if the Israelis put down their weapons there would be no more Israel that's simple it's that simple so like King David said we are for peace they are for war and yet the world illogically hates Israel and there's this blindness to the world just makes no sense that somehow is in the western mindset Israel

has somehow become the bad guy in the media among on University campuses among all the Liberals and it just makes no sense Right like that you look everywhere in the world the atrocities that are being committed are unfortunately being committed by extremist Muslims in the name of Islam whether it's in France in England they're beheading teachers in France and they're blowing up Subways and buses and trains in Madrid and in London and all over the world everywhere where they are in Africa and any everywhere but yet that somehow the Jews are the bad guys somehow

Israel is the Bad guy it's just it's strange it's absolutely bizarre and and it just goes to the point of stupidity of Israel now had to deal with this genocide claim you know at the ha South Africa is saying oh Israel's committing a how is this a gen where how is this a genocide when the Muslim the Palestinian population just keeps rising and rising and RIS the worst the most ineffective genocide ever and the irony is is that the Muslims themselves are committing genocides in Other parts of the world and nobody cares there's one I'll

just give one example in Indonesia one of the worst genocides that's taking place right now is happening is is being per perpetrated by the world's largest Muslim country which is Indonesia Indonesia is the number one largest Muslim country in the world and they are committing a genocide anybody know against who no you see you guys don't know about it cuz nobody Talks about it but in west Papa you know there's that Island Papa UG guini and west Papa so Indonesia annexed it illegally in 1969 and since then they've been carrying out an absolute gen they've

killed at least half a million people over that time they are constantly raping pillaging taking over res why why do they want it it has one of the largest gold reserves in the world one of the largest copper reserves in the World you've heard nothing about it right way more Indonesia uh way more poin have been slaughtered by Indonesia than Palestinians but nobody hears about it have you heard of one march on behalf of the of the West Popin nothing nobody even knows about it nobody talks about it so you have a Muslim country the

world's largest Muslim country committing an ongoing genocide of a people for decades and nobody cares not one UN resolution Nothing but somehow Israel is the bad guy right so that's the the the craziness of it all and it's just it's hilarious that in the liberal world the leftist liberal world is so opposed to Israel when the biggest threat facing the leftist Liberals is Islam because everything that Islam stands for is the exact opposite of what the Liberals stand for whether it's women's rights whether it's lgbtq you know gay people are still being hanged In Iran

regularly and being exec Ed by Hamas and yet you have queers for Palestine how is this possible How can there be a queers for Palestine if these queers were in Palestine they would be literally executed very quickly and yet instead of supporting Israel they are somehow supporting Hamas and it just makes no sense so how do you explain that I have no explanation for it it's either just brainwashing propaganda ignorance so Israel that does so much Good for the world that invents so many things whether it's like dripp irrigation or whatever technology ways different apps

self-driving cars you name it you know silicon W in Israel is like one of the world leaders in high-tech but that all of that gets nobody cares about that right so Israel is somehow the bad guy the only democracy the only liberal democracy in the Middle East is the bad guy and all the other dictatorships nobody cares About Bashar Assad has killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs nobody cares Assad can kill Arabs nobody cares Saddam Hussein can kill Arabs nobody cares right Iran can kill its Muslims Iran can arrest women who don't cover their head

you know if they don't wear a hijab they go to jail and they get you know we know what happens girls getting killed and but nobody cares about that that's that's not but Israel yeah Israel is the bad guy so it's bizarre I I don't get it I really don't understand it and this really gets to the heart of the problem with Islam I I I try to be a positive person and I think there is there is hope this is the issue the issue with Islam is that it just doesn't fit in the 21st

century Islam has remained in the Middle Ages it just it hasn't evolved at all you know and other religions evolve Judaism evolve Christianity evolves Judaism has evolved for example I'll Give you a couple of simple examples you know 2,000 years ago a Jew polygamy was allowed a Jew could have multiple wives today a Jew cannot have multiple wives right polygamy is now not allowed in Judaism so it was allowed then it's not allowed now Judaism is evolved Islam doesn't have that you know a Muslim could have multiple wives a thousand years ago and he could

still have multiple wives today it hasn't changed right so polygamy is just one Little example in Judaism it was allowed 2 and a half thousand years ago by talmudic times it was already pretty much unheard of I don't think there's a case of in the entire talet of any of our sages that had multiple wives simultane maybe one but it was already pretty much unheard of and by a thousand years ago it was already banned that's it I think there's this understanding that there's an ideal the Torah always maintains monogamy as the ideal as it

Should be Adam and Eve God says they you know they should become one flesh they should come back together monogamy is the ideal it allows for polygamy which we need to talk about why and I'll devote I think I want to do a separate class on polygamy and monogamy the Torah always speaks very negatively about polygamy every case of polygamy in the Torah is a disaster whether it's Abraham Jacob King Solomon whatever it's always spoken of Negatively the Torah implies that if you have multiple wives inevitably one will be loved and one will be hated

and it'll create unnecessary conflict but it still it was still allowed so we have to talk about why it was allowed then if the Torah disparages polygamy so much and it was clearly not an ideal why was it allowed in any case eventually we realize that hey it's time to ban this right you can't have polygamy and like a proper marriage and true love it just Doesn't work right like those two ideas don't go together like true love requires monogamy so any just we'll talk about that another time but just as an example of how

Judaism is able to evolve and say yeah back then it was allowed now it isn't and there's many other examples and Christianity has evolved and other religions change over time but Islam doesn't seem to want to change there's never been a Muslim Reformation there's never been a reform movement in Islam Christianity had a Reformation judism had a Reformation now obviously for us in the religious more Orthodox World whatever you want to call it we don't agree with Reform Judaism it its fundamental principles however there were good things that came out of even the Jewish Reformation

that we we often don't realize that rubbed off on even on Orthodoxy for example if you read about the early history of Reform a couple hundred years ago one of the early Arguments that reformed Judaism made was something as simple as we want on Shabbat in sh we want a sermon in English or in German in the vernacular language so that everybody can understand what's being said that was very controversial 200 years ago if you walked into a synagogue 200 years ago and there was a sermon that was given in the vernacular language then that

would have probably been a reform Sho because at that time it was considered no like In Europe you gave all your discussion all the sermons were in Yiddish or in thei world it would have been in Laino or whatever local language and it was considered controversial to bring some outside language foreign language into the synagogue so that was like one of the early arguments that reform was making and other one was let's do women's programs and kids programs that was controversial 200 100 years ago because until then a synagogue was Basically a gentleman's club it

was like for men women were not expected to to show up and they weren't encouraged to show up and neither were kids so the first synagogues that pioneered women's programs rodes events classes for women kids programs they were reformed and now everybody adopted that in all Orthodox synagogues now you have basically sermons in English or in whatever language kids programs women's programs women's classes so yeah we don't agree With reform but they they had some good ideas too it wasn't all bad they had good ideas that rubbed off on the rest of Orthodoxy and other

things women's education two 300 years ago Jewish women were not educated they weren't expected to go to school there were no schools for the schools were all for men and but then reform pioneered this idea of hey let's also educate the women and then it rubbed off on Orthodoxy right with sarir if you guys know the story of the Bas Yakov movement sarir pioneered to bring educa Jewish Education even into the Orthodox world for orthodox girls and today everywhere even in the most Ultra Orthodox communities girls get an education which is wonderful but that was

we forget that that was originally pioneered by reform so yes we don't necessarily agree with reform in terms of their ideology we not necessarily we don't agree with reform ideology but they pioneered good things That then rubbed off on the rest of even on Orthodox Judaism that's but Mitzvah also right until recently there was no such thing as a but Mitzvah celebration there was just Bar Mitzvah and now there's also a but Mitzvah it's good because you also want to celebrate girls and women not just boys right so there's all these good things that were

pioneered by reform that was adopted by basically everybody so Islam needs something like this right Islam needs a Reformation that even the more traditional conservative fundamentalist Muslims they might not agree with the reformers but but it will inevitably rub off on them those good ideas will spread good ideas have a way of spreading and becoming accepted by by more people so what Islam needs basically basically is a Reformation like Judaism had like Christianity had Christianity of course the Reformation the Protestant Reformation in Christianity was really Important for the Christian world and also rubbed off on

forced the Catholic World to adapt to stay relevant otherwise they would have disappeared so and and protestantism did a lot of good for Christianity as well and we also talked about that before that rakov emden one of the big chief rabbis in the early 1700s the yavitz also spoke positive of protestantism of what protestantism did for Christianity in helping to Remove some of the idolatrous elements from Catholicism and so on and other things positive things so the point is that religions evolve but Islam hasn't and it needs to and so I want to stay hopeful

that it will in fact there was in 2015 a group of Muslims and Muslim Scholars and religious leaders actually started the Muslim Reform movement so I I don't know how successful they've been it's it's been less than 10 years but I wish them Success because what it what it says on their website at least sounds very promising and this is what Islam needs and so I think that's a really good thing and it goes back to what it says in that passage about Ishmael and his sons and when he passed away it says that Ishmael

lived 137 years and he Di and he passed away and there's a famous Rashi there that he quotes from our sages that saysa that word means that Ishmael repented that Ishmael was wicked in his youth but he died righteous and so there's a hope there that you know if Ishmael is a model for the entire house house of Islam for the whole house of Ishmael that they will also find their way so I'm hopeful that Islam will actually improve and stop uh with all of this war and crisis where wherever Islam is there's constant conflict

uh so that's that's the hope so to summarize going back to our original Question did Jews live well under Islamic rule well according to the rambam absolutely not you know 800 years ago before there was Israel the state of Israel there was no Zionism and yet the rambam says that the oppression of Ishmael is much worse than anywhere else this is the most degrading and humiliating life for Jews anywhere on the planet and they've always persecuted us so it's a complete myth and it's totally not true uh the the Muslim Hostility to Judaism has nothing

to do with Zionism has nothing to do with the state of Israel it's already rooted in the religion itself and going back all the way to the beginning Muhammad himself the the whole Muslim calendar begins you know in what year the Muslim year begins you know like we have a Jewish year the Muslims have their year the Muslim year year begins in the year 622 622 CE is the year one of the Muslim Calendar that's the year that Muhammad and his followers took over the Jewish town of yri and turned it into Medina which became

you know the city the base of literally means the city the birthplace the of of Islam and they took it over from Jews at that time there was about 20 different Jewish Clans who lived in yeth and three there were three leading tribes the Banu Kura the Banu nadir the Banu Kuka and we spoke about this when we did the Judaism versus Islam class last year so just to remind you from that class that Muhammad came into that City took it over and five years later he slaughtered the Jews he killed at least 900 Jewish

men were beheaded in 627 Muhammad himself and his men beheaded over 900 Jewish men they had every woman and child enslaved Muhammad took a Jewish woman named rahana as a wife forced her to be his wife but she didn't accept him and Ultimately he let her go she kept refusing to convert to Islam she stayed a slave and at the end he he let her go the following year was the infamous Battle of kar Kar in in Saudi Arabia and the Jewish tribes of that point surrendered Muhammad had had grown very strong the Jewish tribe

surrendered that's when he instituted the gizia tax and his tax was 50% so he made them pay 50% of their wealth if they wanted to stay Jewish and not be killed for not Converting to Islam he found another Jewish woman that he wanted whose name was sopia and she actually became one of the mothers of Islam she's considered one of the mothers of Islam and an important Link in their tradition of the Quran tradition of preserving stories about Muhammad so Jewish woman is actually one of the the IM of Islam one of the mothers of

Islam and she also she didn't bear any children for Muhammad and she Actually left all her wealth to her Jewish nephew but that Massacre of kar it's very well known among the Muslims because it became a ring cry every time Arabs kill Jews to this day you hear this at Palestinian marches you know what they shout shout they go and they say y right like go against the Jews that's their slogan Kar Kar Let's uh Slaughter the Jews that's a slogan to this day Palestinians say it all the time in all their marches so in

The same way that we saw on October 7th the raping of women abducting children beheading men this isn't new this wasn't invented on October 7 a few months ago this goes back to Muhammad's own time to the year 627 Islam is literally born from the blood of the Jewish people literally it begins year one on the Muslim calendar is when Muhammad took over a Jewish town in Saudi Arabia 5 years later he massacred its population At least two of his wives were Jewish women that he abducted so this is nothing new this is from the

very beginning of Islam the hatred is not new the persecution is not new the violence isn't new the killing is not new has nothing to do with the state of Israel has nothing to do with Zionism and I'll I'll remind you of a very uh of a Hadith that you've all heard before remember Islam has an oral tradition like we have an oral tradition they have the Hadith Which is a companion to the Quran the oral companion to the to the Quran and the Hadith there's a famous Hadith alkari and the bukari says a verse

you Muslims will fight against the Jews and you will gain victory over them the stones will betray them saying Oh Abdullah right slave of Allah servant of Allah there's a Jew hiding behind behind me so come kill him and the the parallel Hadith in sah Muslim says the last hour will not come the the end of days the That whole thing that the end of days won't come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims will kill them until the Jews will hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone

or a tree will say Muslim oh servant of Allah there's a Jew behind me come and kill him this is right in this again nothing to do with Israel this is a Hadith that goes back a thousand years nothing to do with the state of Israel nothing to do With Zionism the hatred of the Jews goes back centuries it goes back all the way to the start of Islam in the Hadith there's already a call to murder every last Jew even the Jew that's hiding behind a tree or a stone so that would explain why

and I'm I'm I'm going to conclude just a few more points that will explain why you know the founder one of the founders of the Palestinian resistance it's not yaser Arafat who was the first person to start To object to Jews coming to Jerusalem to come back to Israel wasn't yaser Arafat it was the Grand Muti of Jerusalem a 100 years ago his name was anybody know his name Hussein that's right Hussein Al Hussein right he was the guy who really started the the founder of the Palestinian So-Cal Palestinian resistance and you've probably seen that

you've seen pictures probably that he was best friends with Adolf Hitler they there's photos of them together he Visited Hitler in Germany they were good friends and they collaborated and kajain was a big admirer of Hitler and hoped that Hitler would come and Liberate the Middle East from the British he was originally he actually lived in Damascus and he hoped he was part of a of a new regime in Syria that was called the Arab Kingdom of Syria which was declared in 1918 but it didn't last and when that failed he needed a a new

place to try to be the leader of so He moved back to Jerusalem and started this whole Palestinian Arab nationalist movement and he was the one that inspired the first massacres of Jews at the time so the the Kon massacre in 1929 when about 70 Jews were killed women were raped Jewish houses were burned down and then after that the British evacuated all the Jews out ofon and that's why there were no Jews Inon until 1967 when Israel liberated it again but that Massacre the 1929 Arab riots and Theon massacre in particular were inspired byin

Al husseini who was a Nazi sympathizer and a collaborator with Hitler and actually in response to that to the 1929 riots and Theon Massacre that's when the hag was formed the hag which became the IDF it's called the Israel Defense Force because that's what it is it's a Defense Force it's not a force of aggression or Conquest the hag was founded the IDF was founded after The Kon Massacre to protect Jewish people who are being just indiscriminately killed by Arab extremists by Muslim extremists that's how the IDF began and the Nazi collaboration didn't stop with

husseini it was also very prominent in Iraq uh a lot of people don't know this but but in 1941 a pro-nazi government uh took over in Iraq and if you remember Hitler one of his slogans was that he hoped to connect Berlin to Baghdad Hitler wanted Berlin to Baghdad and so there was a pro-nazi government in Iraq in 1941 and the British came back and quickly restored the the pro- Anglo government and after that happened the Nazi sympathizers in Iraq actually started a massive PG against the Jews it's called the farud right you've heard of

the farud at least at least uh 180 Jews were killed but there are many unidentified bodies and they some say as many as maybe 600 more might have been There was a mass grave that was found and they think it's connected to this as well so it could have been as many as8 or 900 Jews were killed 1 to 2,000 were injured something like 900 homes and B Jewish businesses and homes were burned down and destroyed so again it wasn't October 7 and actually this was on a holiday just like October 7 was on a

holiday this was on shab it was in June 1941 where a bunch of Iraqi Nazis attacked Jews and slaughtered hundreds Of Jews and raped and injured and and burned down and did all these things so this didn't start because of Israel this was in 1941 the Nazi sympathy and collaboration is also not new and goes back a very long time and in light of what it says in theith you can understand why they would they would do such things so in short there was never this Jewish Muslim Utopia that people talk about it never existed

the Muslims Did not treat the Jews well there were good times I'm not denying that there were good times there were peaceful times the ottoman Turks generally treated the Jews well but the the Arabs certainly rarely did and uh most of the time it was as the rambam said it was humiliation and degradation and being a second class Citizen and being persecuted and I'm sure many most of us here are from Muslim countries and we all have our stories of how our Ancestors suffered in Muslim countries and we know stories like the story of soika

and all these others that just the the oppression was widespread and it was quite terrible so there's no there was no such thing that before Israel yeah Muslims Lov Jews and they lived so well together no they didn't right and the Nur carda are absolutely crazy and the enemies of the Jewish people pretending to be these supposedly Ultra Orthodox Jews but they are imposters you Know the zor and the talmud and throughout Jewish literature they speak of the you know people who are you know pretending to be visually very Jewish but they are serving to

do the exact opposite for the Jewish people they just make divisions Among Us they make us weak and they collaborate with our enemies so the Nur karda are exactly that these are people who support Hamas they March alongside Kamas they shake hands and kiss aad who wanted to wipe Israel off the map like how can you even if you're an antis is fine but how could you march with terrorists how could you collaborate with people who call for the genocide of Jews what kind of Jew in his right mind would do that these people are

they Jewish how can you how can you be a Jew and and collaborate with terrorists and whoever it is makes no sense so this is the you know the zor goes in depth about what the ER is and gives an acronym to identify them it's Called like to the five qualities of who they are and the last two is and means means weak that they make the Jewish people weak from the inside they make a divisions within us and they make us weak and amim means they collaborate with Amal they collaborate with those who seek

to destroy us and to exterminate us and that's that's them it's pretty clear so just so that you're not confused because people been emailing me this week I got A few emails saying oh I saw on YouTube this Rabbi is saying that Jews and Muslims used to be best friends and it's all because of Israel and Israel is the bad guy and blah blah blah blah I'm like yeah don't believe those Nur carda so this myth is just perpetrated by ignoramuses and propagandists Muslim massacr span from from Muhammad himself to the gr Granada massacre in

1066 to theat Massacre of 1834 to October 7 and every other year in between you know my Mom's here she can tell you the story like in in in 1989 when the Soviet Union was falling apart those beckys were marching through the streets calling to exterminate all the Jews ethnic cleansing we're going to wipe out all the whoever's not us Becki and the Jews will will be next and and my mom was pregnant with me and she almost had a miscarriage from the fear but maybe I wouldn't be here because this is the kind of

fear that was inspired by Muslim Extremist Terror right and then we came to Israel a year later and guess what more Muslims and Saddam Hussein and Saddam Hussein started launching Rockets you know and we were in uh in bomb shelters and we're in gas masks right and my mom always says that I could I wouldn't let her wear her gas mask cuz it would freak me out cuz I was little and she'd put on the gas mask it's scary you know the gas mask so and and Saddam was uh launching rockets at us so you

Leave one place you go another part of the world and they're still the same the same ideology is following you wherever you go so I'll end with this prophecy Saddam Hussein reminded me of this prophecy uh just to show again going back to hainu and how God this idea of how God really weaves together the whole Narrative of history and that idea that the ram cited that the Nations judge us so what does that mean like the Jewish people go off they Go astray a little bit like everybody else I mean nobody's perfect so God

says you know what I'm going to wake you up I'm going to send some little catastrophe or not little but I'll send a catastrophe to wake you up just like what happened on October 7th it was a terrible terrible horrible tragedy but in the wake of that tragedy like what followed was this incredible Unity among Jews all over the world in Israel you know the months before Israel was so Divided and there was so much unfortunate hatred between each other and so all of that like melted away and people just came to together because when

you have an enemy like that unifies the entire nation we realize that hey let's stop being each other's enemies you know there's enough people out there trying to kill us we don't need to be after each other and so God says I'm going to do this to you when I see you guys going off astray like this and Starting to fight each other I'll wake you up and that's happened throughout history but God does it in such a way he said this is mentioned in in the tal mode it's mentioned the zor that God says

I'm going to pick a nation to punish you that is themselves deserving of punishment so that when they punish you they're going to get uh get it even worse afterwards because they are even more deserving of I'm going to pick some despicable ideology to do this and then I'll punish them too and that's what means and so the zor speaks about this in uh when it talks about in next week's par which has the song of the sea right the Israelites crossed the sea the Egyptians were drowned in the splitting of the sea and then

thew Jewish people the Israelites sang a song right very famous song it's considered one of the like kind of 10 Eternal songs of History nine were in the in scripture in tanak and the 10th will be will be sung by Mhia that's the tradition that there's going to be 10 Eternal songs songs that have deep prophecy in them and that are relevant for all time so is one of those 10 songs and Sham the song of the sea is another one of those 10 songs and if you notice the song of the sea is written

in future tense it says so our sages asked what does that mean like then mhe will sing it should have said Or right they sang but it doesn't say in the past tense that after they crossed the sea they sang it says in the future tense as if they will sing and many of the verses in that song are actually in the future tense and one of the verses it says that God will that you will destroy all those who Rose against you and again it's in the future tense it should have said in the

past tense like you subdued Pharaoh it should Have said or something but it says so the zor what does that mean it means that all those people who oppressed Us in the past God will bring them back in the future and he will punish them so all those people in the zor lists who they are it talks about andreus and Linus is really talking about vaspian and Titus who destroyed the second temple nebar right Nebuchadnezzar was the Babylonian who destroyed the first Temple so God will bring them back and make sure to punish them one

more time for what they did to the Jews and this is something really amazing because the zor says that you know these people it lists specifically four names and and other oppressors of Israel will return at the end of days before Masia comes in the time when mhia comes God will bring these people back to punish them one more time and he'll make it clear and this is something really Incredible because if you look at neb the zor is saying nebar will be back at the end of days before mashia comes and God will punish

him one more time and the zor actually says that God will bring back everything they had God will restore their wealth and then he will punish them who was the neb in our day and age anybody know I told you Saddam Hussein so Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein who was the president of Iraq Iraq is built on what Was then Babylon Saddam Hussein believed himself to be The Reincarnation of neb he spoke about this himself he built himself a palace over the old Palace of nebuchad Neta he minted coins with his face overlaid over the face

of Nebuchadnezzar he literally thought himself to be the new Nebuchadnezzar right he felt like he was building a Neo Babylonian a Neo Neo Babylonian Empire and um so he thought of himself as NE like this isn't me saying it this is him Saying it right you can look this up and what's incredible is that of course he was very much punished and everything was taken away from him and he was found hiding in a a hole somewhere and was ultimately executed and what's really amazing about this is a a friend from Australia named Amir he's

going to hear this so in Australia pointed this out to me that if you look at when Saddam Hussein was executed that day was the 10th of tet and if we just had the 10th Of tet a few weeks ago it's a fast day why do we fast on the 10th of tet what do we commemorate so there's a few things that happened on that day in history but the main reason that the fast of the 10th of tet was instituted straight out of scripture right it's mentioned in the prophets that we fast on the

10th of tet why do we fast on 10th ofet because that was the day that nebet first came to Israel and began the siege nead nar's Forces I should say first came to Israel and laid The Siege on Jerusalem so we fast on the tenth of tet because that's when the Babylonian destruction of Israel began and fast forward 2 and a half thousand years and Saddam Hussein who himself said that he's nebet this isn't my idea this is I'm just quoting him he minted his own face onto neb so the guy who's coming back 200

2 and a half thousand years later who is the leader again of a new Babylonian so-called Emperor who had the fourth largest army in the world in 1990 at at the time of the Gulf War he had the fourth largest army in the world so super rich super powerful says that he's nebet and of course he ends up getting destroyed and he gets executed on the 10th of tet so we see again God's fingerprints throughout history and we are reminded of what it says in ha zenu that if you want to find God just look

through Jewish History and it's inevitable you will find God there everywhere God is just weaving uh this whole tapestry of Jewish history so just like this Prophecy in the zor came true we are certain that the last sentence of this prophecy will come true that this will happen in the Z that when mhia will come and it's just another uh another piece of evidence that we are very close so we'll end with that thank you very much what