In the month of Nissan, we were redeemed from Egypt, and according to an ancient rabbinic quote: “B’Nissan nigalnu, v’b’Nissan atidim l’higael,” in the month of Nissan, we are destined to be redeemed in the future. This quote is the source of the Mimouna feast, celebrated annually among Sephardi Jews and Hassidim at the end of the Passover Festival. This year, we celebrate Mimouna amid a global upheaval centred in Israel.
The Essence of Mimouna
Amidst the ongoing war that began on October 7, Mimouna symbolizes hope. More than just a celebration, Mimouna holds the promise of global redemption. It represents the day our prophets speak of, when ‘the lion will lie down with the lamb,’ and all nations will transform their weapons into tools to feed the hungry and those experiencing poverty. It reaffirms the enduring faith of Jews in a future world of peace and cooperation among all peoples.
This year, we celebrate Mimouna during a time of war involving not only Israel but the entire world. Since October 7, 2023, Israel and the Jewish community have been under intense global scrutiny due to the invasion and massacre of Israelis by Hamas, alongside the ongoing state of war in Israel and Gaza. There has been a significant increase in anti-Israel/Pro-Palestinian protests in cities worldwide, including McGill University in Canada, the Sorbonne in France, and Columbia, Penn, and Stanford in the US. These war-provoking protests threaten not only Jews but also innocent men, women, and children globally, jeopardizing the world’s stability. For a detailed analysis of the sources of geopolitical anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments, I recommend the work of Francisco Gil-White, a contemporary scholar and historian.
Our adversaries continue to hold over 130 innocent hostages and pose additional threats. However, the resilience of the Israeli people and Jews globally is genuinely inspiring. They persevere in the face of adversity, their unwavering commitment to peace and justice embodying the essence of Mimouna. It is a testament to the strength of the Jewish spirit and the universal Jewish pursuit of peace and harmony.
From Miracles to Human Responsibility
But while Jewish tradition prophesies a time of world peace, we consistently emphasize that Jews “do not rely on miracles.” This principle is underscored throughout our Torah:
“The Bible’s ultimate process is a movement away from visible miracles and public (heavenly) revelation toward a process of education and persuasion to get people to act properly. Increasingly, the historical outcomes are dependent on human behavior and the equilibrium of forces rather than on divine intervention. By the time we reach the Talmud, the Rabbis tell us that the age of prophecy (direct messages from Heaven) and of visible miracles is over. Such miracles are too ‘coercive.’ God wants humans to use their reason and emotions and choose to do the right thing out of free will and choice.” (Rabbi Yitz Greenberg essay: Do Not Rely on a Miracle: Parshat Beshallach 5781)
Embracing Mimouna
As I sit here among tonight’s festivities, surrounded by my loved ones, I am reminded of Rabbi Akiva’s wise words: ‘Do not do to your neighbor what you would not have done to yourself.’ These words are significant in today’s society, where the world remains divided and filled with discord. Let us all embrace the joyous atmosphere of Mimouna and reflect on its powerful message of hope and redemption.
May this celebration inspire all of us to work tirelessly towards a future where freedom and justice prevail and humanity can thrive in peace and harmony. We must remember that only our actions can bring about this positive future. It is now up to you and me!
Footnotes:
- Gil-White, Francisco, et al. “Geopolitical and Historical Insights on Jews, Israel and the Battle Against Antisemitism.” Geopolitical and Historical Insights on Jews, Israel and the Battle Against Antisemitism.
- Greenberg, Yitz. “Do Not Rely on a Miracle: Parshat Beshallach 5781.” Hadar.org, https://www.hadar.org/torah-tefillah/resources/do-not-rely-miracle.
After I posted the above link regarding Mimouna and the Jewish faith in the final Redemption as prophesied in our Holy Texts—the Torah—I discovered this lengthy essay in Mosaic Magazine that explains Dostoevsky’s antisemitism based on his messianic ideology: https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/arts-culture/2023/12/why-dostoevsky-loved-humanity-and-hated-the-jews/. Here are some quotes from the essay illustrating how ideology can lead one badly astray:
Tracing Russian history since Peter the Great, Dostoevsky maintains that Russians flawlessly absorbed each European nation’s way of thinking, thanks to a uniquely Russian ability he called otzyvchivost’ (receptivity)—“the capacity to discover the truth contained in each of the civilizations of Europe or, more correctly, in each of the personalities of Europe.” Only through this could Russia satisfy its “need to be just and, above all, to seek only the truth.” However, Dostoevsky asserts that the time has come for Russia to cease absorbing others’ words and to articulate its own “word” to achieve “universal reconciliation” once and for all.
To fulfill its mission, Dostoevsky suggests that Russia must first liberate the Slavs and then all other Orthodox Christian peoples. Subsequently, Russia must seize Constantinople, the traditional center of Orthodoxy, at which point the millennium will be at hand. According to Dostoevsky, the imminent conquest of Constantinople will “happen of its own accord, precisely because the time has come . . . [or] is at hand, as all the signs indicate. This is a natural result decreed by Nature itself, as it were.” It will not be a mere territorial seizure, as Westerners assume, but an entirely millenarian achievement:
“There truly will be something special and unprecedented here: . . . it will be a true exaltation . . . of the cross of Christ and the ultimate word of Orthodoxy, at whose head Russia has long been standing. It will be a temptation for all the mighty of this world who have been triumphant until now and who . . . do not even comprehend that one can seriously believe in human brotherhood, in the universal reconciliation of nations, in a union founded on principles of universal service to humanity and regeneration of people through the true principles of Christ.”
Whenever he expresses such views, Dostoevsky anticipates the scorn of the sophisticated: “Heavens, what a mocking smile would appear on the face of some Austrian or Englishman if he had the opportunity to read all these daydreams!” Yet events, Dostoevsky believes, will vindicate his predictions: “And if believing in this ‘new world’ . . . is a ‘utopia’ worthy only of ridicule, then you may number me among these utopians, and leave the ridicule to me.”
Another role that Dostoevsky sees usurped by the Jews is in the realm of suffering. Apart from their rivalry in messianism, Dostoevsky perceives a rivalry in suffering. He identifies Russia as the “man of sorrows” mentioned in Isaiah 53:2, “despised and rejected” by other nations and “acquainted with grief” that those nations cannot even imagine. This is why he appears particularly irked by Kovner’s descriptions of unsurpassed Jewish misfortune. As the epigraph to The Brothers Karamazov suggests, suffering offers the only path to transcending ordinary human egoism and achieving holiness: “Verily, verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).
Not the Jews but the Russians, Dostoevsky argues, exemplify such suffering. He demands, “Can one really claim that the Russian people have endured fewer misfortunes . . . than the Jews? Our great people . . . have suffered torments . . . for all their thousand years of existence, torments such as no single nation in the world could have borne without disintegration and annihilation.” Of course, as Dostoevsky well knew, the Jews have existed and suffered even longer.