Keynote Speech at the Agudah National Convention, Motzaei Shabbos November 24, 1990 (just days after the assassination of Meir Kahane on Nov. 5). The following is a loose translation from a recording made available by the Agudah archives.
For all of you here who spent Shabbos here in such an uplifted atmosphere, we don’t have to explain the importance of an Agudah convention. I think that this year there is another reason for the importance of an Agudah convention. In the Tosefta Bava Kama (7:2), Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai says: Why did the Jewish people go to exile in Babylonia and not other places? Because it’s the birthplace of Avrohom Avinu. We sinned, so we need to go back to the yesodos on which Klal Yisroel was founded, in order to know why we were sent to golus, and how to fix the problem.
We find ourselves in a situation where anti-Semitism has increased around the world. Gentiles speak openly and write in the newspapers things that, until now, they only said in secret. Golus is getting worse. So we have to go back to the home of Avrohom. Where is that? The Gedolei Yisroel saw the situation of the Jewish people in golus and they founded Agudas Yisroel so that we can maintain Torah and Yiras Shomayim in the golus. We have to go back and review the principles on which Agudas Yisroel was founded. This is the home of Avrohom. This will help us to know how we went astray and why the golus has gotten worse.
One of the yesodos is that we have to know: what is the reason for anti-Semitism? The whole world studies this today. There are professors who study it and millions of dollars are spent on research. But so far, no one has discovered the secret.
Some thought that founding the State of Israel would take away anti-Semitism. But we see that it didn’t help. On the contrary, it increases it: they use arguments against the State of Israel to legitimize anti-Semitism. It didn’t help. What is the secret of anti-Semitism?
Dovid Hamelech tells us the answer in Tehillim (105:25), הפך לבם לשנוא עמו. In Egypt, why did they hate Jews? The Ribono Shel Olam turned over the hearts of the Egyptians to hate Jews. Why? Because some Jews had stopped practicing bris milah in Egypt. The Torah says ותמלא הארץ אותם – “The land was full of them.” The Jews assimilated in Egypt. They didn’t listen to Yaakov Avinu and Yosef Hatzaddik’s advice to live only in Goshen and stay there and not leave. They mixed into the goyim. If you want to go to the goyim, the Ribono Shel Olam responds with His eitzah: making the goyim not want you.
If that is the secret of anti-Semitism, then we have to think that perhaps we are guilty of assimilation. It doesn’t necessarily mean we have a connection with a goy. It could be that I never meet a goy and never have any connection with him. But if I live the same lifestyle as a goy and have the same culture as the goy and think like a goy, that’s assimilation. That’s ויתערבו בגוים וילמדו מעשיהם – they mixed into the goyim and learned their ways (Tehillim 106:35). Then the Ribono Shel Olam makes their hearts hate us.
We see that goyishe ways of thinking are creeping into the Jewish people today, the idea of kochi v’otzem yadi (reliance on our own power), the idea that the hands of Esav can help us. These sorts of ideas are creeping in. We saw recently that a so-called leader of Jews said that he disagrees with Meir Kahane in everything, except for his slogan, “Never again”. I think that unfortunately, many of our Jews are also in agreement with this slogan. Rabosai! There is no more treif slogan than “never again”. Because you’re saying that we are the boss, we run the world, we can tell the Ribono Shel Olam what to do. We can’t tell the Ribono Shel Olam what to do! We can’t say such a thing: we’ll stop it, there won’t be a Holocaust. It’s the Ribono Shel Olam who made the Holocaust. We can’t say that with belligerence (biryonus) and with power we can prevent a Holocaust!
In the newspaper it was written, a writer, a clown, said that he met with Reb Moshe, because he needed a favor for Kahane. He told Reb Moshe that if there had been ten Kahanes at the time of the Holocaust, it wouldn’t have happened. Reb Moshe retorted, “Really? With such leitzanus (mockery) thousands of Kahanes wouldn’t have helped during the Holocaust!” Reliance on our own power wouldn’t have helped during the Holocaust.
But rabosai, there is something we can do to prevent a Holocaust. There is something to do. We have to go back to the birthplace of Avrohom, we have to go back to what Avrohom Avinu did. The Midrash Tanchuma comments on the posuk (Tehillim 44:7), בך צרינו ננגח ובשמך נבוס קמינו (“with You, we will fight our enemies, and with Your name we will defeat those who arise against us”). Rabbi Yitzchok says that בך (“with You”) refers to the 22 letters of the alef-beis with which the Torah was given. With Torah we can prevail. How did Avrohom Avinu conquer the four kings? Because Hashem was with him. The way for us to win is with bitachon and the zechus haTorah.
The Midrash continues and says that at the time of moshiach it will also be that way. The posuk says in Tehillim 2:1: למה רגשו גוים – why do the nations make noise, against Hashem and His moshiach? אלה ברכב ואלה בסוסים – they come with chariots and horses, ואנחנו בשם ה’ אלקינו נזכיר – but we proclaim the name of Hashem our G-d. And the Midrash also says that just as Avrohom Avinu threw dirt and it became arrows and swords, so too in the future. How do we accomplish that? Only with bitachon. The Gemara in Taanis tells that when the Jews needed to send a gift to the king, they sent it with Nochum Ish Gamzu who was used to miracles. When his host stole the jewelry on the way and replaced it with dirt, he got up in the morning, looked in the box and said nothing. He just continued on his way to the king, because he knew he would need a miracle anyway. What was the difference if it was jewelry or dirt? The king opened it, at first he said the Jews are mocking me, but then Eliyahu Hanavi said maybe it is the dirt of Avrohom, and it was. We see that you need bitachon. From the Torah we derive bitachon, and then it will be “never again…”
I Will Await Him 
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