Last weekend I was struck by a stark juxtaposition between the Old Testament reading in Sunday’s Episcopalian lectionary and sad news of yet another series of anti-Semitic attacks in the United States and abroad.

As I explore this juxtaposition, please forgive some over-generalized philosophical musings. What strikes me, though, is this: Even aside from the fact of the general sinfulness of faith- or race-based bigotry and hatred, it is particularly bizarre that Jews, of all people, have for more than two millennia been the object of such resentments, attacks, pogroms, and holocaust.