Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), which is identified as being written by King Solomon, contains much enduring and wise counsel. The author analyzes the futility of a totally materialistic life and the second to last verse imparts the words, ""The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone."
As I read an article in Haaretz about anti-semitism once again rearing its ugly head in Spain, over 500 years after the expulsion of the Jews during the inquisition, I was reminded of the verse in Kohelet Chapter 1 verse 9. "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun."
A torrent of anti-Semitic epithets met Israel's ambassador to Spain, Rafi Shotz, Saturday evening as he walked home from a Real Madrid-Barcelona soccer match in the Spanish capital. Shotz said the three perpetrators, patrons of a pub, shouted slurs like "Jewish dog" and "dirty Jew" until they were driven off by Spanish police escorting Shotz.
Shotz and his partner Michal chose to walk from Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium to their nearby home. Three patrons of a pub noticed the ambassador, whom they apparently recognized from having seen him on television.
In a wire report Shotz sent the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem under the heading "Anti-Semitism - a personal testimony," Shotz wrote the perpetrators stood mere meters from him, shouting slurs like "Jewish dog," "dirty Jew" and others "which cannot appear in print."
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