Ḥasidic mystical theology, combined with the ḥasidic tendency to invest minor details of custom with religious significance, led Ḥasidim to view ritual objects not invested with sanctity by halakhah—kiddush cups, seder plates, the decorations on the collars of prayer shawls, and so forth—as imbued with kabbalistic symbolism. Ḥasidic craftsmen then began to make these items with this symbolism in mind. In an interview with Alan Brill, Batsheva Goldman-Ida, the author of a recent book on this subject, explains:

The reason behind this radical move of investing objects with holiness is rooted in a general ḥasidic approach of “worship through the mundane.” This approach was very much part of early Ḥasidism and is generally attributed to [the movement’s founder], the Baal Shem Tov. . . .

The most important [style of] kiddush cup is the epl-bekher, or apple-shaped cup, whose form was designed by the Maggid of Mezrich [Rabbi Dov Ber, an early ḥasidic leader, ca. 1700-1772], according to tradition. The apple-form is symbolic of the Sh’khinah [or divine presence], as the “rose among thorns” which is “surrounded by five petals” as described in the opening pages of the Zohar . . .

The Ḥasid is required to hold the cup upright in his right hand—which represents the sfirah (emanation) of compassion—with all five fingers. . . . The apple-shaped cup is engraved with a winding chain with generally three leaves and a trefoil base. Over time, the petals underneath the cup were increased to thirteen, corresponding to the thirteen attributes of divine mercy, or to 26, corresponding to the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton. The finial at the top is sometimes in the form of an olive and other times in the form of a dove with outspread wings, both representing the “assembly of Israel,” [a kabbalistic term of art for the divine presence].

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.