There is a fascinating Gemara in the beginning of Avoda Zara that discusses the coming judgment of the nations of the world. The empires throughout history will all claim to have been our friends and supporters, despite all the evil they perpetrated against us. God cannot be fooled by lies and spin. He will retort that everything they claim they did for our sake was really for their primitive self-interests.

Later there is a fascinating teaching about the times in which we seem to be living:

א"ר יצחק אין שחוק לפני הקב"ה אלא אותו היום בלבד איכא דמתני להא דרבי יצחק אהא דתניא רבי יוסי אומר לעתיד לבא באין עובדי כוכבים ומתגיירין ומי מקבלינן מינייהו והתניא אין מקבלין גרים לימות המשיח כיוצא בו לא קבלו גרים לא בימי דוד ולא בימי שלמה אלא שנעשו גרים גרורים ומניחין תפילין בראשיהן תפילין בזרועותיהם ציצית בבגדיהם מזוזה בפתחיהם כיון שרואין מלחמת גוג ומגוג אומר להן על מה באתם אומרים לו על ה' ועל משיחו שנאמר (תהלים ב, א) למה רגשו גוים ולאומים יהגו ריק [וגו'] וכל אחד מנתק מצותו והולך שנאמר (תהלים ב,ג) ננתקה את מוסרותימו [וגו] והקב"ה יושב ומשחק שנאמר יושב בשמים ישחק וגו' א"ר יצחק אין לו להקב"ה שחוק אלא אותו היום בלבד

...Rabbi Yitzchak said, there is no laughter before Hashem except on that day alone. Some append this statement of Rabbi Yitzchak on this teaching, that we learned in Baraysa, Rabbi Yossi said, in future times the idolaters will come and convert.

But would we accept them?! We learned in a Baraysa that we will not accept converts in the days of Moshiach [for they are insincere and will only want to convert because of the greatness of the Jews]. Similarly, they did not accept converts in the times of David nor in the days of Solomon.

Rather they became "geirim gerurim" [they underwent a conversion on their own, but we did not accept them], and they placed tefillin on their heads and on their arms, and tzitzis on their garments, and mezuzos on their entrances. When they see the war of Gog Umagog, they will say to them, "For what have you come [to wage war on Israel]?" The [attackers] will tell them, "[We have come] against Hashem and against his Moshiach", as it says (Tehillim 2:1) "Why have the goyim gathered in a tumult and the nations think empty thoughts?"

Each one of them [the false converts] will cast off his mitzva and go, as it says (Tehillim 2:3) "Let us break off their bands." And Hashem will laugh, as it says (Tehillim 2:4) "The One who dwells in heaven will laugh." Rabbi Yitzchak said, there is no laughter before Hashem except on that day alone. (Avoda Zara 3B)

According to this Gemara, a presumably large number of fake converts assimilated into the Jewish people, dating back to the time of King David. For thousands of years they and their descendants have posed as religious Jews, but their intentions were never sincere, and they never became authentic Jews.

These cancerous moles continue to lurk among us, flashing their tefillin and their tzitzis, while a deep hatred for the Jewish people burns inside them. The clowns in chassidic garb who stand with our most vicious enemies and the crazy Women off the Wall are most suspect, but many of the phonies are surely more discreet.

Indeed, until the times of Moshiach, only our holiest people, whose wisdom is a step below prophecy, might have been able to discern who is among these false converts. If they knew, they seem to have kept it to themselves.

But as we get closer to the end, I believe the phonies are exposing themselves, precisely as foretold in Tehillim and explained by Chazal. We see many outwardly religious Jews casting off the pretenses of being sincere, God-fearing people. They jump at the opportunity to persecute truly sincere, God-fearing people "for the public good". They eagerly collaborate with the perverse edicts of a wicked regime, without an ounce of reservation or a nagging conscience. This is not a mere misunderstanding or miscalculation; it is hidden internal enemies in Jewish garb collaborating with external enemies in their efforts to destroy us.

Mind you, there are many decent people who have unwittingly been sucked in by fear and propaganda. These are real Jews, of course. They are victims; we should pity them and pray for them. The enemies are the ones who are aggressively trying to snare Jews and persecute those who resist. At most such people are Judenrat who have sold their souls for bribes and temporary rewards.

But many of these collaborators need no bribe to join the war against us. They are eager to do it lishma. Making real Jews bleed, taunting them as they suffer, is their greatest satisfaction. It is what they have been waiting for.

God is watching as they expose themselves, and will soon destroy them before our eyes. It will be the one day that God laughs.

I can't wait.

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Correction: A reader pointed out to me that the text of the Gemara is somewhat misleading (some commentators suggest that the word "שנעשו" should be changed from past to future tense). As a result, my understanding that there were false converts in the times of David and Shlomo who assimilated and remained throughout the generations is not at all conclusive. The most that can be concluded from this Gemara is that in the times of Moshiach, preceding the war of Gog Umagog, there will be such false converts who show their true colors when the enemies come to attack. The overall point of the article &ndash that there are moles among us &ndash remains intact, though hopefully it is to a lesser degree than I previously believed, at least based on this source.