Thank you for this very positive and hopeful message Raphael. My breathing this morning is much easier. I am proud to say that my grandchildren and great grandchildren are carrying on our traditions with my quiet influence. My choice, not to push, just living it. Studying Torah, lighting candles on Friday nights, keeping Shabbat on Saturdays, kindness, Passover celebrations, no Christmas trees but Chunuka presents, loving Israel after finally visiting in 2019. I saw my family there and keep those visions foremost in my mind. Very proud of the accomplishments and resilience of my brothers and sisters in Israel and the US. We shall overcome October 7th and survive stronger once again.
"[Following Oct 7th, f]rom all over the world . . . Jews touched an intuitive inner sense that many did not even know that they had and discovered a profound sense of connection with their people."
Wish this unity were so. Sadly, we can no longer take it for granted that a Jew we may be speaking to supports Israel. Too many of us, especially our youth, have been seduced into believing that they are noble Social Justice Warriors when in fact they are supporting Hamas.
As Lenin once described do-gooders in the guise of being progressives, they are "useful idiots."
"Judaism’s ultimate vision of Tikkun Olam is the perfection of the world that comes when all people connect to their souls and to God, violence and oppression end, war ceases, and a world of love and peace becomes possible."
Tikkun Olam is not found in Tanach (the Hebrew Bible). It originates in Kabbalah. As the Disney cartoon The Sorcerer's Apprentice so aptly demonstrated, when a uniquely mystical concept is commandeered by secularists to promote their self-serving political agendas, its latent spiritual force turns into something dark that draws forth blood rather than light.
The "our unique particular-universal mission" the article refers to is not the kabbalistic ideal of Tikkun Olam. Our "particular-universal mission" was articulated in Torah: to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation Exodus 19:6 and to be a light unto the world Isaiah 49:6. These are calls to Jews to serve values and meaning which transcend personal wants and needs and to be an exemplar for all of morality and ethics. We acted as a light unto the nations when we introduced a day of rest, when we treated the stranger among us to the same rights we granted ourselves, and when we instructed individual to love one another.
May we bring forth even more enlightened ethics to ease the pain and suffering of our world.
Thank you for this very positive and hopeful message Raphael. My breathing this morning is much easier. I am proud to say that my grandchildren and great grandchildren are carrying on our traditions with my quiet influence. My choice, not to push, just living it. Studying Torah, lighting candles on Friday nights, keeping Shabbat on Saturdays, kindness, Passover celebrations, no Christmas trees but Chunuka presents, loving Israel after finally visiting in 2019. I saw my family there and keep those visions foremost in my mind. Very proud of the accomplishments and resilience of my brothers and sisters in Israel and the US. We shall overcome October 7th and survive stronger once again.
Am Yisrael Chai ✡️
Excellent ideas !
"[Following Oct 7th, f]rom all over the world . . . Jews touched an intuitive inner sense that many did not even know that they had and discovered a profound sense of connection with their people."
Wish this unity were so. Sadly, we can no longer take it for granted that a Jew we may be speaking to supports Israel. Too many of us, especially our youth, have been seduced into believing that they are noble Social Justice Warriors when in fact they are supporting Hamas.
As Lenin once described do-gooders in the guise of being progressives, they are "useful idiots."
"Judaism’s ultimate vision of Tikkun Olam is the perfection of the world that comes when all people connect to their souls and to God, violence and oppression end, war ceases, and a world of love and peace becomes possible."
Tikkun Olam is not found in Tanach (the Hebrew Bible). It originates in Kabbalah. As the Disney cartoon The Sorcerer's Apprentice so aptly demonstrated, when a uniquely mystical concept is commandeered by secularists to promote their self-serving political agendas, its latent spiritual force turns into something dark that draws forth blood rather than light.
The "our unique particular-universal mission" the article refers to is not the kabbalistic ideal of Tikkun Olam. Our "particular-universal mission" was articulated in Torah: to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation Exodus 19:6 and to be a light unto the world Isaiah 49:6. These are calls to Jews to serve values and meaning which transcend personal wants and needs and to be an exemplar for all of morality and ethics. We acted as a light unto the nations when we introduced a day of rest, when we treated the stranger among us to the same rights we granted ourselves, and when we instructed individual to love one another.
May we bring forth even more enlightened ethics to ease the pain and suffering of our world.
This article and its inspirational message will travel with our family of nine which are going to Israel next month.