[The following was received prior to Tuesday?s terrorist attacks in the US]
As we pause at the threshold of the new year that will come upon us this next week, all of us have a great prayer and hope that the new year will prove to be an improvement over the one that is now so rapidly departing. At the beginning of last year, the Jewish world was soon blindsided by the outbreak of the terrorist war brought upon us by Arafat and his corrupt and violent cohorts. This time around we may be sadder, but we are certainly wiser.
The shards of Oslo, combined with the dead and wounded, litter our streets and those of the Palestinians, as well. There is one major difference between us and the Palestinians, though. That is that they can stop the violence, we can only respond to it. But if we listen to the rhetoric of the Arabs, to their statements that the only solution for the Middle East is that the Jews should leave to "go back where they came from," that there will never be any shortage of suicide bombers, then there is little reason to believe that the Arabs are prepared just yet to stop the terror and the violence. So, we will just have to keep on responding and perhaps in a much more preemptive and forceful fashion than our restraint has forced us to do until now.
It is traditional to use honey as the symbol of sweetness at the beginning of our new year. A sweet new year is one of the traditional blessings that we extend one to another. Sweetness in life, in behavior, at home and in the workplace, is indeed a great blessing. Sweetness allows one to savor all of the pleasures of life, those that we consider minor as well as those that we call major. But we are all well aware that there are many circumstances in life, most of them out of our individual control, that apparently do not allow us to taste sweetness in life. Honey cannot cure misfortunes, reversals, nor can it end a bloody intifada. True sweetness cannot, therefore, depend exclusively on outside stimuli. From where can sweetness come in such difficult times? Is it fruitless to even wish each other a sweet new year in the present situation?
In the book of Shoftim, the great Jewish hero, Shimshon, poses a riddle to the Philistines, the Palestinians of his day. Seeing a bee's nest that formed in the carcass of a dead lion, he asks them how can sweetness come from great strength. Shimshon's question is itself an answer. Sweetness does come from strength. From an inner strength of faith, of belief in one's own rights and justice, from a belief in our destiny and an understanding and appreciation of our past. Only strength of will and of character can achieve any level of sweetness for us now. Wishful thinking, unwarranted beliefs in the Palestinian's leadership's desire for peace, trust in the completely corrupted Arafat, all of these are not signs of strength. They will not bring us the sweetness that we so earnestly hope and pray for.
It may very well be that it will take the recognition of the putrid carcass of the dead lion of the false idealisms of the past centuries to produce our future sweetness. The pursuit of pleasure for pleasure's sake, the hedonism and selfishness of modern Western society, the secularism and rejection of traditional Jewish values and life style, all of which has invaded Israeli life, has frightened the sweetness out of our inner lives. The terrible events of hatred and violence from the outside world, and not merely from the Arabs but from the enlightened Western nations as well, have shaken our formerly firmly held, if patently incorrect, beliefs in the justice, fairness and hope of living like everyone else in the world.
We are not like everyone else. We have never been like everyone else and we must realize that we will not be like everyone else in the future, no matter how much we attempt to be like everyone else. Yet, all of Jewish history teaches us that Jews have been able to savor the sweetness of life in spite of all terrible circumstances, as long as their inner strength was intact. The true strength of Israel lies in Jewish faith, in the understanding of the rectitude of our rights, in the historical justice of the existence of the State of Israel and of Jewish Jerusalem and in the realization that our inner strength will allow our outer military and diplomatic strength to prove effective as well.
I wish all of you and all of Israel a sweet and healthy new year. May it be a year of Jewish strength and inner fortitude. and may we be blessed with security, patience and belief in ourselves and our future.
Shabat Shalom and a Ktiva V?Chatima Tova.
------------
Rabbi Berel Wein, noted author and lecturer, is founder of the Destiny Foundation, dedicated to educating Jews about their historical and ethical heritage (JewishDestiny.com ).
As we pause at the threshold of the new year that will come upon us this next week, all of us have a great prayer and hope that the new year will prove to be an improvement over the one that is now so rapidly departing. At the beginning of last year, the Jewish world was soon blindsided by the outbreak of the terrorist war brought upon us by Arafat and his corrupt and violent cohorts. This time around we may be sadder, but we are certainly wiser.
The shards of Oslo, combined with the dead and wounded, litter our streets and those of the Palestinians, as well. There is one major difference between us and the Palestinians, though. That is that they can stop the violence, we can only respond to it. But if we listen to the rhetoric of the Arabs, to their statements that the only solution for the Middle East is that the Jews should leave to "go back where they came from," that there will never be any shortage of suicide bombers, then there is little reason to believe that the Arabs are prepared just yet to stop the terror and the violence. So, we will just have to keep on responding and perhaps in a much more preemptive and forceful fashion than our restraint has forced us to do until now.
It is traditional to use honey as the symbol of sweetness at the beginning of our new year. A sweet new year is one of the traditional blessings that we extend one to another. Sweetness in life, in behavior, at home and in the workplace, is indeed a great blessing. Sweetness allows one to savor all of the pleasures of life, those that we consider minor as well as those that we call major. But we are all well aware that there are many circumstances in life, most of them out of our individual control, that apparently do not allow us to taste sweetness in life. Honey cannot cure misfortunes, reversals, nor can it end a bloody intifada. True sweetness cannot, therefore, depend exclusively on outside stimuli. From where can sweetness come in such difficult times? Is it fruitless to even wish each other a sweet new year in the present situation?
In the book of Shoftim, the great Jewish hero, Shimshon, poses a riddle to the Philistines, the Palestinians of his day. Seeing a bee's nest that formed in the carcass of a dead lion, he asks them how can sweetness come from great strength. Shimshon's question is itself an answer. Sweetness does come from strength. From an inner strength of faith, of belief in one's own rights and justice, from a belief in our destiny and an understanding and appreciation of our past. Only strength of will and of character can achieve any level of sweetness for us now. Wishful thinking, unwarranted beliefs in the Palestinian's leadership's desire for peace, trust in the completely corrupted Arafat, all of these are not signs of strength. They will not bring us the sweetness that we so earnestly hope and pray for.
It may very well be that it will take the recognition of the putrid carcass of the dead lion of the false idealisms of the past centuries to produce our future sweetness. The pursuit of pleasure for pleasure's sake, the hedonism and selfishness of modern Western society, the secularism and rejection of traditional Jewish values and life style, all of which has invaded Israeli life, has frightened the sweetness out of our inner lives. The terrible events of hatred and violence from the outside world, and not merely from the Arabs but from the enlightened Western nations as well, have shaken our formerly firmly held, if patently incorrect, beliefs in the justice, fairness and hope of living like everyone else in the world.
We are not like everyone else. We have never been like everyone else and we must realize that we will not be like everyone else in the future, no matter how much we attempt to be like everyone else. Yet, all of Jewish history teaches us that Jews have been able to savor the sweetness of life in spite of all terrible circumstances, as long as their inner strength was intact. The true strength of Israel lies in Jewish faith, in the understanding of the rectitude of our rights, in the historical justice of the existence of the State of Israel and of Jewish Jerusalem and in the realization that our inner strength will allow our outer military and diplomatic strength to prove effective as well.
I wish all of you and all of Israel a sweet and healthy new year. May it be a year of Jewish strength and inner fortitude. and may we be blessed with security, patience and belief in ourselves and our future.
Shabat Shalom and a Ktiva V?Chatima Tova.
------------
Rabbi Berel Wein, noted author and lecturer, is founder of the Destiny Foundation, dedicated to educating Jews about their historical and ethical heritage (JewishDestiny.com ).