YOU HAVE ONE LIFE TO LIVE DO NOT FORFEIT IT! READ AND DISCOVER

PROLOGUE


CONSIDER that the Jew, who is the symbol of Eternity, who neither the fire nor the sword could destroy, who survived the ravages of time, is today succumbing to spiritual annihilation.

CONSIDER that the Jewish people, who have illuminated the world with the Divine Light, have raised a generation in darkness.

CONSIDER that we are the people of the Book, the nation that has given the Torah to the world, and yet today, its wisdom eludes our grasp.

CONSIDER that the nation of scholars has reduced education to the superficial, and produced a generation of Jewish illiterates.

CONSIDER that the Jew possesses expertise in every field, and yet his own heritage eludes him.

CONSIDER that a generation raised in the affluent society remains spiritually impoverished.

CONSIDER that the Jew, who thousands of years ago spoke to G-d face to face, can no longer articulate a single prayer.

CONSIDER IT ALL AND DISCOVER WHO YOU ARE .. "A JEW"

THE JEW

You are a Jew
You have traveled the four corners of the earth.
You have been a citizen of every nation.
You have mastered the nuances of every tongue.
You have been a part of every people, and yet you have remained a people apart.
You are a Jew
You have created civilizations
You have given birth to every ideal that has shaped mankind; justice, peace, love, dignity of man, have had all their genesis in your Torah.
But above all, you have been given the unique mission of proclaiming the one-ness of G-d.
You are a Jew
You have traveled the four corners of the earth
You have known oppression.
You have experienced every form of persecution.
Your body has been scorched by fire.
Your memory fails
You have forgotten your past
But nevertheless, a still, small voice relentlessly calls out to you and demands that you discover your inner self
A still small voice that gives you no peace for within you courses the blood of prophets, martyrs, sages and kings of Israel.
Your roots are sunk in eternity.
You are heir to a legacy over 4,000 years old.

But, perhaps, you have no desire to probe your past. Firstly, you see no reason to become involved. Yes, admittedly you are a Jew, but your Jewishness is a mere accident of birth and has no relevance to your life.

And herein lies the problem; the greatest stumbling block to Jewish self-discovery is this very apathy, this total indifference which has become part of your personality.

Then again, perhaps you have the right to be non-chalant for you belong to a generation which has never been inspired nor challenged. Your Jewishness has been permitted to stagnate and atrophy. You feel no remorse because you have never experienced. You feel no curiosity because it has never been aroused.

Your situation can be likened to that of a man who has never possessed precious gems, and is quite content to accept cut glass as a substitute. He has no sense of deprivation because he doesn`t know what he is missing. Thus our immediate problem is to penetrate the callous which surrounds your soul and the indifference which enshrouds your mind.

Perhaps through an allegory you will better comprehend.

It is told that long ago there was a Rabbi who was endowed with wondrous powers. He was able to communicate with G-d by going to a certain forest. There, in a specific spot, he would kindle a fire, chant a prayer, and thus reach the very throne of G-d.

After his death, his son followed his custom. He too would go to the forest and kindle the fire. But he forgot the prayer. Nevertheless, he was able to reach the throne of G-d.

The next generation also went to the forest and found the sacred place but they had forgotten how to kindle the fire. Still, they reached the heavenly throne.

But when the generation that followed went to the forest, they could no longer recognize the sacred place. They would therefore walk through the forest and invoke G-d`s mercy… and their prayers were accepted.

Then came a generation that could not remember the forest, but could only remember the tale. And so, every year they would recount the story and through that story, they would communicate with G-d.

And then came the generation of darkness a generation that could not even recall the story, a generation without a past, without a memory.

You belong to that generation

You belong to a generation which suffers from a disease - a disease called "Jewish Amnesia".

You belong to a generation that has been described the Prophet Amos:

And days shall come upon you saith the L-rd, and I shall send a hunger into the land. It shall not be a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water,,, but it shall be a HUNGER FOR THE WORD OF G-D”.

And so, we call upon you not to relinquish your Jewishness by default. We call upon you to bear in mind that your life here on earth is transitory… that the years quickly fade away… In retrospect, there is very little that remains that one can recall with dignity. Yes, you live only once, and the years that are lost can never be recaptured.

Imagine for a moment that you have reached your twilight years … perhaps you are 80, perhaps 90. Looking back over the years there is very little than can be remembered which contained meaning, substance and purpose.

Try and picture in your mind`s eye that at the end of each and every day of your life you would tear a page form a calendar and as is customary with most people, you would crumple it into a ball, and toss it into the nearest waste basket. And so, the old page discarded, a new day would begin.

There are however, some blessed individuals who live their lives in such a way that they can preserve each and every page, placing them carefully into a drawer, because each page stands on its own merit and has a story to relate. How beautiful it would be if in your twilight years you could open the drawer and count the pages caressingly…. Your life had meaning; the pages speak… And perhaps the world has become just a little better because you walked on it.

But how tragic it would be to have reached those twilight years only to find the drawer empty … the pages of your life wasted, discarded in senseless pursuit of pleasure …

Let us now return to your original question however, and assume that you are correct; your Jewishness is merely an accident of birth. Why, however, did it occur, Why weren`t you born a Christian, or a Mohammedan?

You have one life to live and you owe it to yourself to discover all the implications of your Jewishness.

Who are your ancestors?

Where do you come from?

What are your roots?

Why did G-d create you, a Jew?

Yes, you owe it to yourself to discover these eternal truths before you enter those twilight years. The choice is yours to make. You may be among those who will have been able to preserve the pages on that calendar, or you may be among the unfortunate ones, whole life will fade into nothingness….

For your own sake, do not delay … do not allow this opportunity to go by. Probe your past so that you may discover who you are. Indeed, by what accident were you born a Jew?

When G-d created this world, He wanted man to be free of sorrow and pain… to live in joy and happiness. But freedom is a two-edge sword, through which man can rise or descend, build or destroy. The very fact that man has freedom of choice, renders him uncontrollable.

Man`s very survival however, is predicated on the realization that he cannot rely upon his own logic to discern right from wrong… that he must bend his will to that of his Makers, even when his intellect rebels, and he questions the validity of such a discipline.

Thus, G-d was confronted by a dilemma…. How was he to discipline man, yet not restrict man`s freedom of choice. How was G-d to harness man`s rebellious nature without breaking his spirit? How was the law of G-d to become voluntarily an integral part of every man?

G-d resolved this dilemma by creating the Jew. At Sinai, G-d proclaimed His eternal truth, presenting you, the Jews with His R/X for survival. At Sinai, G-d called upon you to live your life in constant discipline … to subordinate your will to His and to live your life in constant awareness of Him.

But here you rebel …. Admittedly, you are a Jew, but you are also a child of the 20th Century and you pride yourself on your freedom. You have been raised to worship your own mental integrity … to question, to probe and to accept only that which conforms to your particular needs. The very concept of subordination and discipline is distasteful to you. You have been taught to measure and evaluate every concept… and you adopt only that which suits your fancy. No one, but no one, will tell you how to conduct your life … no one, not even G-d!

Yes, you are a child of the 20th Century. Your cosmopolitan “savoir faire” enables you to find a rationale to justify every act. You have developed a vocabulary of euphemisms which allows you to legitimize and lend respectability to every immoral deed.

But we are not impressed … your philosophy is not very original. At the dawn of history, your ancestors also rationalized, just as you do today. Cain also relied upon his own intellect and so, when it suited his needs, he became a murdered and found the necessary rationalization to justify his act.

Perhaps you resent the analogy between yourself and Cain. Surely it is ludicrous to equate you, a 20th Century man, with Cain, a primitive being. But think for a moment … is the analogy so far fetched? Is it not possible that only a thin veneer of sophistication separates you from the law of the jungle?

Consider that in your lexicon, theft can easily be termed “business”; promiscuity – “self fulfillment”; pornography – “art”; treachery – “making it”; murder – “self preservation”; corruption – “pragmatism”; perversion – “esoteric pleasure”; ruthlessness – “getting ahead”; racial prejudice – “fostering cultural integrity” …

Yes, the list goes on and on…You are a university graduate and therefore you have no difficulty in devising a rational to mask the animal instincts which gnaw at your heart. You pride yourself on your accomplishments … on your participation in a society which has reached its technological zenith.

We reiterate however that there is very little difference between you and your ancestors who lived by the law of the jungle. If anything, your savagery is more insidious, for you have managed to harness science and culture in order to lend a new dimension to base instincts.

While primitive man engaged in bestial acts and justified them by proclaiming them to be the will of his man-made gods, twentieth century man continues to follow this pattern, but carefully cloaks his animal instincts in a jargon of sophistication which enables him to silence the voice of his conscience – the law of G-d.

The Almighty called upon your father Abraham, the first Jew, to bring light into a world of darkness; to be a living example of His teachings. And to that call Abraham answered: “Hineni, here I am. Ready to do your bidding …. Ready to undergo any sacrifice in order to fulfill the mission”.

It was G-d`s plan that Abraham and his descendents live a way of life diametrically opposed to that of other nations. Their survival would demonstrate that which is supernatural, metaphysical, and mystical …

They would be a nation in spite of the fact that they might not have a land.

They would be the smallest, yet the mightiest.

The most dispersed, yet the most united.

The most oppressed, yet the most merciful.

And their task would be to educate mankind to the realization of one G-d who is merciful and yet judging … the one G-d who demands righteousness for all man. This nation, by its way of life, would transmit G-d`s Covenant to all man. This nation would be dispersed throughout the four corners of the world, speaking every language, becoming part of every culture, yet constantly proclaiming “Hashem Echod” – The L-rd is One!

But in order to understand yourself as a Jew, it is essential that we consider for a moment those laws which govern the world. Even a superficial perusal of history will demonstrate that all national and civilizations are propelled by an inevitable process: birth, growth, maturity, and finally, decay. The life cycle of man parallels the life cycle of all nations … and no people has ever succeeded in reversing this inexorable progression.

There is only one people that has transcended this law … that has survived the ravages of time. And that people is your people – the Jews.

The Jew has been designated to serve as the conscience of mankind … to be a witness to G-d`s existence. His very endurance and survival is testimony to the Covenant given at Sinai. It is his mission to educate and elevate man to the heights of compassion, righteousness and brotherhood. And so we read in the Bible: “You are my witness, saith the L-rd, and my servant whom I have chosen…”.

But how does a nation become a witness to G-d? How does it testify to His existence? Certainly, mighty powers, armies, a multitude of people and wealth are no barometer of a Divine force. They are all explicable in human terms. They follow the pattern of history rooted in materialism.

If however, there exists a nation which is bereft of all the resources through which greatness is achieved… a nation which is a miniscule minority among the majority, and should be all laws be absorbed into the dominant culture… a nation which nonetheless retains its own unique individuality and perseveres.

If there exists a nation that rejects the enticements of the world and lives by a voluntarily enforced law … a nation that stands ready to sacrifice the finest of its children so that its heritage may survive …

Then such a nation, by its very existence, issues a clarion call proclaiming the name of G-d… and becomes a witness to His Holy Name.

If there exists a nation that masters the nuances of every tongue, and yet retains its own ancient language…

A national which lives with a vision, a dream, a hope of returning to its land despite 2000 years of exile … despite savage ridicule, mockery and degradation…..

THEN THAT NATION TESTIFIES TO THE EXISTENCE OF G-D

Such a nation defies all logic and demonstrates yet another dimension in history …. A Divine Presence … a Guiding Hand from above.

It is for this purpose that the Jews were chosen by G-d … it is an incredible saga … one which staggers the imagination.

There is an element of the mysterious and inexplicable in Jewish history. The survival of the Jew is not comprehensible in terms of normal historical dicta. There is no frame of reference which can shed light upon the endurance of this nation. In face of Jewish history, the entire materialist concept of history dissolves…

It is not ironic that the Jew, who possesses neither the power, might, nor strength, has provoked the nations of the world to react with rage and frenzy which borders on paranoia. The hatred of the anti-Semites, …. Their fanatical determination to exterminate the Jews, is testimony to Jewish invincibility. It is not by accident that, through the millennia, the Jewish people have been subjected to every form of persecution and oppression, culminating in our own time in the most horrendous crime of all … the holocaust.

It is not totally inconceivable that a rational and sophisticated people like the Germans could have actually believed that the Jews, who possess neither an army nor a government, would pose a threat to the world and aspire to international dominance. How incredible that they the Germans, together with millions of others, felt to minced by the Jew that they were even prepared to sacrifice their self interest … the very welfare of their country so that the Jew might perish.

This paranoia is almost comical in its implications … the Jew, a fly on the back of an elephant… the Jew, whose power and strength is at best negligible, posing a threat to the colossi of the world. But then again, perhaps this is not so strange: for two thousand years this insignificant people has confounded the great nations of the world. For two thousand years David has provoked the ire of Goliath.

It appears that the survival of the Jews posed such a threat that in every generation diabolical rationales and resolutions of the “Jewish problem” were offered.

The early Christians felt compelled to attribute the mysterious survival of the Jew to satanic powers… Surely, the Jew was the work of the devil. But as man acquired greater sophistication, he could no longer accept such primitive concepts. A new rationale, one that was consonant with the times, had to be found.

And so, Christianity`s designation of “Satan” was replaced by “international conspirator”. The Jews control the world! The Jews are communists! The Jews manipulate the great powers!” These statements would be almost laughable were it not for the fact that rational and enlightened adults readily accepted them as fact.

The hatred of the nations has been so irrational that they found no difficulty in simultaneously accusing the Jew of being a capitalist and a communist, a pacifist and anarchist, depending upon the exigencies of the moment. One cannot help but wonder how it has been possible for an entire world to lose its sanity and attribute such power to the innocuous Jew. And so, even anti-Semitism becomes a testimony to the metaphysical force in Jewish history.

The Jews have been commissioned to be the conscience of mankind and man cannot abide that still small voice represented by the Jew. It is through the Jew and his prophets that man`s manifest destiny has been proclaimed. Jewish history itself becomes a forecast of G-d`s scheme for the world. G-d has chosen the Jew to be a living testimony to His existence.

Perhaps now that you have gained greater insight into your Jewishness, you will understand that yours is a mission of the soul… You are destined to capture man`s heart and conquer his mind … to establish G-d` presence on earth. You are dispersed throughout the world, and the only weapon required for your mission is the word of G-d, the Torah … and it is with that Torah that your people go forth into battle.

The whole concept is fantastic, impossible to believe. And yet, it has unfolded before your very eyes. You the Jew are testimony to G-d in a world wherein only power counts. You the Jew are powerless in the materialistic sense, yet you survive the mightiest empires.

But your dispersion is merely a preparatory stage in your long and glorious saga. For G-d`s ultimate plan is to return you to your land - to make Jerusalem the spiritual capital of the world, so that all man may unite as one and build a world based on peace.

It is from Jerusalem that the call shall go forth to convert swords into plowshares so that “nation shall not lift up sword against national, nor learn war any more”.

You belong to a generation that has been privileged to behold the re-establishment of the State of Israel, the dawn of ingathering of the exiles.

You belong to a generation that has seen the light of G-d and yet remains impervious to its splendor.

You belong to a generation that has heard the heavenly voice. Do not remain deaf to its imprecations.

You are a Jew, and one of the most insidious sins that you can commit is to be unaware of the obvious … to be blind to light, deaf to sound.

There is a mystical component to Judaism that transcends all logic. In the recesses of your innermost heart, you have heard its compelling call.

Today you have an opportunity to participate in your history.

Jewish destiny is beckoning

Make the Torah your possession again ...

Come home to your G-d - to your land.

You are a Jew - G-d is calling unto you!

Say "Hineni", here I am, ready to serve you.