Sunday, December 16, 2018
The era of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people ends with this week’s Torah reading. There are times when the passing of a generation happens without even notice. But there are other times when even a casual observer of the world scene realizes that the old era has ended and that a new one is about to begin. The passing of Jacob and his children, in the entire generation of the 70 souls that descended into Egypt, was noticed by both their descendants and by the Egyptian government and people as well.
The benevolence extended to Jacob and his family – albeit because of Joseph and his act of saving Egypt from starvation – was to end. The Torah does not expand on this...
click here to read the entire article
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Judaism preaches a forward-looking outlook on life and a positive take on the human situation. It also encourages, in fact commands, that even though one is to concentrate on the future, one is never to forget the past. For what happened in the past to a great degree shapes our future and influences it greatly.
Much of our current society is solely enmeshed in the present and has little memory of the past and a vision of what the future should be or, in fact, will be like. Life is fleeting and there is almost no way to hold on to the present. Much of the frustration and tension that exists in modern society stems from the fact that we are always trying to win in the present and it is...
click here to read the entire article
