I once heard it said that the Torah is always five years behind. It’s always right there, ready to give direction if we are ready to listen and learn.

 

The Jewish People are unique, we are different, we are alone. Just as we can’t change physical nature we can’t change the nature of the Jew. The more we try to change it the more the world rejects it and reminds us of our true identity.

 

In this week’s Parsha the Torah tells us that we are a nation that dwells alone. It’s a fact of nature. If we embrace it, it will make us stronger.

 

Having spent the last two weeks in Israel, having experienced the heroism of wounded soldiers, those that have risked their lives to save others on 7.10.23 (as it is spelled here), having interacted with super humans as they left Gaza and others as they were entering, having met people who realize that each inch of Israel is safety for the rest of the land, each inch is holy, I can tell you that we are strong, that we have only each other to lean on, that Am Yisrael Chai!

 

It’s time for us to embrace our true reality and to embrace it with pride!

 

In 1927, the previous Rebbe was arrested by the communists for his efforts in spreading Judaism. He was sentenced to death and then exile and ultimately liberated.

 

In his diary, he writes that when he was arrested he made a firm resolve not to be intimidated. That those that arrested him represented the spiritual forces of evil and he wasn’t going to accommodate that evil.  And he was victorious! 

 

In the diaspora we’re neither asked to be subjected to Soviet prisons or to neighbors who shoot rockets at us, we’re asked to embrace our Judaism with pride. To stand tall and stand strong.

 

It’s a tall order when it’s easier to retreat and try to blend in. But if the Torah has taught us anything backed up by years of history, it doesn’t work! Our calling is to embrace our Judaism, embrace our inward and outward expression of it and let Hashem do the rest.

 

Good Shabbos!!!