5768-Years and Still Hoping

Wednesday night, Rosh Hashanah begins a week when we Jews study our souls and sins, vow to correct them, and build a better year and life to come.

A physician friend sent me this note, to share with you.

As 5768 Approaches.... This week we Jews will begin our 5768th year on this earth! Who would have believed this possible? If anyone had told Abraham that his people would be around this long he probably would have been astounded.

Imagine, we did this without beheading anyone on TV, without a single suicide bomber, without kidnapping and murdering school children, without slaughtering Olympic athletes, and without flying airplanes into skyscrapers.

We lasted this long despite 400 years as slaves in Egypt, 40 years of wandering in the desert, the mighty Roman army who nailed us to ten thousand crosses; despite the best efforts of fervent Crusaders, the Spanish Inquisition, Hitler's Third Reich, Stalin's gulags, Arab wars of annihilation and terrorism and hundreds of hate-filled UN resolutions.

How did we Jews do it? We survived by concentrating our efforts on education, love of family, hard work, helping one another and a passionate dedication to life no matter what evil befell us.

We hung in there in hope that the rest of the world would one day overcome it's hatreds, jealousies and violence and would join us in a life of cooperation and mutual respect.

We're not there yet, but we're still hopeful. And when so many of us enter our places of worship this week, this is what we'll pray for with all the strength in our hearts.

Best wishes for a New Year filled with health, happiness, laughter, success, joy, and kindness and may this coming year bring peace and security to Israel, to the Jewish communities in the Diaspora and to our planet.