Enter the purpose of Torah. Torah and mitzvos were not given simply as an instruction from Hakadosh Baruch Hu so we could become heavenly. G-d was not lacking malachim. The objective of Torah is to transform Earth itself. To that end, we need to be of the earth so we can transform it.
The Avos modality is indeed exalted. But kedushah alone is insufficient to achieve Hashem’s goal. That’s why their imprint on the world was transitional. Certainly monumental, but not the lasting game plan. The long-term mandate is to transform the material into the spiritual; the earthly into the heavenly; to transform chol into kodesh.
It’s specifically the children, enduring the burden of exile, who can relate to the world in all its frailties – and uplift it. The permanent effect on the universe is accomplished by average individuals who understand the earth, are a product of its problems – yet rise to the heights of holiness.
The Torah – our priceless and eternal guidance – is given by our Creator to the people. We alone are capable – and expected – to return the favor, by living a life replete of mitzvos.
Jackson Hole is home to 500 Jewish people and hosts more than 40,000 Jewish tourists each year who come to ski or visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Chabad Jewish Center of Wyoming recently purchased property to build a mikvah, shul and full service Jewish community center. To learn more about Chabad’s services in Jackson Hole, visit www.JewishWyoming.com.
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The 140-year history of the Jews of Wyoming is a paradigm for the Jewish experience in the West and in America.
By 1868, the gleaming tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad had reached southeastern Wyoming and it attracted a number of German Reform Jews. They were mostly peddlers or frontier merchants who dealt in clothing, liquor, cigars, and sundry items. “Jew Jake” (Jacob Louis Kaufman) built a roadhouse in La Belle in 1879 to service the cowboys as they rode through during the great Texas cattle drives. And legend has it that, as early as 1890, Max Meyer’s dry goods store contracted with the John B. Stetson Company to make 10-gallon hats to sell to both rodeo and range cowboys.
Between 1881 and 1914, Philanthropist Baron de Hirsch funded the Jewish Agricultural Society, an organization whose mission was to spread Jews throughout America. They sent some newly arriving Eastern European immigrants to Wyoming to fulfill their agricultural dreams. The population of these would-be farmers in towns like Huntley was so high that it was necessary to hire a Yiddish-speaking teacher to instruct their children in public school. Primarily consisting of Orthodox Jews, this second wave of immigrants brought with them their customs, tools, and rituals: setting up synagogues, sacred burial grounds, and kashering capabilities. By 1919, the Orthodox synagogue in Cheyenne quietly absorbed the remnants of the Reform community into its own.
The Wyoming Jewish Press was published in newspaper form by Abe Goldstein between 1930 and 1940. During WWII, a burgeoning of Jewish military personnel brought more Jews to Wyoming. Those who stayed and married invigorated and further strengthened Wyoming’s vibrant and visible Jewish community. Subsequent to the war, a small wave of Holocaust survivors found the people and opportunities of Wyoming to be safe and relatively free of anti-Semitism.
As of 2013, Wyoming’s Jewish population was approximately 1,150 people.
State Capital: Cheyenne
State Nickname: The Equality State
State Motto: Equal rights
State Flower: Indian Paintbrush
State Bird: Meadowlark