The irony is that everyone talks about the final redemption and wonders aloud where Moshiach is. The news they have apparently not heard is that he’s not coming until we can get our act together as one completely unified people. That means one big family – some of us with longer skirts, and some of us with shorter ones; some with knitted kippas and some with shtreimlach; some with flesh colored stockings and some with no stockings at all. We may even have forgotten that it also means some of us frum and some of us secular. One family means one family. Does anyone still remember the famous story of the Satmar Rebbe and Senator Pat Moynihan? The Rebbe had asked for help on behalf of the Sate of Israel and in response to the Senator’s surprise at the request on behalf of a state the Rebbe was vehemently against, the Rebbe said that in a family there may be disagreements but it’s still a family – and family sticks together. Where is that message today?
Cheryl, your readers need to know that it’s up to all of us to spread this message of unity and to make our stance known. If we won’t buy (figuratively, into the ideas, and literally, monetarily) into that which doesn’t reflect our values, it will be noticed and we will be heard. Like anything else, people need to do or say what they know is right and feel confident that they may be a lone individual at the moment in a given situation, but there are others out there doing the same, and there are others who will do the same in the future. Only then can there really be a trend, an upward trend, to bring back the tradition of Orthodox Judaism in which Hashem’s Torah is preceded only and staunchly by derech eretz.
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