We’ve Just Begun
Three years ago today, our enemies tried to destroy Jewish life in the most literal way imaginable. And so Israel’s first responsibility was obvious: defeat the people trying to destroy us by supporting the IDF soldiers fighting to protect us.
But for the last three years I’ve also been saying there is something else we must do: become more knowledgeable and committed Jews.
Learn more Torah. Understand our history. Understand Israel. Understand what Judaism actually asks of us.
And then commit more deeply to the very Judaism that our holy soldiers are risking their lives to defend.
That is a big part of why, since October 7, I and so many Jewish educators feel a greater urgency to teach. It’s why I wrote “The Jewish Experience” and why I’m now working on volume two. It’s why at MJE we’ve been teaching more classes and reaching more Jews in New York and Tel Aviv than ever before.
We need our Jewish brothers and sisters who stand on the outside of Jewish life to become more knowledgeable, proud, and committed, so they can discover—and benefit from—the extraordinary people and tradition to which they already belong.
If our enemies try to destroy the Jewish people, the strongest response is to produce Jews who know who they are and what they are carrying forward.
My friend Sivan Rahav-Meir recently said this: “They attacked us on Shabbat Simchat Torah. So our response is more Shabbat, more Simcha and more Torah.”
This week we begin Bereishit (Genesis). Rashi quotes the famous teaching: “Bishvil haTorah… u’bishvil Yisrael: The world was created for the sake of Torah and for the sake of the Jewish people.”
That lands differently three years after October 7. Our enemies wanted fewer Jews living proudly. They wanted less Jews connected to Torah and to Israel. And yet look at what has happened. Jews are learning more, showing up more, and asking more questions. They’re taking their Judaism more seriously. I see it everyday at MJE.
We can never replace the people we lost. But we can live in a way that honors what they were defending.
Bereishit means beginning. Three years later, thank God, we can already see what has begun. And we’re just getting started.
Am Yisrael Chai.
