As I write this, not only do I write it for you, but for me as well. This has been a particularly difficult week for me in many ways. Yet, I feel surges of hope; because without hope I would be crushed, and so would you. Tomorrow is Shabbat and that day brings with it tremendous hope!
We Jews, individually and collectively as a people, have lived many times throughout history without hope. Yet, there was always a spark of hope, dim as it was, ready to burst forth. Anti-semitism, the Holocaust, pogroms, rampant diseases have at one time or another threatened to wipe us out of existence, from Pharaoh, Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Hussain, even a Bin Laden. Yes, many millions of our brothers and sisters have been wiped out of existence, but we're still here like persistent pimples on the face of a teenager.
Have we always been in the right? Not! Many times we've been downright hateful; but within the Jewish heart those surges of hope have been ignited within a Salk, a Sabin, a Sam Jacobson, and many other Jews whose only purpose in life was to bless their brothers and sisters (and the world). Allow that surge of hope to be ignited within you, and pass it on to others.
