How can we solve the upheavals we are facing?
What do wise people do at times like this, when our very humanity is under attack and our leaders seem lost — and especially when all this is happening in the name of religion?
They go back to the drawing board for a reality check.
At times like this the first step we must take is to return to our point of departure, to our collective “mission statement:” to define the very core of our humanity and freedom, what makes us human in the first place and what is our mandate and purpose in life.
When a world has gone crazy, the logical and vital thing to do is to retrace our steps to the roots and origins of faith in the first place, as well as the roots of our freedoms and inalienable human rights. And then, by studying the contrast between the roots of faith and how it devolved into distorted faith, we come to understand what needs correction and how to correct it.
Those roots go back over three thousand years ago to Sinai. The single most important event in history occurred at Sinai: the human race received its mandate how to build a civilized world.
This great gift was given for all of mankind, however at the time the nations of the world rejected it. As our sages tell us that the children of Esau and the children of Ishmael both were offered the Torah and they rejected it after seeing that they could not live up to its laws, namely the prohibition on murder, theft and sexual transgressions.
The children of Ishmael are still struggling with the message given at Sinai.
What was it at Sinai that the children of Esau and Ishmael rejected, and what is its message today that they need to embrace?
Two major revolutions took place at Sinai
The first Sinai revolution was the bestowal of freedom on all human beings.
Notwithstanding all history’s “growing pains,” at Sinai the universe received the mandate of freedom and the blueprint of civilization. Over three thousand years ago Sinai set in motion a series of events that would change the world forever, and continues to impact our lives today.
The second revolution was the power to spiritualize the material, and to make our lives sacred, not just ethical.
Before Sinai there was an impenetrable rift between heaven and earth, between matter and spirit. An invisible wall separated between the transcendental and the material. At Sinai the world changed. Heaven was unplugged. Sinai opened a door, never again to be closed, that allows mortals in a material world to become Divine. For the first time the human race was given the opportunity to bridge heaven and earth – to fuse spirit and matter.
The time has come for the children of Ishmael to accept Sinai
The Middle East is a breeding ground – a platform – for terrorism, for genocide (I don’t even have the right word for it). The schools are educating the children with certain ideas that are allowing for mass terror as a viable option to be exercised – or tolerated – in order to advance a cause. That simply is unacceptable.
The time has come to finally call them on it.
Over three thousands years ago the children of Esau and Ishmael rejected the Torah. Perhaps G-d could not impose it on them. But we can.
SOULGYM I MASTERCLASS
Live with Rabbi Simon Jacobson
The History of the Holy Land: Truths Revealed and Myths Dispelled
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 @8:30pm
Live Stream | Podcast
