The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays

The present generation is neither the slavish follower of the tradition handed down by past generations nor an autonomous community free to tamper with past practices or to reject past goals. Each generation is a partner entering into the covenantal responsibility and process and thus joining the transgenerational covenantal community.

although God yearns for a messianic consummation of history and even promises that it will come to be, God will not force humans to be free. In truth, freedom cannot be given to another. Freedom bestowed is dependency. Freedom must be earned.

Judaism insists that chessed be the driving force of history and redemption. Chessed is a special kind of love, a love that accepts and treasures life as it is, even as it sees and embraces its potential for perfection.

Leave evil totally. Don’t dwell on it, but do good. Grow away from guilt. Overcome it with new goodness in new life.

132 C.E., the remaining population of Judea revolted, led by Simon Bar Kochba. But again, the overwhelming might of Rome was brought to bear. Bar Kochba and his troops were destroyed, and the remaining population of Judea was deported. With this defeat, hopes for an immediate restoration of the Temple were set back indefinitely.

applying the Exodus model in our time as he applied it in his. Following

The Last Supper was probably a seder.

They ruled that any Jew who was killed because he or she was Jewish was considered to have performed Kiddush HaShem. The truth underlying this ruling is that every Jew carries the covenant in his or her very existence. Whatever the religious behavior or commitment, a Jew’s existence alone is witness to God and covenant. As long as one Jew is alive,

A major factor in the colossal moral failures which made the Shoah possible was the nonresponse of the bystanders.