CHIEF RABBI GOLDSTEIN
dations of the modern world come from the Torah itself . This is what the famous ( Catholic ) historian Paul Johnson writes : “ All the great conceptual discoveries of the intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they have been revealed , but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time . The Jews had this gift . To them we owe the idea of equality before the law , both Divine and human ; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person ; of the individual conscience and social responsibility ; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice , and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind . Without the Jews it might have been a much emptier place .”
Johnson errs in ascribing these insights to the Jewish people , when in fact , they were revealed to us by G-d .
One of the great miracles of world history is the eternal vibrancy and relevance of theTorah , and this is an important part of the Jewish story . These values transform our story of survival into something infinitely meaningful and significant . Mere survival doesn ’ t give meaning or significance to the experience . Why is it that we want to survive and retain our identity as the Jewish people ?
Why is it that throughout many generations and across the continents , we have tenaciously clung to each other and survived despite all odds ? Why is it that we are so passionate about maintaining a Jewish state in the midst of a hostile environment of enemies who seek our destruction ? The answer to these questions lies within the teachings of Judaism , which have framed our experience of survival with meaning and significance . We seek not merely survival , but also to live by our Torah values and principles , which infuse everything we do .
This is how it has been since the very birth of our people . When Moshe asked Pharaoh for freedom in the name of G-d , he said : “ Send my people that they may serve me .” It was not only about survival and freedom – it was about a higher cause . It was about the values and the moral vision of being a Jew .
It is these values that infuse with meaning our valiant efforts in building the Jewish state in the ancient land of Israel . It is these values that inform the quest to preserve Jewish identity in the melting pot of modern Western society , where freedom and equality give us access to everything . It is these values that energise the remarkable rebirth of German Jewry . It is these values that make the story of the Jewish people not merely a story of survival , but a story of the triumph of morality and goodness , and the triumph of a profound and inspiring vision of the world . ■
This article originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 12 February 2017 .
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