Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Menachem Mendel Schneerson The Holocaust
What greater conceit, and what greater heartlessness, can there be than to give a "reason" for the death and torture of millions of innocent men, women and children? Can we presume to assume that an explanation, small enough to fit inside the finite bounds of human reason, can explain a horror of such magnitude? We can only concede that there are things that lie beyond the finite ken of the human mind.
It is not our task to justify G-d on this. Only G-d Himself can answer for what He allowed to happen. And the only answer we will accept is the immediate and complete Redemption that will forever banish evil from the face of the earth and bring to light the intrinsic goodness and perfection of G-d's creation.
There are those who argued that the Holocaust disproves the existence of G-d or His providence over our lives. But if there is anything that the Holocaust has decisively disproven, it is any possible faith in a human-based morality. In pre-war Europe, it was the German people who epitomized culture, scientific advance and philosophic morality. And these very same people perpetrated the most vile atrocities known to human history! If nothing else, the Holocaust has taught us that a moral and civilized existence is possible only through the belief in and the acceptance of the Divine authority.
Indeed, our outrage, our incessant challenge to G-d over what has occurred -- this itself is a most powerful attestation to our belief in Him and our faith in His goodness. Because if we did not, underneath it all, possess this faith, what is it that we are outraged at? The blind workings of fate? The random arrangement of quarks that make up the universe? It is only because we believe in G-d, because we are convinced that there is right and there is wrong and that right must, and ultimately will, triumph, that we cry out, as Moses did: "Why, my G-d, have you done evil to Your people?!"
But the most important thing about the Holocaust is not how we do or do not understand it, nor, even, how we memorialize its victims, but what we do about it. If we allow the pain and despair to dishearten us from raising a new generation of Jews with a strong commitment to their Jewishness, then Hilter's "final solution" will be realized, G-d forbid. But if we rebuild, if we raise a generation proud of and committed to their Jewishness, we will have triumphed. The Jewish people has been so heavily decimated that each of us must be made to count, and to count doubly.
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Science
http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/61951/jewish/Science.htm
Modern physics has brought us to a realization of the oneness of our universe, from which we may better grasp the oneness of its Creator.
All that exists can be divided into two elements: the force, and the particle that bears that force. In other terms: energy and matter, quality and quantity. With a simple equation, Einstein demonstrated that even these two elements are truly one.
Science may not discuss G-d, but it does describe His works, and as it penetrates deeper and deeper to the core of things, it opens a window towards appreciating creation's intrinsic unity with the Creator. In our times, science has been instrumental in revealing G-d via the world He envelopes Himself within.
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Religion and the Constitution
http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/60856/jewish/Religion-and-the-Constitution.htm
The founding fathers of this country arrived to these shores and established their independence because they sought the freedom to practice their religion and to serve G-d without interference by the government.
And it was precisely this freedom that they sought to guarantee in the Constitution by the first amendment.
Indeed, our government has a long tradition of explicit affirmation of faith in G-d, as is evidenced on our currency, upon which is printed the words "In G-d We Trust." Similarly, Congress opens each session with a prayer to the Almighty. Surely these expressions of faith in G-d have never offended any of the diverse religious beliefs represented by the people, and have never, in the course of our country's history, threatened government interference or the establishment of a state religion.
To deprive, in the name of the constitution, the millions of children in the country's public schools the freedom to affirm their faith in G-d, essential not only to their exercise of free expression but also to their development as responsible, law-abiding citizens, is to give constitutional sanction to government interference with the people's religious expression. A moment of silence for reflection, contemplation, prayer or thanks to G-d, cannot reasonably be construed as advancing any religion.
Banning G-d from the public schools creates a void--which by default, results in a philosophy of the moral relativism of humanism. The school is thus directly responsible for fostering within its students the notion that utility is the ultimate standard by which we judge our actions. Recent history has proven the ill borne fruits of an education--even the finest in academic standards--without the fear of G-d.
Surely this is antithetical to the intentions of the founding fathers. To interpret the constitution in this way is to strip it of its spirit and its soul, and render it an uninspired, dead document.
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Moshiach
http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/60874/jewish/Moshiach.htm
Within each thing we behold, the moshiach dwells, like the embryo waiting to break out of its egg. In the rhythm of a dandelion shivering in the breeze, in the eyes of the children we raise, in the goals we make in life, in the machines we use and the art we create, in the air we breathe and the blood rushing through our veins.
When the world was made, the sages say, the moshiach was the wind hovering over all that would be.
Today, those who know to listen can hear his voice beckoning, "Do not let go of me after all these ages! For the fruit of your labor and the labor of your holy mothers and fathers is about to ripen."
The listening alone is enough to crack the shell of the egg.
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Good and Evil
http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/60857/jewish/Good-and-Evil.htm
Darkness, no matter how ominous and intimidating, is not a thing or force: it is merely the absence of light.
So light need not combat and overpower darkness in order to displace it. Where light is, darkness is not. A thimbleful of light will therefore banish a roomful of darkness.
The same is true of good and evil: evil is not a thing or force, but merely the absence or concealment of good. One need not "defeat" the evil in the world; one need only bring to light its inherent goodness
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