Hashem Runs the World - Rabbi Moshe Taragin

welcome back to the gush standing here on a mountain overlooking the rebirth of our people but also the renewal of our story our story for two partios since the beginning of era for a partial let's say the jewish imagination has been shuttered fellowship there's pyrotechnics and lightning and thunder and makos and plagues and a lot is happening in egypt but the jewish imagination has been shuttered jewish initiative has been stymied they're just sitting on the sidelines in goshen waiting for something to happen and that is not what hashem wants from a redemption so in the beginning of bo there's got to be a strategy to awaken them to arouse them to rally them to be part of it how do you open people whose imagination has been shuttered by slavery by bondage by historical diffidence and apathy well there's one way let it be storytellers um tell the jewish people that the events that they're witnessing these are the stories they're gonna tell their grandchildren those grandchildren aren't alive yet they may be slaves in egypt but you will one day have children and grandchildren and your lives will be part of a larger story when you see your life as a story rather than a snapshot when there's a past and a future rather than just living in the present when you're part of a line and you're not just a dot then all of a sudden you become more courageous more committed more passionate i call it verticality and it's something i want my tell medium to always walk away from this mountain with that there's a verticality to your life that there were people before you who built your world and there are people after you were going to build upon your platform your pictures will be hanging on a wall and you'll be the subject of your story and just that prospect that concept awakened the jewish people for so many thousands of years it was easy to feel part of the jewish story we were persecuted there was an immediate bond between generations no matter where you lived you tended to live in the same place as your parents grandparents and their grandparents so there was a continuity but even across the world reality felt very similar to the reality of hundreds of years earlier things are changing now first of all jews thank god are wealthy and jews are comfortable and that's been a shift in a break with the past so much of our past story is defiance and resistance and now we're part of society and we're contributing to society it's hard to feel part of the same story wealth severs us from our past which unfortunately for the last two thousand years was not healthy we're also part of so many other stories so many jews are committed to other stories science democracy culture there are important stories to be part of and there are some chapters in our story that's not our story our story is here our story is the people of hashem chosen to live in the land of hashem and chosen to broadcast the messages of hashem and slowly but surely we're stitching together that story and when we find ourselves and see ourselves as storytellers then all of a sudden our imagination shifts and all those shutters come flying open and we think about what stories are we part of what stories will be told about us shabbat shalom everyone from the gosh [Music]