Intensity and the Tenses - Rabbi Nota Schiller

some weeks ago I was speaking Shabbat in a synagogue and shul in Toronto and I wasn't wearing a watch I wanted to time my talk so somebody handed me a watch it was a digital watch now I would submit that there's anything that symbolizes the generation in which we live it's the digital watch because the chronograph watch is in the context of the past hour and the future hour the digital watch only has now this moment our MC right refugee from Cambridge was given shelter and awesome air will be familiar as some of the others here might be with a British SAS Chesterton who once said that he believes in a democracy of the dead just because somebody died he should not be deprived of a vote however he lived that was his vote and if we look at the world he said it in jest somewhat whimsy but there was a kernel of truth there there's a way of looking at the world in context and there's a world that begins now and it has nothing to do with anything that's happened till now I would submit that merely from a psychological point of view it's really not accurate to deny the context of who your parents your grandparents your great-grandparents are were and as the French philosopher jean-paul Sartre in his book on anti-semitism writes how the world looks at you how you were viewed SOT makes the point that the assimilating Jew has to expend an energy that the non Jew does not have to expend because the world invariably is looking at him as a Jew and so we would make the case if you add to that the rather extraordinary history of the Jews Janique everybody agrees that with that the question is so what so Tillich how many gallons of unique can I put into my tank to get me where I want to go but add to that that it was anticipated this uniqueness does that then prove I would say it's evidence that it moves from possibility to probability that were on to something here that goes beyond mere happenstance an accident and therefore if you guys made it here to Yerushalayim we're still Tuesday relates to the past week's Torah reading where there's a line they shall dwell a separate people and it's understood by some of the commentaries to mean that's going to be a fact take it as a privilege or it'll be visited upon you as persecution how many years did the Jews have a golden age in Spain how many years the de lives in Lithuania Germany other countries and yet there comes a point where the Jews on the verge of disappearance that somehow there's a trauma a shock that reminds them but it's not merely negative because it's a privilege why is it a privilege because if you work from the premise that we have a mission statement of something to give and say to the world what are the clues that this might be true close sprinkled through the detective novel of God's authorship of the whodunit of creation sprinkled here in there what percentage of Nobel Prize winners have been Jews what percentage of the world population of Jews is that peculiar is that unique again my guess is that that's a clue that we've been endowed with a certain kind of overdrive to accelerate on the Turnpike of history and so we come to you wish Alya early on it was predicted that whenever we come back here after having been here gone out come back it's going to be contentious fellas please somebody tell me what's the difference between a corporation and the UN a corporation is what good say it louder corporation a corporation is unlimited or limited liability which limited liability that's the whole point of a corporation so corporation is limited liability I would submit that UN stands for unlimited liability strange but that strangeness was again anticipated perhaps on some level of our existence we connect to some message that's our point Western Union has pretty much become defunct since the world of email but you remember the world of telegrams Western Union okay there was such a world will you wanted to send the message quickly you sent it with a telegram it was after Morse code and before fax and before email so the Hollywood mogul Sam Goldwyn was once challenged that his movies have no message to which he replied if I want to send a message I use Western Union or email the Jews says everything is a message the fact that we are here make a quick calculation fellas where your grandfather's were and your great-grandfather's were and if somebody would have told them that this group is going to be together in Jerusalem in a Jewish state that is struggling and yet thriving what were the odds again we say it wasn't a question whether it would happen it was a question when it would happen and so it behooves all of us you have an investment to make a financial investment what's the first step you do due diligence you're going to invest your lives how you live when you wake up in the morning with whom you're going to get married what kind of home you want to have doesn't it sound reasonable to do some due diligence on that which the world says I am and that which the inner voice with in May says I am doesn't it make sense to take some time and explore that in depth I must admit I want to play fair you may like it be cautioned be careful if you learn it may speak to that do that's hiding out deep down within your soul welcome to who shall I am enjoy the learning because learning is about enjoying it's about touching something that speaks to me to my life connects me to my past and gives me some reason to go forward to the future welcome [Applause] [Music]