 For some reason, we just won't let go. It is our nature to continue to feel
responsible for what was, continue to attempt to rewrite our histories, continue
to regard our past as something that still "belongs" to us and which
we can somehow "fix."
We are physical beings, and the laws of physics (at least as they stand now) dictate that time runs in one direction only. So why not simply put the past behind us, especially since the past is behind us whether we put it there or not?
October 9, 2000 Leviticus 16:1-34; 18:1-30  The "annual singularity" (achat bashanah) was an event that brought together the holiest day of the year, the holiest soul on earth, and the holiest place in the universe: on Yom Kippur the Kohen Gadol (“high priest”) would enter the innermost chamber of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem to offer ketoret to G-d.
The Talmud tells the story how Alexander the Great asked the sages of Israel, “Which came first, dark or light?” and they replied, “This question has no answer.” In fact, says the Talmud, they knew an answer, but they needed to evade the question lest the great conqueror begin asking, “What is before and what is after, what is beyond and what is below.” These are the questions that truly have no answer, but even brave Alexander would not be ready to accept that. The story extends all the way to the 20th century. When Einstein told Nihls Bohr, “G-d doesn’t play dice with the universe,” he was being a perfectly reasonable Alexander. Bohr’s reply, “Dr. Einstein, don’t tell G-d what to do!” would have been a likely answer for the Jewish sages.
“The Rebbe must know something we do not,” whispered disciples of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. “Perhaps he sees a terrible calamity decreed for the coming year, G-d forbid.” And then came the startling announcement: this year, the Rebbe was insisting on a donation of two groschen for each individual on the list of people whom the Rebbe will pray for to be inscribed in the book of the living. Two groschen per name--no exceptions.
 "That was about the time of the beginning of the baal teshuvah
movement,” I said, remembering my arrival in Crown Heights in 1974.
My guest bristled. “What do you mean, ‘movement,’?” he said. “I wasn’t part of any movement. I did this on my own.”
 Imagine, a couple gets married, and the man says to his new wife, "Would you make me something to eat, please? I'll be right back." She begins preparing. The guy comes back 3300 years later, walks into the house, up to the table, straight to his favorite chair, sits down and tastes the soup that is on the table. The soup is cold.
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 Canadians tuning in to the country's largest radio station, CTJA, this past week, could hear the voice of Rabbi Moshe New greeting them with a spiritual commentary for the coming year. 
THE REBBE: 50 YEARS PREVIOUS ISSUE NEXT ISSUE MAGAZINE ARCHIVES | |||||||||||
