A wealth of social science evidence establishes that religious people are more optimistic in general than their nonreligious neighbors and better able to cope with adversity. Belief in a benevolent G-d Who loves us and wishes only to shower us with good will do that to a person.
Our sense of wellbeing however rarely comes from scanning the media and contemplating the world scene. In that realm everything seems to be on a downward trajectory: harsher budgetary cuts accelerating moral degeneration the demographic suicide of our Jewish brothers and sisters the latest chillul Hashem on the front page of the New York Times rising anti-Semitism in Europe and a soon-to-be-nuclearIran. Only the Siyum HaShas can be counted on to consistently lift our spirits. And that’s only once every seven and a half years.
Yet last week something happened inSouth Africathat should cause each of us to jump up and click our heels (if we are still able). Chazal tell us that if all Klal Yisrael would just keep two Shabbosim properly Mashiach would come. (According to some opinions one Shabbos is enough.) Few of us can imagine how that will happen or what it would look like.
Now we can after the Shabbos Project that took place across South Africaon Parshas Lech Lecha which joined the entire community under the slogan “Keeping It Together.” At least 20000 Jews by conservative estimates celebrated a full halachic Shabbos for the first time in their lives. (I tell the whole story on page 42 in this issue.)
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