Our Future is Where our Past is

Remnants of Ashdod's ancient port and fortress; modern Ashdod sprouts in the background.

Today's Ashdod is a blatant microcosm of greater Israel. One part of town is every bit as Chassidic as Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, where a Yiddish speaker doesn't have to know a word of Hebrew to get by. There are round-the-clock prayer minyans, Torah lessons wherever you go, yeshivas, mikvas, and benevolent aid societies for anything you can imagine. My neighbor's wife has a gamach (free loan fund for money or a needed commodity)for pacifiers of all sizes and shapes, so if a baby loses his or her pacifier in the middle of the night or on Shabbat, there won't be crying all night long. Everyone is engaged in some kind of community service.

Israel's only right to exist - in Hashem's own words - is if its people observe the Torah and adhere to Hashem's commandments on this sacred land. The Palestinians can certainly point a finger at those who defile the Holy Land and shout, "Who are they to uproot us from our homes?" They can say that to those who import and promote the Western culture of junk-food hangouts, bars and discos, but they can't say that to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who hold Hashem's deed to this land and who are committed to the uncompromising observance of Hashem's commandments in the Holy Land of milk and honey.

Israel's true independence of foreign powers, dictates, and influences depends on total reliance on Hashem and a return to our roots. Our future is where our past is. Without that past - the tradition handed down to us generation after generation in an unbroken chain since Mount Sinai - there is no future and no true national independence on our beloved Holy Homeland.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed and saintly memory said Didan Notzach - we'll be (literally, 'ours will be')the winner. He was right about everything else, and he isn't mistaken here. Emuna is spreading like wildfire, all over the world, and Emuna Outreach is pouring as much fuel on that fire as it can. We shall overcome, with Hashem's loving grace, amen.