THE REAL SURVIVORS

Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, Chabad @ Flamingo

When encouraging people to get more involved in Shul activities, I often find myself saying, “We need to work together to ensure Jewish survival”. “Our people have survived worse times” I am typically told, “don’t be so paranoid”!

Last summer, I received an e-mail from a free-lance writer doing a piece on the - then new and wildly successful - TV show “Survivor”. She wrote “Six thousand people applied to appear on the show, and NOT A SINGLE ONE WAS JEWISH!” She asked me to help her understand this phenomenon. “After all” she noted, “ wasn’t it the Jews who survived the Holocaust”.

The dictionary offers two definitions for the (newly popular) term “survivor”. 1.To continue to live or exist. 2. To live longer than : outlive. In plain English; our existence is important and meaningful on its own, or relevant only when we have someone to compete against.

Jewish survival is not a game. We don’t continue to exist to spite our enemies. We continue to live despite them. The focus of our survival has always been to live rather than outlive.

For more then three millennia, we survived every imaginable and unimaginable difficulty. Yet we never looked for challenges or invited impediments. In fact, in our morning prayers we petition heaven daily “Bring us not to the ‘hands’ of temptation”. Unfortunately, obstacles have always been placed in our way.

Enter the year 2000. Now it’s popular to tempt and entice oneself. In today’s media culture, the true badge of spiritual courage is earned by living precariously on the edge of sin and immorality.

Television shows like “Survivor” or “Temptation Island” hail and promote this perverted type of sentiment. It is sad to see people embrace compromising situations where selfishness and desire tend to get the better of them. It is sadder yet, to see society cheer and encourage this behavior.

If it is true, I am heartened by the fact that not a single applicant was Jewish. In a strange way, it defines and reaffirms the real survival skills we posses as a people.     

Our beloved Rebbe of sainted memory once related a poignant teaching about avoiding temptation and overcoming challenges in short story form:

There was once a man who felt unaccomplished being pious in the Shtetl. After all, he said to himself “there is no temptation to behave in any other way here”. So he left and moved to a predominantly Jewish section in a large city full of alien cultures and practices, yet overcame all temptation and remained faithful to the ways of his ancestors. After some time, he still felt like he was capable of biting off more.

So he moved to a Gentile neighborhood. Despite the strong temptation to mingle with and mimic the people living in his new district, he remained firm in his beliefs and practices.

Protected by the warmth and stability of his own home was a cop-out, he reasoned. “If I would begin to frequent the bars, dance halls and theaters and still cling to my religion, now - that would be a real feat.” Needless to say as he continued to flirt with temptation, he began to succumb to the mounting pressure.

During the course of our stormy two thousand year exilic odyssey we have survived and continued to flourish. But perhaps the greatest challenge has still to be faced. 

We have survived the horrors of persecution and genocide. We have met the challenge of recovering from the ashes. We spent five decades frantically rebuilding in every way imaginable. We have passed every roadblock placed in our way, but can we survive the self-inflicted one’s as well?

Jewish survival is dependant on the positive drive and desires to live Jewishly, not the need to outlive or overcome enemies or the Australian outback.    This drive and desire is nurtured, cultivated and sustained by constant education, involvement and commitment. Diligent pursuit of Torah knowledge, spirituality and Yiddishkiet will all ensure our survival.         

Won’t you please join us a little more often? Whether its Shabbat or daily services, classes and regular social programming or special events, we’ve got something for everyone in the family. So forget Puala Tiga, Temptation Island and the Outback. Instead get involved in The Family Shul and help us survive as a people—forever!