Weekly Torah Commentaries UMJC - Union Of Messianic Jewish Congregations

Have you ever wished that you could start over? That you could be, as in
the words of Dylan’s immortal song, “forever young”—going back to your
earliest years of life, able to erase all your mistakes, cancel all your
debts, and undo all your sins?

It’s not so much a matter of contrast between conservation and contagion;
we need both. The stability and separation of a healthy religious community
provides a platform for influencing the surrounding culture.

Once we choose to live in the universe of power in actions, do we have the
discipline to constantly push ourselves to raise the bar? Will we have what
it takes to engage in regular self-reflection and contemplation, and live
with the consistency that holiness requires?

Spiritual discipline through the repetitive action—the “walking” out—of the
mitzvot builds within us emotional muscle memory. Given that we are largely
driven by our emotions, any repetitive action binds itself to our
personhood, our heart, our mind, and that same action builds within us an
emotional response.

Telling our children and grandchildren a story rooted in ancient history,
and equipping them to pass it on, amidst our culture of endless sound bites
and news flashes can be challenging indeed. That’s why Passover in this
current generation may be different from all other Passovers.

Along with other rabbis, Rabbi Sha’ul correlated reckless speech with an
infectious skin disease that starts off as a small infection, grows if left
unchecked, and eventually consumes and kills the body as it expands.