THE SUCCESS EQUATION

  Louis Pasteur wrote; "When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments: tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become."

   Truth  be told, the most important part of our lives are our children and our grandchildren.

    In 1936 there was a Peel Commission that suggested a partition plan for Palestine. David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel at the time, asked a respected colleague ,Yitzchak Tabenkin, for his opinion. Tabenkin told the Prime Minister that before he gave his answer he would need to consult with two people with whom he always spoke before making difficult decisions for the Jewish People. "Who are these two people?", Ben Gurion asked. Tabenkin replied, "My grandfather who is no longer here with us and my grandson who is yet to be born."

    Judaism always makes decisions that reflect past experiences and are determined by its affect on future generations.

     Our Torah reading this Shabbat ,Parshat Bo, relates a discussion between Moshe and Pharoah after Hashem inflicted the seven plagues upon the Egyptians. Moshe requests from Pharoah " Send out our people that they may serve Hashem their G-D.

   Pharoah seemed ready to make some concessions. He tells Moshe;

                         " Go and worship your G-D "       לכו עבדו את הי אלוקיכם

Pharoah continues and asks, "Who will go with you?"

To which Moshe replies, " בנערינו ובזקנינו נלך בבנינו ובבנותינו. כי חג להי לנו"

"We all must go," says Moshe, "Our young and our old. We will go,together, to serve our G-D."

    Here we have the essence of Judaism.  Our lives are intertwined with our young, as our young are intertwined with the older segment of our population.

   Our youth is our future and our adult world is our glorious past. We can only succeed as a nation if we merge the past and the future together.

   Yes my friends , these are difficult times for the Jewish people, in particular, and for the State of Israel in general and only if we walk , 

                                                   בנערינו ובזקנינו 

   Walk in unity with our children and granchlidren can we succeed and and bring about our true גאולה שלמה.