A Message of Jewish Resilience

October 3, 2024

Rabbi Ammi Hirsch opens the Rosh Hashanah evening services with a message of resilience: “There is a stone slab in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was carved around the year 1,200 BCE and stands 10 feet tall. Its purpose was to praise the military victories of the Pharaoh Merneptah. What did the king say about us? What were the first words ever written about the Jewish people? At the bottom of the slab recording the deeds of the ‘lord of strength, whose name is given to eternity,’ as Merneptah described himself, he writes: ‘Israel is laid waste, its seed is destroyed.’ Stay strong and keep the faith — we ain’t goin’ nowhere!”