The Eternal Optimism
Now, one of the most important ways of instilling optimism in the Jewish home is when you introduce into your children’s minds the confidence that we are to be here forever. No other nation is guaranteed eternal existence. The navi says, the mountains will move away, and all the hills will disappear, but My loving kindness with you will never change (Yeshaya 54:10). Which means, Am Yisroel is going to continue as long as there’ll be a world. We are the Am Olam – we’ll be here forever.
Tremendous nations have already disappeared – it’s a fact of history. People never dreamed that Rome would someday be driven off the map. All over the habitable world, the legions of Rome marched everywhere; even up to Scotland. All of Europe was under Roman rule. They built bridges, buildings and cities everywhere. Roman law was introduced everywhere; the language too. And then Rome went underground and it disappeared entirely. Rome is wiped off the map already. Of course, it’s history, archeology, but it’s no longer a nation that continues to exist.
And all the nations are the same. Once upon a time, who dreamed that Bavel would someday disappear. They would laugh at you in the days of Yirmiyah Hanavi if someone had told you that. Bavel?! Disappear?! It was a powerful nation! Great cities! Huge buildings! And today Bavel is nothing at all! If you want to know Bavel, you have to go underground with bulldozers and take it out from underneath.
Tell that to your children. Talk to them about these big empires that went lost. “But kinderlach,” you say to little Moishe’le and Chana’le, “we are promised to exist on this earth forever. As long as there will be earth, the Am Yisroel is going to exist. We will walk on the soil forever.”
Eternal Life
Not only that, but we’ll continue when there’s no more world too. Remind them about that always. Don’t think they’ll pick it up by osmosis from the street; even in the yeshiva they don’t hear it. So tell them, “All of us, the loyal Am Yisroel, will live on in the Next World! The tzaddikim are there right now; even those who passed away this year, they’re all alive right now in the place of great happiness. And they’ll be there forever and ever.”
When the Am Yisroel gets that into their blood, so no matter what happens, they remain confident and optimistic. Even when they were being put into gas chambers in Europe and being burned, the confidence didn’t waver. The ones who had mothers and fathers who raised them on Torah attitudes, didn’t lose hope. Because we’re forever and ever; we’ll continue to exist. Our children, our grandchildren, our relatives; the Am Yisroel will never disappear no matter what.
Children of Confidence
Now this confidence must be implanted in all the Jewish children. You have to speak about it always and let them know that we are the ones that are going to endure forever. It should be a topic of conversation in the home, we should be reminding ourselves and our children about this promise of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The world will always have Torah communities and in the end they will be the ones who will survive.
Once a child feels that his people is forever, it gives him a confidence, an optimism that can’t be shaken. You can’t feel down or depressed when you know that your cause, your ideals, and your family will exist forever and ever. Nobody can ever be discouraged because whatever happens, we’re living for a great purpose; we’re living for a purpose that will be forever.
