Old who needs it – we are the modern generation?!

New who needs it – the nostalgia for the truth has never been greater!?

So shall nothing be exciting – what will rock our boat!?

Ah? Hence the title “embrace the new AS IF there is no old.”

This past week the recipe for this Jewish ideal was revealed.

We read two Torah portions:

“Standing-Walking.”

Which one should we focus on, the truth as given on Mount Sinai never budging from good old fashioned values or walking, paving new paradigms, entering new uncharted frontiers.

The answer my dear friends is both.

No building, no matter how Avant-Garde can afford to not have a good foundation.

In fact the more Avant-Garde it is, the betters its foundation must be, for that is precisely where all of our modern notions have ended in social catastrophe, for through the rejection of the tried and tested, all that was good and pure was discarded – as the famous saying “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Judaism teaches us that the mechanism for radical change but within structure – built upon tried and tested foundations exists.

It goes like this:

“In every generation I shall send a prophet who will communicate my message to you” the Bible teaches us.

In other words, the key factor is following God’s advice.

Without a Being higher than us we easily replace old fashioned values with new stupidities and in fact societies are notorious for these boom and bust cycles of values, breaking them only to reengage them, to be broken etc. like a gerbil running in circles.

There is another mechanism that is both novel and safe, both radical and traditional, namely to embrace the guidance of the Rebbe – Jewish leader of the generation knowing full well that his guidance rooted in the three thousand year tradition of Sinai but with the keen application of these insights to the modern era will provide both a secure and at the same time invigorating perspective to life.